I.I.T. PROJECTS

PRESENT PROJECTS

Europe of Stereotypes – East meets west through arts

The objectives of this project were: to raise awareness about stereotypes and provide interactive tools to deal with them; to make young people aware of their similarities and differences through multicultural workshops; to develop knowledge and competencies on key concepts relating to stereotypes. The project was held in Slavyanogorsk, Ukraine and the participants were young people from Sweden, Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia and Romania, that tried to reach the objectives mentioned through music, dancing, theatre and shadow theatre. The project was organised by Culture Clinic and financed by the Youth Programme.

EURRENET - The European Roma Education Network

(2005-2008)

The EURRENET project is supported by the SOCRATES - COMENIUS Programme of the European Commission and is co-ordinated by the Intercultural Institute of Timisoara. The project involves partners from Belgium , Bulgaria , Czech Republic , Ireland , Poland , Portugal , Slovak Republic , Spain , and Romania . The European Roma Education Network was the initiative of Jean-Pierre Liegeois, former director of the Gypsy Research Centre at Paris V University. Following our co-operation and considering the dissolution of the Centre, the IIT, together with a group of partners, would like to bring forward the achievements of the GRC and support the networking of relevant active institutions in this field.

The education of Roma and traveller children has been affirmed as a priority in the Comenius Programme since its initiation and has been consistently associated with an intercultural education approach. A transnational approach of this topic is highly justified by the fact that there is very limited communication and contact between the various Comenius projects in this field and there is a clear need to overcome parallel work and the risk of duplication, to increase the visibility and the impact of the products and achievements of previous projects and to facilitates the coherence and complementarily of future project initiatives in this field.

 

Roma Youth Centre

The Project aims to develop Roma parents as actors of educational change and social inclusion in their communities through the development of social skills concerning their educational attitudes and their vision of their children's education.

This requires the building of their awareness towards the problems of education and providing them with opportunities for taking part in the process of community and school decision-making.
The Project is based on the co-operative effort and field work in three communities: Haskovo, Bulgaria, Trento, Italy and Timisoara, Romania. They will try to develop this inclusive approach via the establishment of Roma adult educational centres and through these centres, educational programmes for young Roma parents.

The programs will aim not only to develop their educational sensitivity but as well to provide them with practical strategies for dealing with various educational problems.
The impact of the Project in the broader sense will be in the interaction and the interrelation between the Adult Education and the Education of Roma children and in the elaboration of the educational inclusion model for Roma parents as actors of educational change in Roma communities.

The project aims at promoting a local strategy for sustainable development, based on the democratic participation and on the partnership between majority and Roma minority. Developed in Timisoara and in two villages of the Timis county, the project intends to stimulate a positive attitude towards the members of the Roma community, thus creating et disseminating an example of good practice that might be useful in other contexts for developing relations of respect and confidence between the Roma and the non-Roma. The dissemination phase will also involve representatives of Roma NGOs from Yugoslavia.
Financing: Confidence Building Measures Programme of the Council of Europe

TOGETHER - The construction of the cultural strategy of the Timis county , model of social dialogue
(May - November 2001)

The project aims at realising the cultural strategy of Timis county, as a model of dialog between  political and administration decision-makers and the actors of the cultural life. The project can also serve as a model to can be applied in other regions. By fulfilling its goals, the project will contribute at increasing the diversity of the cultural offer and  the inovation of the artistic expressions ; developping   partnerships, colaborations and  synergies with others  regions ; increasing the impact of the cultural offer.

The project is realised within the framework of Policies for Culture Programme of the Cultural European Foundation, of Ecume Association and Ecume-Est Association.

Partners : Timis County Council, Local Council Timisoara, the Direction for Culture, Worships and National Heritage of Timis department. 

The project aims at reinforcing cross-border cooperation between regions of Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia, parts of the historical Banat region in the field of education for intercultural citizenship. The project's target group is formed by:

-          civic, education and youth NGOs representing different cultural communities living in the Banat region;
-          teachers interested in citizenship and intercultural education;

-          children and young people (pupils and students) from the different cultural communities in the region.

The BANNET project is developed in the framework of the Stability Pact for South-East Europe , with the financial support of the United States of America.

