SIRIUS attends Lifelong Learning Lab and The Annual General Assembly

From 26 of June to 28 of June, Simay Abay who is currently undertaking a summer internship with SIRIUS attended the Lifelong Learning Lab 2023-National Training for Education Stakeholders and The Annual General Assembly at the University of Girona.

During the two-day training event (26-27 of June), the emphasis was placed on the involvement of civil society organizations and other stakeholders in education, with the aim of bridging the gap between European and national policies in the field of education and training. In the labs, participants were divided into four sessions and they got the opportunity to engage in discussions and share their own experiences pertaining to “key competences.” These discussions encompassed good practices in the field, main success factors, and the application of these practices in a broader context.

The General Assembly (27-28 of June) facilitated a platform for members to share their viewpoints on potential enhancements within LLLP and methods to strengthen collaboration among the membership. Furthermore, they convened with the Secretariat and Steering Committee of the organization to deliberate on the overall direction and essential priorities.

Elisa Gambardella (SOLIDAR Foundation) was elected new President of the Lifelong Learning Platform!

We are excited to maintain our collaboration going forward!

For more information about to General Assembly, please visit the page.

 

The photo is taken from  https://lllplatform.eu/news/lllp-has-a-new-president-and-four-new-steering-committee-members/

Young Migrants Can Achieve Change – Policy recommendations report

Find below the final report with the final policy recommendations of our project Young Migrants Can Achieve Change.

This document explains the whole process that the project developed in order to get to the final results and recommendations. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the report.

*This content reflects only the author’s view and the European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

YMCAC – A perspective from a participant of the final event

Written by: Kejsi

YMCAC (Young Migrants Can Achieve Change) has come to an end, but its impact will be long-lasting, and the experiences and lessons we learned will stay with us forever. This was not just a “project,” but a life-changing experience that has left an indelible mark on us. Let’s revisit the final event that took place in Brussels on April 12th.

All participants arrived in Brussels a day before the event, which gave us an opportunity to catch up and discuss what was in store for us the next day. However, the day was marred by the fact that four of our friends were unable to cross the border to France, and thus couldn’t make it to Belgium. It was paradoxical that the participants of a project aimed at highlighting the struggles faced by migrants and refugees were unable to attend the final event where they could have raised their concerns with policymakers. Despite this setback, we decided to make the most of our time in Brussels and focus on preparing for the conference.

The final event was held on April 12th at the European Parliament. In the morning, we visited the Parlamentarium, which was an informative and entertaining experience with its many interactive activities about the functioning of the EU and its institutions. After a quick lunch break, it was time for the main event. We were thrilled to enter the Parliament, as it was an opportunity that only a few are granted, and it added to the excitement of the day.

The event was divided into two parts: a “speed dating” activity and a panel discussion. The “speed dating” activity was a great opportunity for us to present our projects and have meaningful conversations with people from different backgrounds. I personally enjoyed presenting my project, titled “La lotta per la cittadinanza italiana: complicazioni e soluzioni praticabili” (The fight for Italian citizenship: complications and viable solutions) and found the following discussion though-provoking and noteworthy. Moreover, the panel discussion allowed us to delve deeper into the issues that young migrants face and gain insights into the perspectives of the institutions, namely the European Commission and European Parliament. Although MEP Salima Yenbou was unable to attend, we were grateful for the opportunity to discuss our projects in such a prestigious venue.

In conclusion, YMCAC was an unforgettable experience that has left a lasting impact on all participants. The final event at the European Parliament was a great opportunity to share our projects, network with like-minded individuals, and gain insights into the perspectives of policymakers. We hope that our contributions will help raise awareness of the struggles faced by young migrants and refugees and contribute to positive change.

