Cross the borders

Project background

Context:
– Over the last five years, more than a million young people from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia, Syria and elsewhere left their homelands, mainly because of violent conflicts and chronic poverty, to seek asylum in certain European countries. For instance, more than 35,000 unaccompanied minors arrived
in Sweden during 2015.
– In 2014, young refugees constituted some 79% of all refugees, almost 4 in every 5 asylum seekers in the EU-28 being under 35 years of age.

Preamble:
– Refugees/asylum seekers experience intense events that threaten or cause harm to their emotional and physical well-being. Particularly, they experience different kinds of stress, such as the trauma for displacement from their home, the stress due to the stage of resettlement in a new country, the acculturation and isolation stress due to their difficulties of integration;
– Social workers working in the field must routinely response to humanitarian emergencies. Staff at all levels find themselves involved in traumatic, distressing sights, sounds and situations. No one responding to a humanitarian emergency is untouched by the experience.
– Social workers must take into account the emotional and physical status of refugees/asylum seekers while approaching them. Working effectively with asylum seekers/refugees from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, requires sensitivity, openness to learning, and a commitment to the practice of cross-culturally responsive skills and competencies;
– Youth work is complex, multifaceted and, by its nature, a stressful profession. Working with young people demands constant energy and often on-the-spot crises response. Time at work is typically spent supporting people through unsafe or difficult experiences. It exposes workers to traumatic circumstances;
– When everyone involved has some knowledge about stress,
terms and a framework within which to discuss it, the whole team becomes empowered to manage the stress particular to their situation.

Bibliography:
– EU Work Plan for Youth for 2016-2018 (Council of the European Union) agreed on in December 2015: addresses all young people, but particular emphasis shall be given to the following groups: – Young people at risk of marginalization; – Young people neither in employment, nor education or training (NEET); – Young people with a migrant background, including newly arrived immigrants and young refugees.
– “A Framework for Youth Work with Refugees Analysis further to the expert seminar “Journeys to a New Life: Understanding the role of youth work in integrating young refugees in Europe” Brussels”: “…youth work with refugees, and by extension with young people applying for asylum and other young migrants in Europe, must embrace a holistic approach to integration, with emphasis on actions and activities that favour the personal and social development of young people – not just their legal status, rights to protection and resources, or their economic potential through access to the labour market.”; “…a holistic approach is particularly appropriate to shape and design
responses intended to be delivered in the non-formal, youth-centred setting with refugees”.

Project presentation: The idea of the project is to create a community to:
– share best practices and expertise in the field of youth migrants and youth worker.
– to empower social workers with the following abilities to better manage the stress: Recognizing the Signs of Stress, Identifying the Sources of Stress in the Current Work Situation, Applying Stress Management Techniques.

The participants (youth worker) will travel in the partner’s countries to participate a short-term activity to improve achievement in relevant basic and transversal competences in a lifelong learning perspective, through a non-formal approach.
The aims of the project are:
– to increase knowledge and awareness on contemporary problems and challenges related to young migrants and refugees.
– to provide new tools and methodologies for analyzing the problems of refugees and developing new solutions.
– to equip youth workers with tools for trainings and activities on young refugees and migrants and to improve the level of key competences
and skills of the yw in a non-formal educational experience;
– to provide yw with innovative tools to manage issues related to the target they work; to analyze and exchange best practices on how to deal with problems, on how to implement strategies to manage stress related to the youth work.
– developing and reinforcing networks

Activities: Duration of activity: From 2 days to 2 months, excluding travel time. The minimum 2 days must be consecutive. The activity must take place in the country of one of the organisations participating in the activity.No age limits. Participants, with the exception of trainers and facilitators, must be resident in the country of their sending or  receiving organisation Up to 50 participants (including, where relevant, trainers and facilitators) in each activity planned by the project.

The project will consist of:
– 1 Study Visit (An organised study programme, for a short period, that offers a view of youth work and/or youth policy provisions in one country. Study visits focus on a theme and consist of visits and meetings to different projects and organisations in a chosen country):
– 1 Training Course (An educational learning programme on specific topics, aiming to improve participants’ competences, knowledge, skills and attitudes. Training courses lead to higher quality practice in youth work in general).
– 1 E-learning Course (The activity is mainly based on virtual learning via Internet)

Other types of possible activities:
Seminar/Conference or Partnership-building Activity