After our study visit to Weimar, new methods came to light regarding intercultural youth work. The next stage in our project was to support the participants of the study visit to implement and reflect on these activities locally. Here is an overview of the local activities:
Germany:
CGE organized an “Intercultural Hackathon” focusing on migration and aiming to solve social problems by brainstorming, collaborating, and producing innovative solutions.
How can an Intercultural Hackathon help our community? By:
Getting to Know Each Other: A hackathon is like a big teamwork project. People from different backgrounds come together to solve problems. By working together, everyone gets to know and understand each other better.
Making Things That Matter: Since everyone’s from the same community, the things we make or ideas we come up with will be useful for us and our neighbors.
Making New Friends: Working together means you’ll probably make new friends. You’ll bond over the project and might hang out later too!
Being Active in Our Town: By joining the hackathon, you’re taking part in something big in our town or city. It’s cool to be involved and make a difference!
Learning from Each Other: Everyone has something unique to teach. Maybe you’re good at brainstorming, while someone else is great at planning. You’ll pick up new skills just by working together.
Showing Off Our Skills: Our community is full of talented people. A hackathon is a chance to show off what we can do!
Quick Results: Hackathons are short, fun events. We might come up with cool ideas or projects that can help our community right away.
Celebrating Our Differences: Our town has people from different backgrounds. This event is a great way to celebrate what each culture brings to the table.
It’s Fun for Young People: Events like these are exciting for young folks. It’s not just about working; it’s about connecting, sharing stories, and having a good time.
Making a Lasting Impact: Even after the hackathon ends, the ideas and projects we come up with can keep helping our community for a long time.
So, in short, an Intercultural Hackathon is a fun way for us to work together, and come up with ideas that can help make our community even better!
Ireland:
There were 10 participants present for this workshop and many guests for Eurobug’s live podcast recording event in the evening.
The event began with some ice breakers for the group to get acquainted. Following “Two Truths and a Lie”, the workshop moved onto the poetry workshop. Participants were led through a mindfulness exercise at first. Following this, they were asked questions that might prompt ideas for the poetry. Participants were given half an hour to create a piece.
The session ended with a majority of the participants sharing what they had written. The workshop finished with a closing reflection.
Cyprus:
CitizensACT organized two sessions with young migrants to pilot the Intercultural Trialogues Project. The workshops took place at KEEAED (Information and Training Centre for Employment and Entrepreneurial Activities for Vulnerable Groups) in Nicosia and aimed to engage young migrants in intercultural dialogues and empower them to actively participate in youth centres. The project’s primary focus was on promoting diversity, inclusion, and mutual understanding among young individuals from various cultural backgrounds. Two workshops were conducted as part of the pilot phase to introduce the participants to the project’s objectives and outcomes.
The first workshop aimed to introduce the participants to the Intercultural Trialogues Project. Young migrants were invited to participate in the workshop during the project’s pilot phase, where CitizensACT representatives provided an overview of the project’s vision, emphasizing the significance of intercultural dialogue in fostering social cohesion and empowering young individuals. During the session, the participants exchanged their ideas on ’empowerment’ and ‘participation’. They were asked to share past experiences and their ideas on how they would personally like to be actively involved in youth centres and in society. Some mentioned volunteering, facilitating collaborative projects, or collaborating with other youth centres. The participants were also encouraged to state some challenges they have faced or are still facing in engaging with youth centres. Mainly, financial and cultural accessibility were mentioned. However, these challenges can be overcome through various free workshops and events that specifically target young migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, with the aim to provide them with the necessary skills and increase their opportunities for participation in the labour market and education.
The second workshop aimed to build upon the knowledge acquired in the previous session and engage the participants more deeply in the Intercultural Trialogues Project. During Workshop 2, the participants were encouraged to actively engage with the project’s goals and contribute their insights. CitizensACT representatives showcased examples of successful intercultural initiatives from various regions, emphasizing how similar projects could be implemented locally. The participants actively discussed potential intercultural activities that they could initiate or support within their communities, such as Mentorship Programs, Language Exchange Programs, Youth Exchange Programs, Cultural Workshops and Events. The participants had the chance to also go through the Publication developed in the framework of the project and discussed the possibility of adapting some good cases in youth centres in Cyprus. The engaging and interactive nature of the workshops facilitated meaningful conversations and connections among the young migrants. By promoting intercultural understanding and empowering young migrants to take an active role in their communities, the Intercultural Trialogues Project aims to foster a more inclusive and harmonious society, embracing diversity as a source of strength and enrichment.
Italy:
On the basis of the focus group and the study visit, La Fenice volunteers decided to conduct an activity on the use of a practical tool to assess and monitor the inclusivity of Civic spaces and youth centres. Starting from the “Empathy mapping”, an already existing tool originally developed for marketing purposes, the group trained the young volunteers taking part in Tortona’s Municipality civic services (youth center and the after-school programs) in using the map in their service.
An empathy map serves as a straightforward yet comprehensive visual representation that encapsulates valuable insights into a user’s behaviour and mindset. It functions as a valuable instrument for teams, particularly for the ones who are engaged in designing activities or services. It allows groups to immerse themselves in the perspective of the users, aiding in a more profound understanding of their needs and experiences. Youth workers often face challenging situations where colleagues and stakeholders default to their own opinions and feelings and forget about the intended target audience (young migrants in this case). Conducting an empathy mapping session has proved to be an invaluable exercise for the local youth workers to better understand young migrants’ needs when interacting with a space or a service. Through a set of questions, brainstorming and reflection the group had slowly deepened their understanding of intercultural youth work and raised the nodes but also the possible changes that the Youth centre had to implement to reach a better level of inclusivity. Although some challenges will require some time and the community effort, the group also identified very simple but yet effective actions to implement in the civic spaces some of which includes:
- Monitoring the languages spoken in the space and updating the poster, flyers and signals accordingly in order to gurantee that the information can be understand
- Promote the service (e.g hanging up flyers) in places where young migrants tend to gather (sometimes it can be near a particular bench in the park or in a traditional food shop).
- Frequently consult the young people on which hours are more useful to find the service open.
E.g. during Ramadan La Fenice has kept the youth centre open in the evening because young people preferred to relax or sleep at home in the afternoon.
- Cooking, eating and sharing traditional meals is the best way to bring people together. Even by the way the smell of the youth centre changes can make it more welcoming for some people.
- Update the space library with books from different cultures in order to promote cultural diversity and communicate the values you stand for.
Since one of the objectives that La Fenice volunteer set after the first local action was also to celebrate and organise more youth activities connected to religious celebration (outside the christian ones), in June, in honour of Eid Al Adha (a muslim feast), La Fenice organised a dinner with the Young Gambian Association. The Young Gambian Association is an informal group of people that organise activities to promote the Gambian and muslim culture in Tortona. During the event the YGA shared traditional food cooked by their volunteers and stories about Eid Al Adha, but it was also an occasion for la Fenice to present the Intercultural Trialogues project and its first results.
During the dinner we discussed the challenges of being a young muslim migrant in Tortona, what are their restraints to civic participation but also the possibilities that a place like the youth centre could provide. In the last months the participation of the YGA has increased at the youth centre and the volunteers seem much more comfortable organising activities at the youth centre or participating at the ones organised by La Fenice. Once again a very simple action like creating time and space for having dinner together and sharing opinions, really reinforced the integration and collaboration between the two organisations.
