News and updates

Online Workshop Star E held  by Jeunesse et Reconstruction/ICYE France on June, 24th 2020 in Paris. The meeting with multipliers was planned since Februay 2020, but because of the Covid19 pandemic, it has been a on-going postponed project since then. At the end of April 2020 Jeunesse et Reconstruction decided to offer an online workshop  and after many preparations the first succesful multiplier workshop finally could take place on June 24th!

• programme overview

Part 1: Anti-racism work and empowerment training
– 10.00 am reception of participants
– 10.15 – 10.30 presentation of the programme and the Star E project
– 10.30 – 11.00 Introductory questions and sharing of concepts
– 11:00 to 11:15 break

Part 2 Presentation of the Training Manual and Online Practice of 2 Methods
– 11.15-11.30 Presentation of the publication: “Together against racism”.
– 11.30 to 12.30 Activities “Static or in motion” and “Take a stand”.
– 12.30 – 13.00 Questions, conclusion of the session

Jeunesse et Reconstruction (ICYE France) held the online workshop to introduce the handbook “Standing Together against Racism in Europe” (translated in “S’unir contre le racism en Europe”) which was a result and publication produced together with 9 European partners in the STAR E project.

The workshop was aimed at organisations interested in tools and methods to discuss discrimination, violence and racism with their staff and volunteers in order to learn new methods to fight racism and discriminations.
9 people including the organizers got together. The workshop was originally designed as a longer face to face meeting, but was transferred into an online workshop due to the coronavirus situation. The meeting took place in Zoom and in French.
The meeting began with introductions and familiarising oneself with the STAR E project. A zoom round explored the first relevant questions:
– Why is it important to stand against racism?
– How racism and violence are nested?
– Is there a right art to be anti-racist – i.e. non-violent anti-racism?
Thereafter two of the 16 methods described in the blue training handbook were tested in practice activating all the participants to engage in these methods created to facilitate greater tolerance and thereby limiting acts of racism.
The first method to be tested was the ‘Take a step forward’ which makes participants take on roles and originally move forward depending on their chances and opportunities in life. The method has been adapted for an online workshop. The activity was successful, sparking good discussions in the field of cultural differences and brought further reflections to the participants. This method allows to feel how non-equality leads to non-opportunity and how the conditions that we even not have chosen have their relevance.
The second method to be demonstrated in practice was the ‘where do you stand?’ which offers participants to stand up for their opinions. This method also had been adapted to the online workshop: Every participant had 10 minutes to fill a google form with statements as basis for further discussions.
The workshop ended with an overview of methods from the training handbook followed by a group discussion of applicability although as webinar. The participants found the workshop well-structured and informative. Several participants saw an advantage in utilising the methods and would like to organise internally this kind of workshop with or without the support of Jeunesse et Reconstruction (ICYE France).
This workshop is viewed to be a contributing factor in the effort to minimise racism in Europe by advocating tolerance and inclusive behaviour. Many thanks to ICJA (ICYE Germany) and the others partners for adapting and making available the online possibilities to moderate and animate such an online workshop. Jeunesse et Reconstruction (ICYE France) is thankful for the opportunity to take part in the important struggle against racism in Europe.

Demonstrations are happening all over the world in favour of equal rights regardless of ethnicity making the topic more current than ever. ICYE Denmark contributed to the dialogue about racism by hosting the STAR-E multiplier event workshop on the 7th March 2020 in Copenhagen. Attending the workshop were 16 participants from other Danish organisations and educational institutions as well as six people from ICYE Denmark.

Initiated by European youth organisations, the project Standing Together Against Racism in Europe (STAR E) aims to raise issues of racism, privilege and discrimination within youth organisations by providing two extensive handbooks to advocate inclusiveness and tolerance throughout Europe.

The workshop in Denmark was facilitated by three members of ICYE Denmark, who began the day by introducing the two handbooks and explaining how to make use of such handbooks. Further, the purpose, relevance and implementation of the handbooks were presented for the attending organisations. Thereafter two of the 16 methods described in the blue training handbook were tested in practice activating all the participants to engage in these methods created to facilitate greater tolerance and thereby limiting acts of racism.

The first method to be tested was the ‘Cultural Clash’ which makes participants reflect upon interactions between cultures, their own cultural behaviour as well as focusing on the potential effect it has on inclusion and/or exclusion of different cultural norms. The method proved to spark good discussions in the field of cultural differences and brought further reflections to the participants.

After a short break, the second method ‘Soon to be Outdated’ was introduced and tested in practice. Here the participants were tested on their beliefs and preconceptions of certain cultures and how such beliefs are reinforced. The activity made the participants see just how easily these social constructs are developed and thereby taught them to be critical when engaging in social constructs of different cultures.

The workshop ended with a summary of methods from the training handbook followed by a group discussion of applicability and effect for youth organisations. There was a consensus amongst the participants who found the workshop to be very informative. Moreover, several participants saw an advantage in utilising the methods described in the handbooks to overcome racism when working within youth organisations and educational institutions.

This workshop is viewed to be a contributing factor in the effort to minimise racism in European youth organisations by advocating tolerance and inclusive behaviour. ICYE Denmark is thankful for the opportunity to take part in the important issue of limiting racism amongst European youth.

