In 2020 and following years migration will remain central to the politics of the continent, raising fundamental questions about European societies, challenging the legitimacy of the system, and increasing the political strength of the far right. Indeed, the media is full of scenes with thousands of people flocking to Europe from the war zones looking for better life. However, more often than not these people end up in places where their potential cannot be used. The goal of the project is to create a special programme in which youth workers would include refugees and immigrants in their work with youth. This way the youth would get a chance to develop in a multicultural environment; thus building up their tolerance and multilingualism. Meanwhile, the immigrants and refugees would integrate into the society faster, since local youth would help them with the language, culture, traditions, etc. The project support youth workers in developing and sharing effective methods in reaching out to marginalised young people and in preventing racism and intolerance among youth; Including refugees and immigrants into youth work, the project will address diversity in non-formal education. At the same time, “Push Inclusion Through Youth Work (P.I.T.Y.W.)” focuses on the refugee crisis in Europe as well as immigrants and the ways to integrate the refugees into local communities better, which is also one of the most important aspects of this priority. In addition, emphasis during the project activities will be placed on helping target groups (youth, youth workers, refugees, immigrants) to develop social, civic and intercultural competences, as well as combat discrimination (towards refugees and immigrants). Key objectives of the project are (among others): 1) to improve local youth work by involving refugees and immigrants with their skills and experience; and 2) raise the qualifications and competences of youth workers, by providing them with best practices, tools & standards for multi-cultural element in their work. It is evident that these objectives directly correspond to the chosen priority. In other words, direct work with the refugees and immigrants (and its documentation) will professionalise youth workers, develop their multicultural competencies, and set ethical and professional codes. To fulfil these objectives, we plan to: (1) share and confront ideas, practices and methods on special methodologies, which involves refugees and immigrants into youth work (self-sustainable, as massive crowdfunding effort after the pilot programme is planned); (2) Create Social Business Idea Challenge - a contest included into the before mentioned programme, inviting European youth to create business models aimed at supporting refugees and immigrants; (3) documented standards for youth workers willing to include the multi-cultural element in their work; (4) create ‘Refugee-friendly’ label that could be awarded to business/organizations that help or employ refugees or support various related initiatives (it would act as incentive and/or as a proof of social-responsibility); (5) Create a web-platform, which would include helpful resources created during the project. It would also store a database of companies/organisations that have been awarded the ‘Refugee-friendly’ label; a crowdfunding section – with tips & other support; (6) generated social entrepreneurship ideas on refugee and immigrants integration that would be developed further after the end of the project. All this would be made available and promoted across other countries of Europe as well. The countries for partnership were handpicked, looking at their relevance to the topic. Lithuania is a countries with wider public mostly opposing the relocation of refugees; while, Italy, and Spain is at the arrival point of the refugee. Spain and Italy will act as a base for dissemination in the southern transit countries and mediterranean area, while Lithuania will be a base for spreading the project’s ideas to the Central and north European countries (all with similarly unwelcoming populations); Inviting such participating countries gives additional motivation and momentum for the project to produce tangible results. The objective is to show (by involving them into youth work) that refugees could be seen as potential rather than a problem. Generally, the expected impact at all levels is to develop awareness of refugee-related issues and generate innovative ideas to solve them. At the same time, help people become more welcoming and open-minded. Moreover, another desirable result is to encourage various businesses to take socially responsible action and employ the skills of refugees; thus, integrating them in the local communities. Finally, the project is expected to set a good example, which would promote further youth initiatives and Erasmus+ actions.
The development and implementation of the project has made it possible to achieve the objectives set out in its approach and after its development. These objectives have been the following: -Improve youth work, at a local level, through the involvement of refugees and immigrants with their skills and experience. -To integrate refugees and immigrants into society, in an accelerated way, through their participation in youth activities that have allowed cultural and intellectual exchange with local youth. -Contributing to their integration by promoting more favorable public opinion and employment opportunities for them. -To improve the skills and competencies of youth workers by providing them with the tools and methods for the integration of multicultural elements in their daily work. -To reduce xenophobia and racism, as well as to promote multilingualism of local youth.
This project was born from the migratory flows that were taking place in the European continent, since millions of people were fleeing to Europe due to the existence of a war in their countries or because they were looking for greater economic and labor opportunities. It was graphically seen in the media, as day by day many immigrants and refugees were arriving to our continent, if they made it. In many cases the potential of these people fell through the cracks and was not taken advantage of. The needs that were taken into account for the approach of this project were: -Need to integrate refugees and immigrants who had come to Europe and who did not have sufficient means to do so. -Need to incorporate a multicultural perspective in youth work, as well as to give the necessary tools to youth workers so that they can deal with inclusion on a daily basis. -Need to raise awareness among local youth about respect, tolerance towards refugees and immigrants. -Need to eliminate racist or xenophobic attitudes that have grown due to the rise of fake news and other movements.