To raise intercultural awareness and promote youth participation in Armenia

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FVCML0208 10

To raise intercultural awareness and promote youth participation in Armenia

The main aim of this training courses as a National Activates was to provide mechanisms of inclusion and participation to the youth form national minorities and young people living in small villages far away from the capital Yerevan, to empower them in youth participation, to raise intercultural awareness and promote youth participation.

Following objectives were set to achieve this Aim:

To investigate the situation of young people from national minorities, volunteers from European countries and foreign students living in Armenia.
To mobilize their potential and prepare them as multipliers equipped with the full understanding of the concept of intercultural learning, basics of inclusion as well as European values and policies in this spheres.
Together with them to develop mechanisms of their own follow-up projects to raise the level of their participation and inclusion and the ways to provide them with appropriate organizational and other support.
To increase participants' knowledge and awareness about the basic concepts and practices of organizing youth activities with an international and/or European dimension

To increase the participants' competence and motivation to introduce and deal with intercultural learning in international and/or European youth activities.

Participants

The target group of the project was the youth from national minorities, members of national community organizations, foreign students studying in Armenia, volunteers from European countries and young people living in countryside. The age limits for participation was from 16 till 30 years old. Besides Armenian there were also two additional languages; English and Russian (the linguistic support was provided by members of ICIRLD on voluntary bases). Participants have been selected taking in account the national, geographical, age and gender balance. In total 25 young people from 8 nationalities has taken part in the project. The project was involving a wide range of stakeholders and work with them was integral part of the Training Seminar. During these three days two community organizations of minorities were visited as well as a meeting was held in the Center of National Minorities (a support structure providing assistance to the initiatives of national minority communities). The representative of the State Commission on National and Religious Minorities also contributed a lot for creation of a wider knowledge on the situation of communities in Armenia. In any case participants were still lacking more study visits and work with national organizations.

Immediate results of Training Course

The sphere of work with youth from countryside and from ethnic minorities living in Armenia is really important and there is quite a lot of staff to do in there. The big lack of inter-minority cooperation was identified and some preliminary solutions are also developed. The major mechanisms of work with national minorities (both on national and international level) are identified and participants were empowered in this sphere. We have used all our possible partnerships in Media, National community organizations and NGOs working with national minorities. The expertise of our organization and National pool of trainers contributed quite a lot for successful realization of the TC. Participants selected were motivated not only to take part in the TC but also for follow-up. General mapping of the situation of youth form national minorities and foreign students living in Armenia is realized and Exploration of the stereotypes and prejudices regarding each other explored through direct acquaintance with the cultures present through their carriers. Participants feel empowered in the theory and practice of Intercultural Learning on Social inclusion, as well as national and European support on these topics. Follow-up is planned and participants are motivated to participate.

Target group was quite diverse which was providing excellent intercultural dimension and contributing a lot to the effectiveness of the tools used. The stakeholders involved were also quite diverse and their inclusion in various stages of the project also contributed not only to this TC, but also to the possible follow-up.

Usage of Video and Presentations visualizing the inputs were highly evaluated by participants and they suggested concentrating more on these tools as they are more youth friendly. Participants have decided to prepare and publish an article on this event and the topic in general in the quarterly magazine of national youth console.