CONSTELLATIONS

Aims of the tool

It is meant to better prepare professionals, volunteers and peers to work on the topic of racism with young people, giving them both a more comprehensive conceptual framework for this and concrete educational tools. A central role is dedicated to the understanding that racist ways of thinking do not only generate extreme acts of violence like genocide over communities or hate crimes over the individual, but also that it has an overwhelming presence in our everyday lives under the form of racial microaggressions. Being so common, frequent and normalized, these microaggressions are what we call here invisible racism and what most of this manual is dedicated on. Exploring invisible racism allows us to see the magnitude of the problem with racism, the levels in which it is embedded in our societies, the harmful consequences it has on minorities and the need for proactive measures to eliminate it.

Description of the tool

The manual is the result of almost 3 years of work, which we have started by testing tools in local workshops in high schools, organising workshops in the youth centre and finally organising summer camps. All this experience we have transferred to a book that we hope can help all educators and youth workers to deal with the issue of anti-racism with young people.

The manual has a very simple structure, and is divided into 3 different blocks - themes, activities and approaches. The first part of the book introduces the main topics we have worked on in the project such as the introduction to microaggressions, hate speech or the relationship between racism and power among others. In the second part, you can find past tools on the principles of non-formal learning, developed in the framework of the project. And in the third part you can find different approaches that are transversal, and can help us if we want to start working with young people on the topic.

CONSTELLATIONS was developed in the partnership led by Cazalla Intercultural with the participation of NGOs from 3 more countries - Bulgaria, Poland and Italy, in the framework of the European project STAR. The project aims to counteract invisible racism and other forms of intolerance in the everyday life of young people, and was co-funded by the European Commission in the framework of the Erasmus+ programme.