Escape2EU: Empowering, engaging and connecting Youth Workers and Young People (from hosting communities and with migrant background) for an inclusive, cohesive and solid Europe

<< Background >>The Escape2EU project was driven by the commitment of the three partner organisations to improve services and resources for their target groups: a.youth workers and volunteers, b.young people with migrant or conflict-affected backgrounds (e.g., refugees and asylum seekers from Syria, Ukraine, Africa), c.young people from hosting communities. The project sought to combat social exclusion and foster intercultural communication and empathy, positioning youth workers as facilitators and young people as agents of social change. The main issues tat motivated us is that after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Europe faced its largest migrant influx since World War II, increasing the vulnerability of youth, including NEETs, early school leavers, and those facing economic barriers. So we built this project in order to address EU Youth Strategy priorities by creating inclusive, tailored learning experiences using escape-room scenarios in 4 language levels, reflecting participants’ real-life stories. It enhanced youth work with innovative digital content, gamification, and interactive methodologies. All materials were freely accessible in partner languages and English, enabling broad transfer across sectors and communities.<< Objectives >>The Escape2EU project aimed to address the challenges posed by the massive inflows of refugees, migrants&asylum seekers in Europe, where intercultural interactions had become a constant feature. Its objectives were to:-promote the quality of YW by enhancing their knowledge&skills in intercultural competences, digital storytelling&language learning, and provide them with tools&resources to effectively support&engage with migrant youth-introduce new innovative, engaging&challenging methodologies/tools through gamification (physical escape rooms)that will promote problem-solving, reflection&empathy.-fight social exclusion, marginalisation&low learning opportunities of young migrants due to low linguistic skills in the host country language or a low understanding of the culture.-support young migrants, improve their language skills in the host country's language through the development ofengaging resources-equip them with new skills, competence&knowledge which will make them civically engaged and active-promote intercultural dialogue between YP&YW, which will reinforce the civic engagement and participation of bothgroups in society and direct interaction of migrant YP with the local society << Implementation >>We developed 3 project activities:A1 - World Storytelling Café: according to the application form we developed:A1.1 Mapping Good Practices Related to Inter-Cultural Competences, Language Learning and Social Inclusion of Youth inEurope A1.2 Organising the World Storytelling Café with Young PeopleA1.3 Analysing stories and compiling the Key Competence FrameworkA2 - Escape2EU: Developing the tools and gamification proceduresA2.1 Preparing the Capacity Building Validate Training for Youth WorkersA2.2 Developing the Escape2EU Game for YP - Scenarios and guidelinesA2.3 Designing and collecting accompanying interactive activitiesA3 - Organising the on and off line Escape2EU Workshops for Youth Workers and Young PeopleA3.1 Developing the Escape2EU Online Interactive SpaceA3.2 Organising the EU level Hybrid Capacity Building Training for Youth WorkersA3.3 Organising the National Level Workshops for Young People for inter-cultural competences and EU valuesAlso we developed 2 horizontal activities:A4 - Project Management Procedures A5 - Disseminating and exploiting the project results for sustainability<< Results >>The main results of the project included a physical escape room game, based on real stories shared between native youth and youth with migrant backgrounds collected during the world storytelling cafes that were organised. The game promoted EU values, intercultural competences, as well as language learning of the hosting country. Another result is an interactive mapping tool presented good practices and initiatives related to culture, language learning, and social integration among youth, creating a sense of common understanding and respect between cultures. A blended capacity training for youth workers improved and developed their competences in intercultural skills, storytelling, and language learning.Also we created 9 learning modules, 6 for languages (2/each partner language) and 3 connected to EU values.All materials and ressources created and developed in the proect are available on the most complex resut, the online platform available here: https://escape2eu-platform.eu/