CGROW

Coloured Glasses: Expanding Intercultural Education

The project at a glance

“Coloured Glasses Grow: Expanding Intercultural Education” (CGrow) is a project funded by the European Commission and coordinated by EEE-YFU, in partnership with FernUniversität, OBESSU, YEU International, YFU Austria, YFU Bulgaria, YFU Estonia, YFU France, YFU Germany, YFU Italy, and YFU Sweden. The aim of “Coloured Glasses: Expanding Intercultural Education” is to contribute to increasing the number of young people who develop intercultural competences, thus equipping them to engage in non-discriminatory practices and intercultural dialogue.

The expansion

The project CGrow expanded Coloured Glasses through: 

1. New and strengthened geographies at grassroots level: a major part of this project is to bring Coloured Glasses to local regions where it currently does not exist, reaching out 150 volunteers and 20.000 young people across 7 different countries. 

2. Pedagogical adaptation to new target audiences: a manual will be developed for delivering Coloured Glasses to teachers and youth workers.

3. Dissemination and networking: additional outreach activities will further amplify the impact on people and networks that increase their awareness about the importance of intercultural education and how it can be implemented.

Activities

In the frame of the “Coloured Glasses: Expanding Intercultural Education” project (CGrow), the following activities were be implemented:

Coloured Glasses workshops for more than 20,000 young people
Training courses for Regional Coordinators and School Ambassadors
E-Learning Modules for Local Volunteers
Regional Training Courses with Flying Trainers from other countries
Development of a common Coloured Glasses Quality Assurance Framework
Development of online evaluation tools
Publication of manuals for teachers and youth workers in 6 languages
Pilot Testing Workshops targeting teachers and youth workers
A scientific study on the impact of Coloured Glasses
Regional launch events
Networking initiatives
A European Conference on Intercultural Education in Schools and Youth work

One part of this project focused on bringing Coloured Glasses to six regions where it did not exist. This was done through investing in creating new regional volunteer groups who were supported and trained in facilitating Coloured Glasses workshops. Over the course of the project, over 150 volunteers in 6 regions (plus a 7th at national level in Germany) were recruited and delivered workshops to more than 20,000 young people.

Via this project, new manuals were developed to deliver Coloured Glasses to those who work with young people: teachers and youth workers. The new and adapted content was tested and then translated into six additional languages for a wide dissemination.

Coloured Glasses as a best practice was disseminated in several ways, including through online, social and traditional media; through presentations and national and regional events of project partners and other relevant entities. A scientific study has tested and researched its impact on the development of intercultural competences. A European Conference brought together policy makers, youth workers and leaders from the field of formal education to debate and explore the state of the art in intercultural education.