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Interculturalism for Intercultural Regions to be!

13 October, 2022 By Birgit Sandu

Are you interested in knowing more about how a region can become intercultural and inclusive, yet you missed our first online capacity-building session on interculturalism for regions and local stakeholders?

Also, are you keen to know more about who is the EU-BELONG team and how you can work together with us in the coming years?

Dive into this quick article and rewatch the recording of the training below!

A Warm Welcome in the EU-BELONG Team to the Local Stakeholders

Last Thursday, the AER and all EU-BELONG partners were glad to meet and welcome an enlarged EU-BELONG team. Over a hundred regional representatives and local stakeholders working on the implementation of EU-BELONG gathered to attend the first online capacity-building session on interculturalism.

Who we are…
..and where are we from


Introduction to Interculturalism and Intercultural Competences

EU-BELONG develops a series of online and in-person capacity-building activities to support regions, their stakeholders, and other interested actors in fostering key intercultural competences that can be applied across several regional policies related to migrants’ inclusion.

The online training ‘Introduction to Interculturalism and Intercultural Competences‘ run by Carla Calado, trainer and Coordinator of the Portuguese Intercultural Cities Network, is the first introductory course for regions and local stakeholders. It aims at:

  • Building a common understanding of the key concepts and principles of interculturalism.
  • Provides first guidelines about how to develop an intercultural region step-by-step (building on the ‘The intercultural city step by step‘ guide developed by the ICC Programme).
  • Sharing tips and strategies for the organisation of training sessions on interculturalism

Additional resources on interculturalism developed within the Intercultural Cities Programme of the Council of Europe can be found below:

  • The Intercultural Cities Programme by Nichola Howson
  • Intercultural Competence by Carla Calado
  • Intercultural Cities
  • Intercultural Competences
  • Intercultural Cities Step-By-Step guide: new edition
  • ICC Course – The intercultural city step-by-step Survey (surveymonkey.com)
  • About the Intercultural Cities Index
  • ICC Intercultural Citizenship test

The session was the first official transnational activity within the project and hence an occasion to present its broader framework to the numerous key actors involved in its realisation. Ms. Madaraic, AER Vice President for Inclusion, Diversity & Equality, and Ms. Howson, Project Officer at the Council of Europe, were thus happy to share how EU-BELONG builds on the positive experience of the Intercultural Cities Programme coordinated by the Council of Europe and the long-lasting expertise of the AER and its partners in the field of inclusion and interculturalism aiming at adapting and testing the intercultural integration approach to the regional level. The project is an important first benchmark seeking to result in a stronger, broader, and more sustainable Intercultural Regions Network.

…and more is coming: some fresh news from the EU-BELONG Steering Committee Meeting in Salzburg

With an eye on the ongoing capacity-building process and the other on future milestones, combined with a strong wish to meet in person and share experiences and challenges, the EU-BELONG partners met in Salzburg on 28-29 September. The meeting brought about very enriching exchanges and a strong motivation for the upcoming activities that will be implemented. On the one hand, the development of a model framework for regional intercultural integration strategies will be available for all regional authorities wishing to develop their own intercultural integration strategy. On the other hand, the setting-up of the transnational knowledge exchange will be the space where the organisations and regions of the project will meet and exchange with other international organisations and regions to harness the diversity advantage across policy fields.

Greetings from..
…the warmly cold Salzburg!

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Introduction to Interculturalism and Intercultural Competences: First Online Capacity-building Session for Regions and Local Stakeholders

14 September, 2022 By Birgit Sandu

What is interculturalism and how do we support the development of intercultural competences among regions and their stakeholders?

 

Intercultural Competence is what allows for a person to be able to navigate comfortably in complex intercultural settings. Accordingly, to the European Commission (2007), it means combining skills, attitudes, abilities, and knowledge to face, act and intervene effectively and appropriately in a variety of contexts, where cultural, socio-economic, ethnic, and other lines intersect and can lead to situations of intercultural conflict that can, in turn, damage social cohesion.

A person is considered interculturally competent if he/she can successfully communicate and relate with people from other cultural backgrounds. It means mobilizing external and internal resources and it is something that can always be developed and improved throughout our lives.  Deardoff (2006) defines it as the ability to develop targeted knowledge, skills and attitudes that lead to visible behavior and communication that are both effective and appropriate in intercultural interactions.

 

The EU-BELONG team is ready to kick-start its ambitious process of empowering regions and their stakeholders to develop innovative integration strategies for the first time applying the intercultural approach. As first step, regional decision-makers, civil servants and local stakeholder will build knowledge in intercultural integration concepts and foster key intercultural competences that will be applied throughout and beyond the project.

The first online capacity-building session will be held on 6th October 2022 from 10 to 12:30 CET focusing on ‘Introduction to Interculturalism and Intercultural Competences’. The session is addressed at the 11 regions of the project and 20 civil servants and/or local stakeholders from each region.  It aims at fostering an understanding of what is interculturalism and what are its key principles, how we can build an intercultural region step-by-step and how to develop an intercultural strategy. Lastly, the session will provide guidance on how to develop and organise a large-scale training on intercultural competences to support the regions throughout the implementation of their capacity-building programmes.


Structure and Programme

Trainer: Carla Calado, Coordinator of the Portuguese Intercultural Cities Network

Language: English

Participants: EU-BELONG partners, 20 stakeholders/local and regional civil servants from each region, experts working with the regions on the organisation of the capacity-building session, members of the Intercultural Regions Network


10:00 – 10:15 Welcoming words

  • Marina Medarić, AER Vice President for Inclusion, Diversity & Equality
  • Nichola Howson, Directorate General of Democracy Anti-Discrimination Department of the Council of Europe

10:15 – 10:45  Presentation and Ice Breaker

10:45-11:30h       Interculturalism

  • Definition of Interculturalism
  • Principles of Interculturalism
  • Ethnocentrism VS Relativism
  • The intercultural region step-by-step: assessment, building a strategy, implementing, and evaluating actions, connection to city strategies (examples from cities regarding housing, education, culture, labour, tourism, public spaces, etc.)

11:30 – Ice Breaker

11:45-12:15h    Intercultural competence training

  • Definition of Intercultural Competence
  • Why is Intercultural competence training important?
  • How does it look like in practice?
  • General recommendation for large-scale training. The blended learning approach (pros and cons).

12:15 – 12:30    Q&A and final remarks


Additional resources for exploration:

  • ICC Intercultural Citizenship test: Intercultural Citizenship Test (coe.int)
  • Online courses:
  • Diversity and Inclusion – AKF | The Learning Hub (akflearninghub.org): send an email to an automatic email will be sent to you via “the learning hub” platform with instructions. The course takes 90m to watch and it is divided into small lessons (3 to 4 min each)
  • ICC Course – The intercultural city step-by-step Survey (surveymonkey.com): this course does not need previous enrolment
  • Resources in ICC website in the dedicated page: Thematic papers (coe.int)

If you are interested in participating, please contact Birgit Sandu  ([email protected]), or Anna Comacchio ([email protected]).


EU-Belong is a 3-year project run by the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and 13 partners, and co-funded by the AMIF Programme (AMIF-2020-AG-CALL) of the European Union. Its aim is to support the adoption of innovative and pioneering regional integration strategies, based on a multi-level and multi-stakeholder framework that, for the first time, applies the intercultural approach to Regions as a key-player for the successful integration of third-country nationals.

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