On 14th to 16th November, I participated in the STAR E transnational meeting in London. The aim of the meeting was to contribute to the elaboration of a handbook on racism-critical group methods that can be used to sensitize participants of international youth and voluntary service pprogrammes about racism and discrimination. For me, it was the first time I actively participated in the STAR E project, and therefore it was very interesting to meet the other partner organisations and to learn about their initiatives within the project framework. Furthermore, it was enlightening to get an inside view of and to engage in the discussions surrounding the topic that took place among the participants.
However, as my main role in ICYE Denmark is to organise the camps for the incoming ICYE exchangees, I was really looking forward to getting some practical tools regarding the topic of anti-racism that I would be able to use back in Denmark. And that I certainly did! A large part of the meeting was based on the “learning-by-doing” approach, which provided me with useful tools that I could bring back to Denmark.
Then, how can these be implemented in ICYE Denmark? Our first step is to carry out a workshop about anti-racism and discrimination at the next camp, taking place on 18th to 20th January. It will be a workshop for the incoming ICYE exchangees who are on their second midterm camp. In developing the sessions and activities, I have been inspired by the activities we did in London, especially the “Soon to be outdated” and the “Clash of Cultures” sessions. Furthermore, the introduction to Compass, the European manual for human rights education for young people and the introduction to the organisation Show Racism the Red Card have helped me find material and activities regarding racism, which hopefully will lead to a successful workshop, as it will be based on the knowledge of other organisations with more experience in relation to the topic.
If this goes well, the aim would be to extend these workshops into other parts of the organisation, such as in courses for active members, projects etc. But for now, we will start with this one and see where it leads us.
Elena M. A. Andersen / ICYE Denmark