MYth Project to establish a European network to accompany young migrants

The Associació Benestar i Desenvolupament - ABD (Wellbeing and Development Association) is coordinating the European project “Innovative Techniques for reaching out to migrant youth” (MYth Project), with the participation of 5 organisations from Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Greece. This initiative emerged from the concerns of social educators from different European countries in understanding, sharing and working together with the realities of migrant and refugee youths. In doing so, they aim to discover and test techniques that will help educators to work in a more effective way with young migrants.

The first step was to carry out a study in each of the participating countries with a theory framework and interviews to identify the main obstacles and needs that educators came against when working with this group. Based on the needs identified, each partner organisation selected two techniques that it will implement in a five-day training seminar.

From June to December there will be trainings for the MYth Project in the different countries. The first will be on participatory art techniques and will take place in Barcelona.

The first training seminar took place from 26 to 30 June at the Convent de Sant Agustí community centre in Barcelona. The seminar was a Course on participatory art techniques: youth and migratory processes and was taught by SAFE, the British partner organization, which specialises in community action and participatory art with youths living in vulnerable situations. The training targets both professionals as well as the youths they work with.

Training seminars will continue in August (Italy), September (UK), October (Madrid) and November (Greece), and will end in December 2017 in Bulgaria.

From ABD they explain that the big final goal of this project is to establish a European network of professionals working with young migrants, asylum-seekers or refugees.