Embracing Diversity and Inclusion

When looking at the issues of social exclusion and discrimination, it became evident that one of the major underlying causes of these phenomena is the challenge to embrace diversity and enhance inclusion. This cause has been further exacerbated by the recent increased political polarisation all over Europe. Also, violent words and racist behaviours seem to be justified by the fear of “others/them”. Hence, there is a need to work together to fight these phenomena by all peaceful means. Therefore, building mutual respect for and acceptance of diversity is crucial and can serve as protective factors that apply preventive measures that can assist young people in being more inclusive and even proactively stand against exclusion, violence and xenophobia. This is important because if we lack the right skills for standing against acts of exclusion, the engagement and intervention of young people for diversity issues may have adverse effects and cause more damage than helping at all. For this reason, this project aims at promoting intercultural awareness, social inclusion, and diversity among all, while supporting our social development as global and active citizens. Together we will have the opportunity to explore and exchange different ideas and points of view as part of an intercultural group with diverse backgrounds and realities. This opportunity will promote the values and assets of diversity to tackle social exclusion . Thus, this project is solutions-oriented, and not problem-based.

Objectives

• Improving our understanding of diversity, social inclusion, and intercultural awareness;

• Developing our understanding of the importance of peace and human rights;

• Exploring practical methods for enabling diverse groups to effectively work together;

• Developing our ability to explore and multiply the positive impact of interculturality;

• Developing our communication skills and self-confidence related to diversity values.

5 young Hungarians are participated in a youth exchange in Vienna in September with the help of 2 organizations: Emotic and Youth Bridges Budapest. In the capital of Austria, where we had the opportunity to spend an amazing week together with other 42 young people from Austria, Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and Turkey.

The theme of the project was also to make us more open-minded about inclusion and diversity in our society, so that we could act and think more consciously on the issue, and not least to develop our knowledge.

Some of us participated already in some youth exchanges and there were some people who attended for the first time. In the end, everyone of us came back with full of satisfaction because we learnt a lot of useful information about our society, there was a safe place to discuss this really sensitive topic and we had lots of good memories together.

We enjoyed so much the program because everyone was actively involved in the activities and open to everyone's opinion on these subject. Vienna was the perfect location for this project, as the city also supports the theme of embracing and diversity. We participated in the activities in many different ways and "worked" on the sub-topic from many different perspectives, either in groups, individually or all together as a big group, by the end we were more like an Erasmus family.