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A Place To Be

2020-2-BE05-KA105-0030262020Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: BE|IT|DE|RO · Grant: €15,431
Home and justice affairs (human rights & rule of law)EU Citizenship, EU awareness and DemocracySocial dialogue

Objectives

The objectives of this project are varied. We want to involve young adults from all over Europe in order to bring together as many different cultures, attitudes and opinions as possible. Our aim is to create interaction and connection, focused on ourselves, our identities, believes and backgrounds. Furthermore, we want to take a glance on problems as well as problem-solving in Europe in the past and the present. Our education centre is located right next to the biggest German military graveyard from the Second World War in Western Europe. The big cemetery with its history, current European disagreements and conflicts and the rise of right-wing parties show how important it is to communicate across the borders of countries and cultures. Throughout our project we also want to create a deeper and more complex understanding for the WWII and all its consequences. The historical surrounding of this impactful graveyard makes the debates even more effective and leaves a long-lasting impression. We want to show the people that there is a huge diversity in Europe and everyone has his/her own background, attitude and opinion. We can achieve that by working, discussing, cooking and doing the dishes and various different activities together. Thereby, we also want to show the local community of Lommel. All participants should be able to break down and express their opinions on recent topics and therefore can actually take part in any national and international discussion. In the end we want to debate, discuss and work on the topics of communication across all imaginable borders and intercultural dialogue/connection – what may be difficult about that and how one can achieve an equal dialogue. We want to encourage all participants to share their views on their own backgrounds and identities, to learn to be critical about what they are based on and to gather ideas how people from different backgrounds can live together peacefully and open-minded in the same country, in a bigger place like the European union or even in the world. These ideas and questions will be connected with visual arts and theatre using them in a way to express and share feelings and thoughts during the project. The participants should be encouraged to think about possible ways of communication in order to create a way of building mutual understanding for each other and to rethink ones one manner of interacting with people. Additionally, we want all participants to enjoy themselves during these two weeks in July. Everybody shall have the chance to participate in an interesting and fun time. These goals are connected to the Erasmus+ and KA objectives, because they essentially support cultural diversity, interaction and intercultural connection. We want to create awareness of the many different stories and perspectives on responsibility and humanity in Europe. We want the participants to think about the importance of European and international cooperation and dialogue, always remembering the past (WWII, linked to our work at House Across Borders). Other wars and conflicts in past and present, caused by hatred and people‘s views on others will be dealt with as well. With this idea in mind, we want to transform every kind of thinking and opinion into something progressive and impressive. We can enable this aim through the help of visual arts and theatre because the thoughts and views of all participants will become tangible. While working with these forms of art, we intend to open up a new way of communication and getting to know each other, of sharing thoughts and expressing opinions. . By bringing people with different national, cultural and even religious backgrounds and views together we want to encourage intercultural dialogue and European cooperation as well as the personal development of the participants. We want to bring together participants from five different European countries and motivate the participants to exchange and discuss different topics. We put special emphasis on the way of communication and want to find ways to facilitate intercultural exchange because it improves mutual understanding and promotes (European) cooperation.

Project partners (4)