From M.E. to E.U.

Program: EUROPE FOR CITIZENS, Strand 2 – Measure 3, Civil society projects
Duration: January 2019 – June 2020

Our project proposal aims to provide spaces and opportunities for European citizens and migrants’ communities to work together in order to build up and share a new idea of a multicultural Europe. The concept we believe in is that beside formal citizenship, there are different ways and methods to involve people in the growing up of a society. Refugee communities are, as a matter of fact, a part of our population and will contribute, together with us, to the shaping of our future. For this reason every migrant should be considered a citizen and every citizen could bring ideas, innovative approaches, participation methods to the community in which he lives. Our aim, as NGO, is to overturn the idea of a society in which refugees are outsiders to be managed, a problem to be solved, a crisis to deal with. Our will is to move out, from migrant people, the guilt of stealing our “well-being” and of ruining our values and give them back the responsibility of being part of the growing of our society.
One of the biggest challenges of the new century could then be tackled with a new approach, not only centered on pitiful and helpful, but on sharing of experiences, collaboration, building of double-win solutions. Our project FROM M.E. To E.U. will consist in a path of inclusion between citizens and refugees and migrants, fostering a mutual assistance through a peer-to-peer approach.
The project will be developed in 3 phases. Each phase will be developed in 2 different levels: international training meetings and local activities, as described below.

PHASE 1 “GETTING TO KNOW”:

  1. International training course: 4 days with 56 participants (7 pax per country: 3 form each municipality and 4 from ONG)

Target: citizens and representatives from partner organizations

Aims: to train participants on how to run the local workshops. They will improve their knowledge about:

  • European Union and the meaning of European citizenship
    • Intercultural learning
    • Team building
    • Conflict management

Venue: Brussels – Belgium – 8-10 April 2019

  • Local activity “MY EUROPE, MY STORY”: A local workshop using storytelling as a tool to better understand each other cultures. EU citizens will explain European Union (Organization, Institutions, values, purposes); migrants will tell about who they are, where they come from, their history, etc.

PHASE 2 “NEEDS AND DREAMS”:

  1. International training course: 4 days with 56 participants (7 pax per country: 3 form each municipality and 4 from NGO)

Target: citizens and representatives from partner organizations

Aims: to share ideas and set up the following local activities (survey and workshops)

Venue: Zaragosa, Spain 2-4 July 2019

  • Local activity “SURVEY”: citizens and volunteers will collect video-interviews addressed to citizens and migrants to gather their opinions on this topic: mutual support between citizens and migrants.
  • Local activity “I NEED (E)U, (E)U NEED ME”: 2 peer-to-peer workshops designed and implemented by citizens and migrants to bring out their needs and dreams; Europe citizens will state their difficulties, refugees will explain their needs. Together they will try to find solutions, exchange good practices, make concrete proposals on how to foster a better common living in their community.

PHASE 3 “LET’S DO IT TOGETHER”:

  1. Local activity “S.O.S. VOLUNTEERS”: starting from the needs and solutions arisen during the previous local activities, a platform on volunteering bases of mutual help will be implemented. Eg: citizens could offer assistance to migrants in practical/bureaucratic/legal issues; migrants could propose actions useful for citizens and local community (such as to help elderly people in daily matters, gardening, shopping and so on). Volunteers will be recruited also through the European Solidarity Corps.
  2. Local activity “S.O.S. VOLUNTEERS”: implementation of volunteering activities
  3. International final meeting: citizens and representatives from partner organizations will meet to share the local activities implemented, to set up a dissemination strategy and to evaluate the project.

Target: citizens and representatives from partner organizations

Aims: final evaluation of the project and sharing dissemination strategy

Venue: Valdagno – Italy

For more information follow the webpage of the program as well as its facebook page .

The project concluded successfully with the International Final Conference meeting taking place online through Google Meet in 18th and 19th February 2021. IParticipate was actively involved in all the phases of the implementation of the project. You can download the information about the events of the project and how and when they were implemented by clicking the link below:

Implementation – IParticipate

The first phase started with a training course that took place in Brussels, Belgium from 8/4/2019 to 10/04/2019 and the Greek partners joined with 7 participants. More information about this meeting can be found in this post. The second part of the first phase was a workshop that aimed to be the initial event to bring together migrants and locals, identify differences and the common ground between the two groups and prepare the participants that would join the second international meeting in Zaragoza. The workshop took place in Neapoli-Sykies in Thessaloniki on Saturday 29th of June 2019 and took part 32 people. You can find more information about this meeting following this link.

The second phase started with an international training course that took place in Zaragoza, Spain from 2nd to 4th of July 2019 and the Greek partners joined with 7 participants. More information about this course can be found in this webpage. In this event the preparation for the main part of the project took place, the questions that would be asked in the interviews were finalized and the content of the 2nd local workshop was sketched out.

The second local workshop took place in Neapoli-Sykies in 4th of October 2019 and 25 people both migrants and locals joined it. It revolved around our cultural common heritage and some picture can be found below:

The second phase included also the collection of the interview and the video that came out of them. You can watch our video along with the other videos that were created for this project by following this link.

Final Meeting
The final meeting took place in 6th of March 2020 in Neapoli-Sykies and where 101 people took part. The goal was to promote the web platform of the project that aimed to bring together migrants and the local community and help the understanding and connection of the two groups by having the one help the other in practical or non-practical ways. Some pictures can be viewed below:


The implementation of the web platform was promoted through the social media of our organization and can be reached through this web page.

After the final event a long period of Covid-19 lockdowns suspended the implementation of the final meeting in Italy which took place in 18th and 19th of February 2021 through Google meet and where the Greek Partners joined with 7 participants.

More information about the project can also be found through our social media accounts:
https://www.facebook.com/iparticipatengo/
https://www.instagram.com/i_participate/