Can I Come In?

Key action 1 – mobility of youth workers (seminar) will bring together 37 youth workers from 1st September to 11th September 2016 to Rakvere, Estonia. Participating countries are Estonia, UK, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Germany, Portugal and Turkey. Estonia is the host country, others are sending countries. Need for our project is very clear -first of all, our societies are still quite xenophobic and are afraid of unknown. They are afraid of different cultures and do believe that people from other cultures want to dominate or destroy them. This fear is caused by stereotypes and prejudices and is empowered by media, who shows often only the negatives, and misses the positives. Because this new stereotypes are created every day and people in our society are getting more afraid. There is also a second issue, that people (including also people in power positions like decision makers and people in education system – youth workers, teachers) are not aware about the differences between refugees and for example economic migrants. For many, all foreigners/immigrants are the same, but in reality each person has his/her own story to tell. We want to change the situation, raise awareness in society and work together with different countries to improve the situation. So our Overall aim is: • To create acceptance of refugees in European society And the specific objectives are: • To educate youth workers and policy makers on migration issues • To develop activities to bring locals and people with immigrant background (including refugees) together • To educate youth workers so they are able to create activities for young people to raise empathy towards refugees. • To find ways to stop hate speech and discrimination towards refugees by sharing good practices between participating countries. • To create new initiatives to tackle issues connected to xenophobia, racism and islamophobia in Europe. All methods used during the seminar will be non-formal, such as group work, role-plays, learning buddies, activities in town, study visit, meetings with experts and practical sessions at school. As the result of the seminar participants develop action plan for their local community and carry it out in their countries.