We are glad to announce the STAR E Final partnership meeting which will take place all day tomorrow 18th June. The online meeting will bring together 26 participants from the 9 participating organisations in 8 different EU countries. Due to the Covid19 Pandemic which made it impossible to hold the meeting in Copenhagen as planned, they will use digital conference tools to meet and work together. The programme starts with looking back and taking stock of the project results. Then we will ask ourselves the very important question – what to do with the results and where to go with the project from here??? A 2-hour workshop in the afternoon will help us to find answers and to shape ideas for future activities… as recent worldwide protests and violent attacks on BPoC show – there is still a lot to be done and there are many needs in this field!

Please find more information in the press release

Jeunesse et Reconstruction will organise a webinar in order to introduce the project and action Training Handbook  “Standing Together Against Racism”. The meeting will take place wednesday 24 june in French language. The audience will be youth workers and representatives of youth and voluntary service organisations in France.

ICYE UK held an online workshop 11th June 2020 to introduce the two handbooks produced in the STAR E project. The workshop was aimed at people interested in exploring new ideas to discuss inequality, privilege, discrimination and racism with young people – particularly in the context of international volunteering.

Dan Milway initially presented the STAR E project, explaining the context, objectives and activities of the project. He then introduced ‘Standing Together Against Racism: A Training Handbook’ and invited the participants to take part in the activity ‘Where Do You Stand’, one of methods from the handbook. This method had been adapted to be used in a virtual / online setting.
Following a short break, the second handbook ‘Managing Organisational Change: Tools and Methods to become a Diversity-Sensitive NGO’ was introduced, with an explanation of how this handbook can be used for organisations such as ICYE or for managing and implementing change in different settings. In small groups the participants then practiced using the ‘Guerrilla Gardening’ method, considering how they could implement change in their own community or organisation.

The feedback from the participants was very positive. It was expressed that the tools used helped to create a space for open communication and to challenge perceptions. The handbooks were shared with the participants and they were encouraged to share them with people in their organisations and communities.

On the 19th of May, Maailmanvaihto – ICYE Finland, together with its co-operation organisations Allianssi Youth Exchanges and the Finnish Branch of Service Civil International, organized an online workshop (3 h) “Together towards equality in youth camp activities!” to introduce the handbooks published in the STAR E project.

The workshop concentrated on the handbook “Standing Together Against Racism: A Training Handbook!” and was meant for those who work with young people or study youth field. 22 people including the organizers got together. The workshop was originally designed as a longer face to face meeting on the Day Against Racism in March, but was transferred into an online workshop due to the coronavirus situation. The meeting took place in Discord, an online platform for communities with voice and video chat features.

The meeting began with introductions and familiarizing oneself with the STAR E project. Also we got information about the organizers of the workshop the type of activities they or their networks have recently carried out related to the theme. Afterwards participants tried two exercises from the handbook as further developed versions to fit into online use: “Soon to be outdated”and “Timelines”.

All the planned workshop contents were carried out, but the schedule unfortunately got some delays from technical problems such as freezing of the video connection and breaks in the speech sound. Those also caused some distraction. Hopefully though the participants in any case got an idea on what the handbooks are about and some inspiration for using them – both in face to face contexts and in online settings. The facilitators of the workshop, who were volunteers and staff members of Maailmanvaihto – ICYE Finland, gained valuable insights into facilitating anti-racism activities online.

The organizers of the workshop co-operate in Finland as Kansainvälisen Vapaaehtoistyön Verkosto (KaVa – network of international volunteering), which aims at advancing quality and responsible international volunteering. The event was evaluated as a positive step in that direction!

The Subjective Values Foundation and UNITED for Intercultural Action from Hungary organised a webinar in order to introduce the project and the Training Handbook for local trainers, youth workers, activists, etc.

After checking the participants’ expectations and fears, Balint Josa introduced the project and the topic to the participants. He talked about the aims, objectives and goals of STAR E, the participants could understand the importance and the different phases of the project.

The overall acceptance of the webinar was pleasing and the participants got highly interested in the topic, in the STAR E handbooks and they promised to try out some of the methods in their activities in the future.

The presentation in Hungarian can be accessed via the following link:
https://padlet.com/firstsajo/pdadoflb2rbmqy36

In September 2019 KERIC hosted one of two  STAR E multiplier events for our community. The main focus was to connect with all our teachers we cooperate in local school all over the region and present them with objectives and results of STAR E project. We presented the management changes towards a more diversity sensitive organisation that KERIC is implementing and a handbook which was produced to support this process.  We then introduced the group methods contained in the second handbook which are helpful in sensitizing participants about racism both in a formal and non-formal environment.
We also brainstormed how to use these developed teaching tools. We came up with the solution that it would be useful for students to experience the methods first with our trained volunteers in a non-formal environment of KERIC and the teachers to observe and later re-use them in their classes.
Thanks to this idea, KERIC was able to host several workshops for students of primary and secondary school in September and October facilitated by trained volunteers of our organisation.
The results and good practice were shared between local schools who all received the teaching materials to replicate the methods in classes.

A second multiplier activity was held in October 2019 at the  regional NGOs meeting hosted by the Slovak National Agency. At this meeting Mirka Petrikova, the director of KERIC  presented the activities contained in the Anti-racism sensitization handbook  “Standing together against racism – a Training Handbook” and shared the feedback received by the participants so far.

Subjective Values Foundation and UNITED for Intercultural Action from Hungary are organising a webinar in order to introduce the project and the Training Handbook for local trainers, youth workers, activists, etc.

The event will be in Hungarian. English version is possible. Online or print version of the handbook are available.

When? 28.05.2020 16:00

Facebook event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/169029957844366/