The European Caravan (encounter and stage) Erasmus Project

Project Title

The European Caravan (encounter and stage)

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Romas and/or other minorities; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

BACKGROUND
With ‘The European Caravan (encouter and stage)’, the socio-artistic organizations Madam Fortuna (Antwerp) and Bij’ De Vieze Gasten (Ghent) from Belgium, the sociocultural organization Association MIR from Skopje, Macedonia and the education-cultural organization Taller de Músics Private Foundation from Barcelona, Spain want to stimulate the intercultural dialogue between Roma and other cultures, and help to push forward the integration of the Roma community in European democratic life.
‘The European Caravan’s’ priority is empowerment of Roma youth and youth from other cultures. The project does this with focus on dialogue and imagination, using artistic practice to connect and to experience non-formal learning. For this aim, the partnership uses and exchanges socio-artistic practices (focusing on music, theatre, reflection and debate), and sets up a strategic framework in which a diverse group of young people learns to work together on the social, organizational and artistic levels. This way, the partnership wants to stimulate dialogue and participation of socially vulnerable groups and individuals in European democratic life. Vulnerability of the Roma community lies in the fact that it is the largest (12 million) and single most discriminated community in Europe. We want to counter this by reclaiming the common ground between Roma and other cultures through non-formal (music, theatre, reflection and debate organizing activities) and informal encounter (conversation, cooking, literature, film).

MAIN OBJECTIVES
1. To create a bottom-up transnational learning environment for young people that stimulates local networks, with exchange of good practices, competences and experiences.
2. To promote the idea of international partnership amongst youth. To help youngsters establish strong contacts and relations that lead to creating strong intercultural happenings that promote social and artistic dialogue.
3. To build a well-organized international platform in order to offer participants a lasting learning process.
4. Prospection and research of the cities of the partner organisations, reflection on these impression, searching for a social and creative common ground, and translating it to an artistic result (encouter and stage)

ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY
1. A strategic partner group with the partner figure and key figure of each partner organization (city). These group (10 persons) makes agreements, creates a framework and manages the budget.
2. An organizational/socio-artistic core group (12 persons), wich includes the key figures (coaches) of each organization and 6 Roma/other culture youngsters between 18 and 30 years of age. These youngsters enter a learning process, supported by, of becoming a key figure in the project. Team members are selected on the basis of their experience with the project’s 4 focusses: social aspects, music, theatre and media.
3. A project group (24 persons), consists of the members of the organizational/socio-artitic core group and 12 additional Roma/other culture participants between 18 and 30 years of age: 3 participants per city, , including 2 musical oriented and 1 theatrical.
4. Local meetings and transnational calls, with all teams following a communications guideline.
5. Transnational project meetings (5), to be distinguished in 3 phases: organization, encounter and artistic preparation. Hosted and led in turn by all partners and their cities, with activities that engender participants and dissemination activities, that enhance the partnership’s local and transnational developments, and as a targeted preparation for a youth mobility programme in the summer.
6. ‘The European Caravan’ website/blog that collects the partnership’s insights, good practices, stories, images, videos. The content is publicly accessible and serves as output for debate purposes.
7. A youth mobility programme in the summer of each year: cooperate intensely during twelve days, focusing on non-formal and informal intercultural encounters, and on dissemination activities.
The partnership’s methodology is the dynamic of inter-organizational peer learning between these 7 building blocks.

IMPACT AND DISSEMINATION
-Impact on participants: self-empowerment, opportunities to broaden their horizons, a formative experience in active European citizenship.
-Impact on organizations: that, in time, partner organizations work out autonomous initiatives on social inclusion through art practice, and that relevant stakeholders inside the continually growing network (e.g. youth workers, policy makers) pick up on the methodology and start local/national/international synergies as well.

Dissemination of project results take place on the levels of:
– artistic presentation (music and theatre performances) for live audiences
– socio-artistic process documentation (materials for debates)
– exchange of good practices between organizations and stakeholders in each partner’s local and international networks.

Project Website

https://www.europeancaravan.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 59325 Eur

Project Coordinator

Madam Fortuna & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Bij’ De Vieze Gasten
• Fundació Privada Taller de Músics
• Association MIR – Skopje