Bridging the Gap
Start date: Oct 15, 2014,
End date: May 14, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
One main feature of the modern societies is diversity. Diversity in terms of religious, ethnic, financial, social, cultural, or political backgrounds. People tend to fear and exclude anything that is not similar to them. Especially in periods of crisis, like the one that Europe is experiencing the last five years, people are looking for scapegoats. In other words, specific social groups are stigmatized and isolated because of their certain characteristics (e.g. their ethnicity, their religious beliefs, their ideology, etc.).
The project “Bridging the Gap” was a training course, which was implemented by the Informal Group ""CHANCE"" and was funded by Erasmus+, sub-action KA1 - Mobility of Youth Workers, aiming to bring together NGO's and informal groups, who were motivated in inclusion of different social groups.
Through experiential learning, which applies in non- formal educational settings (role playing, case studies, group work, debates, artistic creations, brain storming, Theatre of the Oppressed) and active participation, the participants:
- Facilitated dialogue and communication between diverse groups of people.
- Became familiar, accepted and respected differences.
- Developed a deeper understanding on mutual cooperation and inclusion of different social groups.
- Worked in a safe environment.
- Got in contact with people, when visited the Forum of Immigrants in Thessaloniki, who are facing difficulties in adjusting to the Greek political and social environment.
- Learned about aspects and difficulties in everyday life as well as inclusion of deaf people in the society, by the Principal Teacher of the Hellenic Sign Language Center in Thessaloniki.
The training course was implemented in Thessaloniki (3-11 December 2014) where 43 beneficiaries from 10 countries (Italy, Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, FYROM and Greece) met, shared experiences and gained knowledge.
The overall outcome of the project was a theatrical play using Augusto Boal's technique of the “Theatre of the Oppressed” that was prepared by the participants and presented at the Forum of Immigrants in Thessaloniki. The participants were able to transfer their gained knowledge using this technique, where the audience (spectactors) becomes spect-actors and is able to interact and change the story of the oppressed by the oppressor. The material was also used by partner – countries for the project's dissemination in their countries.