We are living the greatest human mobility era in history. EU demography & inequality reports show that ‘Population with a foreign background will continue to grow’ in EU & that ‘Migrants tend to be at higher risk of poverty’. Migration is recognized as a key feature of our contemporary world as it provides many opportunities to societies and to migrants themselves. However, it is still one of the least understood phenomenon, leading to an increase of critical political and policy challenges in matters such as safe migration, border management, displacement and integration. Humans have used arts to express/communicate for centuries. It shaped their culture, nationality and identity. Arts have been a major catalyst for change in society around the world and it’s a method known for the very good results/feedback it provides by stimulating self-reflection, development of oneself and also by overcoming xenophobia, prejudices and stereotypes. ARTS FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION , EQUALITY & DIVERSITY will use digital storytelling , digital photography - media , music and drama ; the four creative disciplines that the project proposes as powerful tools in youth practice. Beneficiaries of the project are going to be young people with disadvantaged backgrounds and fewer opportunities : immigrants or refugees. With the competence development resulting from the project, the youth work professionals will be able to provide to young people with fewer opportunities (a) a direct route to reach their full potential (b) solutions to many of the barriers to social inclusion. The project brings together 5 organisations that believe arts and creativity is the best way to: -promote Intercultural dialogue which preserves our cultural heritage and promotes cultural diversity connecting people with different backgrounds, interests and perspective -involve migrants by increasing participation in cultural & societal life. Artistic and cultural expressions helps us to communicate with each other and allow us to understand our similarities as well our differences, in an area where we must also resolve disputes. Results: -A WEBSITE where the objectives of the project, the outcomes (downloadable), activities , videos/photos , LTT will be uploaded . All will be free of license. Our project will share, confront, test innovative practices through new forms of learning, providing training, notably the strategic use of open & flexible learning, open educational resources(OER) &better exploitation of the ICT potential -ART FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION , EQUALITY & DIVERSITY BOOKLET for youth workers in which the methods used during the project lifecycle will be shared. To guarantee a good knowledge of tools & strategies, we will complete the training contents through the provision of more content of the course. Project activities will enable project participants to provide an EU perspective on the problems and challenges faced in working with migrant and refugee populations. It will also promote the sharing of best practice between partners and practitioners creating enhanced awareness that can be implemented and replicated in the design of future workshops and initiatives in the creative arts: photography, storytelling, drama , music & creative thinking. Through the arts, we will foster intercultural dialog and reinforce awareness and acceptance of diversity within society, create resilient structures of empowerment and participation, turn challenges into strengths and opportunities; give voice to young migrants who are among the most disadvantaged in our society. Simultaneously, the project will have a high profile in both communities of interest and geographical location, resulting in a greater awareness and acceptance of young migrants, and will further promote their integration by, for example, the reduction of fear and prejudice. Thanks to the common language of the arts, we will encourage the integration and empowerment of young migrants / refugees in partner countries. Migrants and refugees will be able to make their voices heard through the project, engage in society and take part in decision-making, as well as learn soft-and entrepreneurship skills. To have a voice is to have self-confidence, self-esteem and the freedom to openly cultivate and share one 's interest in the public sphere. The public sphere is the space of solidarity, the space of power relations, where various voices can compete to validate their views and interests. We believe that this project will be one step in the development of a network of organisations, activists, young people, volunteers, citizens and migrants involved and that will make an effort to create resilient and intercultural communities. They will increase their awareness of the shared European values, as well as their recognition of the roots and acceptability of the diversity that also exists within Europe.
