InterculturACT!

The development and integration of an intercultural dialogue among
European cultures has always been vital for the establishment and
advancement of the European Community. Enabling the different European
cultures to create networks and shared, common basis in order to promote
mutual understanding and interaction is fundamental to maintain peace
and a strong European citizenship.
The Youth Exchange project “InterculturACT” involves 30 youngsters coming
from France, Portugal, Denmark, Germany and Italy in San Lazzaro di
Savena (Bologna, Italy) for a project about integration and the promotion of
diversity, intercultural and interreligious dialogue through art and
performances.
The project analyses and intervenes on the social inclusion of the involved
countries, focusing on ethnic minorities highly affected by this phenomenon.
Some of these young people are, indeed, part of ethnic minorities and could
not otherwise enjoy similar experiences of travel and knowledge. The nature
of these youngsters’ fewer opportunities is bound especially to their
condition of ethnic minorities, which unfortunately predisposes them to a
status of social isolation, both direct and indirect. As data proves, a lot of
them do not even try and integrate with their peers, who were born in the
same resident area, but tend to isolate themselves. The disposition of this
underprivileged condition is also economical and geographical in some
cases, as families of these youngsters often live in non-favourable
economical conditions or in rural areas.
Thus, this experience is important in order to undermine not only some
beliefs about travel opportunities and knowledge but also about the peaceful
coexistence of such different cultures: a vital element nowadays, considered
the current historical moment in Europe, starting form institutions like
schools.
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PROJECT OBJECTIVES
• To involve young people from high schools of the territories of the
partnership in the topics of European active citizenship;
• To promote European mobility in schools for the knowledge of European
cultures and awareness on the values of citizenship;
• To promote intercultural dialogue through art practices and the
performances and enhance the meaning of cultures as wealth;
• To involve youngsters in an active learning process in order to improve
their soft skills and their cultural expression.
We especially want to meet the need of the EU to improve teacher
education and internationalization of school education in the countries
involved, through alternative methodologies, mainly of non-formal
education. The project intends to promote the core values of the respect of
human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minority
cultures, thus promoting pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance and
equality. Strengthened by these tools, young people and schools alike, will
be more open minded regarding the possibility of using non-formal
methodologies for integration and social inclusion, encouraging moments
like this and inserting in their personal projects the European mobility
programmes and the alternative possibilities of social experiences.