Berlin, 21 November 2017
STAR E – Standing together against Racism in Europe: the launch of a new European partnership against racism
STAR E is a European Partnership project funded by Key Action 2 of the Erasmus + program of the European Union. ICJA has applied for the project on behalf of a consortium of 8 partner organizations from 8 EU countries and is now coordinating its implementation from August 2017 to July 2020.
The Star E project kick-off in Berlin
For the STAR E launch event from 28-30 November 2017, ICJA expects 14 representatives of 8 partner organizations from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany Hungary, Iceland, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. The youth hostel at Berlin Ostkreuz station, was chosen as the venue for the project kickoff meeting which will lay the ground for the cooperation of the 9 STAR E partner organizations in the coming 3 years.
Together against racism
Combatting racism at all levels of activities and structures of ICJA and its European partner organizations is the leitmotif of this project. For the participating youth and voluntary service organizations, the project should provide the opportunity to recognize and address racism in their own attitudes and actions. This requires a profound confrontation of all stakeholders and both full-time and voluntary employees with their own prejudices and racism and way of working and taking decisions.
To this end, the project STAR E foresees two face-to-face meetings of all partner organizations per year which will be used to share experiences and to develop methods and tools which then will be applied and tested in the respective organizations.
Expected results
Results of this process are, on the one hand, methods for raising the racism sensitivity in youth non-formal education activities particularly in the field of international voluntary service.
On the other hand, the racism-critical organizational development and the “change management” of the organizations will be supported. As tangible result over the course of the three years, a publication with methods, tools and materials will be developed for both areas. It is expected that the publications will be used by youth and voluntary service organizations from all over Europe to raise their anti-racist profile and coherence of activities.
Expertise
The substantive debate on both project priorities and the development of innovative educational programs, methods and tools is supported by two expert organizations who, in addition to their expertise, also have experience in networking and carrying out activities at European level: UNITED for Intercultural Action, European Network Against Nationalism, Racism, Fascism and in Support of Migrants and Refugees (Hungary) http://www.unitedagainstracism.org/ and SOCIUS, https://socius.de/ based in Berlin.
What’s still planned
After the meeting in Berlin, further partner meetings will take place: in April 2018 in Iceland, in October 2018 in the United Kingdom, in March 2019 in Finland, in October 2019 in Slovakia. A joint closing event will take place in spring 2020 in Denmark.
ICJA Volunteer Exchange Worldwide is an educational institution that organizes long-term volunteer services or short-term work camps for young people to raise their awareness about the effects of globalization.
The educational activities focus on topics such as peace and non-violent conflict resolution, the North-South divide and colonial continuities, discrimination, racism and xenophobia, intercultural competence and sustainability.
Inquiries about Star E to: Andreas Schwab aschwab@icja.de, 030 200071631