Programme & action: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: multi-phase Training Course:
- Introductory Training Course (Italy – January 2019). Participants: Kateřina Rešlová, Robert Ach-Hübner
- Local Activities and Actions
- Capacity Building and Evaluation Seminar (Italy – 2-9 April 2019)
Venue: Durres, Albania
Dates: 23 January – 1 February
Participants/phase: 2
Please read the info-pack
Hosting organisation: APS La Fenice
Participating countries: Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovakia, France, Spain, Finland and Turkey
Report from phase 1: Introductory training course (Tortona, Italy – 23 January – 1 February 2019)
Project A+ Group Work: Accepting Interculturality to Recognise Ambition, Manage Adaptation, Enable Action, and Be Assertive took place in January 2019 in Italy and focused on group work and leadership in intercultural context.
The project was attended by around 20 people from 9 EU countries. The activities took place in a youth centre in Tortona, small town between Milan and Genoa. Trainers Alex (Netherlands) and Dan (UK) lead us through activities such as:
- discussing a controversial story and trying to find a consensus on moral dilemmas connected to it
- preparation and implementation of workshops for kids from local school (themes were up to us and we chose for example pantomime, theatre or aerial acrobatics)
- navigating a group of blinded people who cannot speak without touching them on a small trip to local park and back
Most of the activities were done in groups and therefore gave us opportunity to improve our team work skills. Still, everybody took something else out of it. For me, the greatest learning experience was the above-mentioned discussion of a controversial story. I was astonished how different perception of what is right and wrong we had even though we all shared European cultural identity. We did not find a common view in cases that can generalized such as whether to be loyal to a friend who acts wrong or whether means can justify the end. If we take into account that people from other cultures would have probably even more diverse judgments, it shows how much tolerance, respect but also common discussion is important to get on well in today’s globalized world.
Robert Ach-Hübner
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Project info:
“A+ Group Work” aims to support 20 youth workers and educators (guided by 3 trainers) from 10 different countries (Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovakia, France, Spain, Finland and Turkey) in the development of their skills and the bettering of the activities and methodologies put into use when working on group and leadership dynamics; oriented towards a better awareness of interculturality with all disadvantaged groups in society.
With this project, we aim to take a critical look at how group dynamics and leadership can be aided and abetted through a greater understanding of interculturality; rather than looking at it through the simplistic lenses of only national cultures, but through other forms of cultures and identifications as well: Different nations, regions, cities, backgrounds, economic and social class, gender identity, age, minority, religion, and much more. We will be focusing on methods on how to empower youths and youth workers to actively, effectively, and in an as “humanly”-friendly possible way, work together and lead each other.
By getting a better picture of what is necessary in working together with others, be they people of your in-group, minorities, refugees, or disadvantaged youths, intercultural understanding will definitely play a big role. And when it comes to leading a diverse group of people, being able to empower each individual comes with it’s own set of issues as well, whereby an understanding of how to accept power dynamics, cultural norms, and hierarchical roles play just as important a part in the entire dynamic.
The main aim of the project, therefore, is to raise awareness of the roles of interculturality and intersectionality in group and leadership dynamics in order to tackle the social exclusion of minorities, migrants, refugees, and disadvantaged youths with the help of non-formal methodologies.
The objectives are:
- To create an environment aimed at developing, experimenting, and sharing innovative methodologies and tools for a human-centered forms of group dynamics and leadership based in intercultural dialogue and learning, with specific attention to the inclusion and integration processes of young refugees and migrants in the local communities and in the youth organizations.
- To contribute to the professional and personal development and to improve the competences of the youth workers and educators of partner organizations, providing tools, knowledge and skills useful to face the need for intercultural dialogue among young people and their communities.
- To contribute to improve quality in youth work, at the local and European level, keeping into consideration the changes and challenges of today’s society as for the inclusion and integration of young people with different cultural backgrounds.
- To contribute to fight radicalization and xenophobia among young Europeans and local communities, providing with opportunities of intercultural dialogue and real and true encounters.
- To empower youth workers to become active multipliers able to improve their local working and living environments, raising social awareness towards true interculturalism in society and above all in the youth sector.
- To engage and empower disadvantaged youth, specifically young migrants/refugees and youth from cultural and ethnic minorities, giving them the opportunity to bring positive change in their communities.
This Erasmus+: Youth, Key Action 1: multi-phase training course which will take place in three separate actions:
- Introductory Training Course (Tortona, Italy – 23 January – 1 February 2019)
- Local Activities and Actions (more below)
- Capacity Building and Evaluation Seminar (Italy – 2-9 April 2019)
In order to take part you MUST be able to take part in all three actions listed above.
Participants’ profile:
youth workers, group leaders or volunteers who are active within the organization and wh have some experience in working with youth groups, intercultural groups, etc.
Local activities: they will be designed and proposed by participants themselves, but the idea is that they will have the chance to apply some of the things developed within the first training in their work at the local level, meaning in their work with “groups”. It could be a series of workshops, one event, a single activity, etc. or just applying small elements of the TC in their existing and programmed activities/daily work with young people, with groups, and so on…
