BUILDING INTERCULTURAL SOCIETIES IN EUROPE: THE ART OF COMING TOGETHER


Workshop Objectives:

Nowadays more European cities are rapidly changing and becoming increasingly diverse with cultural and religious values, language and modern migration patterns. This updated course is designed to illustrate a contemporary analysis about migration and diversity through theories and proven methods to work with different people with a particular focus on non-EU migrant communities and students. This five-day workshop will help all participants to improve their knowledge on the necessary skills that are needed to become more hospitable, welcoming, and greater placed to communicate effectively with migrant families and students from different backgrounds. Often teachers, education managers, NGO staff, youth workers, and community activists lack the confidence, necessary skills, and knowledge constructs to work with disadvantaged communities such as migrants, asylum seekers and ethnic minorities; there is a real need to understand and make sense of diversity, and to be able to talk about it productively and meaningfully without offence – and our highly recommended KA1 Course deals precisely with this.

PROGRAMME

Day 1: Working with Non-EU migrants

Introduction to the Day and the Programme: registration, introduction of partners, networking, welcome to London, workshop overview and some icebreaking activities. Afterwards, a morning session presentation on the state of International Protection in Europe and on fundamental factors to consider when working with Non-EU migrant will take place. This course introduces not only some of the key issues migrants face upon arrival into a new city, including the impact on mental health and a description of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but also some of the solutions that practitioners and institutions should have in place when they arrive.

Day 2: Let’s Talk : Cultural Stereotypes and Group Dynamics

What is culture? How do cultural stereotypes work? What are some of the stereotypes and prejudices migrants face when they arrive in Europe? What are some of the group dynamics that migrants enter into when leaving their country? This day introduces, discusses and debates norms and values surrounding migrants focusing on asylum seekers in particular, showing also how the European Union responded until now to the recent refugee crisis. In addition, suggestions and tips about how to answer back to prejudices will be provided including some general guidelines about conflict resolution.

Day 3: Inclusion Dynamics – Support and Best Practices in Education.

Education plays a key role when it comes to integration and inclusion. It involves both, newcomers and those who have long lived in the area. It also touches different age groups, from young children to adults, opening paths to more open minded and positive attitudes. This day will focus on formal and informal education for young people in educational environments such as schools, youth centres or youth organisations. Key concepts will be active citizenship, intercultural competences and the role of schools in supporting inclusion. In addition, examples of best practices in the UK and some workshops ideas will be proposed.

Day 4: Parental Advice and Adult learning in education

The first part of the day will be dedicated to the role of parents in the multicultural inclusion and how support of parents can help with children’s inclusion. We will share some best practices in work with parents, as well as try to introduce some methods to involve them. One of the most important tools for integration is adult learning, therefore we will try to rethink about the role of adult learning in the current migrant crisis in the second part of the fourth day.

Day 5: The intercultural city of London

On this day, we seek to go out and take a look at the wide human diversity that make London an extraordinary social experiment. In fact, it has been estimated that over 300 languages are spoken, 200 different countries represented and that all the religions and cults in the world are professed. After visiting a local NGO\Cultural Centre/schools and/or unique parts of the “multicultural” London, we will come back to the office for the final evaluation and feedback session. *

* Please note: the type of visit that will be proposed will depend by the period of the year and by the number of participants following the course.

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