BB_BO - Service Civil International

Many of the projects that SCI works on are organised with the intention to bring effective social change. Branching Out: (Re)Connecting Ideas was a project supported by the European Youth Foundation that focused on collecting and sharing best practices when it comes to working with refugees and asylum seekers.

Hence, the main aims of the project were to:

Create learning opportunities for young people and volunteer-based organisations to increase their capacities to act as change makers
Systematically engage the target groups into volunteer-based activities in Europe
Give young people and organisations a voice in formulating their vision for SCI’s work in this area by co-shaping the SCI’s Strategic plan 2019-22 and beyond.

Unique platform where SCI branches, other organisations and volunteer groups came together, exchanged experience and became inspired for their future work towards creating inclusive societies, facilitating intercultural dialogue and promoting volunteering as a tool for inclusion. During the Community Forum branches and partners contributed great ideas how to create a dialogue between diverse groups of the society. The participants also took this opportunity to collect methods to prepare and to work on the Diverse Communities: Visual Method Cards tool.

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Branches and volunteers hosted 19 different Local Activities all over Europe to celebrate together diversity and solidarity. These activities were organised in partnership with local refugee groups and organisations. They provided a space to reflect about and experimented with possibilities on how to systematically engage the target groups, while promoting peace through cooperation, using volunteer work as a medium, each of them done according to the local context. In the report you can read about all the activities with links to events, videos and more impressions.

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The final event of Branching Out took place in Finland. It was a place where SCI branches and other organisations were able to meet and reflect on best practices and challenges experienced throughout their involvement, to evaluate and conclude the project in its whole, as well as to discuss future strategies on working with young refugees and migrants and evaluate their past actions. In the report you can find the most important outcomes of the discussions, evaluations and workshops they held parallel to and in collaboration with the SCI Exchange Platform Meeting and its participants.

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As an output, we proudly present this interactive tool, whose creation has been following the entire project. During the first activity, proven best practices of the present Branches and their Local Partners have been gathered. These practices facilitate dialogue among diverse groups and their introduction and preparation have been translated, by the Branching Out Project Team, into an easy to understand language. We spread this tool to encourage other groups to try out new ways of bringing together diverse groups of their local communities. The tool is likewise designed with visuals to use it directly as facilitation tool in groups. Here you can access the cards with instructions. The PDF Version is ready to be printed. Please share your experience about how you have been using the tool in your local community and drop us a message.