On the 28th of March 2018, the Blend-IN project held its Kick-Off Meeting in Athens, Greece. During the meeting the partners discussed the project plan and schedule, the learning opportunities in simulations and serious games, as well as the outlined dissemination and evaluation strategies and criteria.
The project Blend-IN aims to tackle the existing mistrust and non-tolerance among the different communities that live in Europe through educating youth workers. The current project is designed in the complex context of Europe that is not as united as it was, a field for rising Eurosceptics and growing tensions. Still, young people all over the continent have similar interests and problems and present the driving force for enacting positive change. Taking into account these dynamics, the Blend-IN partnership is driven to contribute to the pan-European efforts to promote the value brought by tolerance and diversity.
Blend-IN will provide youth workers with the unique opportunity to obtain knowledge and practical experience related to inter-cultural communication and management in a different, dynamic format. The creation of the simulation game, which aims to immerse the youth workers in realistic situations and point them to the correct solutions is a precedent for this kind of training of youth workers. Blend-IN will provide a more interactive environment, which stimulates situations of intercultural communication and management case studies, related to initiatives with a more integrated approach towards youth work and network activities.
The project is implemented under the framework of the European Commissions’ Programme Erasmus+, within Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices, Action: Strategic partnership for youth.