The successful and organic integration of migrants into EU hosting societies remains problematic for many national migration policies. This is a persistent Europe-wide challenge, which has now become more urgent, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has disrupted our lives and societies, but extensive research is showing that the pandemic has already revealed and exacerbated pre-existing socioeconomic inequalities of migrants, a group facing also the additional burden of xenophobia and discrimination. These persistent phenomena are triggered by cultural misunderstanding, bias and fear of the “other”. At the same time the cultural and artistic sectors were hit the most. Culture and Art for Restorative Justice (CARJ) aims to respond to this need, using the power of art and restorative justice to increase cultural awareness and thus contribute to the successful integration of migrant communities at one of the most challenging times for Europe. It will exchange its results at national (the UK, Greece, Turkey, Spain and Cyprus) and European levels, helping in this way to achieve the objectives of the EU Integration Action Plan, and supporting the Erasmus+ priorities. The project will adopt a user-led methodology in order to address several Sectoral and Horizontal Erasmus+ Priorities. In particular, CARJ aims to empower creative and cultural professionals who support migrants and especially those who are at risk of marginalization. It will increase the skills, knowledge and confidence that will allow them to foster their migrants' development of social, civic and intercultural competences, while helping them to develop ownership of shared values and boost social inclusion. This will be achieved through the project's tailored and evidence-based accredited trainings and other social actions, which use creative arts combined with the values of restorative justice. The starting point of our intended, innovative training programme is the UK tested "Culture and Art for Unity" a user-led project, which received multiple awards by the London Mayor. It was run by the RJ4All International Institute in 2018-19, and used creative restorative justice art to increase community cohesion in a divided London area. Combined with restorative justice and creative arts, our project will bring people closer, showcasing what unites rather what divides us. This is an area that has not been developed for adult education training and which we will address via our project. These results will also include inbuilt assessment tools creating for the first time educational and training materials that are CPD accredited and which will help prevent the marginalisation and social exclusion of migrants through a positive approach that combines creative arts with restorative justice. Moreover, acknowledging that prevention of migrants' marginalisation requires a holistic approach to social inclusion and inequality, CARJ will put emphasis on connecting cultural and art organisations with civil society, and strengthening cross-sectorial cooperation. To overcome the COVID19's impact, the art and cultural sectors will be connected with restorative justice practitioners, education, social and health services, mental health and community organisations who support migrants' integration creating new market opportunities and break the silo working. CARJ also tackles the social inclusion priority, as it aims to contribute to the successful integration of migrants, a group impacted disporporionately by COVID-19. This will be achieved, by supporting the workers and professionals working with them through the development of training tools and manuals; also, by involving them directly in the project’s educational and creative activities, using art as a vehicle to support them in their integration. The project will also generate many opportunities of social action for professionals supporting migrants and migrants themselves. The planned activities will focus on empowering them to take part in the project, fostering their active citizenship and preventing their marginalisation, taking into account the European values of freedom, tolerance, equality autonomy and respect of human, social and economic rights. By the end of the project, CARJ will deliver: - 4 Intellectual Outputs (handbook, e-course, training, pilots, ebook) - 4 national and 1 international multiplier - hundreds of volunteering learning opportunities to adult learners and migrants - regular e-newsletters, press releases, a dedicated project website and social media engagement - multiple networking opportunities between cultural, art organisations and civil society as well as national and European funders and stakeholders.
