Young people put the dot on I(nterculturality)!

This project aimed at promoting the concept of interculturality as well as the culture of participation towards the intercultural development of Mehedinti and Caras Severin counties and it was implemented by FPDL in partnership with the Department for Interethnic Relations within the Romania Government, co-financed through the Youth in Action Programme. The project was implemented in the period May 15th, 2013- May 15th, 2014.

In the project 38 young people aged between 18- 30 were directly involved; all of them represented 7 ethnic communities from the 2 counties (Romanian, Greeks, Roma, Serbian, German, Macedonian and Czech), 75% from rural areas from the 2 counties, representing 2 towns and 5 villages. The participants went through a capacity building series of 3 workshops on the topic of intercultural development, public policies, event organising, project management and negotiation; they further implemented 6 world cafes on identifying the intercultural potential for tourism development of the 2 counties, 1 living library with local resource persons from different ethnic groups, 1 stakeholders meeting negotiating project and activities with local authorities and NGOs, developed 5 project ideas and implemented one- the first intercultural festival in the region (June 2014) in partnership with local council, local NGO and the Department for Interethnic Relations within the Romanian Government.

The participants developed their capacity to understand and promote intercultural dialogue in their communities towards intercultural development (joint initiatives among ethnic groups with a cross-sectorial approach describing the involvement of various stakeholders- public authorities, NGOs, community resource persons),

The participants learned how to clearly formulate and communicate their needs and expectations towards various stakeholders, how to use media to promote their events and results, how to design and edit their promotional materials, how to engage in productive intercultural interactions with members of other ethnic groups with respect to their traditions and focus on common needs, how to analyse and operationalise public policies (local development plans, EU Strategy for the Danube Region) in simple and need-based projects and initiatives with the cooperation of different sectors, how to lead interest-based negotiation processes, how to reconnect with, promote and respect cultural values in their communities.