EUPA is currently a partner in the BpE project financed under Erasmus+ Key Action 3, running from December 2016 to December 2019.
This project intends to develop and share non-formal education methodologies and new inclusion practices through youth work, with a view to promoting the integration and social inclusion of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, while fostering understanding, tolerance and respect among people.
The Erasmus+ programme in the field of youth promotes fairness and inclusion for participants from disadvantaged backgrounds and with fewer opportunities (such as migrants or refugees) through specific support, priority setting and targeted use of funds.
A key aim of the EU Youth Strategy (2010-2018) is social inclusion of all young people, including those from a migrant background. Youth work and non-formal learning can contribute to encouraging intercultural dialogue and building mutual understanding between new arrivals and the receiving communities.
Within the framework of the BpE project, the EUPA hosted an International Thematic Working Group focusing on youth work role and competences advocating for and with Young Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers (YMRA), between April 24 and 26 at the Seashells Resort, Suncrest Hotel, Qawra.
The main aim of this cluster group was to identify and draft policy recommendations and analyse youth workers’ learning needs working within the field with YMRA. Fifteen experts participated, representing youth workers and entities working in the context of YMRA, coming from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The main outcomes of the discussions focused around the need to foster a support network to youth workers, which, through the contributions of professionals from associated fields of practice, and YMRA themselves as stakeholders in the advocacy process, would be in a better position to acquire a deeper understanding of the needs of the very diverse target groups that can be identified within communities where YMRA are present; and through training made available within network, sustain the advocacy process within the context of YMRA.
The cluster group also highlighted the need for opportunities to be created using existing and future funding programmes, such as Erasmus+; as well as the willingness and support of policymakers’ interest in acting in favour of integration through advocacy, which can only be achieved through contact with the realities of YMRA and youth workers and organisations that work with them.