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The Intercultural Navigators project is a three year programme run by the British Council which aims to develop groups of young leaders in Europe who can easily ‘navigate’ within and between different cultures – who have an understanding of their own cultural background and who are able and open to accept, respect and understand other cultures.
The structure of the programme is simple: the Navigators met together for four two day training workshops in during 2008 and 2009. They developed their leadership potential and were inspired to lead change in their communities. The training is now followed by international attachments involving public and nongovernmental institutions and the business sector. To turn new knowledge and experience into action the British Council and its international partners also encourage the participants to develop and implement their own projects in the field of intercultural dialogue.
The bedrock of this programme is appreciative inquiry, an approach which gets people to focus on what works in every situation and to be positively curious about situations that are unfamiliar. However what gives the methodology its real impact is the added value that has been gained from working in collaboration with a team of experts from the UK and across the region with a rich and diverse knowledge of working in intercultural environments. A wide variety of skills, tools and techniques have been introduced, strengthened and practiced during the training. These include: Appreciative Inquiry, Ubuntu, Questioning, Systems Thinking and Conflict Management.
Croatian Intercultural Navigators are 23 young people with a desire to make a significant positive contribution to society; people who want to learn, are open minded, curious, and willing to share their own experiences and at the same time actively seek new perspectives. The group is diverse in terms of religion, gender, ethnicity, class, sectors and geographical balance in order to reflect and impact across society.
ConSol, an abbreviation of the term conflict-solving, is a youth-based project which embodies the idea of reconciliation through fun-based activities and workshops in conflict areas. ConSol also refers to the ‘video-game consol’, thus not only stresses our aims but is also coined to reflect our fun attitude and attract young people into our activities!
We propose to work towards fostering dialogue, reconciliation and improved social cohesion by engaging youth from diverse backgrounds in activities with important secondary outcomes in civic education. Some of the core themes for our workshops and activities are science, and conflict-resolution, chosen and modified to engage youth with their fun dimensions, and more importantly, for their core values such as tolerance and cooperation to be passed on through fun.
Leilla Younis at the Southbank Centre, London, UK
Ljubica Petrović at the Government Office for London, UK
Lana Jurman at Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Jelena Hrgović at the Centre for Global Education York, UK
Anton Pasisnichenko from Ukraine at EU Info Centre, Zagreb
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