Training course: The Role of Youth in Re-imagining Integration in Europe; Channels to Social Inclusion and Equality for all

Location: Manchester, United Kingdom

Dates: 1-7 February 2016

Number of participants: 32

The Role of Youth in Re-imagining Integration in Europe; Channels to Social Inclusion and Equality for all

European integration is a debate that has taken different colorations and interpretations over the years, from generation to generation but the current debates are full of apprehensions and paranoia which has taken a shorter sighted and negative rhetoric’s in which extreme nationalists in European countries have latched on this debate and have dubbed European integration has the ravaging disease that is destroying Europe. This project is not out to make a counter argument but rather it seeks to stir the debates around integration away from the normative and narrowed representation of European integration as trade and economic integration but this project will engage in a holistic perspective of integration. What it has meant, what it has archived and how integration is positively impacting Europe and present day youth and how it will impact generations yet unborn. The project seeks to get young people of the fence and encourage them to consciously engage with the nuances of integration in Europe because it is one of the main issues that will affect their future. The training will help youth workers and young people to engage with the multifaceted dimensions of integration with a view to creating a society that is devoid of discrimination, stereotype and xenophobia but to create a much more equal and inclusive Europe. This kind of broad understanding of European integration by young people will nip in the bud and bit back the rise of extreme nationalism and xenophobia tendencies within the borders of Europe. A broad understanding of integration among the youth will deny recruits and converts to the political rhetoric of new physical borders and slam brakes on the unintended consequences of a two tier Europe demarcated based on GDP and economic indexes as currently seen as northern Europeans and Southern Europeans.

Part of the objectives of the project is;
– To promote a society of equal opportunities
-To promote a society that is devoid of discrimination and Xenophobia.
– To promote alternative narrative beyond the market and trade defined integration.
-To train youth workers on how to engage with diversity and how to function effectively and compete in a multicultural Europe.
-To train youth workers from partner’s countries on multiculturalism and leveraging diversity
– To build capacity and understanding around successes that integration has brought Europe and what the 21st century should look like

Organiser

Centre for Policy Development and Advocacy (CPDA) seeks to promote the visibility of young people through creative learning and engagement in decisions that will affect and impact their future.

Ignorance has been the bedrock of most cases of abuses and discriminations by society, Centre for Policy Development and advocacy seeks to break this tide through non-formal participatory approach to learning and training for knowledge development in human rights, non-violent conflict transformation and intercultural learning.

Memberships are Organizational and individually based. CPDA seeks to serve as a primary catalyst for enhancing the re-integrations of former offenders and minority groups’ participation in issues relating to governance, human rights and societal development in U.K and Europe.

CPDA implements are projects through face to face training session, e-trainings, seminars and community focused group meetings with the effective use of new media.

Centre for Policy Development and Advocacy employ research approach in collating data for effective project execution. The organization work principally with youth and young people but engages with other categories for the creation of a more open society.