TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Bo Maria Daskalova
The project was implemented by the Euro-Mediterranean Network for Youth Trafficking Prevention, Greece, under the Europe for Citizens Program, Action 2 – Support for projects initiated by civil society organizations.
The project focused on the opportunities that the voluntary work for migrant integration provides for intercultural and intergenerational dialogue in Europe. 44 representatives of civil society organizations from Greece, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Sweden, Poland, UK, Bulgaria, Latvia, Macedonia and France, experienced in volunteering, intercultural and intergenerational dialogue and migrant integration, gathered for a 8-days workshop in Austria to discuss their local and national situations and analyze the role of volunteering for migrant inclusion in Europe.
Olov Lindblad, Sweden
Fatiha Tarib, France
Kirit Mistry, the UK
Borislava Daskalova, Germany/uk
Eleftherios Sardelis, Greece
While debating on providing a better environment for migrant and non-migrant volunteering, participants explored good practices, implemented by the project partners. Specific attention was put on piloting innovative methods for fostering intercultural and inter-generational dialogue via volunteering.
Conclusions of the workshop:
- Migrant integration is among of the biggest challenges of European societies.
- The benefits of volunteering provide a stepping stone for the integration of immigrants into the host society.
- There are two main aspects of voluntarism for migrant integration: voluntarism in the service of integration of migrants in the local community and migrant volunteering for active civic participation.
- The integration of migrants places a challenge not only to the intercultural dialogue in the European societies but also provides an opportunity to look into the European issues of inter-generational dialogue via the prism of “migrant - non-migrant dialogue”.
- The ageing European population on the other hand is facing the significantly younger migrant flows, this way facing the challenges of both intercultural and intergenerational dialogue.
- By volunteering and working together for integration of migrants, by intercultural and inter-generational exchange, both citizens from host European and migrant communities, become active catalysts for building intercultural and inter-generational bridges.
Full time senior trainer