This content reflects only the author’s view and the European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Searching for Consultant – Environmental and Green Expert

Interested parties are expected to submit a short 300-word bio by July 15th, 2023 to:
lucia@sirius-network.org

 

Terms of Reference – Project Environmental Expert

1. Background: The purpose of this document is to outline the Terms of
Reference (TOR) for advice relating to the creation of an environmentally
friendly project. The SIRIUS 3.0 project aims to prioritize sustainability and
minimize its ecological impact throughout all phases of development and
operation.
2. Objectives: The objectives of the advisory work are to give guidance to the
partners participating in the SIRIUS 3.0 project regarding how they can
operate, both within the project and outside the project, in an environmentally
friendly and sustainable way.
3. Scope of Work and deliverables: The project will encompass the following
activities: (a) develop a short user-friendly manual that can address the
various aspects of the project that relate to environmentally sustainable
principles and practices. This includes sustainable travel, identifying
opportunities for the use of sustainable materials, recycling programs, and
waste reduction measures; (b) a short presentation of the manual to the
project group; and (c) developing several questions for a larger project
evaluation questionnaire.
4. Timeline: The assignment is expected to be completed within a specified
timeframe. A detailed schedule will be developed during the assignment
planning phase, but deliverables (a) and (b) are expected by October 1, 2023
5. Reporting and Communication: Communication channels and reporting
frequency will be established to ensure effective and transparent
communication throughout the assignment.
6. Payment: Payment: details will be discussed with the external consultant.
Potential consultants are asked to indicate what they feel is fair
compensation.
7. Review and Approval: The deliverables will be reviewed and approved by the
project management team.

SIRIUS attends OECD Policy Forum

On 29th of March this year SIRIUS ED, Mialy Dermish, was invited to the ‘10th Policy Forum of the Education for Inclusive Societies Project.’ Few NGOs were present at this high-level forum and SIRIUS was mentioned by multi-lateral donors as pursuing change work at the local and national level that impacted the way migrant and refugee children and young people experience school and their school communities.

Presentations by SIRIUS network partners and members the Ministry of Education of Portugal, the European Commission DG EAC, the National Agency of Education in Sweden and more highlighted issues of inclusion, language learning, socio-emotional wellness and more.

SIRIUS was thrilled to attend and take time to question our failiures and successes in welcoming Ukrainian refugee children into our schools, and the positives that we can build from this experience that could extend to all refugee communities coming to Europe.

Refugees Mental Health

My name is Najib or you can just call me ‘Javed’. I am a refugee living in the EU, and I wanted to help other refugees regarding their mental health or education. I’ve seen a lot of refugees facing these difficulties whether it’s in education or with their mental health (mostly in Hungary). It’s hard for them to get access to mental health resources, because of their financial problems or because it’s not provided for free from the Government. There are a lot of problems going on in today’s world, and we can’t solve them all overnight but if we can help a little bit, we should step up and do our best to help someone.

As ‘Mevlana Rumi said: “God gave you wings, why crawl on the ground”. If we’ve the opportunity to help someone in need, why not do it?

So, I got intouch with SIRIUS Network and we wanted to do something. I wanted to make a campaign about Refugees Mental health, and to provide them with the help and support they need, because if our mental health is not okay then our whole body is not okay. Somehow it’s connected.

When refugees or asylum seekers enter the EU, they provide them with food and shelters but somehow they don’t take their mental health seriously or don’t provide them some more support.

I did some interviews and chats with refugees about this topic and here are the results.

A refugee family from Ukraine :

 Due to privacy their real name is not issued but, Let’s call her “Marina”.

“Marina” is a mid old age woman with two children who had left Ukraine last year February. The day of Russian-Ukraine war had changed her life and somehow the future of her children too.

“Marina” described about the war and how its effected her: ‘Before the War I had a happy life and my husband and family around, I’ve never thought that overnight my life would change completely. And I would be an asylum seeker or a refugee in other country’.

After leaving Ukraine with her two children, her husband stayed back.

She came to Hungary by train and lived in a refugee camp and the Government gave them an apartment.

“Marina” said: ‘After leaving my country I cried a lot and I had anxiety and trauma, in the night I couldn’t sleep. Most of the Time my children asked me about their father,their friends and when we can go back home. But I couldn’t answer and I had to lie to them’.