CA4RJ’s original objective was to tackle migrants’ marginalisation and social exclusion by amplifying the concept of Restorative Justice Art and creating evidence-based materials to spread the word of the benefits of this new approach. CA4RJ and Restorative justice art drew from the core values of restorative justice, combined with the power art can exert on people’s mental health and well-being. According to the framework of restorative justice art developed by Gavrielides, to achieve any restorative and healing outcome, we should first permit power-sharing values in our lives and engaged participation in any process and decision. Hence, this concept expands on “inclusion” and “interconnectedness”, and once these have been achieved, there is enough space for emotions, mutual respect, dialogue and expression through art. This is exactly what we aimed at, in order to permit a smoother migrant integration and increase of increase cultural awareness amongst host societies. To this, the project aimed at up-skilling professionals and other adult learners through a series of actions, based on creativity and the arts. We are pleased to report that the project successfully managed to support the development, piloting and transfer of an innovative model with ample artistic mediums and fresh approaches to healing for the capacity building of professionals working with migrants—including immigration officers, educators, community workers, public servants in the health and justice systems, and human rights activists—enabling them to integrate restorative justice and art into their service delivery. CA4RJ focused on coming up with practical solutions that would derive from fieldwork with our end users. In this way, we would be able to foster creativity and arts as methods of inclusion and interconnectedness and extend and develop the competences of educators and other personnel who support migrants with the ultimate objective of helping them to better perform their work. The project could extend the existing competences of personnel who support migrants to develop competences that will allow them to work better and more effectively with their target groups. Finally, CA4RJ aimed to create strategic partnerships and cross-sectoral collaborations in order to foster a holistic and more effective approach to social inclusion, interconnectedness and community cohesion. CA4RJ aimed to improve and extend the supply of high-quality learning opportunities and contribute to knowledge sharing between practitioners in the field and shared training opportunities. We achieved this by making available flexible learning opportunities to adults in the participating countries and across Erasmus. Overall, we wanted to increase awareness of the problematic nature of migrant marginalisation and stigmatisation among key actors, develop effective communication skills and improve relationships with final beneficiaries. All this would proliferate the benefits of Restorative justice art.
The Culture and Art for Restorative Justice (CARJ) project was created in response to priorities set out in the Erasmus KA227 and more specifically the dire need for better social inclusion of migrants in their host communities. The successful and organic integration of migrants into EU hosting societies was detected as a persistent problematic situation for many migration and COVID – 19 policies,. The pandemic three years ago came to disrupt our lives and societies, and impede any effort for interconnectedness. At the point of application, research was showing that the pandemic had already revealed and exacerbated pre-existing socioeconomic inequalities of migrants, a group facing also the additional burden of xenophobia and discrimination. These persistent phenomena were triggered by cultural misunderstanding, bias and fear of the “other”. At the same time the cultural and artistic sectors were hit the most. To this end, acknowledging that prevention of migrants' marginalisation requires a holistic approach to social inclusion and inequality, we applied for this project in order to form a strategic partnership of VET providers, cultural and art organisations from across Erasmus+ so that the power of art and restorative justice can be used to increase cultural awareness and thus contribute to the successful integration of migrant communities at one of the most challenging times for Europe. Through this partnership we wanted to address the need for better and more beneficial connections of cultural and art organisations with civil society, and for cross-sectorial cooperation. Responding to the KA227 priorities in relation to this need, CA4RJ formed a potential solution to empower creative and cultural professionals who support migrants and especially those who are at risk of marginalization. It was beyond obvious that there was an increase in public sentiment against migration and multiple environments, settings and situation only fuelled the fire and contributed to further segregation. Hence, at this point, we wished to explore the power of restorative justice and art and how these can be used to bring people closer and provide them the chance to collaborate and use art as a vehicle to identify shared challenges. CA4RJ sought to increase the skills, knowledge and confidence of professionals working with migrants in order to help them foster their migrants' development of social, civic and intercultural competences, while helping them to develop ownership of shared values and boost social inclusion. Therefore, structured around the concept of Restorative justice art and a previously tested training programme in the UK called "Culture and Art for Unity", CA4RJ was put together to overcome the COVID19's impact, by connecting the art and cultural sectors with restorative justice practitioners, education, social services, mental health and community organisations who support migrants' integration creating new opportunities. Overall, at this critical point, CA4RJ aimed to empower migrant integration through evidence-based training tools and manuals and generate many opportunities of social action for professionals supporting migrants and migrants themselves. The project wished to foster migrants’ active citizenship, taking into account the European values of freedom, tolerance, equality autonomy and respect of human, social and economic rights. This report demonstrates that CA4RJ exchanged its results at national and European levels, thanks to partners’ commitment, helping in this way to achieve the objectives of the EU Integration Action Plan, and supporting the Erasmus+ priorities for more united societies. The project adopted and followed a user-led methodology in order to address several Sectoral and Horizontal Erasmus+ Priorities.