The mobility in Italy was focused on the topic of becoming independent, self-sufficient and in pursuit of one’s goals and objectives even in the face of adversity. It is our hope to look at this issue through the lens of culture and the current political and social issues which impact our understanding of independence. Mostly we want to challenge some stereotypical attitudes held by youth through giving them the opportunity to experience cultures other than their own. We believe that this project will be an opportunity to spark a natural interest in the topic of diversity and inclusion on a more international level. Through this we will be promoting attitudes of tolerance for diversity.

The mobility took place in Bosco Chiesanuova in a venue that Oriel Association has worked with in the past on previous Erasmus+ projects. Overall the many activities of those week are designed in a way to achieve two aims: (1) integrated the members of the group mobility so they can mix, get to know each other, felt comfortable with one another, support one another in order to have deeper, more meaningful discussions with one another about the main topics of the mobility and (2) exposed participants to many cultural perspectives, have them experience and reflect on the importance of culture in the process of becoming independent and the impact of being in a culturally diverse environment on independence.

To achieved the first aim of group integration we planned on including activities such as building the group contract, teambuilding games, drama and improv games, feedback sessions, the trip to the adventure park or informal countrypresentation and others. To reflect on the multicultural perspective we had activities such as Game of Tribes, perspective taking activities, Actionbound city game in Verona and the study visit to the La Cordata refugee center. We had also included several feedback and reflection sessions during the week in order to check in with the participants on their wellbeing and to verify that the project objectives are being met.

The mobility in Poland was also going to build on the topic of becoming independent, self-sufficient and in pursuit of one’s goals and objectives even in the face of adversity. While the first mobility to Italy was focused more on the influence of being in a diverse and multicultural environment the second mobility to Poland was an opportunity to reflect on the impact of one’s own home culture on their independence and maturity. We therefore worked on gaining a deeper understanding of one’s heritage and reflecting on what we consider to be our cultural assets that we can share with other nationalities.

During the mobility we worked on

1. Increasing self-esteem and initiative of participants by giving them the opportunity to practice skills needed when starting their independent adult lives;
2. Supporting youth in gaining a deeper cultural awareness and especially national cuisine.
3. Improving key competences such as: initiative, working in a diverse environment, independence and communicating with a team;
4. Strengthening language skills which will allow project participants to become active members of the EU community and seek other international project opportunities.