9th Edition, CEULAJ, Mollina (Spain) 14 - 21 September 2008

INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE

Introduction

The University on Youth and Development is an activity jointly organised by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, the Spanish Government (INJUVE), the European Youth Forum (YFJ), the Spanish Youth Council (CJE) and other international youth organisations.

Since its first edition in 2000, the University takes place once a year bringing together representatives of youth organisations and youth movement from all over the world who gather in the CEULAJ (Euro-Latin-American Youth Centre) to discuss, train and be trained as well as to take political action around the main issues in the global agenda.

Main Goals
- To create a political space for action to acknowledge the role to be played by youth in Global Development.

- To initiate and encourage a debate aimed at defining the role to be played by youth in the elaboration of development policies and cooperation for development initiatives.

- To facilitate a process aimed at defining and implementing projects within the field of youth.

Theme 2008
The University on Youth and Development in 2008 was held under the theme of Intercultural Dialogue. The Joint programme, the Training activities, seminars and discussions were a contribution from youth organisations at the global level to Intercultural Dialogue. At the same time it is foreseen to generate a large celebration and strengthen the mobilization of global youth work in the field of Intercultural Dialogue. The theme of the University was also inspired and aimed to give a youth input on the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and well as the in the implementation of the Council of Europe White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue - 'Living Together As Equals in Dignity' as well as the process of the Alliance of Civilizations.

Main activities University on Youth and Development 2008

Ø “Training for Trainers – Let’s get Glocal - Bringing Global Education to our Networks” (Youth for Exchange and Understanding- YEU and North-South Centre of the Council of Europe in cooperation with AEGEE, EFIL, YFU, CCIVS and IWO)

This course is aimed at young people and youth workers who are in a position to act as "multipliers" for a socio-educational philosophy based on participation, pluralistic democracy, intercultural learning and Human Rights, within a global context, as a basis for an open and just world for all. “Training for Trainers – Let’s get Glocal” addresses the needs of the partner organisations to have competent and autonomous trainers capable of contributing in a proactive and positive way to the learning needs of their organisations.

Using a diverse and dynamic range of non-formal education working methods the course will give participants the opportunity to experience, and reflect upon, being both a trainee and a trainer. The entire course is designed as a mutual learning situation, where participants can compare their approaches and experiences regarding training in youth work. Towards the end of the course, groups of participants, with the assistance of the course team, will prepare, run and evaluate a training workshop.

Ø Euro-Latin American Youth Forum – FEULAT (Latin American Youth Forum, European Youth Forum, INJUVE, Ibero-American Youth Organisation and Spanish Youth Council)

The FEULAT is a meeting point for Latin-American and European youth organisations with a view to strengthening and consolidating Euro-Latin-American cooperation. It is organised by the European Youth Forum, the Latin American Youth Forum, the Spanish Youth Institute (INJUVE), the Spanish Youth Council and the Ibero-American Youth Organisation.
2008 is the Ibero-American Year on Youth, the year of the EU-LAC Summit which takes place in Lima, Peru, in May, and the 60^th Anniversary of the UN Human Rights Declaration. It is also the end of the two-year agenda of Full Employment and Decent Work for All of the UN Commission for Social Development. The schedule of the FEULAT during the second week of September will be the right moment to evaluate those processes and feed the contribution of youth organisations into the next steps in these processes.

This year will be divided into two tracks:

- Training: to provide youth leaders coming from organisations from Latin America and Europe with the tools necessary for Euro-Latin-American cooperation in the youth field
- Political: aim at fostering the coordination of a joint agenda between the continental platforms (European Youth Forum and the Latin American Youth Forum) to facilitate youth participation processes on both continents and ensure coordination with the other institutional partners (INJUVE, OIJ, EU, etc.)

Ø Seminar on Youth and the Alliance of Civilizations (in the frame of the partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Union organised by the European Youth Forum Partnership on Youth CoE –EU, the North-South Centre and the Islamic Conference Youth Forum)

The Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) aims to improve understanding and cooperative relations among nations and peoples across cultures and religions and, in the process, to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism.