More info at: http://bannet.ebanat.com

Romania, as many countries of South-East Europe, has faced constant confrontation of cultures during its history, particularly during the 20th Century when major transformations repeatedly affected its social, political and cultural life. Banat and Transylvania have thereby accumulated a very rich inter-cultural experience. Nevertheless it is necessary to consider this experience within the framework of the new order, i.e. the existence and development of Europe (and politically the European Union) and the resurgence of inter-ethnic conflicts in the whole region.

The Institutional Partnership (IP) between the Centre for Inter-Ethnic Research in Transylvania (CCRIT), Cluj, the Department of Ethnology at the University of Fribourg and the Intercultural Institute of Timisoara (IIT) aims at contributing to the development and systematisation of "good practices" in the field of intercultural relations. To achieve this purpose the IP will assess existing research in this field (with the help of its networks) and propose new directions for research, in order to design new models for positive intercultural relationships.
The three partner institutions are working together for the first time on a common project, establishing closer links between the Banat and Transylvania on the one hand, and with the other regions of Romania on the other hand.

The publications, printed and on line, will give Romanian intercultural research worldwide audience and will constitute a well for researchers in this field. It will encourage also young Romanian scholars to devote their research to this important topic for the future of South East Europe, where cultural conflicts are endemic.
The reinforcement of research in the field of interculturalism in Romania will also permit to produce clearer and more reliable concepts and knowledge in order to offer better arguments for social and political practices concerning human rights in South East Europe.

Romanimation is a project financed by the Council of Europe which took place in two Roma communities in the Timis County, Dudestii Noi and Satchinez, respectively. The duration of the project was August 1 to August 24, 2004.

A team of experts in youth work and minorities from six countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy and Romania, developed youth activities and lived inside the Roma communities in tents and wagons. There were five Roma and five Romanian youth in each working team.

They used this international project in order to enhance the contact and the relations between the Roma and the non-Roma citizens. It was intended to create a dynamic project involving various social actors which will facilitate the maintenance of the collaboration and implementations of future projects after the present project's completion.

Also, it is important to create the opportunity for all the participants of the project and the target groups (Roma and non-Roma youth) in order to experiment with the European and intercultural dimensions of living together.

The seminar "Ethnic Diversity of Banat - An Exercise in Communication" was organised by the Department for Interethnic Relations (DRI) from the Romanian government in partnership with the Intercultural Institute of Timisoara.

The seminar's purpose was to familiarise minority youth from the Banat region with the activities and financial procedures of the DRI, to make a better partnership between the DRI and other national minority organisations from western Romania and to stimulate the involvement of the youth in learning and promoting the traditions and cultural values of the communities where they come from in an intercultural perspective.

This project aimed at improving the access of different types of social actors from the Timis county to information concerning the accession of Romania to European Union membership and especially regarding the financing programmes which are available for the Romanian institutions and organisations in this context.
Financing: PHARE -Europe Programme of the European Commission

 

Pilot project for Romania, it aimed at creating a data base for setting-up the regional cultural strategies through investigating and diagnosing the cultural demand and offer in the Timis county. It has been implemented with the collaboration of the local authorities from Timisoara and with the Sociology Faculty from the Western University of Timisoara .
Financing: PHARE - Euroart Programme of the European Commission

The project had as principal objective to involve young representatives of the seventeen national minorities officially recognized in Romania in activities concerning the reconstitution of the minorities contribution to the Romanian social and cultural life, through oral history testimonies. A final volume reflecting the activities involving these young people has been published at the end of the project.
This project was developed in collaboration with the Department for the National Minorities Protection from the Romanian Government and with several organisation of the national minorities.
Financing: Confidence Building Measures Programme of the Council of Europe

I.I.T. is partner, with the Socio-Cultural Association of Roma from Banat , in the project The training of the leaders of Roma communities from the Timis county, coordinated by the Ecumenical Foundation of Timisoara and financed by the PHARE - Democracy Programme .
 

The I.I.T. is partner of this project coordinated by the European Centre of Education for Democracy. The project aims at developing a climate of tolerance and reciprocal understanding between the cultural communities from different regions of Yugoslavia. The project involves representatives of non-governmental organisations and of cultural communities from Voivodina, Serbia, Sandjak and Montenegro.
Financing: Confidence Building Measures Programme of the Council of Europe

The project aimed at developing relations of collaboration between schools and cultural institutions from different multicultural regions of Romania. The activities developed in the framework of the project had as purpose the reinforcement of social cohesion within groups that implied the participation of the minority and majority young people.
Financing: The Confidence Building Measures Programme of the Council of Europe.

