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Otwieracz - pracownicy młodzieżowi przeciw rasizmowi
Start date: Aug 1, 2014, End date: Feb 1, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

UK has a long history of waves of immigration and corresponding tensions in community relations. These have had their expression in many areas of social life including social unrest, football hooliganism, bullying, racially motivated criminality, cases of institutional racism to name just a few. At the same a growing recognition of the needs of multicultural society has resulted in changing legislation with regards to discrimination, in introducing anti-discriminatory policies in all areas of public life and have generated much good practice and experience, including shaping citizenship attitudes towards multiculturalism and inclusivity which begin with schoolchildren. In the last few years, Wroclaw, and Poland generally, have seen a growth of nationalist attitudes, and increased numbers of recorded hate crime (Nigdy Wiecej, 2013). The context for nationalism and racism in both countries is different yet there is a good case for sharing experiences, learning from each other’s good practice and learning more about each other’s communities. Importantly, nationalist and racially motivated crimes tend to be perpetrated in both countries by young people who might be at risk of social exclusion themselves by a lack of opportunities, disillusionment with formal education and the prospect of unemployment, and a breakdown in trust in the political system which they see as failing them and their communities. The overall aim of this exchange programme will be knowledge transfer partnership with a view to developing specific local programmes targeting young people at risk of adopting nationalist and racist ‘solutions’ to their immediate problems. Both sides in this exchange partnership have things to learn from each other: the Polish side is keen to examine the experience of immigration, racism and multicultural education in UK in order to learn models of good practice as developed there. They are keen to learn about and from British experiences of multiculturalism and anti-discriminatory practices in order to develop their own expertise. They are particularly keen to develop suitable models of anti-racist initiatives for working with football fans. The UK side, Charlton Athletic Community Trust has recently become involved with young East European immigrants, including those from Poland and are therefore keen to gain insight into the specificities of Poland’s diversity issues, young people’s attitudes towards minorities and problems of hate crime. They thus want to learn about Polish migrants’ cultural background in order to better cater for their needs. This insight would be beneficial for planning their specific outreach work in UK. Both sides are also keen to see how work with young people, football clubs and school pupils can be improved to foster tolerance, openness and the values of democratic citizenship. It is hoped that this exchange programme will also open up opportunities for further collaboration in particular in terms of projects involving youth. Eight people are expected to travel from UK and there will be further eight participants from Poland taking part; 16 people in total. Individuals working for CACT have experience in training youth workers, working with young people in schools, and those disadvantaged or socially excluded groups, and their experience is in projects aiming at crime reduction, raising educational achievement, creating pathways to employment, building healthier lifestyles, bringing communities together and reducing crime. Individuals from Stowarzyszenie Edukacji Krytycznej have experience in local outreach projects which include antidiscriminatory initiatives, equal opportunities for women in higher education, human rights, action against domestic violence, support for social enterprise, democratic education, disability, environment, promotion of healthier lifestyles, European integration and closer cooperation among different communities, among others. The exchange programme will include a visit in Wroclaw, Poland and specific planned activities. During most of these activities there will be a chance to meet and talk to new people, practitioners and young people. Our program includes: workshops about stereotypes, situation of minorities in UK and n Poland, racism and sport, lectures about multicultural education, meetings with socal workers and youth workers, participation in the important events connected (historcally and more directly) with racism and minortes persecutions. Addicionally participants will visit the Quater of Mutual Respect (other name: the Quater of Four Temples) and have an opportunty to experience diversity in Wroclaw. The results of the exchange programme will include much information collected by the participants of both groups, prepared scripts for multicultural education aimed at anti-racist and anti-nationalist initiatives and local policies advices for authirities.
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