Workshops on unaccompanied minors at our Greek partner The Smile of the Child
As part of our support and inclusion of unaccompanied minors in Europe project, the European Community of Practice and Knowledge – comprised of educators, project managers and researchers from all over Europe and from Apprentis d’Auteuil - met for the third time last January for a week in Athens with our Hellenic partner, The Smile of The Child. This week-long gathering aimed to exchange good practices on daily support of unaccompanied minors in Europe and work on the educational relationship with unaccompanied minors.
Throughout the week, various workshops were organized in order to reflect upon fundamental issues, such as the guarantee of a safe environment for unaccompanied minors or the group dynamic of unaccompanied minors from different origins or cultures. By the end of the rich and fruitful exchanges, different directive principles for daily support of unaccompanied minors had been identified. These were, inter alia, that one must respect unaccompanied minors’ will to remain silent, that one must give them enough time, that one must take sufficient time to explain to them why decisions are made in a certain way and what are the rules to abide by, and finally, that one must commit to the restoration of an ordinary life for these young people despite their extraordinary background, through activities of the daily life.
The next gathering of the European Community of Practices and Knowledge will take place from 20 to 25 May 2019, and will tackle the departure of young unaccompanied minors from the support centres.
*A Community of Practice and Knowledge is:
- A unique platform for dialogue and exchanges of good practices between various actors gathered around a common issue;
- A community of professionals who will, over time, enhance their mutual knowledge, exchange upon the challenges they face, and build collective intelligence (new knowledge and tools that will be useful for other professionals supporting young unaccompanied minors);
- An opportunity for professionals to learn differently, through peer learning and a long term commitment;
- An untraditional approach to training that is not didactical, but instead, based on a concrete analysis of professionals’ empirical practices. This approach, exploits the skills, know-how and expertise already acquired by professionals in their daily work.
Financed by Erasmus+ Jeunesse et Sport