On the 8th of November 2016 the Kick Off Meeting of the project REACT – Refugee Engagement And integration through Community Theatre has been held in Bristol (UK). The project wants to introduce Community Theatre as a tool to foster a positive intercultural dialogue between the refugees and the host society, testing and comparing a number of integration and educational approaches in order to come up with an innovative participatory method to be used for refugee integration across the EU.
During the meeting, partners had the chance to compare their working methodologies and to plan the next steps of the projects, ensuring the achievement of the foreseen project objectives. REACT aims at reaching a better social cohesion in diversity, mutual understanding and appreciation between the newly arrived refugees and the local population, in addition to equipping them with new skills and competences.
The project will develop 3 original theatrical performances played by refugees, which will be included in a final documentary which will have a wide distribution across Europe, whilst a manual on the non-formal and artistic approaches implemented in the project will be produced for all organizations interested working on the sector of social inclusion and integration. Finally, several seminar with stakeholders and people working with migrants and refugees will be organized all along the project, in order to guarantee a continuous exchange and feedbacks between professionals and targets.
The next phase will foresees the involvement of refugees in each country, in order to develop the theatrical performance to involve the local community members.
REACT is funded by the Creative Europe Programme – Support for Refugees’ Integration projects.
REACT partnership is composed by 3 organizations which have different but complementary expertise both in the social and artistic field:
- Acta Community Theatre ltd (United Kingdom) – Coordinator
- Stichting Rotterdams Wijktheater (The Netherlands)
- Centro Per Lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci (Italy)
For further information about the project, please contact marta.orozco@danilodolci.org.