Stepping Stones: fostering inclusion, diversity and European engagement at the local level

As a newcomer in Erasmus+, and in the context of the Corona pandemic, we wanted to strengthen our partnership with an organisation with who we had cooperated in the past, with a high degree of satisfaction, and to deepen our institutional contacts beyond the management level. As a more experienced partner, we wanted to draw on the knowledge of NGO Logos Polska to develop our capacities, particularly in the framework of Key Action 2, regarding this project as a stepping stone to developing and participating in larger cooperation partnerships in the future. Another need that this project was to address was the development of our respective local projects and a cross-fertilisation of knowledge concerning our respective local target groups, namely Ukrainian and West African migrants. Moreover, we hoped to create synergies between our local ESC project and the Erasmus+ programme, whereby the local projects could serve as stepping stones for engaging our target groups in our international activities in the Erasmus+ frame. Lastly, we wanted to pilot tools that we were developing in arts and culture and outdoor education, gain feedback from our international peers, share best practice examples and develop follow-up projects.

Our OBJECTIVES within the framework of this small-scale partnership were: 1. To make participation in our local projects more accessible to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds through identifying and overcoming barriers to participation. 2. To develop effective strategies that enable local projects to become stepping stones for increased engagement at the European level, in particular for young people with refugee and migrant backgrounds. 3. To bring a greater European dimension to our youth work at the local level through regular exchange – in terms of ideas, practices and also mobilities – between staff and participants involved in Lernlabor and NGO Logos' local projects. 4. To create the foundations – in terms of organisational experience, professional development, and high quality outputs which will showcase our capacities to potential partners – for following up this collaboration in the frame of a future cooperation partnership

We implemented: - Kick off and evaluation meetings in Berlin - 4 Study Visits (Berlin, Poznan, Sokoliki and Swiss Saxony) - 2 Multiplier Events (Berlin, Poznan) - Capacity Building Events to create dissemination material showcasing and promoting our local projects - Project Results in terms internal analysis and relating our findings to our peers and professional networks and developing follow-up activities.

NETWORK: the major result of this project was to create a solid foundation for long-term international cooperation between the project partners. Prior to the project, we had already established good cooperation on the management level. During this project, however, both organisations grew in terms of their capacities, their full-time staff and volunteer network. And what this project has achieved is to establish professional cooperation networks at all levels of our organisations, from the management to the grassroots, resulting in a dynamic and sustainable partnership . KNOWLEDGE: a concrete output of this project is knowledge of the needs and issues of the respective target groups. In terms of Lernlabor, we have applied this knowledge concretely with regard to the influx of Ukrainian refugees to Berlin following the Russian invasion, creating activities and projects to meet this new local need. FOLLOW-UP PROJECTS: - ESC climbing project in Poznan - ESC Open Choir project in Berlin for displaced Ukrainians from the LGBTQI+ community DISSEMINATION: - Project film created by our stakeholders moving systems