The project team consists of 24 people aged 18-30 from Poland, Hungary, Turkey and Germany. The project implementation will focus on the interest of local youth communities in the subject of cultural diversity and migration. The main results of the project will be: 1. Film - a series of interviews with young migrants living in the local environments of partner organizations, which will enable 40 young people from migrant environments to tell their story, motivation to change their place of residence, to present their own culture to a wider audience. 2. The program of non-formal activities in the field of intercultural education, which can be conducted by youth for youth. The developed program will be presented using the following media: - paper and PDF brochure (containing suggestions for educational games and activities, materials to be printed and used during the course of the course, outlines with the proposed course of the course, descriptions of various cultures and cultural systems - including materials collected by members of the initiative group during private travels) . - a series of 8 on-line tutorials (containing suggestions for educational games and activities that can be used as part of intercultural education). 3. The "Festival of a Thousand Cultures" event presenting a range of topics related to different cultures present in Europe, the importance of respect and tolerance in our local environments, the possibility of involving young people in social activities, which will be the subject of the initiative group's work throughout the entire project. In addition, the event will be enriched with meetings with young, local travelers and representatives of the world of science (UG employees) involved in research related to intercultural education. 4. Strengthening the international youth cooperation network, including 24 youth leaders from 4 Program Countries. As part of the project, new tools for communication within the network will be implemented, such as a Skype meeting, Google drive, group on Facebook. An official website of the project will also be created, which after the end of the project will become a website of the youth network created during it. The initiative group, through the joint implementation of the project during practical activities, will develop effective cooperation schemes that can be used during oil joint international activities for youth. The main groups involved in project activities will be: - youth initiative group (24 people), - 4 mentors supporting the initiative group - 40 young migrants from local communities of partner organizations, - 320 people aged 15-19 who will take part in the cycle of intercultural activities conducted by the initiative group, - about 500 participants of the "Festival of a Thousand Cultures", - about 800 recipients of educational tutorials prepared by the initiative group, - about 2000 recipients of the film prepared by the initiative group.
The aim of the project was: - creating a coherent space (website) in which local youth will have the opportunity to learn more about the phenomenon of migration, learn about its causes and effects for local communities, get to know the point of view of young migrants coming to our countries, - interest of local youth in the subject of multiculturalism, encouraging them to expand their intercultural competences, - creating a space for young migrants that will allow them to talk about themselves, their culture, and their motivations to change the country of residence, - developing the competences of the project team in the organization of international projects aimed at young people.
Together, we came to the conclusion that a significant problem in our local communities is the low level of acceptance of large groups of young people for peers from other countries and cultures. A large proportion of young people perceive the cultural diversity of their peers as a threat, and their anxiety results mainly from the misunderstanding of other cultures combined with the influence of stereotypes and fake news disseminated in the media. Lack of acceptance often turns into acts of physical aggression, such as beating up EKS volunteers from Turkey in Starogard Gdański, or beating a Gdańsk University of Technology student from Syria in 2019. A survey conducted by a partner organization from Turkey in 2020 showed that 34% young people would not like their co-workers to be people of other nationalities, 72% of the survey participants admitted that their knowledge about other cultures is very limited, 42% of the survey participants derive their knowledge of other cultures mainly from news services on TV. In view of such an attitude of local communities, we decided that it is necessary to create a space in local youth communities where it will be possible to strengthen the voice of migrants.