Challenges to inclusion and solutions

Challenges faced by young refugees with active citizenship and civic education

Here is a list of challenges that young refugees often face when volunteering, campaigning, participating in civic education and active citizenship activities:

● Financial issues: Not all activities are completely free of cost, some might request a fee

● Distance issues: The locations of the activities are not always near the participant’s residence

● The activities on offer in one organisation could be insufficient or not fulfill all the young person’s needs

● Issues with finding employment: These activities usually don’t provide professional qualification certificates or official diplomas, and are difficult to include on a CV or to promote on the labor market

● Language barriers and communication difficulties

● Fragmentation of activities, sometimes provided by different organisations, can lead to difficult and unequal access

● Lack of information about these activities, especially to refugees that don’t stay in reception centers

● Issues with the duration of the support: the activities are often episodic when long-term support would often be necessary.

● Challenges of coping with trauma: coping with the psychological and emotional trauma experienced by young refugees requires specialized knowledge and ongoing support, which may not be readily available

● Integration difficulties: having to integrate in the host country, but also very often within a multicultural and multinational environment

Ideas of activities, workshops, games

A wide variety of non formal education methods are used during these activities. These methods used most frequently require involvement, cooperation, reflection and self-reflection among participants, as follows:

- Expert meetings with a discussion panel

- Social and educational games

- Sports games

- Board games

- Group discussions

- Brainstorming

- Real-life situations role play

- Dialogues using open-ended questions

- Language immersion technics

- Meetings with native speakers

- Interactive lecture, storytelling

- Practical art tasks

- Creative drama method

While the activities usually take place collectively, aspects of individualized support are often included to meet the unique needs and learning styles of each participant.