Cultures in Contact - the Anti-Bias approach in (inter)national youth work

The training aims at enabling European multipliers and youth workers from the field of national and international youth work to use the Anti-Bias-Approach in their various fields of work. Starting from an intensive self-reflection, the participants are encouraged to develop their own approach for dealing with prejudices, power relations and discrimination. Within the training we see the various experiences of the participants as the main resource for developing new perspectives for daily work. One of the main objectives is to transfer the approach to one's own professional and personal context. The training consists of two modules. The first one takes place in Krzyżowa (PL) in the time from 15th of April till the 20th of April. The second one takes place in Waldsieversdorf next to Berlin (GER) in the time from the 18th of June till the 23th of June 2012. That enables us to really get deeply into the topic. Between the two modules participants will have the chance to try out some methods and reflect them in the second module. Therefore the participation in both modules is obligatory! THE ANTI BIAS APPROACH The word 'bias' means prejudice or imbalance. The Anti-Bias-Approach aims to sensitize for discrimination and to bring a social one-sidedness, that is based on prejudices and power relations, into balance. The approach challenges every form of discrimination and oppression, eg. based on gender, age, ethnicity, class, or sexual orientation. Individual prejudices, positions of power and experiences with discrimination are being seen in the context of social unequalities. Anti-Bias workshops are an intensive experience-orientated examination of dominance and discrimination and aim on developing alternatives to oppressive and discriminating forms of communication and interaction.