Project Idea

Every corner in Europe. Hei, ciao, Здрасти, hola! European Connection. Arte y Cultura

Just like the title itself indicates, this a meeting of countries – representing each of the corners of Europe: Estonia, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain. The main objective was to make contrast between the different lifestyles, cultures, religions and economic situation between those nations (countries with a great experience in the frame of EU and newcomers like Bulgaria). The participants had the opportunity to debate on topics such as the EU and its effects on the daily life of the people.

During the project the participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with the EC “YOUTH” Program.

It is important to note that the majority of the Spaniards in Canary Islands live outside the continental borders of European continent. Thus they do not have the possibility to meet different cultures. Although the islands are very popular tourist destination, the native young people cannot obtain easily cultural knowledge of Europe.

The opportunity to make contact with other cultures gave them a real chance to break the stereotypes. The young people from the island had the possibility to show a different aspect of their home place- one that does not show the commercial face of Tenerife, but the realities of the local life. This way all guest-groups had the chance to appreciate the actual beauty of the place, its nature and the life on the island.

It is easy to find the European dimension in every activity and especially in the efforts made by the participants concerning the multicultural aspect of the exchange. It was extremely important to all of us to have the chance to practice non-formal education techniques. The idea to involve everyone in the pursuit of a common goal was an outstanding success.

All the activities had been successful. This was the first step towards the creation of “School of travelling young people”.

During all the activities we received support not only from the host organization but from friends, other associations, local administration and groups of professionals such as:

1.    Área de Juventud del Ayuntamiento de La Victoria y Casa de la Juventud y del Arte.

2.    Agrupaciones Tradicionales, como “Añate”, o juveniles, como “La gaveta”, dedicados a temas de promoción cultural, y otras asociaciones como por ejemplo de deportes canarios.

3.    Otros colectivos juveniles municipales que puedan estar interesados en la experiencia.

4.    Personal de medio ambiente, que se ha ofrecido para charlas y guías en monte de laurisilva.

5.    Grupos musicales locales para una noche de concierto.

6.    Prensa Juvenil interesada en difundir nuestra actividad.

7.    Amigos del grupo que desean tomar contacto con los grupos visitantes.

8.    Participación de asociaciones juveniles especializadas en temas de inmigración.

9.    Alguna colaboración por parte de agrupaciones de carnaval: murga, etc.

10. Involucrar a los medios de comunicación locales para la difusión de la experiencia y además como moneda de cambio para los grupos musicales que actuarán para nosotros.

11. Instituciones de la isla: Cabildo de Tenerife, Dirección General de Juventud, Parlamento de Canarias etc.

The intercultural dimension is one of the fundamentals of our project. In order to fight against the intolerance and racism, we gave high priority to the communication between the participants.

Project planning and results

The Project was initiated by a group of young people from Spain. They organized several important meetings and made corrections to the initial plans for the project. Those meetings had the following goals:

1.    To discuss the most important issues concerning the Project. These meetings were held in “Casa de la Juventud y del Arte”.

2.    To establish a strong and independent youth association

3.    To prepare and coordinate a youth exchange project, supported by the EC “YOUTH” Program.

The Spanish group was involved in different sport and cultural activities, with the idea of consolidating the host team.

We had a preliminary meeting on which we discussed the best ways to realize the planned activities. During this event all the leaders of the different groups had the possibility to see each other and talk directly about the issues concerning the project. This meeting was very important and was organized in Tenerife in September, 2006.

Main task of the group leaders was to involve every single participant in the organization in the project.

The activities were chosen during the periodical meetings and were coordinated with all European partner organizations.

The host group dedicated some of its efforts to gain support from different local institutions (town halls, museums and cultural organizations). Their idea was to involve more collaborators in the Project (friends, relatives, students, professors, etc.) and to make them participate in the different activities (workshops, searches for funding, preparation of materials, etc.). The hosts were responsible for finding a proper place for the participants to stay and also for the food and all transportation on the island.

There were 3 different stages, as far as evaluation is concerned: one evaluation at the beginning of the exchange, one during the exchange itself and one final evaluation at the end of the activities. In the process we used all sorts of techniques: individual talks, open debates, talks with each group, etc.

For more information on the schedule of activities, please download the program.