The idea behind the project
This project is a result of an accurate and critical thinking and brainstorming between the partner organisations for an important matter such as collaboration towards prevention of exclusion, inclusion of differences and diversity.
It is widely recognised that social exclusion produces deep and long-term damage to the living conditions,social and economic participation,emotionallife and health status of young people.It also contributes to the intergenerational transmission of poverty. In turn, insecurity of living standards, political and social isolation, feelings of estrangement and unhealthy lifestyles aggravate pre-existing conditions of social exclusion. This results in a vicious circle, where socially excluded young people are in even more danger of suffering from additional material deprivation, social and emotional marginalisation, and health issues, which in turn expose them to more serious risks of exclusion.The causes of social exclusion are differences that vary between ethnicity,(dis)ability,religion,sexuality,skin colour, socio-economic background,appearance,educational level, language spoken etc. All the above are issues we are seeking to address through the project by creating an open dialogue among young people. Especially,nowadays, in the continuously
changing world, understanding and acceptance of differences, promotion of inclusion, celebration of diversity are vital component to build inclusive and united society.
The motto of EU is “United in Diversity”, the Europe 2020-strategy aims to generate a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The EU works for social equality and develops social security and tries to protect the weakest. It seeks to prevent social exclusion and discrimination. The project has been organized with respect to all the permanent priorities of Erasmus+ program: European citizenship, cultural diversity, social inclusion and intercultural dialogue.
The overall aim of TOGETHER WE INCLUDE - WE ARE INCLUDED are to promote the understanding and acceptance of differences among young people and to celebrate the diversity in a society inclusive towards everyone. More specifically the Youth Exchange TOGETHER WE INCLUDE - WE ARE INCLUDED aims to:
-Promote diversity, break stereotypes, prejudices and improve the knowledge, respect and understanding in order to combat discrimination through intercultural and inter-religious dialogue through non-formal education methods and experiential learning
-To enhance the knowledge and improve the understanding about human rights and different cultures, traditions, customs etc in order to build diverse society that minimizes and/ or eliminates fear, xenophobia, racism, discrimination and exclusion
-To encourage young people to explore, share and develop effective methods that would help to promote the social inclusion of vulnerable and marginalized groups within their local communities also after the end of the project.
-Directly and indirectly, before, during and after the project improve the active participation and sense of initiative between young people with fewer opportunities, from vulnerable and marginalized groups in an international level;
-to analyze and discuss the main issues/ events/ situations that affect understanding, acceptance and respect towards differences of any kind at the same time affecting the processes of inclusion and exclusion.; share best practices of inclusion, respect and acceptance of differences around Europe;
-to stimulate the sense of active and inclusive European and global citizens by promoting Erasmus+ mobility opportunities and sharing the basic knowledge that will help participants to create their own E+ projects focusing on cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.
PROJECT PARTNERS
Matrioskas.CY - CYPRUS
We are a Cypriot NGO of youth active in International Youth mobility (youth exchanges, training courses under Youth in Action now Erasmus+), linguistic summer schools, cultural travels etc... Topics mainly developed are Intercultural Learning, Creativity, Social Inclusion, Unemployment and European Citizenship!
Why MATRIOSKAS? Matrioska is a traditional Russian doll. The biggest doll contains all the others in a curious and funny “all in one” mix! From this concept and with a lot of “European” experience in the youth field, we have worked out our idea to develop our NGO, where a lot of countries share cultures and traditions in a new common European identity overcoming fears and increasing skills. We strongly believe that non formal education nowadays is one of the best educational methods to use among the youngsters in order to create and increase a new European generation open to intercultural dialogue.
Nameless Art - ROMANIA
Nameless Art Association is a new member of the local community organizations. Our town, Baicoi, is already twinned with towns from EU after the
municipality was partner in 2012-2014- "Ne.Mo. Network for Mobility” Europe for Citizens project and coordinator in 2014-2016-“JoyNeet- Job
Opportunities for Youth with the Network of European Towns” Europe for Citizens project. After coordinating these long-term projects, the members
have been established the Nameless Art Association and have been involved in the following projects: 2016-2018- partners in the Europe for Citizens
project, called “TIPS4EU: Tools for a more Inclusive, Participative and Sustainable European Union”)
2018-2020- partners in the Europe for Citizens project called “PUnCH: Participation of Underrepresented Citizens in the valorization of the Cultural
Heritage”. The main aim of our association is to identify, mobilize and harness the resources and activities required to support the educational system.