Through the project, we shared common objectives where through our collective collaboration and work done we managed to reach namely: -Shared and generated best practices, confronted & tested (in each partner country) the benefits of using art tools for social inclusion, engaging and empowering young migrants & refugees -Generated tools, materials & learning products ( Training & preparing 40 bite lessons on Digital media –photography; Social media for social inclusion in online media; On drama and On digital storytelling) that are transferable & adaptable to the needs of communities, schools and youth organisations -Engender a positive attitude towards inclusion & a willingness to engage in dialogue, within both migrant & host communities where our participants shared, discussed and produced collectively: 17 Storyboards; 40 Soundbites; 28 Videos; 23 Posters and 10 Podcasts. -During the activities we promoted ways for the participants to explore the ways culture & the arts that can help increase migrants’ participation in cultural and societal life as well as to promote intercultural dialogue & Diversity through having mixed nationality groups during the training workshops, so the participants could better understand intercultural differences. - Having disadvantaged youth participants further empowered these disadvantaged youngsters through offering opportunities in creative arts & providing them with the opportunity to advocate for their rights and their role in society - through the activities we managed to achieve our objective of promoting a culture of understanding and bringing together communities through arts as a conduit to strengthening and reinforcing a feeling of belonging, progressing values & equality in society/local communities - As an end result we tested the fact that using arts and non-formal education in a number of different contexts (cultural & youth centres, schools etc) further assists NGOs in using these tools in their day-to-day work. - Indirectly through the project it further supports the entrepreneurship of migrants & improves their employment opportunities, assists in the competence development of youth workers & trainers towards the social inclusion of young migrants who are experiencing barriers to participation or for those with fewer opportunities Furthermore holding the operations on a transnational basis brought added value & resources that would otherwise not exist in the individual organisations and acquiring best practices, this European cooperation also increased the capacity of each partner to function at local, national and EU levels by sharing ideas, activities and methods in order to build more robust networks in pursuit of innovative and inclusive strategies.
When writing the project we identified that working with migrants and refugee youths is becoming a challenge for all the partners with the ever increase of migrants and especially the influx of Ukrainian and earlier Syrian refugees in our respective countries. As a consortium, we identified the need for more tools and methodologies which would facilitate our work with youths to become more intercultural and make all youths welcome and integrate into our society. Through our brainstorming sessions, we identified that a particular field is to address the creative art sector which provides entrepreneurial skills development & inclusion pathways. Taking a starting point that the population with a foreign background will continue to grow in Europe, ‘Migrants tend to be at higher risk of poverty’ (EU demography & inequality rep. pg 24). This means that EU societies are becoming more multicultural & our future depends on our ability to develop & sustain intercultural dialogue, to build the society of tomorrow. Understanding and accepting the cultures & customs of other civilizations is an attitude that each of us must adopt. Our concern as organisations working with youths is the identification of new methodologies to encourage migrants & refugees to participate in social & cultural life in our society, need to further promote equality between women and men as well as rights & equal opportunities for all, which will assist our NGO's to become inline with EU policies which fight unemployment, discrimination, social exclusion & poverty (EU Pillar of Social Rights). Hence, through we will provide the participants with a better understanding and assist migrants & refugees to make their voices heard in the public sphere to have a meaningful impact on their everyday lives. Youth Organisations are essential contributors to enhancing an inclusive society, empowering disadvantaged youngsters to become active citizens by developing soft & entrepreneurial skills. Therefore through the project, we brought together 5 organisations that believe arts and creativity are the best way to: -promote Intercultural dialogue which preserves our cultural heritage and promotes cultural diversity connecting people with different backgrounds, interests and perspectives -involve migrants by increasing participation in cultural & societal life. Artistic and cultural expressions help us to communicate with each other and allow us to understand our similarities as well as our differences, in an area where we must also resolve disputes. ''Arts For Social Inclusion, Equality & Diversity '' had 5 organisations that work directly or indirectly with arts as a social inclusion & engagement tool. The project activities were designed to develop enterprise & innovative approaches combining non-formal methodologies with artistic tools (digital photography, storytelling, drama, music & creative thinking) in different learning contexts (formal & non-formal). The project additionally supported youth professionals in developing & sharing effective methods for reaching out to disadvantaged young people & promoting social inclusion.