In frames of the “Youth work Preventing Polarisation” project, a six-day residential mobility of Euro-Mediterranean youth workers took place in November 2021 near Tarragona.

The project, supported by the Erasmus+ programme, brought together a group of 24 youth work professionals from partner organizations in Estonia, Germany, Italy, Jordan Lebanon, the Netherlands, Tunisia and Turkey for an interactive residential course in order to analyze the polarization of communities in the Euro-Mediterranean context.

Mobility’s participants were youth workers motivated to develop competences and share experiences, especially at the community level. The main target was youth workers with migrant and refugee background, and those working directly with these youth groups.

Participants attending the course already had previous experience in work sectors in the field of youth and non-formal education, and they wanted to deepen their knowledge on prevention tools and develop competences to identify narratives, actions and dynamics of polarization as well as identify its causes.

The training course "Youth work preventing polarisation: Euro-Mediterranean youth work for intercultural democratic citizenship" focused on developing youth work competences to analyse causes, consequences and dynamics of polarisation and developed youth workers’ competences to prepare, execute and evaluate initiatives for the prevention of extreme polarisation through human rights and democratic citizenship education methodologies.

During the mobility, polarisation prevention youth work methodologies and practices were shared, including dialogue circles, living libraries, spaces for citizen cohesion and appreciative dialogues.

The programme included the preparation to implement local actions and the development of cooperation strategies in the Euro-Mediterranean area as a direct follow-up of the project.

The main objectives set for the project were:

• To analyse the role of youth work addressing the causes, consequences and dynamics of polarisation;
• To build competences of youth work professionals, youth leaders, educators (from formal and non-formal sectors) and community mediators to prevent polarisation through the promotion of youth work based on the principles of intercultural democratic citizenship and human rights education;
• To exchange youth work practices and to develop initiatives contributing to depolarise Euro-Mediterranean communities.
• To increase the quality and develop cooperation strategies within the Erasmus + programme, especially in the Euro-Mediterranean area, creating synergies and establishing cooperation networks between youth work organisations and educational sector preventing polarisation.

This project was supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission