Youth Work In Culturally Mixed Areas

We live in a time when more people choose to live outside of their home country than ever. According to the UN Population Division report 3.2 per cent of the world’s population live outside of their country of origin. Through the years, around 72 million migrants have made their home in Europe.
Just the European Union itself is a home to over 33 million people born outside of the EU. In addition, the most recent Eurostat figures show that more than 17 million citizens changed their country of birth within the EU for another EU country. Demand for migrant workers to fill gaps in local labour markets is set to rise as Europes population ages. Conflicts in the Middle East are forcing more refugees to seek safety in the EU. The European societies are ethnically and culturally mixed, and the trend is growing. But as societies are becoming more mixed, the conflicts between the people from different cultures are increasing. This also increases the demand for competencies, methods and tools which shall be put into practice from the youth workers who are already working with these people in order to improve the communication and cooperation for peacefully living together.
The idea of this project was driven from that fact, that we have to bring various methods and tools which the youth workers from culturally mixed areas can effectively use and by that develop their competencies for working with youth from different cultural backgrounds.
The project will gather 34 participants from 10 organizations of 10 countries. The core activity of the project is an 8-day training course in Tetovo, Macedonia from 15 to 22 July, where the participants will discover various pedagogical approaches and methods; Analyze different aspects of culture and interculturality; the immigration situation, integration challenges and opportunities; Analyze the youth work situation, youth work competencies, portfolio and different online and offline tools and approaches.
Methodology: The training will be built up on a participatory and “child-centered” approach, where the participants during the whole training will experience various teaching methods and approaches.

The main aim of this project is to Increase the competencies of youth workers about Intercultural communication and cooperation, and bring various teaching methods and pedagogical approaches for transferring that knowledge into their local realities while working with young people on daily basis.

More specific objectives coming out from the general aim are:
 To recognize the unique importance of each culture, emphasizing shared values and pluralistic identity
 To increase intercultural awareness and understanding about different communication styles and approaches in multicultural areas by exchanging views and experiences.
 To promote tolerance, equity and solidarity among different cultures, nationalities, ethnic and religious groups, etc. According to the Human Rights principals.
 To develop positive attitudes and behaviors for less discrimination and more positive intercultural relations.
 To experience the existing and alternative methods and tools for intercultural education in youth work.
 To improve participant's facilitation skills, teaching methods and pedagogical approaches for working with youth.
 To inspire the youth workers to implement new projects and activities for intercultural learning and cooperation in their communities and organizations.
 To promote the Erasmus+ programme and the EU developed tools and platforms as a resource for youth workers for mutual learning and cooperation.
 To empower the youth workers to use different formal and non-formal methods in order to improve their educational approach with young people.
 To develop their ICT skills for better project management and larger spread of information to wider communities.

Final product of the project is a manual and web page for youth workers working in intercultural areas with various pedagogical approaches and teaching methods.