The Journey: Stories of Migration, Stories of Inclusion PART 1

The training activity took place

in Cardiff, Wales, UK

organised by Project 2020 CIC / Youth for Exchange and Understanding International

1-9 December 2016

Aims & objectives

The main aim of the project was to develop and promote a new positive narrative of inclusion, giving the chance to young Europeans and young migrants/refugees to meet and share their stories (their journeys) in order to match them with the needs of the communities they live in.
Specific objectives:
- To contribute to migrants and refugees integration
- To promote intercultural dialogue and learning
- To promote inclusion, tolerance and mutual understanding / fight generalization, racism and stereotypes
- To promote a change of perception towards migration and refugees
- To analyze the migrants’ background, the migration flows and reasons behind it
- To avoid generalization and promote “real life encounters” / to meet refugees and collect their stories
- To raise awareness on the feelings, hopes, needs, fears, dreams, expectations, competences and skills of
migrants/refugees and on their positive contribution to local communities
- To develop strategies to match community needs and migrants’ stories
These objectives were reached by implementing two different and subsequent youth exchanges and connect them with some local activities that each partner already committed to implement at the local level (between the two activities and as a follow up after the second exchange).

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

This was a Youth Exchange, therefore the target group was for young people who are actively involved in their organisation back home. There was an emphasis for people who were migrants in their own right to attend the Youth Exchange. Leaders from each country came to support the young people during their stay. The national makeup was: 5 Belgian, 5 Macedonian, 5 Turkish, 5 British, 5 Greek, 5 Cypriot, 5 Italian.

Training methods used & main activities

TEAMBUILDING: Name and animal actions, Poster speed-dating, expectation backpack collective, ground rules - spending time thinking about when you feel most safe and comfortable- feed in and recreate this for everyone here, identity bingo, write things about yourself and find other who share the same- BINGO!, Unique game - say something about yourself, if someone else has it sit on their laps, keep going till it is something really unique

COMMUNICATION and INCLUSION in storytelling - Disability drawing, each has a different 'disability' have to communicate a picture down the line, Tentpole challenge - two teams have to put a lightweight tentpole on the group without anyone losing contact and no sound - silent teamwork and non-verbal communication development

STORYTELLING - Storyboard of your journey here - move around, draw the other persons story, ask open questions, each box a different stage; brainstorming - think of someone's story you know, how did you find this out, listening, questions, relating, relationship, friendly, time; Photovoice - using imagery to tell a story without words / to add to words - ppnts took a value/topic that is important to them, went out to city to take pictures, came back - could people guess what caption went with what - power of photos.

Outcomes of the activity

This was the first part of a two part project. This activity went very well as was evidenced by the daily feedback. Participants learnt about different ways of telling stories (photovoice, interview, video, stopmotion) and in turn shared these with others. They met a variety of people and gathered many positive stories. The week culminated in an exhibition and event at a local gallery where ppnts shared their stories, images, invited along people they had met. The skills were then taken to Greece where they again applied their learning. The final publication of the project can be found here: https://issuu.com/danielcarter90/docs/booklet
Videos of the project can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/project2020cic/videos/?ref=page_internal

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

Prior to the Youth Exchange in Cardifd I met with the Welsh based team and planned initial activities for the first day. I supported most delivery on the first day with co-facilitator as well as delivering sessions on aspects of storytelling and storygathering. I supported reflection groups both days, and evaluations.