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Youth Exchange Anti-Discrimination
Start date: May 1, 2016, End date: Aug 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

In times of economic crisis and rising refugee numbers, young people, especially when they come from disadvantaged backgrounds, are often insecure about their future through the daily discrimination and marginalisation many of them are experiencing. This leads to low confidence and a feeling of disempowerment, which in turn makes it harder to actively participate in society and to confidently find fitting career opportunities. We see the need for young people who are facing different forms of discrimination – based on gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion and national origin to come together and to learn collectively how they can find ways to build confidence, mutual understanding and solidarity.Therefore we plan a meeting, where young people affected by different forms of systemic oppression, exchange experiences on how their social position affects their involvement in social change (-structures) and self-empower for mutual solidarity, active participation in society and democracy through the development and practice of methods and strategies in order to manage challenges of involving in social-change structures as part of different minorities.Still we realized on past meetings, that in all our organizations, the most active persons/core-group are privileged under many aspects, even so there are several people with experience of different forms of oppression (based on gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, national origin but still almost all are are middle-class,white, no migration background, able bodied and from a Christian background). We realized that even so we work regularly with people and communities with many different experiences of oppression and discrimination all in all we manage usually only temporarily to involve them in our work and lack on long-term participation of important minority groups in our structures. So we developed a project together with partner-groups, that are focused and specialized on specific forms of oppression (working on gender issues, LGBTIQ, Roma-self-organisation, working with refugees, young people with disabilities and religious diversity). Objectives of this youth exchange- working with youth partners affected by different forms of structural oppression and discrimination to find out obstacles and challenges for them in order to fully engage within our structures- finding empowerment by working through own experiences of discrimination/violence, exclusion- working out motivation of marginalised youth participants to engage more fully in society- explore challenges and obstacles/barriers in involvement for social change for disadvantaged youth- exchange and develop tactics and strategies to overcome those obstacles and to challenge reproduced oppressive behaviour/roles within the groups and communities the participants are involved in.The aim is to have more affected people empowered to engage on long term in social change and at same time become an ally for people facing different forms of oppression - so letting become reality the interconnection of different forms of oppression.Methodology used in the project- interactive and participatory methods of non-formal education- Generative Somatics- Aikido- contact improvisation-> as body-mind connecting movement based practices. Number and profile of participantsThere will be 35 youth participants from three different countries who are facing marginalisation and discrimination due to their gender, sexual orientation, origin (migration background and low income families), disability and religion.Results of the project35 young people who face discrimination will have met and be empowered to stand up for their rights and liberation – knowing and respecting different people. Also, there will be experience and lessons learnt in organising across difference which will be used for future projects. Envisioned impactsHigher self-esteem, feeling empowered and having gained confidence will mean more active participation in society for the participants. An informal network of solidarity of the young participants will be formed. Also, the partner-organisations will strengthen their European network for future transnational projects. Long-term benefitsWorking towards ending oppression and discrimination allows the European Union to become a place where human rights are truly in place. Young people will not only know about their rights – but also stand up and speak up for.

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