The Project
IC4LOP will focus on making the needs of the local initiatives more accessible to volunteers and organizations, setting common foundations for local and international organizations to support their work and connecting young Europeans and youth migrants as well as local and international organizations.
IC4LOP will build in young participants common social, civic and intercultural competences and skills, ultimately contributing to the achievement of bottom-up approaches for integration. As national stakeholders in the field of youth and volunteering, the partners involved in IC4LOP believe that voluntary service and international volunteering are strategic tools to stimulate, educate and empower young people, and contribute to their social inclusion.
Our priorities
The project proposes to work on 2 priorities set by the European Commission for the coming years:
A common European response to migration has been set out, that aims to involve a wide range of actors: EU countries and institutions, international organisations, civil society, local authorities, and national partners outside the EU. The EC highlights the fact that migration can be better managed collectively, while also noting that the full participation of third-country nationals in all aspects of community and societal life is essential to the achievement of integration. CONCORD Europe states in a 2015 report that “Migration has proven to be a strong instrument in boosting development, bringing development to host countries, to countries of origin, and to migrants themselves”. As noted by the ODI, migration is one of the defining features of the 21st century, and as a significant contributor to economic and social development, it will be key to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At the same time, EU Member States continue to face the challenges of increasing social exclusion of young people, high rates of youth unemployment, and high risk of youth poverty and marginalization. Political priorities have been set by the European Union and the Member States in the field of Youth to ensure the achievement of the Europe 2020 Strategy.
Our objectives
The project sets the following objectives:
To improve skills and competences of young migrants and returned international volunteers which will draw on their respective experiences in the global south and strengthen their roles as active global citizens and to foster mutual understanding and respect among people with different ethnic or religious backgrounds, beliefs or convictions, including by addressing stereotypes and promoting intercultural dialogue:
To enhance the quality of non-formal learning activities and to upskills organizations implementing them to make them aware of outstanding best practices and improve the capacity of youth work to promote inclusion, fight social exclusion, improve civic participation and promote integration in the local community.
To disseminate the value of volunteering’s role in social inclusion at local, national and EU level encouraging synergies between communities and existing networks working with young people from disadvantaged groups.
Our good practices
IC4LoP will create the opportunity to forge positive links between the experiences of these two categories of young people living together today in Europe.
It will promote innovative actions and good practices by:
Creating an online map of integration initiatives across the 4 countries, which welcome the involvement of members of the public;
Developing training resources and courses to support organisations and individuals who wish to upskill on how to develop and deliver global justice action projects;
Supporting young migrants and international volunteers to come together to collectively create action projects on themes they are passionate about.
Benefits for participant organisations:
Increased networks/visibility through inclusion on the map, with the potential to engage new participants and/or volunteers;
Peer support and sharing of resources with other organisations from across the EU;
Participation in a 4-day European Training of Trainers course;
Access to a national two-day Training of Trainers course (one each in France, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia);
Seed funding to support start-up costs for action projects
DO YOU WANT TO BE INVOLVED?