This Seminar, jointly organised by the European Youth Forum, the Islamic Conference Youth Forum, the North-South Centre and the Partnership on Youth CoE-EU, aims to discuss this issue among youth representatives from different cultures, questioning, through intercultural learning, the assumptions and discourses about identities and differences (i.e. The “Western” culture and the “Islamic” culture). The outcomes of the seminar will be used as a basis for reflection for the further development of a youth approach to the Alliance of Civilisations initiative.

Ø International Working School- (organised by the Spanish Youth Council – CJE)

This will be the IX Edition of the International Working School of the Spanish Youth Council and it will be composed of two training activities :

A Training Course : “New Push for youth Participation: Africa-Latin America-Europe”, Organised by the Spanish youth Council (CJE) and the Portuguese National Youth Council (CNJ). The contents of this course are centred on South-South youth cooperation between youth organisations and youth platforms from Africa and Ibero-America. It aims at fostering the basis for better mutual understanding and knowledge among the youth organisations and exchange of experiences in the context of the Global Youth Cooperation and Global Youth Work..

And a Seminar “International School. Europe! How does it work?: What you need to know to do youth work”, aimed at member organisations of the Spanish Youth Council with the objective of providing basic training and skills for youth work at the European level and to promote the participation in the European youth programmes and European structures of youth participation.

Ø Training Course on Participation and Citizenship (European Youth Forum and Korean Government)

The training course builds on a specific request from the Korean Government, which showed much interest in the work undertaken in European youth field on Citizenship and Participation.

The training course on Participation and Citizenship aims at building the capacity of Korean youth workers and youth leaders by developing their competences, broadening their critical understanding of issues related to Participation and Citizenship, exploring and experiencing their potential and enabling them to recognise, promote and integrate these issues in their youth work.

Ø Youth exchanges: key players in promoting intercultural and inter-religious dialogue (European Youth Forum-YFJ)

Youth exchanges and intercultural dialogue (ICD), including inter-religious dialogue (IRD), are key areas of focus for youth organisations. On the occasion of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the European Youth Forum believes that existing tools and practices enhancing ICD and IRD should be developed further.
Hence, this seminar is aiming at exploring the ways through which youth exchanges can promote intercultural and inter-religious dialogue. Indeed, youth exchanges are a key tool to strengthen democracy, fundamental right and citizenship; they contribute to the development of crucial competences for ICD and IRD.

The event is conceived as an opportunity for youth organisations committed to the promotion of youth exchanges and/or ICD/IRD to share information, experiences, current realities and good practices. Furthermore, the seminar will provide them with a framework where they can reflect upon future possibilities to foster synergies in the fields of ICD/IRD and youth exchanges.

Ø Training for Youth Leaders on Cultural Diversity (EEE- YFU Youth For Understanding)

The aim of this training course is to explore the concepts of cultural diversity and intercultural learning together with the participants at the same time as providing them with training skills on these topics. The participants will be able to draw from their experiences with past activities and projects and convert them into tools for working with cultural diversity.
The objectives of the training course are:
-To explore the concept of cultural diversity;
-To provide participants facilitation and group leadership skills;
-To improve participants’ skills on intercultural learning and intercultural dialogue;
-To develop participants’ competences (knowledge, skills, attitudes, values) in working with young people from diverse backgrounds;
To motivate the participants to continue to work with intercultural learning.

Ø Fulfilling Promises: Voluntary Service for Cross Cultural Integration of Young 2^nd generation immigrants (Youth Action for Peace - YAP)

This seminar wants to contribute to an inclusive intercultural dialogue by involving those who tend to be out of focus: young second generation immigrants. Since Europe is facing a multicultural reality young people and their peers with immigration background should be equally an understood and constituent part of its culture.

Since World War II, and particularly since the 1960s, there have been considerable migration movements to Europe. As a result, a substantial second generation of young immigrants has emerged. There is currently a lack in the integration of these young people in the national and European policies. The seminar will review how the gaps between the immigrants living in Europe and the local community can be narrowed through intercultural voluntary service. It aims at enabling youth workers and young people active or interested in intercultural dialogue with 2^nd generation immigrants to build capacity and future initiatives for common projects in this area.

