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RAising INtegration Beyond sOcial Weaknesses
RAising INtegration Beyond sOcial Weaknesses
Start date: May 1, 2015,
End date: Mar 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The project RAising INtegration Beyond sOcial Weaknesses (RAINBOW) is a project designed and promoted by the Italian organisation AIPD Pisa together with the Albanian organisation CNELL and the Czech organisation ICM.
Taking place between May 2015 and December 2016, the project involves 57 young people aged 14-20 years who face different social situations of exclusions. Disability (in particular Down Syndrome), poverty, juvenile crime, LGBT issues and Roma culture are the youngsters' main backgrounds.
The RAINBOW project raises from the need of reflecting together on the important issue of social integration for young people experiencing and living different social conditions that can make difficult for them to be fully integrated within peer group and society. The RAINBOW project aims at dealing with social and human rights, especially focusing on the lives of people with Down Syndrome, socially excluded young people and LGBT young people, involving them in 3 exchanges through which their social integration and related rights can be promoted. In particular, the focus will be put on what integration and diversity mean for young people coming from different countries and backgrounds.
RAINBOW wants to give young people a chance to meet, reflect, react and propose solutions in relation to social discrimination and effective inclusion as a concrete answer, by creating tight links between 3 different European countries.
The project is structured in 3 youth mobilities, each of them taking place in one of the countries involved, between June 2015 and March 2016. Non-formal education will be used through different tools in order to foster social inclusion, sense of creativity and entrepreneurship, to empower self-esteem and intercultural attitudes.
Moreover, during the exchanges young people will have the opportunity of experimenting different creativity techniques, such as the theatre of the oppressed, photography, video-making.
The main objectives of the RAINBOW project are:
a. TO PROMOTE SOCIAL INCLUSION OF DISADVANTAGED YOUNG PEOPLE , ENHANCING PROTAGONISM AND DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION
b . TO PROMOTE INTER-CULTURAL DIALOGUE
c . TO ENCOURAGE THE DISCOVERY AND EXPRESSION OF YOUNG PEOPLE'S POTENTIAL THROUGH NON-FORMAL EDUCATION.
In a context that facilitates concentration, continuous contact with the youngsters from different cultures and the possibility of using scenarios/stimulating and diverse environments, the participants experience their skills in the various courses, realizing the importance of support, with a conscient interest or a passion and discovering how this issue might affect the level of self-confidence and self-esteem: so, young people will not only have the opportunity to improve their skills, but also most of all they will improve the self-confidence, their knowledge towards diversity and intergration and in their capabilities, especially in relation to other cultures.
These workshops, of sufficient length to allow for dialogue, debates and personal confrontation, will help to create a network of relationships between young people and will give to the entities involved, the opportunity to share experiences and cooperate in future projects.
The RAINBOW can reach the following impact on YOUNG PARTICIPANTS:
- A greater interest on European issues,
- Greater European awareness,
- Greater international perspective,
- Greater knowledge of the world,
- Increased knowledge on the topics related to poverty, disability, LGBT and Roma people,
- Enhanced the development of personal skills of the participants,
- Increased ability to better deal with new situations,
- Greater self-confidence,
- Better knowledge of the English language,
- Better social skills and learning,
- Greater reluctance to perpetuate stereotypes and discriminations of other cultures,
- Increased capacity of decision making,
- Increased strength of youth leadership,
- Greater autonomy and individual responsibility,
- Strong development of life skills.
The results will be disseminated through the most advanced social media, such as Facebook page, Youtube (where videos created by young people will be uploaded), as well as more traditional media (newsletters).
At the end of the project, finally, a publication concerning the lessons learnt will be made in 4 different languages (English, Italian, Czech and Romanian) and freely disseminated through Internet to reach the widest impact possible.
Even after the end of the project, RAINBOW will produce longer benefits consisting on higher awareness acquired by young people and also greater social awareness about important social issues such as disability, LGBT issues, Roma people, youth poverty and exclusion.