The Boost Project aims to help participant share an inclusive international experience, bridging intercultural links, and go through European values as citizenship.
The project reunites 35 participants from over 4 countries, including at least 5 volunteers from France who will offer additional support. The participating countries are : Belgium, Italy, Turkey, and France. They are represented by the following organisations :
- Belgium : Dynamo International, in Uccle, is an association that was created in 2001 stemming from Dynamo ASBL, an outreach assistance service for young people, with over 25 years of experience in social street work for children and young people in difficulty in Brussels.
- Italy : A.M.E.C.E. Baity APS (Association Maison d’Enfant pour la Culture et l’Éducation) is a social promotion NGO based since 2000 in Turin. Its aim is to understand and address the needs of children, teenagers and young adults with migrant backgrounds, most of them Africans.
- Turkey : Bolu Youth Association was created in 2017 to increase awareness of youth work and to organise youth informational meetings in Bolu.
- France : the pilot of the project and the hosting organisation, « Le Groupement pour l’Ouverture sur les Nouveautés, les Échanges, et la Solidarité à Lyon 6° » (GF6) in English it stands for “the Group for Openness On Newnesses, Exchanges and Solidarity in Lyon 6th “ GONES Force 6 (or GF6) has been created in Lyon in 2010 consists of qualified volunteers, and a board of 5 elected members. The values promoted by GF6 are open mindedness towards others, sharing, solidarity, and fraternity, as stated in its title. GF6 is an organisation involved in “Popular Education” that is defined as a complement to the actions of formal education done by schools. It is an education that recognizes everyone’s willingness and ability to progress and evolve at all ages of life. It is not limited to the dissemination of academic culture or even art in the broad sense, but also science and technology, cultural activities, sports, civil actions, and recreational activities…
The project
The arrival of the Foreign Groups will be on the 9th of July. The exchange will begin from the participants arrival in Lyon, on the evening of the 9 th of July till the 16th of July. The departure of the foreign groups will be on the 17th of July
The aim of the project partners with BOOST is to offer a transnational opportunity for young people from 16 to 22 years old, to meet in a safe and inclusive space, to be induced to share cultures and experiences, to build cultural awareness and learn how to communicate needs and build togetherness thanks to non-formal educational methods.
4 common needs
The project team has identified 4 main common needs in their local realities :
– The lack of opportunities for young migrants to meet and socialize with their native peers.
– The lack of cultural awareness and a more general negative attitude towards diversity. Migrants and natives face difficulties with the complexity of the cultural and social realities.
– A specific problem for the young migrants in their living society is a set of “barriers to access”. Both newcomers and second/third generations have difficulties in being more integrated because they face some obstacles (linguistic, economic, administrative, social, or cultural) preventing them from a status of full membership in the society. Differences in the types of documents needed for legal residence, citizenship, national laws and the related set of rights is another reason. So, you will unveil what sort of barrier are existing.
– Some common communication problems, both verbal and non-verbal communications including socially acceptable norms of behaviour (as in different countries, cultures, and religions can differ). The project team intends to offer you opportunities of dialogue and mutual understanding ends in fostering your curiosity and raising questions about yourself and the others, with respect to the community and the broader society you live in. Long lasting friendships may happen too. The project team has identified that other barriers could affect young people with fewer opportunities: disabilities, education system, cultural, social or economic differences, discrimination
Objectives
The identified needs will be addressed, while involving 3 different categories of young people with different backgrounds, heterogeneity in terms of legal status and migratory experience. – New migrants, including asylum seekers, refugee status and other biographies such as young people residing because of recent family reunification reasons or unaccompanied minors.
– The so-called “second” and “third generations”, the children of migrants who still face the consequences of their parents’ mobility. These youngsters can be a bridge between cultures and generations: such a role empowers them to reflect and define their identity and contribution for a multicultural society. Conversely, some young migrants struggle to feel included in the society they grew up in, which sometimes ends up in social immobility, a paradoxical situation if we consider their parents’ desire for a better life for all their family.
– “Natives”, young people who didn’t experience any cross-border migration in their personal or familiar biography but may have experienced internal mobility. Native young people are hardly aware of the barriers that their migrant peers may face in the daily context. The backgrounds and the origins of participants from 4 countries will be on purpose mixed between natives, migrants from first, second or third generations including refugees, a minimum of 50% of young people with fewer opportunities, and a gender balance.
The project team broke down the aim into objectives to be achieved by the end of the project.
– To support the participants personal development on the path to social cohesion, European identity and active citizenship.
– To support Youth Education (including Culture) and promote the European cohesion thanks to learning outcome, improvement of personal development, citizenship involvement, communication competencies, awareness, understanding of European cultures and countries.
– To increase the international dimension of the partners.
– To use the Youth Pass that is a very efficient European instrument for the recognition of the competencies that the participants will acquire.