Once upon a time...
This IP is a next step in an already existing co-operation between Université de Rennes, Escola Supérior de Santarem and University College of Western Flanders and NGOs Luciole, Mais and Oelalaa! from the same countries. The original project was born from the willingness of trainers of Social and Youth Work that work in 2 different sectors; some in Formal Education (Universities) and some in Non Formal Education (NGO’s). They considered it important to improve the bridges between these two sectors and wanted to explore especially 3 areas: The European Dimension, Intercultural Learning and Non Formal Education methods.
Up to then, higher education students in Social and Youth work didn’t have the opportunity (in their curriculum) to approach on the European Dimension of their work, its intercultural consequences, neither they explored the potentials of their own mobility in Europe. Hence, first experiences of working together (trainers from both sectors + students) were experimented in France (Guipry, April 2005) and in Belgium (Ostend, February 2006). Some Polish students and a Polish trainer participated as well, although the institution was not involved. 5 students of every country participated in an intensive training of one week on the areas mentioned earlier. It has been financed by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. From the positive evaluation the idea of organising an IP was born.
Our users
If you are interested in youth work, intercultural learning, non-formal education, you're welcome to visit our website...
History of the project
The first IP “Europe, Intercultural learning and Youth work” was organised in Santarem (Portugal, February 2007) with 30 students from the 3 original partners. In February 2008 the IP was repeated in Paimpont (Fr), now including 50 students from the same institutions + Universitet Jagielionski (Krakow, Poland) and Bilgi University (Istanbul Turkey). In 2008 we applied in Poland to organise the IP in 2009. The application was not accepted due to technical reasons and we lost the Polish institution as a partner.
This IP already brought stronger cooperation between the initiating institutions by being followed by some teacher’s and student mobility. In some cases it influenced the curriculum; like in Ostend a basic module on Intercultural Learning for the first year was developed. As the IP 2009 could not be organised the French invited partners to participate in their International Week, with some students and teachers from Belgium and Portugal will do in March 2009.
As the partners wanted to develop further co-operation the concept of a new IP was discussed.
INTENSIVE PROGRAMME - NEW TOOLS FOR NON-FORMAL EDUCATORS WORKING ON INTERCULTURAL LEARNING
The main aim of the project is to combine formal education and non-formal education approaches and methods in order to improve the quality of the training for future Social Workers, Youth Workers and Community workers. This will be done by providing them with a hands-on intercultural experience.
The 5 main objectives of the project are to:
- Understand better the European Dimension of Social Work, Youth Work and Community Work and how it co-relates with our professional reality;
- Support Intercultural Learning (ICL) as a fundamental process for integration in the society;
- Encourage the use of Non Formal education (NFE) methods in Social Work, Youth work and Community Work;
- Promote the use of new tools in Social Work, Youth Work and Community Work;
- To exchange about Social Work, Youth work and Community Work realities in the different partner countries;
During the IP new tools will be presented through a multi-disciplinary approach bringing input from ICT and multi-media and, Social Entrepreneurship. Other kinds of tools are the European Programs (like Youth in Action) that can enable SYC workers to create an Intercultural learning context.
For this purpose, the IP uses a combination of formal and non-formal education approaches and methods, like simulation games, group building activities, etc.
The introduced ICT and multi-media techniques will be implemented in and after the program by task groups on multi media interviews, movie making, digital storytelling, etc.
Students are expected to develop a concrete follow-up during the IP and implement it once back home. The program also includes field visits.
As a result of the IP an interactive website will be created as a tool for an ongoing digital learning community. The partners expect that the IP and its follow-up activities will increase and improve the use of ICT and multi Media techniques in Social work, Youth Work and Community Work.
