PROJECT BACKGROUND
The project “Enhancing Social Integration with Comics – ESIC” activities will take place 24 months, in 4 countries across Europe those have the highest number of refugees and tackling with challenges such as UK, Turkey, France and Netherlands. Project overall goal is to design, implement and test innovative and interactive educational tools for youth educators/trainers in order to support them in developing their daily activities and their channels of communication with their target groups towards their integration path by allowing them to understand and increase the knowledge of the hosting society’s language, history, institutions is crucial for successful integration.
The participants to the project, during its whole cycle, are about 200 including also people with fewer opportunities. The participants will actively take part to a focus group phase, to the testing phase, to a series of dissemination labs in youth leaders centers and NGOs (involving at least 150 youth leaders) and to the multiplier events: – meetings for insiders”and professionals that are going to be a medium to valorize, within a multi-target network, the importance of the high quality of youth learning.
The project main results are the release of the project outcomes on the main OER platforms, on Erasmus + project results database, on the project website and on each partner’s website; a strong local dissemination plan of actions supported by the most popular media among youth the direct involvement of about 300 people; the establishment of an alliance network among all people involved in youth education and the development of a “word of mouth” network on the project topics.
At the end of project, more youth workers with qualified skills ( such as participants of TOT) with have better work with their organizations and this will lead integration of more young people. More NGOs will be active to promote social integration by using the tools/outcomes of project. Youth workers that working with integration will have new innovative tools to use in their daily work with refugees and young immigrants. These will lead to more cohesive societies and better integration of immigrants in host communities. As well as youth workers, NGOs, educational institutions will creative tools to use in their daily work.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The project wants to respond to youth learning priority: Inclusive training as it aims to develop, by the medium of youth educators, social and civic competences among the project second target: youth new migrants and refugees. In addition, this project is designed to contribute to the youth priority of promoting high-quality youth education, as it is going to design, implement, test and disseminate an effective educational tool able to support youth educators in developing their daily activities and their channels of communication
The specific objectives of the project are:
The project is going to work on two intellectual outputs: a series of comic strips focused on the project topics – EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy – and an annexed guide. The medium of the comic strips has been chosen because comics are known to be one of the most powerful and effective communication tools, above all in the youth field; the guide has been planned in order to support youth educators in their role of multi-target and multi-topic providers of non-formal learning opportunities. The guide will accompany youth educators, step by step, through the process of using comics to communicate. Through it, youth educators will be able, without outside help, to re-process the comics and exploit them with a wide range of different target profiles (in general disadvantaged youth in society ) in different contexts and starting from different topics. The intellectual outputs implementation will be improved by the partnership with the support of a multicultural youth educators representing, at the best, European multiculturalism and diversity.
Starting from these core priorities and objectives, the project profile widens its horizon looking at the world around with the aim to promote effective educational tools able to get positive results with people of different backgrounds; to experience an alliance between youth leaders centers, educational providers, NGO including immigration and refugee centers and public bodies on the focused issues and finally to experience and promote an innovative cross sectorial partnership (one NGO dealing with immigration issues; a social communication agency, an association whose core mission is integration and European cooperation in the youth field of education) able to reinforce the dialogue among highly
different, but complementary entities.
Objectives are:
To build capacity of youth workers
To produce material to facilitate the process of social integration of refugees
To promote and enhance social integration of immigrants and refugees
To use art as a tool for daily work of youth workers
COUNTRIES AND PARTNERS
- TEPEBASI ILCESI SOSYAL YARDIMLASMA VE DAYANISMA VAKFI – TURKEY
- EDUCATION INNOVANTE – FRANCE
- ARTIS GENCLIK KULTUR SANAT EGITIM DERNEGI – TURKEY
- Stichting Wave Education – NETHERLANDS
- ACTING GLOBAL LTD – UNITED KINGDOM