Movie making for social inclusion: Movie as universal language

Özet, Erasmus+ Project Results platformunda yayımlanan İngilizce metindir.

Amaç

-Increasing the general public knowledge about the extent and causes of poverty, marginalization; social exclusion via short creative movies;
-Making use of new tools and discovering new arenas in the efforts against poverty, marginalization; social exclusion;
-Offering youngsters the opportunity to make their voice heard and to express their view upon fighting social exclusion;
-To use filming short movies as a tool for active youth participation;
-Empower and motivate young people to use film and the new media (namely Internet) as a tool for communication;-Develop and create a film which features inclusion as an opportunity for mutual enrichment and promotes inclusive activities by and for young people;
-To cooperate with other organizations from local and European level in order to create a stable and effective network to develop projects having as topic fighting against poverty and marginalization;
-De constructing stereotypes and stigmas attached to poverty and social exclusion using short movies as tool;
-Increase participants' knowledge and appreciation of one another's culture;
-Enhance participants' intercultural skills and tolerance;
-Helping youngsters to understand the importance of the project theme by offering them to be involved from their own creative aspect in movies;

Uygulama

We had 2 main activities:
APV meeting (Advance Planning Visit)
Youth Exchange
APV meeting was intended for youth leaders with experience in youth work and work with young people from socially vulnerable groups, motivated for specific actions. Their role in the project itself is significant because they were the link between partner organizations and participants. The aim of this meeting was to gather 8 youth leaders in order to better prepare the participants for the youth exchange. For 2 working days, we actively went through all the segments of the project once again, exchanging movements and experiences in order to improve the youth exchange. Together we developed a strategy for registering participants in which the emphasis was on motivating and giving opportunities to young people with reduced opportunities to get involved in the project, given that the topic is social inclusion / exclusion.

Youth exchange
The proposed YE was bringing European young people, youth leaders and volunteers together and teaching them what filmmaking are and how they can use it as a tool for working with young people with diverse cultural and social backgrounds.
This project was intended for young people from 8 European countries in order to be more active in youth work, their local communities and to learn how to fight for human rights, social inclusion and human dignity by making digital stories, promotional materials and films.
The youth exchange gathered 35 young people from 8 European countries, mostly 18-25 years old.
The youth exchange was intended for young activists, representatives of their local communities, youth leaders and innovators of concrete actions, young people with film skills, as well as young people with disabilities of any kind, such as national minorities, young people from rural areas, young people economic difficulties, health problems, victims of violence or any other form of social exclusion that were highly motivated by the topic of social exclusion of socially vulnerable groups.
Aside from the APV meeting and Youth Exchange several local activities were scheduled to increase project visibility, promotion, and dissemination (workshops, film presentations, etc.).

Sonuçlar

The project has had an impact on increasing knowledge, competencies and a better understanding of social inclusion, as well as the use of digital filmmaking tools using the story telling method. Participants became aware of social injustice, exclusion and the importance of supporting socially vulnerable groups through different activities and at different levels. Aware of the importance of taking the initiative and initiating concrete actions aimed at reducing stigma and discrimination, they organized local activities and promoted the importance of social dialogues on the problems faced by people excluded from their communities.
By exchanging experiences and learning about a given topic, it encouraged participants to open their minds and think in a broader sense, to use freedom in giving ideas and, most importantly, to be creative.
With the support of the partners, the participants together reached the desired impact and thus carried out activities both during the youth exchange and during the follow up activities. During the exchange, we went through activities and creating stories and films where we focused on making the participants concrete and clear in presenting their ideas.
Also, the participants offered their skills and knowledge of non-formal education, European ideals in youth work, and the Erasmus + program in their communities through arranging local events as well as online presentations, workshops, and other activities.
Partner organization has benefits through educated staff and volunteers that can implement their acquired knowledge and skills in some programs related to social inclusion and breaking stereotypes and social stigma by using creative approaches as storytelling and film-makking are. Initiating some new ideas in partners organization by participants and making local activities can impact on bigger visibility of organization in their loca. communities.
After the youth exchange, the participants, with the support of their partner organizations, organized local activities with young people in their communities where they held workshops and screened films as a product of their work. This impacted on better visibility of the project and partner organizations as well.
Our emphasis was placed on local and national promotion through local actions implemented by partner organizations, but because the project is being implemented internationally, we gave special attention to project results promotion through Erasmus+ tools and social networks of our partners. Also, we may conclude that the impact was displaced and amplified on a European level since the partners came from different nations and made an impact on different levels.