Nameless Art is helping disadvantaged people, youth with special needs through projects that is offering them social integration. The association is
supporting programs that promote youth education through practical models of education (non-formal means such us public debates, street debates). By
participating in different kind of projects, youth and the community will learn how to be more responsible with their local community and not only.
The members of Nameless Art have a large experience in managing projects. The staff and the volunteers were involved in local, national and
international projects.sThe founding values of the Nameless Art Association are democratic values, interpersonal communication, understanding and tolerance for other points of view, the team spirit, confidence in their own strength and self-confidence. The leader, Mihnea Badea and the staff have a large experience in projects by taking part in many project meetings acquiring managerial skills. Since 2008, one of our members, Monica Badea, was involved in organizing and writing projects with and for youth from the local highschool and community. Youth who took part in the former projects gained the right competences so that they adapted more easily in a new job and environment. In this association we have trainers and a psychologist that are prepared in the group dynamic, team management, research and in non-formal activities.
Gentle Gigant - ITALY
The “Gentle Giant” organization was born in December 2013, the headquarters is in Ardea, a town close to Rome, Italy.
After taking place to many international mobility programs which are EVS, Leonardo, Youth Exchanges e Training Course and seeing and admiring their potential and their aims, we decided to create our own organization with the aim to contribute in an active way to the development and to spread the ideals of the international mobility and European Union’ values within the Erasmus Plus program.
Despite being a small organization, we have a good experience in the field of youth and international mobility.As partner, we collaborated in several projects within the Erasmus+ KA1 (Youth exchanges and Trainings).The topics of these projects focused from active citizenship to social entrepreneurship passing from the bullying, migrants and gender equality.
We like to be active in different fields, we have experience especially in the topic of active citizenship, inter-religious dialogue, geopolitics and food culture but we are always interested to explore new thematic fields in order to acquire more experience to our volunteers and to our organization. At present, our staff is composed by young persons, range age 18-35 years, some of them with experience in the youth mobility and some others do not. Most of them are located in Rome and surrounding areas but we have also volunteers spread in different Italian zones, from north to the south because we are trying to give to our organization a national dimension. We have also people with social and economic obstacles (long term unemployed, personsfrom rural areas, and muslin community) and we are trying to involve them in order to help them to acquire new work ideas and to reach and to add new skills to improve their quality of life. In addition, we work closely with the municipalities of Montone (1648 inhabitants) and Pomezia (62700 inhabitants), through patronages, for events of public interest in the social, including through the dissemination of the Erasmus + (local public events and meeting, social media, press, municipality patronage etc. etc.) and the direct involvement of the local population in some of our activities related to it.
Radošā apvienība VISI 2 - LATVIA
Radošā apvienība VISI 2 is an NGO established in the year 2013.The main aims of the organisation are:
- to organise multiform events including culture, sports, education and merging traditional and innovative technological and conceptual forms;
- to design and implement cultural, educational and sport activities to promote social inclusion while promoting understanding and acceptance of the
needs and differences of people with and without disabilities
- to promote creativity and diversity in different fields of culture /theatre, arts, music etc/, in order to expand current forms and contents in these creative areas.
Organization covers such topics as social inclusion, culture as an educational tool towards solving social issues, non-formal education, global education
and global citizenship, empowerment of young people from vulnerable and marginalized groups, promote equality and equity in the society, sustainable
development.
The main topics Radošā Apvienība VISI2 covers are social inclusion, culture as an educational tool towards solving social issues, non-formal
education, global education and global citizenship, empowerment of young people from vulnerable and marginalized groups, promote
equality and equity in the society, sustainable development.
Besides that the representative of the organization and the coordinator for this project Eliza Danenfelde-Kirpe has wide experience in non-formal
education and implementation of social initiatives promoting diversity and inclusion. Danenfelde-Kirpe has been taking part in Youth Exchanges and
Training courses to improve her skills and knowledge related to the main aims and important topics of the organization. She has experience as facilitator
in Global Education and experiential learning projects ( Global Education Goes Local, Youth Of The World: Transformative Power of Global Education,
The Long way to Europe etc) that brings great value to the management and coordination of this project. Besides that she has the professional bachelor degree in Culture management and cultural entrepreneurship.
