Transformative and Inclusive Leadership from Deep Democracy: transforming edges into bridges in communities Erasmus Project

Project Title

Transformative and Inclusive Leadership from Deep Democracy: transforming edges into bridges in communities

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Creativity

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Integration of refugees; Migrants’ issues; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The issue of refugees and migration is polarising the European Union and individual Member States. In response, once again, obstacles are appearing in Europe. These include specific barriers and border controls that create geographical, physical and ethnic separation, but also invisible and more subtle separations that divide and divide different societies and local communities. These economic, social, ethnic and geographical separations are creating an increase in violence and discrimination in the relationship between local and foreign citizens.

This project involves 5 partners from 4 European countries, affected in different ways by the realities of the migration and refugee search processes:
– ALTEKIO, INITIATIVES TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY (Spain)
– XENA CENTRO SCAMBI E DINAMICHE INTERCULTURALI (Northern Italy)
– DEEP DEMOCRACY DENMARK (Denmark)
– ASSOCIAZONE COMUNITARE (Southern Italy)
– IMPULS – Agentur für angewandte Utopien e.V. (Germany)

The overall objective of this project is to contribute to social inclusion in Europe, by empowering refugees and migrants as well as adult migrant and refugee educators in the partner countries, to promote inclusive and transformative leadership in the communities they are part of, using creative and artistic ways. This will be achieved through joint training in the innovative methodology of “Deep Democracy”, through the creation of a face-to-face Educational Programme and online Webinars that will provide tools for conflict facilitation for at least 72 refugees, migrants, social workers and educators from Northern, Central and Southern European countries, representing the diverse experiences and challenges Europe faces in this field.

Deep Democracy highlights the importance of listening to all stakeholders, even those who are apparently not important or are more difficult to listen to, but who can sometimes provide a key to surprising changes and solutions. Deep Democracy is an attitude that focuses on being aware of the voices that are both central and marginal. Through this methodology we can explore how to approach, try to listen, better understand the roles and power dynamics, glimpse the connections and/or even offer the possibility of building bridges through dialogue and arts.

The project includes local trainings that will apply the Educational Programme (an innovative intellectual outcome). In each of them an OPEN FORUM will be held, a methodology of Deep Democracy, inviting the local community to participate in an open conversation on a topic of interest. In addition, during the process 4 more innovative outcomes will be generated, in order to promote and expand innovative tools for inclusive and transformative leadership and conflict transformation in the field of migration, as well as to generate new narratives around this theme, sharing stories of real people who have been “transformed barriers” through different artistic formats. The other innovative outcomes of the project are: the Conflict Transformation Toolkit; the Interactive Emotional Maps; the Learning Journey; and the TILDE Webinar.

The participants will co-create the training spaces and materials as far as possible, thus practising shared leadership between social organisations, local organisations collaborating in the project, people participating in these organisations and in the training, etc. The online-offline format is also strongly developed as a way to innovate and adapt to the current context of difficult displacement, thus contributing to innovative methods and providing accompanied spaces to reduce the digital divide in the field of refugees.

The project ends with a multiplier event in Spain: the TILDE Art Festival for Diversity, which aims to present all the intellectual results, as well as inviting some participants in the training sessions to present their experiences and stories in this creative, relaxed and artistic learning environment, full of activities and workshops that promote diversity and social inclusion.

The possibility of exchanging practices and innovating in ways of educating adults in the field of migration strengthens us as partner organisations and allows us through all the collaborations, dissemination activities, local activities, etc. to extract reflections that apply to concrete methodologies, educational formats, skills, capacities, etc. but not only, can also have an impact on the field of public policies, inviting other organisations to use the results we share, to continue building inclusion.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 106698 Eur

Project Coordinator

ALTEKIO, INICIATIVAS HACIA LA SOSTENIBILIDAD S. COOP. MAD. & Country: ES

Project Partners

• ASSOCIAZIONE COMUNITARE
• Deep Democracy Denmark
• Impuls – Agentur für angewandte Utopien e.V.
• XENA CENTRO SCAMBI E DINAMICHE INTERCULTURALI