 

The project, implemented by the Foundation for Humans Rights and Peace Education from Budapest in collaboration with the I.I.T., aimed at introducing methods of intercultural education in multiethnic primary schools. In Romania, the activities are organized in collaboration with the House of the Teachers from Timisoara and with the Timis School Inspectorate support.
Financing: European Cultural Foundation.
 

I.I.T. took part in the activities of disseminating the results of the Council of Europe's Democracy, human rights, minorities : educational and cultural aspects project. In this context, the I.I.T. organised a seminar concerning the introduction of an intercultural perspective in the religion teaching in Romania and published in Romanian several works elaborated by the Council of Europe within the framework of this project.

During more than three years, with the support of the Council of Europe's Confidence Building Measures Programme, the I.I.T. invited Romanian and foreign experts, recommended by the Council of Europe , to conference and to take part in round tables on topics related to the interculturality. The principal topics approached were: intercultural education, the role of the media in a multicultural society, intercultural approach in the social sciences, protection and the development of the inheritance in a multicultural society and cross-border cultural cooperation. Three French and Romanian volumes published gather the texts of these conferences.
Financing: Confidence Building Measures Programme of the Council of Europe.

The international project EDES, developed in 1999, was included in the Education for democratic citizenship Programme of the Council of Europe. It contributed to the improvement of civic education teachers' training in the concerned countries: Croatia, Ukraine, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Lithuania. In Romania, the coordination of the project was ensured by the I.I.T., in collaboration with the Ministry for National Education.

An analysis of the way in which the Romanian press presents the Roma minority constituted the base for several workshops joining together, in Timisoara, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi, journalists, representatives of the public authorities, social scientists and representatives of the NGOs and of the Roma communities. The role played by the press in the case of the interethnic conflicts involving Roma people was also analyzed. A national seminar on this subject was organized at the end of the project and a volume reflecting the conclusions of the analyses and the debates was published in Romanian and French.
Partners: The Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences of Bucharest; the Journalism Chair of the Western University of Timisoara.
Financing: Foundation for an Open Society of Romania; the Confidence Building Measures Programme of the Council of Europe.
 

With an aim of raising consciousness among the representatives of the public authorities to the importance of the human rights respect but also of the cultural diversity, several seminars were organised involving the teachers, the police representatives, the civil servants of the local government, the NGOs and the representatives of the national minorities.
Partners: the European Center of Education for Democracy; the School Inspectorate, the Police, the local and regional authorities of Zalau, Iasi and Timisoara.
Financing: The Confidence Building Measures Programme of the Council of Europe.

The success of this project consisted in a greater visibility of the minorities and in the introduction of intercultural education activities in several museums of Romania located in different regions with a strong multicultural character. The pilot phase of the project was developed with the Museum of Banat in Timisoara. A methodological guide of intercultural museum pedagogy was published in Romanian and French.
Partners: the Romanian Ministry of Culture, museums of Nürnberg (Germany), Brasov, Timisoara, Resita, Constanta, Drobeta Turnu-Severin, Bucharest, Zalau, Iasi.
Financing: The Confidence Building Measures Programme of the Council of Europe

Members of the Roma communities from several districts of Timisoara were trained in order to be able to facilitate the contacts between Roma people and local authorities. Several public meetings in the concerned districts were also organized by those members.
Partners: the Socio-Cultural Association of Roma from Banat; the Timis County Council .
Financing: PHARE - Democracy Programme of the European Commission.
 

The aim of the project was to improve the school attendance and to ensure the equality of chances for the Roma pupils. In six schools of the department of Timis having a significant number of Roma pupils "Intercultural Clubs" were created, bringing together Roma and Romanian pupils, in activities encouraging the expression of the children's creativity. The activities of these Clubs were animated by the teachers assisted by students in psychology trained for using informal intercultural techniques of education. At the same time, members of the Roma community, acting as school mediators, facilitated the contacts between the school and the families.
Partners: the Socio-Cultural Association of Roma from Banat ; the Timis School Inspectorate .
Financing: Open Society Foundation Romania

The  education of children from Roma communities: the training of the teachers who work in Roma environment
(June 1996 - January 1998)

Youth exchange projects