Skills and/or expertise of key persons involved in this project:
-Great knowledge and experience in non-formal education, global education and experiential learning;
-Communication skills and quick problem solving;
-Teamwork and cooperation in theory and practice
-Creativity, ability to take initiative and share responsibilities;
-Excellent management skills
-Positive attitude and motivation to meet new people and continue networking and collaboration in local and -global levels.
-Competence, opinion and ideas regarding social topics: solving social issues, raising awareness on social inclusion etc.
Check In - PORTUGAL
Check-In – Cooperation and Development is a non-profit organization, founded in 2010, based in Beja and operating from Lisbon, in Portugal. It works in close cooperation with public and private entities, actively participating in quality of life improvement activities.
Our organization mainly focuses on youth and adult mobility, non-formal education and the overall sharing of knowledge, through the support of
European cooperation initiatives.
We work on a regular basis with other organizations, as well as municipalities, universities and higher education institutions in Europe and all around the world (we built partnerships in Brazil, Tanzania, Nepal, Argentina, Mexico and Perú).
Our aim is to promote lifelong learning opportunities, to encourage of social integration, education for sustainable development and social
entrepreneurship. Our working methods are furthermore deeply rooted in the European core values, such as the respect for human rights, democracy, gender equality, ecological awareness, intercultural tolerance and solidarity between the people. In addition, we have a special concern for children, teenagers and young adults with less privileged access to information, due to their geographical
location, their social and economic status or their personal situation. Check-In has thus been involved in urban areas and setting up local projects in
sensitive neighborhoods in Lisbon.
In order to achieve our aims, we organize a wide scope of different activities, taking place from local to international scales. These activities include
workshops, seminars, team-building activities and training courses. Moreover, we set up long-term volunteering programs, such as European Solidarity
Corps (Ex-European Voluntary Service), we are a Sending, Coordinating and Hosting Organization (hosting volunteers in Lisbon and Beja), national
volunteering, traineeships and internships in Portugal and abroad. To do so, we have developed since 2010 a broad network of organizations and
companies, operating in different sectors and fields of activity.
Check-In is also an Eurodesk multiplier center in Lisbon and Beja and member of Ana Lindh Foundation.
Since 2010, Check-In has experience on working with many different projects, as stated above. Our staff is used to coordinate, implement, develop, create
and manage various projects, with many partners from different programs.
We operated the financial management of a project inserted in the national program "Escolhas" at national level, we coordinated a one-year project with
Europe and Latin America about Empowerment, Creativity and Entrepreneurship, and we are partners in several other projects inside the Erasmus +
Programme.
We empower our youngsters to develop their ideas, be active and have an entrepreneur spirit. And nowadays Portugal is facing a huge problem on unemployment, especially with the youngsters. So, we try to promote the entrepreneurship spirit and the active participation in order to overcome that. Our youngsters need this kind of activities, not only the ones that we do at national level, but especially international to open more their horizons. We are currently developing a Youth Centre of Non-Formal Education in Beja, pioneer in Portugal, in partnership with the Portuguese Institute for Youth and Sport (IPDJ). In this center we implement trainings, volunteers empowerment activities and opportunities, intergenerational activities and information on Europe, Erasmus +, local opportunities and other projects.
We develop several workshops and trainings to empower and raise the skills of youngsters, youth workers and future trainers. Among the trainings, we had already Dragon Dreaming method (Project design), Leadership (to all our team leaders of Youth Exchanges), Plan B (Simulation game about citizenship).
Dream Team - GREECE
DreamTeam is a group of young people active in youth work. DreamTeam's activity core are volunteers with great experience in Erasmus+ projects such
as international exchanges, seminars, training courses, EVS. After having worked together for a long time, we realized we should put this expertise into further use by forming this group and educate young people, open their minds towards understanding and accepting European identity, help them discover volunteer work, learn about different cultures, develop their creativity and expand their horizons. DreamTeam's activities are based on non-formal education methods and structured dialog. Culture, arts, creativity, youth active participation, social inclusion, solidarity and tolerance, mutual understanding and respect, human rights, cooperation, European awareness are the core elements of our group. We aim to promote solidarity and tolerance between youngsters of different backgrounds and of fewer opportunities and to give them the chance to acquire international experience. We aspire to inform youngsters of the existing opportunities of Erasmus+ programs in order to learn and motivate them to become a part of a broader board of people who can drive change and contribute to a better future towards European consciousness, and their own personal development.
matrioskas.cy@gmail.com | Larnaca - Nicosia - CYPRUS