The government provided her some help because of her anxiety and trauma but she says maybe that is not enough. If she gets private psychologist or psychiatrist that costs a lot of money i.e. 1 hour with a private psychologist or psychiatrist costs 30000-ft (which is 80-85 Euros) which is a lot and she can’t afford that much money.

The interview got emotional and it was stopped.

A Refugee from Afghanistan:

Due to privacy their real name is not issued but, but let’s call him “Mohammed”.

“Mohammed” is living in the EU since 2015, when a large number of refugees and asylum seekers came from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries, he also came to the EU.

As many other refugees “Mohammed” also faced difficulties like lack of food on the way, shelters, language barrier and, of course, problems with his mental health.

He has been through a lot in his country because of the ongoing war, coming to the EU by foot and dealing with a lot of other problems, like financial and human trafficers.

“Mohammed” said: ‘My close friend died in the mediterrean sea when we were crossing Turkey to Greece.

I became depressed, and I had anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. I took a lot of anti-depressent, but that is too expensive and I can’t afford it now’.

Private psychologists are very expensive and he can’t find someone either who can help him, because in his culture it has a stigma, for men to talk about their Mental health. It’s kind of a tabu topic.
“Mohammed” says: ‘In my culture if you have some kind of mental health problems or if you are depressed, they think you are being haunted by ghosts/other spirits and beacause of that you are either put in chains or in a cage”.

Because he has this in his mind, he is afraid/ashamed of asking for help and the mental health care is expensive and not everyone can afford it.

Mental health care is a basic human rights.It doesn’t matter your residency or anything if your mental health is not okay.

 LET’S MAKE THEIR FUTURE BRIGHT AND SAFE.

 IT’S DOESN’T MATTER WHERE ARE YOU FROM YOUR  HEALTH AND EDUCATION ARE YOUR BASIC FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS…

Home Languages on International Mother-tongue Language Day!

On the 21st of February SIRIUS held two Facebook Live Events with researchers, teachers, policy-makers and practitioners working in the field of home languages and multilingualism. We started with a focus on France with our moderator Nathalie Auger, full professor of linguistics and didactics at Paul-Valéry University in Montpellier (France). She is director of the HUMAIN Research Unit (Languages, Humanities, Learning, Mediations, Interactions, Digital) sponsored by Edgar Morin. She works on the teaching/learning of languages at school, in particular French as a second language (2007 Conbat+, Maledive, Romtels,LISTIAC). She is the author of a dozen books and various websites dedicated to the projects she develops. And speakers Ranka Bijeljac-Babic, Lecturer, HDR, Department of Psychology, University of Poitiers (retired); member of the Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center (INCC), CNRS-Paris Descartes University; member of the Laboratory of Excellence-Empirical Foundations of Linguistics (Labex-EFL), Sorbonne-Paris-Cité; member of the Scientific Council of National Education; member of the Superior Council of Languages of National Education; president of the bilingual and plus association (which defends the diversity of languages and cultures of citizens in France and Europe (https://bilinguesetplus.org); and Florence Guiraud has a PhD on linguistics; trainer at the French department in the Faculty of Education Montpellier; and teacher in the Educational Unit for incoming allophone students.

The speakers covered many topics including the science and data of the benefits of including home languages in classrooms, both developed through several joint projects such as Listiac, – https://listiac.org – but also the long-standing data since the 1970s that we have known and been speaking about in our circles. They also included many experiences of teachers and teachers visited, and we saw a video created by one project of how including home languages impacts children’s learning, family engagement and the experience and perception of teachers, with some students and teachers stating that they had no idea how many languages were in the classroom.

The live finished with some practical advice to teachers on taking a first step, such as just finding out what languages are in your classroom and the Facebook chat was filled with resources for those that wish to begin their path on language awareness*.

