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Embracing Conflict and Diversity

2020-1-NL02-KA105-0028272020Youth mobilityfinalizedGood practice
Countries: NL|DE|EL|IT|ES · Grant: €23,384
Migrants' issuesIntercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learningInclusion - equity

Objectives

The aim of of this training course is to improve practices of dealing with conflict and diversity in youth work in Europe, by offering youth workers relevant knowledge, exercises and tools and exchange best-practices. The objectives are: 1. Developing youth workers' awareness and understanding of stereotypes, discrimination, oppression, and privilege, and the skills to interrupt harassment. 2. Developing youth workers' awareness of various responses to conflict, ways of dealing with emotions, taking multiple perspectives, understanding people's needs and the skill to respond to them with empathy. 3. Developing youth workers' skills to implement Mediation and Restorative Justice Circles. 4. Exchanging best-practices of including people with different backgrounds in youth work and improve inclusion and conflict resolution practices in youth work. Moreover, the Erasmus+ Programme Guide (p78) describes under "Mobility Project for Youth and Youth Workers" that the focus of 2019 is on: "reaching out to marginalised young people, promoting diversity, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, common values of freedom, tolerance and respect of human rights as well as on projects enhancing media literacy, critical thinking and sense of initiative of young people." These goals show a great overlap and fit with the aim and objectives of our training course. With our training course we are responding to the needs in the field of youth work, by raising the awareness, knowledge and skills of youth workers, offering practical tools to deal with conflict and inequality, such as mediation, Nonviolent Communication, Restorative Justice Circles and conflict resolution protocols. The title of this training course thus reflects the key competences that participants will develop: “Embracing conflict and diversity”. Embracing conflict means to acknowledge conflict (instead of avoiding) and engaging in a conflict-solving process in which people gain mutual understanding and thus come closer together. Embracing diversity involves acknowledging differences and supporting mutual respect and understanding in practical ways. The training course will take place in Greece, where participants can witness the situation of refugees in Greek refugee camps. The camps are not comparable with other countries in Europe, since most refugees get stuck there, where they arrive, as other EU members have drastically decreased immigration to their countries. We will organise participant led workshops in nearby camps. In these workshops they share materials and exercises they've learned in the training. This way participants already practise designing and delivering a workshop, spread the project results by sharing the newly gained knowledge, and make an local impact. During the training youth workers will gain various skills to become better at dealing with conflict, facilitate inter-cultural understanding and include people from marginalised backgrounds. They will explore these issues in an inter-cultural group in which they can practice and sometimes directly apply their learning and exchange best-practices they already developed. With this Mobility for Youth Workers we thus want to train youth workers, to improve the quality of youth work regarding inclusion and conflict resolution. With these skills youth workers can make a positive impact on youth and society: they will have the ability to create more mutual understanding between youth of diverse backgrounds and prevent violence, isolation and radicalisation of youth. Participants will also strengthen the partner organizations, that will increase the effectiveness in conflict and diversity management, broaden and deepen their knowledge and expand their international network and outreach. Together with their organisations participants can make an impact on society, as they promote and show how to build social cohesion in times of increasing fragmentation in many societies in Europe, thus laying the foundations for more inclusive, peaceful and stable societies in the future.

Project partners (5)