Ø “Roads of Dialogue” (Youth Express Network)

Youth Express Network would like to organize an evaluation meeting of the different activities we realized in the frame of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.
During these different projects, some specific tools concerning intercultural learning have been used or created. Each project has gone its own “Road of Dialogue”. In this evaluation meeting, we would like to explore these different “Roads of Dialogue”, compare the different learning materials and their transferability. The main aim of this activity is to get inspired from local or international experiences and initiatives to create new strategies and tools promoting intercultural dialogue in order to offer solutions and innovative ideas to European countries, Eastern Europe countries, Balkan countries and Caucasus countries, all threatened by identical fears.

The objectives of this activity are:
- to evaluate the different international projects that Youth Express Network has developed in 2007-2008 and confront the different experiences of the team members and participants
- to measure the impact of these projects on the team members, participants and local communities
- to exchange good practices and methods (such as Forum Theater, simulation games, outdoor education, arts)
- to define where to put efforts in order to better promote Intercultural Dialogue in a way to make it attractive,
- to find answers to racist and xenophobic tendencies which appear more and more in Europe, in the Balkans, in Eastern Europe and Caucasus.
25 experienced youth workers, social workers or young artists, 18-35 years old who participated in the past in Youth Express Network projects either as team members or participants coming from Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Italy, Moldova, FYROM, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Turkey.

Ø Sub-group meeting of the Pool of Trainers on Global Education (European Youth Forum-YFJ)

The sub-group of the Pool of Trainers of the European Youth Forum is the follow-up of the sub-group organised in 2005, 2006 and 2007 on Global Education. Trainers participating in this subgroup are going to build on and further develop the results of last years’ meetings. The sub-group meeting of 2008 aims at reflecting and deepening the understanding of the role of training in the comprehensive European Youth Forum approach to Global Education and transfer this understanding into concrete and useful results. Therefore, the main objectives of the sub-group meeting are:
- Developing a proposal for a training of the PoT members;
- Developing proposals to further spread the use of GE in the European Youth Forum Member Organisations based on the strategy agreed at the previous subgroup meeting;
- Discussing about the further implementation of the European Youth Forum Policy Paper on Global Education.

Joint Programme

The 2008 University Joint Programme was based on the theme Alliance of Civilizations and included:

· Welcome Evening, Sunday 14th September, evening. Ice-breaking and get-to-know each other;
· Opening Session, Monday 15^th September, 10h00. Institutional welcoming and presentation of the University;
· Keynote on Intercultural Dialogue, Monday 15^th September, 10h30. The keynote will need to address the main theme of the University.
· Intercultural Evening (1), Monday 15^th September, evening. “Our Cultural Diversity” within the Participants”
· Info market, Monday 15^th September and for the duration of the University, displays and stands of participants’ organisations;
· Intercultural evening (2), Tuesday 16^th September, evening. Role Play on Intercultural Dialogue.
· Roundtable on Intercultural Dialogue, Wednesday 17^th September.
· Plenary Session on Global Education, 17^th September Evening
· Fair Trade Evening, 17^th September
· Free afternoon in Malaga, Thursday 18^th September;
· Open Evening, 19^th September. Self-organised evening programme;
· Conclusion session, Saturday 20^th September;
· Closing Party, Saturday 20^th September, evening.

Evening activities: a wide range of activities took place during the various evenings of the week, such as music sessions; outdoor cinema; theatre sessions; body painting; art sessions; dance; thematic exhibitions; traditional games and sports activities. A music band (“Ubanda”) and a theatre company of Forum Theatre (“ATOA”) performed during all week.

Unicology: Over the last years the partners of the University on Youth and Development have developed and encouraged inspirational practices in order to build a socially and environmentally sustainable activity. Of course this was also the case in the UYD 2008 edition (ex: non-paper policy, low energy consumption, using recycled and recycling materials, using fair trade goods etc).