Our second live looked at the European level and also at how cities can move school districts to be more language-aware. Speakers Ana Solé Mena who currently works as Senior expert on multilingualism at the Schools and Multilingualism Unit in the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission. She is the author of “Multilingual from the cradle. Growing up with different languages”, 2010; Main character in the documentary on multilingualism “The Power of Babel”, 2012. Hilda Heyde, who works as Programme Officer to coordinate the Language Friendly School network. With a background in Multilingualism, she aims to create opportunities for children to have access to a language-inclusive learning environment. And Tomislav Tudjman, who works as a Project Manager and Researcher at Risbo, a research, consultancy and training institute of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His expertise lies in the following fields of Inclusive schools, Integration, Migration and multilingualism, He led various European projects on these topics and is a and a long-time Board member of SIRIUS.

They started by discussing the benefits of including home languages in the classrooms in the current European Year of Skills and as we realise that STEM, critical thinking, team-work and many more skills are lacking in our work force. We heard from Tom that home language learning is a critical early step to better language acquisition in our second and further languages and from Anna that language is the building block of all knowledge, and that there is no competition between languages because what we build in one integrates into the other. Hilda re-iterated these points and spoke from a practical perspective about how the Language Friendly-School initiatives have seen teachers lives and experiences of classroom teaching be invigorated by including home languages.

Lots of transversal elements to other areas of education policy and politics became evident during this discussion including the amount of time we give teachers to prepare, be supported and get involved in new initiatives, the role of school directors and whether they have enough autonomy to make choices for their own school communities, the importance of informal educational opportunities and interactions with local services such as libraries and municipal offerings, and the importance of bringing politicians on by having them see and feel the work being done.

All in all, the discussions left a lot of food for thought and resources available for policy-makers and for teachers and we highly encourage you to check them out below.

*Resources:

Resources for assessing the home language competences of migrant pupils

https://bilinguesetplus.org/

Padlet sur la Semaine de Langues

Les langues comme objet migrateurs, Musée de Marseille

Le diamant langagier

https://sirius.univ-montp3.fr

https://didier-jeunesse.com

https://www.ecml.at

 

ENABLE Project- Presentation and kick off Meeting

SIRIUS is starting a new European project called ENABLE, focused on “enabling school integration of migrant and refugee children through social and emotional learning interventions to address psychosocial trauma”and implemented by 7 partners from 5 European countries (France, Belgium, Italy, Turkey and Greece). On the 12th and 13th of January SIRIUS met with the project partners in Pau (France) for the Kick off Meeting. 

 

The ENABLE Project

Migration and especially forced displacement and refugee experiences are associated with extreme psychosocial trauma considering the conditions under which migrants and refugees have to leave their countries, which is even more severe when it comes to children who are still in the sensitive period of development. Schools can be important settings to foster the wellbeing of all students, and particularly that of Migrant, Refugee and Displaced Children (MRDC) who may have had traumatic experiences before leaving their homes, during the journey or while settling in a new community or country. 

In recent years, the key role that education plays in treating psychosocial trauma among MRDC is increasingly recognized as school institutions can stimulate resilience and cultivate learners’ social and emotional development, thus helping build self-confidence and emotional regulation skills, while teaching children to create relationships based on trust with others.

ENABLE’s key objective is to promote the social and emotional development of Migrant, Refugee and Displaced Children (MRDC) through culturally sensitive, school-based interventions designed to deal with the negative effects of psychosocial trauma. The project’s specific objectives are to:

  1.  enhance the capacity of primary & secondary schools to effectively deal with cases of psychological trauma by developing first-level treatment and response mechanisms, protocols and tools
  2.  build the capacity of primary & secondary education teachers to stimulate the social and emotional development of MRDC in the school environment
  3. raise the awareness of educational institutions, relevant stakeholders and decision makers about the= importance of strengthening their policy framework on psychosocial trauma treatment for MRDC.

Expected result of the project 

  • A mapping matrix on effective psychosocial trauma practices focusing on the needs of MRD children in schools.
  • A defined Trauma-informed Teacher/Educator Profile (incl. training needs).
  • A validated Online Training Course on Trauma-Informed Teaching in primary and secondary schools comprising horizontal and specialised modules for i) School teachers & ii) School heads/managers.
  • Training workshops with the participation of both teachers and principals in primary and secondary schools.
  • An integrated Trauma-Informed School Policy for MRD children in the form of a Toolkit for primary and secondary school managers, key actors and decision makers at local and national level.
  • Awareness raising campaign through website, social media, printed and electronic material etc. and through events, such as advocacy/lobbying meetings, info days and a final conference.

