Provocations launched by cultural diversity in the context of the contemporary world are felt by all partners involved in this project, especially since diversity takes many forms in their organizations and their social environment - from culture and nationality to gender, race, sexuality, educational background, religion. All our partners are facing issues relating to a tendency of exclusion of the young people belonging to the mainstream society towards the young people from different backgrounds and cultures. The project's target group are trainers, youth workers, artists involved in youth education. Each partner has identified the needs of his own target group to acquire new strategies in order to build a culture of diversity and equal chances a well as to share the strategies each partner is using, enhancing European experience to stand against stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination, and social exclusion; The partners work together, learn from each other, sharing the best practices and strategies on the issue. The purpose of the project is an international synergy between 6 European organizations with the same needs – to create a culture of diversity and equality, decrease intolerance, facilitate social inclusion of young people belonging to cultural minorities through arts. Objectives are: 1. To increase the capacity of non-governmental organizations working with young people in the field of diversity through European collaboration acquiring new strategies and participatory methods of non-formal education to manage cultural diversity by means of 3 Short-term joint staff training 2. To promote diversity and equal chances through participatory arts organizing 2 Art Festivals – DIVERSITY FEST held in two consecutive years in each country 3. To strengthen the networking among partners developing a new learning e-tool – "WALK IN MY SHOES ”, a website as a true resource of international value presenting strategies and methods which combat stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination, and social exclusion and create a culture of diversity and equal chances. The objectives are achieved through: * 3 Short-term joint staff training events * 2 Art Festivals – DIVERSITY FEST using non-formal methods acquired during the training events * WALK IN MY SHOES website, a real network platform will be achieved; a special field - COLLECTION OF BEST PRACTICES IN NON-FORMAL LEARNING- as a valuable tool for learning used on the field of cultural diversity * 9 non-formal education workshops for young people we are working with Methods used: C1- BUILDING A CULTURE OF DIVERSITY through visual methods, interactive presentation, interactive lecture, Brainstorming, Storyboard, Forum Theatre, Sociodrama, Living Library C2- VISUAL ARTS AND SPORT FOR SOCIAL INTEGRATION through structured discussion, visual arts and sport games C3- PARTICIPATIVE ARTS AGAINST INTOLERANCE through Newspaper Theatre, Statue Theatre, Invisible Theatre, Flash Mob Role Play, Photo Voice Expected Results and Impact: The project as an outcome based process improves the professional capacity of each partner organization through European collaboration, through its representative (trainers, youth workers) who acquires new strategies and non-formal methods to manage cultural diversity with the means of 3 Short-term joint staff training events. During training events, the representatives of each partner organization gains competences to promote diversity and equal opportunity through participatory art through 2 Art Festivals – DIVERSITY FEST organized by each partner; the new competences gained during the training events are transferred to the young people they work with and together they realize 2Art Festival The website is a true resource of international value presenting strategies and methods which combat stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination, and social exclusion and create a culture of diversity and equal chances. It will contain a special field - COLLECTION OF BEST PRACTICES IN NON-FORMAL LEARNING useful for trainers, youth workers and educators from the youth field. After each short-term joint staff training event, participants will transfer their gained competences and disseminate them to the young people they are working with through 9 non-formal education workshops The acquisition of new strategies and numerous non-formal methods and their use in future projects increased the capacity of non-governmental organizations through European cooperation on cultural diversity issue; also, the partner organizations become part of a networking “WALK IN MY SHOES” a site of international value for the best European practices building a culture of diversity and equal chances improving the European cooperation, increasing visibility at local, national and international level.
Provocations launched by cultural diversity in the context of the contemporary world are felt by all partners involved in this project, as all partners face issues relating to exclusion, especially since diversity takes many forms in their organizations and their social environment - from culture and nationality to gender, race, sexuality, educational background and religion. Walk in My Shoes main project objectives are: 1. To increase the professional capacity of non-governmental organizations working with disadvantaged people in the field of diversity through EU collaboration acquiring new strategies and participatory methods of non-formal education to manage cultural diversity by means of 3 Short-term joint staff training 2. To promote diversity and equal chances through participatory arts, organizing 2 Art Festivals – DIVERSITY FEST held in two consecutive years in each participants' country 3. To strengthen the networking among partners developing a new learning e-tool – "WALK ON MY SHOES”, a website as a true resource of international value presenting strategies and methods which combat stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination, social exclusion and create a culture of diversity and equal chances/opportunities.
Being a peer learning project, during the Short-term joint staff training events achieved, a real cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices was accomplished. The training events being a process of giving and receiving, each partner brought something new according to its experience and expertise; at the same time each partner learned from the others, giving a European dimension both to the project and to each partner organization. Thus, the participants have learned non-formal teaching approaches and artistic practice for trainers and youth workers to build a culture of diversity and equal chances: they learnt how to realize non-formal education workshops to build a culture of diversity, how to use theatre of the oppressed, role play, sociodrama, Porto Voice, Living Library, flash mob, storyboard, stencil graffiti in order to decrease intolerance, to facilitate social inclusion of young people belonging to cultural minorities, in order to create a culture of tolerance and respect towards diversity through arts. Participants transferred their gained competences both to young people they work with, especially those belonging to mainstream society and vulnerable groups, and to their colleagues.