The European Caravan (strategic partnership)

INTRODUCTION, BACKGROUND AND NEEDS With ‘The European Caravan (strategic partnership)’, the socio-artistic organizations Madam Fortuna from Antwerp, Belgium (further mentioned as MF) and Bij’ De Vieze Gasten from Ghent, Belgium (further mentioned as BDVG), the sociocultural organization Association MIR from Skopje, Macedonia (further mentioned as MIR) and the educational organization Roma Education Slovakia from Kosice, Slovakia (further mentioned as RES) want to stimulate the intercultural dialogue between Roma and other cultures, and help to push forward the integration of the Roma community in European democratic life. ‘The European Caravan’s’ priority is empowerment of Roma youth and youth from other cultures (between 18 and 30 years of age). The project does this with focus on dialogue and imagination, using artistic practice to connect and to experience non-formal learning. For this aim, the partnership uses and exchanges socio-artistic practices (focusing on music and theatre), and sets up a strategic framework in which a diverse group of young people learns to work together on the social, organizational and artistic levels. This way, the partnership wants to stimulate dialogue and participation of socially vulnerable groups and individuals in European democratic life. Vulnerability of the Roma community lies in the fact that it is the largest (12 million) and single most discriminated community in Europe. Through working with Roma, all partner organizations involved are confronted with Roma's reality of exclusion and negative imaging. We want to counter this by reclaiming the common ground between Roma and other cultures through non-formal (music, theatre, organizing activities) and informal encounter (conversation, cooking, literature, film). MAIN OBJECTIVES 1. To create a bottom-up transnational learning environment for young people that stimulates local networks, with exchange of good practices, competences and experiences. 2. To promote the idea of international partnership amongst youth. To help youngsters establish strong contacts and relations that lead to creating strong intercultural happenings that promote social and artistic dialogue. 3. To build a well-organized international platform in order to offer participants a lasting learning process. ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY The project consists of: 1. a strategic team per partner organization (city) of 4 Roma/other culture youth between 18 and 30 years of age. These participants enter a learning process, supported by their coach (1 per city + 1 overhead monitor), of becoming a key figure in the project. Team members are selected on the basis of their experience with the project’s 3 focusses: social/organizational aspects, music and theatre. 2. Local meetings and transnational calls, with all teams following a communications guideline. This guideline wants to make sure that all partners and their team members are ‘up to speed’ on all levels. 3. Transnational project meetings (5 in total, around themes determined by participants), hosted and led in turn by all partners and their cities, with activities that encompass the 3 focusses, that engender participants and dissemination activities, and that enhance the partnership’s local and transnational developments. 4. ‘The European Caravan’ website/blog that collects the partnership’s insights, good practices, stories, images, videos. The content is publicly accessible and serves as output for debate purposes. 5. A youth mobility programme in the summer of each year. The partnership regards these as opportunities for the strategic teams and additional young Roma/other culture participants to cooperate intensely during seven days, focusing on non-formal and informal intercultural encounters, and on dissemination activities. The partnership’s methodology is the dynamic of inter-organizational peer learning between these 5 building blocks. Total number of participants (including coaches): 17 Complemented with local young participants of project meeting activities. IMPACT and DISSEMINATION -Impact on participants: self-empowerment, opportunities to broaden their horizons, a formative experience in active European citizenship. -Impact on organizations: that, in time, partner organizations work out autonomous initiatives on social inclusion through art practice, and that relevant stakeholders inside the continually growing network (e.g. youth workers, policy makers) pick up on the methodology and start local/national/international synergies as well. Dissemination of project results take place on the levels of: - artistic presentation (music and theatre performances: indoors, outdoors) for live audiences of enthusiasts and stakeholders - socio-artistic process documentation (materials for exhibitions and debates) - exchange of good practices between organizations and stakeholders in each partner’s local and international networks (gained partnership experiences and ex