Welcoming Third-Country Nationals in Higher Education in Europe – Lifelong Learning Week 2022

As part of the LLLWeek, SIRIUS joined the MAXIPac closing event which took place the 1st of December in Brussels.

The Lisbon Recognition Convention says that all countries should develop procedures to assess whether refugees and displaced persons fulfil the relevant requirements for access to higher education or to employment activities, even in cases in which the qualifications cannot be proven through documentary evidence. Regardless of that, in reality this letter has not been applied in most cases, and to this day third-country nationals often face a lot of challenges in the recognition of their requalifications. The MAXIPac project aims to fill this gap, by closely working with universities and academics to create and implement a uniform procedure to valorise previously acquired competences of third-country nationals by universities. 

As part of the final event, Sevak Khachatryan, SIRIUS co-chair, participated in the panel discussion “How can universities, non-governmental organisations and policy-makers contribute to more inclusive European higher education?”. He highlighted the responsibility of universities in the inclusion of TCNs in higher education, as well as the importance of including migrants and refugee students in the development of these types of projects, acknowledging their agency and right to participate in processes that directly affect to their future. 

 

#EURegionsWeek Youth participation and democracy: a quick overview

The European Week of Regions and Cities is a one-week-long event organised by the EU Committee of the Regions that promotes the sharing of good practices and ideas for a greener, more inclusive and cohesive Europe. Sirius, represented by Kejsi Hodo, Communications Intern, took part in two workshops about youth participation and empowerment. The main themes dealt with were the characteristics of youth participation, the reasons behind its decrease and the ways to improve the situation.

First of all, it is important to stress the fact that the youth participation rate registered last year was at 87%[1]. Thus, it is clear that the participation degree is quite high, but to understand what it means, it is necessary to further unpack the meaning of active citizenship. As a matter of fact, apart from voting, young people express their political views by signing petitions (often online), posting on social media, using hashtags to bring awareness and other ways which are not considered to be traditional participatory practices[2]. This is very important when analysing youth behaviour in politics, because it brings to light the generational differences in dealing with political and/or social issues. So, what does active citizenship mean in 2022? Online platforms, social media, petitions etc play a crucial role when it comes to youth and democracy. In addition, one of the fundamental aspects about it are the different means of getting information, as young people use mainly social media and websites, which indicates the influence that online platforms have on politics.

However, why is it that young people vote less and less? In general, 46% of the participants of the Eurobarometer survey report they have voted. Thus, voting is still the most chosen way to express one’s political preferences, but there are many drawbacks. Among the three of the most reported barriers to voting, there are: not being old enough, not being interested and lack of trust in politicians[3]. During the workshops, we addressed the reasons behind the decrease in the “traditional” participatory practices and how to boost young people participation. The most agreed on practice was the establishment of a strong connection between politicians and youth, to improve trust and empower young minds to make a difference. However, one crucial aspect to reflect on is economic security, as people in problematic situations are not able to be active citizens just because of their circumstances. Lastly, another underprivileged category is that of the second-generation migrants, who are often disregarded when it comes to decision-making processes and cannot vote in many EU countries.

In short, young people are generally active citizens who are accustomed to many non-conventional participatory practices, such as online petitions, social media posts and so on. However, when it comes to voting, it is critical to understand the reasons behind the decrease in the participation level and try to come up with ways to better engage the youth. Having more direct contact with decision-makers, ensuring economic security and inclusion are three pillars of youth participation. At the end, young people are not only the future, but they are also the present of our socities. Hence, their involvement in politics should be a priority and an occasion to reflect on the necessity of accepting differences and taking advantage of each other’s experiences towards an effective transgenerational and inclusive dialogue.

Written by: Kejsi Hodo, Communications Intern at SIRIUS Network

[1] Flash Eurobarometer European Parliament Youth Survey September 2021

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