Project name: ESCAPE RACISM – Toolbox to promote inclusive communities
Project number: 2019-2-IT03-KA205-016906
Duration: 24 months
Coordinator: CEIPES (Italy)
Financed by: Erasmus Plus KA2– Cooperation for innovation and exchange of good practices
Partners: International Centre for the Promotion of Education and Development (Italy); Coventry University (United Kingdom); Cultural association Eufema (Italy); Fundation Asaym Castilla y Leon (Spain); Támaszpont Foundation for Mental Health Education and Prevention (Támaszpont MOPKA), (Hungary)

On 11th and 12th of February 2020, CEIPES was very glad to host the kick-off meeting (KoM) of our new project “ESCAPE RACISM – toolbox to promote inclusive communities” that took place in our headquarter in Palermo.

Five partners from Italy, UK, Spain and Hungary met for the first time to start the implementation of the project whose main aim is to combat racism and discrimination and promoting human rights among young people to build more inclusive communities.
The kick-off was a great opportunity for the partner organizations involved to better know each other, learning about their expertise and experiences, starting with the exchanging of good practices to implement the project.

The aim of the project is to focus on creating innovative practices in the field of youth work through the development of a toolkit for the development of soft skills for youngsters and to increase and develop innovative non-formal methodologies. The communities will benefit from a raised awareness on racism and discrimination, and the youngsters involved will act as multipliers with their peers, sharing a more inclusive idea of society.

The expected results will be reached through the development of 3 Intellectual Output:

– Creation of Training kit for Youth Educators (IO1) that will include the development of non-formal methodologies, techniques and approaches useful for youth workers and educators active in the field of human rights, intolerance and racism prevention. It will also include the creation of an escape room kit that the target groups will use during the pilot phase of the project and in future educational activities.
– Implementation of a pilot phase – through a cycle of workshops that will include the development of a methodology for testing the training and escape room kits followed by the implementation and the evaluation that will be made at the beginning and at the end of the pilot, with the aim to amend and improve the project products.
– Development of online tools (IO3): the material and kit produced for the IO1 will be converted through the creation of online tools, webinars, digital material and videos that will be included in an online platform to assure maximum visibility and accessibility of project outputs and products and to guarantee also sustainability beyond project lifetime.

During the two days of meeting the partner organizations divided their tasks and defined the role they will cover during the two-years of project implementation, through different interactive activities where each partner could propose its ideas and shared their experiences with the different target groups. During the first day of meeting the simulation of an educative escape room has been created in CEIPES I-Lab by the partner Eufemia, that has a long experience in using this educative tool who will organize the training activity of the project.

During the evaluation Eufemia explained the importance of using this kind of tool to make young people develop a critical thinking and to deliver significant messages in a more stimulating way.

With the coordination of CEIPES a good plan of activities and tasks has been organized for the future months of implementation and the 5 organizations established that the training activity will be held in Turin, in Eufemia offices next May.