Anti Bias and Intercultural Learning in Context of Youth Work and Informal Education

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Between 21st to 26th of July 2009 in Zielona Góra (Poland) the fourth (last) meeting of young people participating in the project "Anti Bias and Intercultural Learning in context of youth work and informal education” was held. The meeting was attended by 40 people, that is 8 youth participants and 2 tutors from 4 countries (Polish, German, Croatian and Italian). The program of the 5-day-long meeting was mostly filled with trainings and workshops. The exercises were intended to practice different methods of anti-discrimination actions, which are an integral component of the Anti-Bias approach.

An important part of the Youth meeting in Zielona Góra, was also the issue of Polish Roma and their social situation in our country. Young people have up-front prepared a mini- surveys aimed at gathering public opinions from their local environment on the prejudices against the Roma. Then the youth were asked to summarise the collected opinions and to come up with conclusions on how to apply the results in order to improve the current situation.

The first practical step of the adopted strategy for future action were prepared by the young people theatrical scenes and pantomimic, highlighting issues of prejudice and stereotypical behaviours. Participants then divided into several mixed nationality groups and within these groups prepared a few performances basing on ancient classical literature. The conclusion of this work were public speeches and presentations prepared by the participants and presented to the invited residents from Zielona Góra.

An additional value of the meeting held in Zielona Góra was the opportunity for the international participants to see the real life of their peers in Poland, and to get to know their problems and conditions in which they live their lives. Final evaluation demonstrates high level of participant’s satisfaction and the benefits of 5 - day stay in Poland for the international youth. One of the most valuable observations of young people was that during those 5 days in Zielona Góra, they had overcame some of their own stereotypes and prejudices mainly about the current picture of living and working conditions in Poland. Through the possibility of direct confrontation and comparison to other countries, the image of living and working in Poland - according to young people - is comparable to and sometimes exceeds its level of standards in other European countries.