Building International Bridges

The project brought together six countries to investigate the issues related to human rights, xenophobia, discrimination and racism, unemployment rates among youth, the political approach towards migrants and refugees in our countries. Within the sphere of international youth work, trainers, coordinators, and partners (hereafter called practitioners) have a duty of care to create a positive intercultural learning environment for participants of their international projects. During the full three years of project we have experienced this topic in more detail and both, us and our participants (partners) have gained knowledge and experience from both sides meaning we were learning by doing – giving knowledge to the participants but at the same time receiving the knowledge from them especially during the practice time. The main goals of the project were to build the capacity of youth organization to contribute to a more cohesive, tolerant, inclusive, and respectful human rights society. The youth organizations have increased their impact in the community by reaching new target groups with more professionalism.The youth organization has mainstreamed intercultural and human rights values and principles in its projects. Youth workers and young people have increased their knowledge and awareness level in topics such as Human Rights (values, principles, study cases). One of the aims was also to: -create intellectual outputs; train youth workers to continue their mission in training other organizations to develop the work with migrants and refugees; to share cultural diversity in existing and different communities.Intercultural Education (methods, activities, results), social exclusion, intercultural dialogue, tolerance. Was used among Young people and youth workers that have acted in diversity and intercultural learning and acted as multipliers in their organizations and regions. Youth workers have developed their practical skills and competencies in working with COMPASS Human Rights Educational Methods. Youth workers acted as human rights multipliers in their communities. Young people became more active participants in the life of their communities and also of Europe in general.The first part of the project explored the roots of stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination, and promoted cultural diversity of local communities as a positive tool. The second part of the project developed skills and competencies of youth workers and young people for supporting and maintaining the human rights of refugees, immigrants, ethnic minorities, Roma people, etc. in the prevention of radicalization of young people through human rights workshops and youth projects based on the needs and interest of young people. The project built strong partnerships and according to our title „Building international Bridges, “ it really helped all of us in creating a strong network not only among our organizations but also among organizations that we have been visiting within our project activities in Serbia, Turkey, Montenegro, etc. Within the project, we have implemented the following activities: Kick-off meeting in Novi Sad, Serbia from 13.12.2018-18.12.2018.; Training course (on cultural diversity, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination and how to deal with that by youth work) in Tivat, Montenegro from 09.03.2019-18.03.2019.; Training course (Navigate by COMPASS) in Bari, Italy from 17.05.2019-24.05.2019.; Youth exchange (Say YES for diversity) in Izmir, Turkey from 16.11.2019-25.11.2019.; Evaluation meeting in Ključ, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 20.09.2021-26.09.2021. Project „Building International Bridges“ in (further text BIB) was planned to have a duration of 18 months, but due to COVID19 that conquered us all in 2020 our last activity was in Sep. 21.