Sing Me In: Collective singing in the integration process of young migrants Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sing Me In: Collective singing in the integration process of young migrants

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: Migrants’ issues; Integration of refugees; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The project “Sing Me In – collective singing in the integration process of young migrants” provides children and youth choir conductors, music teachers and youth workers with pedagogical approaches and tools that allow collective singing activities to play a positive role in the integration process of young people with migration background.

Many young people in different European countries are confronted with the challenges linked with migration. They risk being excluded due to their socio-economic origin, because of the neighbourhood they live in, because of migration backgrounds, because of their religion, etc. This issue started long before the last migration episode, triggering a lot of initiatives from all the sectors of civil society. We strongly believe that the world of collective singing can and should play a role in this integration process.

A number of choral organisations expressed their need for structured tools to address the issues at hand: they share the same challenges and are only partially aware of the solutions developed in the other European countries. Yet, most organisations did not have the resources to research and develop solutions at the national level, and it would have likely lead to duplicating the effort in each country. As a European network with a long-standing experience in cooperation projects, we decided to address these needs at the European level, to ensure that the whole sector and as many young targets as possible can benefit from it in Europe.

The project gathered 11 musical organisations involved in youth work in 10 countries including Turkey and Lebanon. They joined forces and used their extensive networks to collect good practices related to the use of collective singing in the process of inclusion of young migrants in their respective professional and geographical areas. They evaluated the existing experience to extract best practices, and used this basis as well as input from experts in the field, to collectively develop systematic pedagogical contents.

The main outputs of the project are three practical handbooks targeting children and youth choir conductors, music teachers and youth workers, providing methodological guidance and awareness to typical challenges encountered in projects aiming at the inclusion of young migrants. The handbooks were tested and evaluated by stakeholders during the process, to ensure their usability by the final targets.

The three handbooks are addressing different situations where collective singing can be used to foster integration:

– Singing with groups of young refugees
– Including young people with migrant background in existing choirs
– Working in a school environment

They are available in 11 languages, and freely downloadable under a creative commons license.

Another innovative tool is the “repertoire guide”, a carefully curated collection of repertoire reflecting the migrant’s cultural background to allow for musical exchange between the young singers, This resource is mirrored and complemented by the full indexation of the selected resources on the Musica International choral database, that allows for easy search and filtering of the repertoire. It provides links to video sources, sound files, transliterations and translations, pronunciation files to help conductors implement inclusion using relevant material.
A collection of 35 pedagogical videos was also produced to share songs and musical games in a more accessible way, especially for those who might not feel confident reading scores (like some primary school teachers, or others).

The outputs (representing a total of 984 pages produced) were presented along six multiplier events, gathering 538 participants. Two month after their publications, the outputs have already been downloaded 2200 times, and we counted over 1400 consultations of the videos produced. The dissemination effort will be carried on by the partners in the coming years, so that the expected long-term impacts (more diversity in choirs, emergence of new integration projects, positive effect on young migrants’ socialisation and integration, etc.) might be felt across Europe.

If we are to believe anthropology, the human voice was likely amongst the first instruments used by humans to produce music together and it helped members of a group to develop their skills, share emotions, organise common life and provide a sense of belonging. The “Sing Me In” project thus relies on a multi millenary tradition to look into the future and offer innovative and effective tools to help young people to meet without prejudices, acquire skills and enter a productive and balanced relation with the community.
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More information and access to the free ressources:

www.SingMeIn.eu
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EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 240234 Eur

Project Coordinator

EUROPEAN CHORAL ASSOCIATION – EUROPA CANTAT EV & Country: DE

Project Partners

• A Coeur Joie
• Moviment Coral Catala
• EESTI KOORIUHING
• KORO KULTURU DERNEGI
• SULASOL, SUOMEN LAULAJAIN JA SOITTAJAIN LIITTO RY
• Musica International
• Koor&Stem organisatie voor vocale muziek vzw