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Building Intercultural Bridges by Exploring Societies of Ancient Greece

2021-1-DE04-KA152-YOU-0000192452021Mobility of young peoplefinalized
Countries: DE|NL|PL|SE|EL|IS|LU · Grant: €29,250
Community developmentQuality and innovation of youth workCreativity, arts and culture

Objectives

The project “Building Intercultural Bridges by Exploring Societies of Ancient Greece” was a youth exchange run as a role-playing game with participants from 7 countries in the setting of ancient Greece and its mythologies. The experience focused on intercultural values and bringing people together in international cooperation. Mythology and ancient history are fascinating for young people, with Greek mythology having a great cultural impact on all western societies. Choosing a Greek mythologies setting was great way to get youths interested in a game in which they play the hero and influence the action. It was also a great learning topic which has an impact on today's values in European society. At the same time this provided a great basis for intercultural learning between the participants. The project further developed the role-playing immersion approach which was started in summer 2014 in the scope of the project 2014-1-DE04-KA105-000509. This game-based approach met with an overwhelming response so that we have held this type of event ever since, improving the approach every time and widening the network. The method of game-based learning we are using in the event is called ERA (European Roleplay Approach). ERA can best be described this way: The role-playing approach offers an environment in which a stronger European identity can evolve among young people. However, unlike other approaches, our method uses the approach of thrusting teams of young people into situations in which they can immerse themselves and in which they experience value judgements as a fictional character that needs to make difficult choices (such as the balance between individual freedom and the good of the community). The role-playing experience will work on several levels. Participants play together in mixed international teams in which they make the experience of working together and facing challenges together. The challenges will be created in such a way that players need to challenge their own beliefs and values in order to succeed. In this event we will play immersed in the rich and fascinating Greek mythology, with European ideals as a focus point of the value discussions. When a group has to come up with solutions for problems in game situations the resulting discussions are very open and free of any cultural or political baggage that would be present in discussions between representatives of different countries. Through the game participants are able to freely explore each other’s point of view and become interested in the situation of the other team members which usually results in participants wanting to explore more about each other after the game. Daily reflection rounds are held with the intention of helping the participants understand the different European values and the shared values. Going through this experience is a much stronger and longer lasting impression than simply discussing European values in a workshop and it leads to deep bonds between participants that hold for years to come. A primary objective of the project was creating a strong group of young people who get actively involved in contributing to a better Europe with the perspective of supporting each other across borders in the sense of a true community. We want these people to serve as multipliers and become active in youth work, especially in supporting young people with disadvantages and those who need support. Other important objectives were the expansion of the participants' minds and their awareness of other European cultures with the corresponding understanding of cultural values. Further objectives were strengthening the participants' competences, their positive outlook, their active support of democratic values, as well as international friendship and cooperation. Apart from the focus of intercultural learning the ERA approach was very suitable for training a number of soft skills such as communication skills, improvisation skills, tactical skills, empathy, as well as creativity, language skills and historical knowledge. Most of all we wanted to grow the participants into a community of friends that will last far beyond the event and encourage them to cooperate internationally.

Project partners (7)