What can students do themselves to initiate change in their close environments? And what kind of activities can stimulate students to take their responsibility and foster their creativity?
The upcoming activities of the Start the Change project, which will be implemented until December 2018, will foster the creativity and initiative of students in the fight against radicalization amongst youngsters at school. How to do this exactly, was discussed in the 3rd transnational partner meeting, on the 23rd and 24th of April 2018 in Zagreb, where all partners came together to discuss the last developments of the project and the future challenges and steps.
During the meeting, the partners discussed the difficulties they faced in implementation and working with the local schools, they shared their experiences and gave tips to each other. Currently, the teachers and students of forty schools in Slovenia, Italy, Croatia and the UK are implementing local projects with the support of their project coordinators to start changes they want to see in their schools and local communities. The projects are various and differ in the topic and scope but they all have in common the promotion of acceptance of differences, fundamental rights, freedom and creativity.
Other topics of the meeting included the creative contest, which was discussed and explained in more detail, even though it already started in Palermo [link to bando here].
A very important topic on the agenda was the upcoming period which includes new topics such as evaluation, the book of good ideas, and the final conference. As the project is finishing by the end of December 2018, the last part of the project has started, and the partners will be working on finishing the project in the right way.
Before the end of the year, the start the change activities will be:
- School projects that are examples of good practice will be collected in the publication “Book of Good Ideas”,
- a short documentary “Start the Change” will be recorded to tell the story of these projects and about students and teachers who are being active in their communities,
- the creative contest will start in the other countries by the end of the school year in which students will present their thoughts about how they see and live differences around them in a creative way,
- the final conference will take place the 23rd of October which will include lectures and practical workshops.
To stay up to date with the start the change project and its activities, please check the website: https://startthechange.net/
START THE CHANGE is funded under the Erasmus+ Key Action 3: Support for Policy Reform and aims to fight the radicalization among young people, a process that starts as soon as in the primary and secondary schools. In order to deal with this issue, START THE CHANGE organized a large-scale coordinated action with the participation of 40 schools, 110 teachers, and 2000 youngsters across 4 European countries. The project will finish the 31st of December 2018.
The project partnership consists of four organizations around Europe:
- FFE – Forum for Freedom in Education(Coordinator, Croatia);
- Development Education Association(UK);
- Youth Centre Dravinje(Slovenia);
- Centro Per Lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci (Italy).
For further information please visit the website www.startthechange.net or contact Vidjaya Thelen at vidjaya.thelen@danilodolci.org