„The first week of November, an international group of youth workers and volunteers was invited by Grenzenlos to meet in Vienna to learn, discuss, and share their experience with the topic of inclusion. For five days, the group took a deep dive into the topic: What does inclusion mean? Why is it so important? Which values guide us on the journey to be more inclusive? What more can we as individuals and our organizations do in this area?
To tackle these questions, we used lots of creative approaches, from making art to playing games and doing advice speed dating to creating small theater plays. The participants were able to not only reflect on the topic, but also experience it with “Learning by Doing”.
We focused on creating a safer space for everyone to feel empowered to participate meaningfully, trying to build an inclusive learning environment together by taking into account all of our needs.
This gave the participants space to share their experiences and struggles in the area of inclusion, develop new ideas, and gain new perspectives from the expertise of the other participants. One of the highlights of the training included doing the traditional Intercultural Evening at Club 21, an open day café for people with and without disabilities. Here we could share stories, music, and food with the visitors of Club 21 (link), who gave us a warm welcome.
Another highlight was to get input on the inclusion of People with Invisible Disabilities by Sara ElKhabbaty from the Project “Chronically Hidden”
With the training we not only wanted to share knowledge on inclusion, but we also aimed to connect and create lasting bonds between the participants: To make inclusion work, it needs all of us together, building a culture of inclusion.“ – Said Ramin Rahimi
Picture credit: Said Ramin Rahimi
