Black to the Future : A Sankofa Approach to the Exchange of Youth Work Erasmus Project

Project Title

Black to the Future : A Sankofa Approach to the Exchange of Youth Work

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 : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

The ‘Black to the Future -a Sankofa approach to Exchange Youth Work Practice’ programme (hereafter Black to the Future) is a practitioner focused intergenerational youth and community development programme focused on the needs of practitioners working with the African Diaspora communities in Amsterdam (Netherlands), Bonn/Cologne (Germany) and London (United Kingdom).  At the centre of Ubele’s approach to community empowerment and development are the concepts of ‘Ubuntu’ and ‘Sankofa’; both of which provides the driving force for understanding how Ubele engages with and perceive social action and practice. 

Ubuntu has its roots in humanist African tradition where the word means ‘humanity to others’: “…I am what I am because of who we all are.” This can be translated as “human kindness” in the way we look at life on people’s allegiances and relations with each other. It is this underpinning notion of ‘helping others’ to enable a ‘community’ to ‘improve’ that is at the core of Ubele’s approach to community and youth development. In addressing that question, a key plank within the delivery approach is recognising that: “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi” – which translates as: “It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.” In other words, Sankofa principles: the transfer of knowledge, skills and values through looking back, identifying best practice and then creating building blocks on which to inform future youth and community development work practice. It is this ‘looking back’ approach, one that harnesses ‘intergenerational’ thinking and approaches, that this project sought to develop in practitioners.  

The context within which the Black to the Future project has been developed, relates to youth and community development practice. Specifically, working with practitioners who are working with young people and the wider communities from the African Diaspora (i.e. migrant background). This was determined against studies that continue to show young people’s experiences being formed by an environment characterized by significant disruptions, uncertainties and risks that require them to be enterprising and mindful of falling prey to gang related cultures and activities and at the same time perceived as ill-prepared for transition into adulthood. For those young people from a ‘migrant background’, the issues are further complicated and compounded through attitudes and practices, largely discriminatory in scope, that places them at even greater disadvantage. This is particularly the case across the partner countries in scope to the project: United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.   
 
The delivery of the project was through a partnership arrangement with three not-for-profit organisations located in London (The Ubele Initiative (TUI)), Cologne (Migrafrica) and Amsterdam (Stichting Interlock). As the Lead partner, TUI undertook to appoint the Project Coordinator, an external evaluator and administrative support alongside their role as the overall accountable body within the partnership, which included administration and finance management. All partners had both shared and specific activities linked to their respective areas of expertise and country (i.e. arrangements for organising and coordinating the Learning Visits).  

The key objectives of the programme were: 
 
– Collecting and documenting good practice by youth and community practitioners from African Diaspora communities; 
– Identification of specific approaches in informal educational practices and learning; 
– Developing two-way transfer of knowledge, skills and experience between older and younger generations of youth and community development practitioners; 
– Utilisation of online and audio digital technology to enable the global sharing of good youth and community development practice.  
 
Specifically, the programme covered: 
 
x3 transnational intergenerational study-visits which followed an agreed format that included skills-based training and learning opportunities: 
workshops and experiences to share practices and introduce new learning opportunities;  
tool-kit design and development;  
monitoring and evaluation;  
exploration of the history of African Diaspora migration in the countries and cities in scope to the programme.  
Using audio digital media and online mapping tools to record and capture the history and stories of youth and community development practice with African Diaspora young people (i.e. ‘Digital Mapping’ to capture provisions across the cities in scope to the project that either reflected the communities or were generally provided) 
Creative non-formal educational principles and processes including introduction and understanding of tools such as: 
‘Ubuntu’, ‘Sankofa’, ‘World Café’, ‘Open Space Technology, U Process and Appreciative Learning approaches an tool-kit development.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 56084,44 Eur

Project Coordinator

THE UBELE INITIATIVE & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Stichting Interlock
• VEREIN FUR JUNGE AFRIKANISCHE UND ANDERE DIASPORA VJAAD EV