« RISE UP for democracy! Against intolerance and racism in Europe »

Call for Partners!!

Organized by « Histoire de Savoir(s) » NGO, (Spring 2015, France)
Financial support will be requested to the French NA for the Erasmus+ Program (Key Action 1- youth mobility)

Context and main aim of the project:

During the last European elections, populist and far-right political parties have increased of almost 20 per cent since the last elections in 2009 in the European parliament. A burgeoning European phenomenon known as the “new far Right” is appearing in the political landscapes of European democracies and inside the EU itself, becoming more and more influential and increasing their results in their national election too.
Some of them are partners in coalition governments. Old messages and manners of far-right political parties who used to be linked with fascism, nazism and racists slogans have been transformed into a more populist and respectable way to be spread. Economic crisis in Europe since 2008, mass unemployment and falling living standards made worse by the austerity measures in European countries increased anti-immigrant sentiments. Far-right parties claim that there is a negative influence of immigrants on decreasing salaries of workers, increasing unemployment rates and on welfare benefits. They see these contradictory trends and cosmopolitism as a threat for national identities and European identity. Those fears made these far-right parties mostly EU-sceptic or even anti-EU.
This general rise tendency of the far-right Eurosceptic political bloc inside of the European Parliament is important to try to understand and to be careful with. It threats the original democratic and peaceful ideas and values that created European Union, such as plurality and tolerance. They even endanger the motto of European Union « Unity in Diversity ». Multiculturalism became a fear of disintegration of the countries for those far-right ideas, giving a « Fortress Europe » as a solution. According to Thomas Klau of the European Council on Foreign Relations "as antisemitism was a unifying factor for far-right parties in the 1910s, 20s and 30s, Islamophobia has become the unifying factor in the early decades of the 21st century. » Analyzing this phenomenon and not repeat the same mistakes than in history with the rise of extreme right populist ideas during the thirties in a tensed economical context seems an urgent need for Europe.

The purpose of this training is to give tools to the youth workers and future trainers to understand this tendency better, to encourage tolerance, to stimulate self reflexion and critical mind. Methods of youth training courses will also be taught to sustain the impact of the project at the local level of the participants. A youth training courses network will be established on the subject in the different concerned countries, to work on tolerance, unity in diversity and fight against xenophobic ideas with youths and in schools. We will work on the knowledge and experiences of the participants to share the good practices and go deeper in the subject. A better understanding of the current fears, the medias, how far-right parties perceive European identity and what they construct as a threat of the « other » for their countries and for Europe will tried to be achieved.
Dialogue is a special form of communication, in which participants seek to actively create greater mutual understanding and deeper insight. Dialogue, as a right of speaking, being listened to and respected, has always been the key element of democracy. We believe that using dialogue, establishing a mutual cultural comprehension and developing the critical mind of young people is the groundwork to fight against shortcut ideas and populism that can lead to fears, hate and discriminations between the populations and communities.

Objectives:

- To develop a common understanding between participants and organizations, and instruments on the subject of the far-right rise in Europe to continue working together during following projects

- To give the participants basic tools of dialogue in order to facilitate workshops on intercultural differences and communication, fears, stereotypes and discrimination.

- To practice tools and methods of youth training courses in order to plan training courses back in their country for sustainable future development of the project at local levels

- To explore the rise of far-right parties in a context of economical crises and how they use fears, people’s lack of knowledge and patriotism, to promote their ideas of racisms, intolerance and isolationism. To question what culture is, how it is created and how it is linked with nationalism.

- To investigate the links between medias and politics and their role in today society, and the necessity of the curiosity and the critical mind

- To make the participants sharing their experience as youth workers and facilitate them to share their best practices through workshops, helping each other to develop their teaching skills

- To discuss future means of distribution of knowledge that can be used to extend the impacts of the exchange at a local and regional level and promote it

- To assess best practices and common pitfalls in the field of youths trainings

Methodology:

The program of the course will be based on non formal education and will be conducted using an interactive and participative approach. Active group/team work, role-plays, outdoor activities and plenary discussions, as well as theoretical inputs will characterize the program of the course in order to cover all aspects of the project themes. Special attention will be paid to the fact that the competences and the knowledge gained and transmitted during the course remain sustainable and transferable. This will be achieved by setting up enough space and time for reflection and evaluation, by providing comprehensive documentation, handouts and guidance from the trainers’ team. Many of the theories about dialogue that will be subjected will be based on the book « The Dialogue handbook » coauthored by on of the trainers. A finished workshop pack will be given to the participants at the end of the training so that they can use it at the return in their own countries. The participants will then do a training course in their respective countries to teach to other youth workers training skills and tools on the subject. Then the youth workers who received this training can go to school and organize a day of workshop on dialogue, tolerance and critical mind.
Tools will be taught and, on the basis of their already existing projects in their sending organizations, participants will be also invited to share good practices, to exchange useful information, and work intensively in order to improve their training skills with youths in regards to the subject of this training course.
An evaluation seminar will be planned 5 months after (September/August) to assess the first results of the training with the participants, share advices and adapt the training depending on the feedbacks.

Profile of partners organizations:

All partner organizations in this training course should be non-profit organizations working in the youth sector which promote and share European Values and have a strong local, national or transnational dimension in their projects. All of them should be situated in the Erasmus+ Program Countries. It is a plus if the organization is involved in Youth Empowerment, homework's help or works in workers or immigration people environment.

Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovak Republic, Sweden, The Netherlands, United Kingdom.

Participants in the training course:
The proposed training course addresses all members of the youth partner organizations involved in, interested to develop their mind about new methods to enhance tolerance, intercultural communication and critical mind as tools to fight against the rise of far-right in Europe and to multiply the effect of the project within their local communities by becoming themselves further trainers. The main target group is composed of professional or volunteer youth workers, trainers, EVS mentors or project managers all working in the youth sector. The selection of participants for this course will be made by the partner organizations after the approval of the project according to the eligibility criteria as follows. We are calling 4 participants per country, ideally 2 girls and 2 boys coming from different levels of society.
All participants selected for this course must be:
To be actively involved in the organization and in general in the youth field in their community
To be able to attend the full duration of the training course and fully able to communicate and work in English language
To be committed to disseminate the results within their organizations, and to multiply the impact of the project by actively working with youth in their local communities
Motivated in participating and developing further the project as this training course will be the first step.

Financial conditions:

The training course is scheduled to take place in Spring 2015 in Lille, France. Financial support will be requested at the French National Agency for the “Erasmus +” Program (Key Action 1).
Project submission 1st of October. If the project proposal gets approved, Association “Histoire de Savoirs” will be able to offer the following financial conditions:
The travel costs from hometown of the participants to the venue will be covered up to the maximum budget approved and financed by the Erasmus+ French National agency.
Accommodation, food, local transports and all materials of the training course will be covered by the hosting NGO.
A participation fees of 35 euros will be asked to all participants to cover part of the expenses.

HOW TO JOIN?

If your organization meets the announced above criteria you are then welcome to register for becoming partners in our project! Please send us a description of the activities of your organization and your PIC code on the following e-mail address:
riseup.against.farright.europe@gmail.com not later than the 28th of September 2014.
The project team is looking forward to receive your registration forms for partnership!! Please the last deadline to apply is the 28th of September 2014. The selected partner organizations will be notified, so that they could send the Official Mandate letter for the project application not later than the 29th of September 2014. The project team will get in touch with each selected organization personally!

CONTACT details:

For all questions, please get in touch with the project team on the following e-mail to Milène Geldof : riseup.against.farright.europe@gmail.com

“Histoire de Savoirs” Team is looking forward to your applications and expect to welcome you in France :)!