Together as One
Type of project: Mobility of young people
Partners: 🇫🇷 🇬🇪 🇲🇦 🇳🇱 🇪🇸 🇺🇦
Location: Marrakesh, Morocco
Inspiration
In our recent project, we aimed to make a meaningful impact by promoting inclusiveness, tolerance, and acceptance across various nationalities, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds. We focused on minority groups who often lack a voice, striving to create a ripple effect that would resonate across many countries.
Through “Together As One”, we encouraged participants to explore and celebrate their own cultures. Our goal was to empower them to embrace cultural diversity and build mutual understanding among people from different countries. By doing so, we hoped to drive European integration and foster a more inclusive and connected Europe.
The most important was to:
- foster resilience in young people by helping them build a strong sense of belonging and identity,
- highlight the importance of embracing diverse values,
- achieve shared goals in a global setting and create universal values.
Through this initiative, we aimed to offer participants, particularly those with fewer opportunities, the chance to:
- experience Moroccan culture firsthand,
- gain valuable experience living away from home, family, and friends,
- connect with individuals from varied backgrounds,
- enhance their tolerance and understanding,
- share their practices and be encouraged to become active members of their communities.
Activities
The main mobility of “Together As One” involved 36 participants, including 6 group leaders.
The activities were designed to engage participants in role-play scenarios, allowing them to explore their responses to specific situations. By learning through doing, participants internalized the experiences, which led to behavioural changes often without their conscious awareness. The focus was on self-awareness, environmental interactions, working styles, reactions, and thought processes. Workshops played a crucial role in reinforcing and applying the concepts learned.
Throughout the project, we offered inclusive games, workshops, presentations, and study visits. These activities allowed participants to share practices, recognize and respect each other’s uniqueness.
To ensure we engaged participants at an unconscious level (where biases are often formed), we addressed the following areas:
- Our daily actions and exclusion: We examined how everyday behaviours can unconsciously exclude others.
- Costs of discrimination: We discussed the costs and long-term consequences of segregation and intolerance, and how they lead to further issues.
- Creating change: We explored strategies for fostering change to make a positive impact on local communities.
Participants:
The project brought together 36 young people (aged 18-26) from 6 nationalities. To achieve a wide diversity of participants, our team worked with partner organizations, each selecting 6 participants and a group leader from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Georgia, Morocco, and Ukraine. We included young people, volunteers, and active citizens, integrating them with individuals facing fewer opportunities and backgrounds with cultural differences, social obstacles, educational difficulties, economic challenges, and geographical barriers. By using our inclusive methods, we ensured their equal and proactive participation, as well as effective learning and skill development.
Impact
The issue of social inclusion, exclusion, and integration was more than just about achieving equal education—it was vital for promoting equality and improving society as a whole. We knew that if we didn’t focus on these issues, some groups would remain stuck on the sidelines. It was clear that sticking to the “business-as-usual” approach wasn’t enough. Social inclusion, as a key goal, was crucial for driving sustainable human development and fostering integration.
We aimed to help build a just and lasting peace. Our goal was for participants to come away understanding that respecting each other’s diverse beliefs, cultures, and languages is essential. We wanted them to see differences not as threats but as valuable parts of our shared humanity.
We hoped to empower our participants to carve out their paths and succeed by adopting a proactive mindset and recognizing their potential. Likewise, we wanted them to not just think about change, but actively pursue it.
At least half of the participants were young people facing fewer opportunities. The experiences and knowledge they gained from this project were meant to:
Shift their attitudes and behaviours
Boost their self-confidence, especially if they had struggled with integration before
We wanted them to become more proactive in their lives and local communities, taking the lead on new projects and campaigns. They were also expected to pass on the knowledge and experiences they gained to others.
Partner organizations in the project grew and strengthened their skills, sharing valuable best practices and methods across Europe, North Africa, and the Caucasus.
In the end, we built strong, sustainable partnerships that championed diversity, tolerance, empowerment, and community action. Everyone got involved, and partnerships flourished, setting the stage for meaningful change.
How we spread the results:
Spain: Seguimos y no paramos!
Location: Malaga, Spain
Audience: Local students and educators interested in the activities of A.M.E.F.E. (Asociación Malagueña de Educación y Formación Europea)
Purpose: Introduce the Together as One project
Download materials produced during the event: Presentation
Join the Spanish community of Together as One project on Instagram
A local event of the Spanish team also took place at the Juan XXIII Cartuja school in Granada. 15 children aged 17-18 have participated. This event consisted of a presentation of the project we did in Marrakesh (information on the topics covered, photos, experiences, etc.) and 4 activities similar to those we did there. Topics such as racism, cultural differences, gender equality and social inclusion have been debated.
Netherlands
On 23 September 2023 the members of NGO Stichting yEUth came together in a meeting with other Dutch people to complete various dissemination tasks and exchange ideas as well as inspire one another. They met in the city of the Leiden, the city in which the organisation is based. In the city’s library they had the stage for a minute of 15/20, in which they presented the projects objectives and activities, as well as the wonderful fun times they had in the spare time. According to the team, “the people were blown away about the impact the project had on the Dutch team” and got inspired by the activities organized by the Dutch team regarding stress-management. Later, they all went for lunch together and talked a lot about plans.
Ukraine and Hungary – Discovering New Horizons: An Introduction to Erasmus+ Projects
The members of the French team summarised their experiences as follows: “During our Erasmus in Morocco last August, we were deeply immersed in a cultural mosaic, bringing together several countries in a shared experience. The main strength of this program lay in its commitment to social inclusion. Through various activities, we not only gained knowledge but also grew closer, transcending the cultural and social boundaries that might have separated us. Furthermore, this trip to Marrakech provided a glimpse into the country’s rich history and culture, highlighting its invaluable heritage.
One of the highlights of our stay was the cultural evenings, true bridges between the traditions and customs of the participants. These special moments emphasized the importance of cultural exchange, allowing each individual to share and learn in a spirit of openness and mutual respect. In essence, this Erasmus was not just a simple trip but a unique opportunity for personal and collective growth, underlining the importance of integrating such initiatives into our educational journeys for a better global understanding.
The presentation succeeded in sparking the interest of the attendees. In France, such opportunities are not necessarily known to everyone. The concept of social inclusion, a cornerstone of the trip organized in Morocco, was well understood by all.”
