WALK IN MY SHOES

Background Being a peer learning project, during the Short-term joint staff training events achieved, a real cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices was accomplished. The training events being a process of giving and receiving, each partner brought something new according to its experience and expertise; at the same time each partner learned from the others, giving a European dimension both to the project and to each partner organization. Thus, the participants have learned non-formal teaching approaches and artistic practice for trainers and youth workers to build a culture of diversity and equal chances: they learnt how to realize non-formal education workshops to build a culture of diversity, how to use theatre of the oppressed, role play, sociodrama, Porto Voice, Living Library, flash mob, storyboard, stencil graffiti in order to decrease intolerance, to facilitate social inclusion of young people belonging to cultural minorities, in order to create a culture of tolerance and respect towards diversity through arts. Participants transferred their gained competences both to young people they work with, especially those belonging to mainstream society and vulnerable groups, and to their colleagues. Objectives Provocations launched by cultural diversity in the context of the contemporary world are felt by all partners involved in this project, as all partners face issues relating to exclusion, especially since diversity takes many forms in their organizations and their social environment - from culture and nationality to gender, race, sexuality, educational background and religion. Walk in My Shoes main project objectives are: 1. To increase the professional capacity of non-governmental organizations working with disadvantaged people in the field of diversity through EU collaboration acquiring new strategies and participatory methods of non-formal education to manage cultural diversity by means of 3 Short-term joint staff training 2. To promote diversity and equal chances through participatory arts, organizing 2 Art Festivals – DIVERSITY FEST held in two consecutive years in each participants' country 3. To strengthen the networking among partners developing a new learning e-tool – "WALK ON MY SHOES”, a website as a true resource of international value presenting strategies and methods which combat stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination, social exclusion and create a culture of diversity and equal chances/opportunities. Implementation - At the beginning of the project, a reliable and available project communication team was created, which developed the Communication Plan and constant communication among the partners resulting in quality project delivery. -organization of 2 transnational project meetings -organization of 3 Short-term joint staff training events, during which the participants: -created the ''WIMS'' project web TV, a channel for a digital network among partner organizations, containing videos and project materials -created a Facebook page of the project -In addition, the selection of the groups of young people from vulnerable groups and at risk of social exclusion, for their involvement in local activities was realized by each partner organization in line with ''WIMS'' project plan. -A poetry book containing poems about respect for cultures was developed. -All partner organizations input a considerable amount of their own resources to ensure that the project management and implementation/delivery is of the highest standard and meets best practice standards. All partner organization developed a dissemination strategy tailored to their local and national needs that dovetailed into the project dissemination strategy and to the Dissemination Plan Achievements ''WIMS'' project achieved'/produced the following concrete outputs – Collection of project materials as resources of good practices created with materials used during the 3 SHORT-TERM JOINT STAFF TRAINING EVENTS, collection of videos, talk-shows, interviews that are part of the content of the ''WIMS'' Web TV -presentations about SOCIAL INCLUSION / DIVERSITY and POLITICAL EDUCATION / ACTIVE EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP and different sub-topics -300 ''WIMS'' book containing a poetry about respect for cultures. -project web page -Facebook project page -Facebook group page, see links for more https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3306148443041902&set=pcb.3306148809708532&__cft__[0]=AZWBQxeipP1lw0ihAjbvn6ll4ld9wIsmHrUwsej2oyYc6jWZoeeqxI0s4Yjdryk7aWwLNBeBz-A_ETjREICylcB5yi2xw7DA3UQbyrJVEzyFi3vyoti5Gli2g-sLVoCiSN15jGXeiLmbQKPwwRoC6ZmvEXM9hdDx4fe3SQZSYIuMVRzYCJsOf-2Uxy-wS2HpeFw&__tn__=*bH-R https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3304190746571005&set=pcb.3304190909904322&__cft__[0]=AZXINbdAzPlNeea0dvBHfz2R8jkQC16SCFDYrVjuz4i1coc-iQvIaJ1Zz0cCUZFcvqCCUPFI91x3WV8fEclYIFrb5sUtewyKoukOkR3c86sXTfIwy-ji31ydpoiz5ZdGEt4PWd1TDW-Wascf2mlYxmbk7-V2W1-4GWVkAtkFuqaZR9Jn6pmBlDXhMfzASu7THDs&__tn__=*bH-R https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkS4RGM5rCU