“I've always thought of acting as more of an exercise in empathy, which is not to be confused with sympathy. You're trying to get inside a certain emotional reality or political reality and try to figure out what that's about so you can represent it.- Edward NortonLearning through experience – the motto of this project! We are going to work and live together accordingly. At the end of his life Albert Einstein concluded that his most decisive learning processes did not happen in school. We are going to build on this conclusion, aiming at at a non-formalistic learning approach together with 60 young Europeans from 7 different countries. Our learning experiences are supposed to go way beyong cognitive recognition of facts and figures. By immersing into the world of Mini LARPs (Live Action Role Plays) we are going to discover social, political and cultural European dimensions from a whole new angle, which we would like to call “playducation”.60 young people come together in the Europahaus Marienberg to make up their minds about Europes different dimensions. We want to know what Europe is at and where the journey is going. In an intercultural learning environment we are going to develop ideas for an everyday life just as we would like it to become European reality – with all its ups and downs. At the end we will have created a series of Mini LARPs that will help others to engage in those learning processes, that we ourselves created and thought to be important.After having learned about the relation between play and seriousness and also after having tested a series of different LARP and simulation approaches, we are going to develop our own Mini LARPs. We will again put them to the test, before making them ready to be uploaded into the SALTO Tool Box for the benefit of others. This also guarantees that this project will contribute sustainably to the future development of European education and working towards something that maybe one day will be called “European Identity”.

The general purpose of the project is to increase interest of young people in the European integration and European issues by supporting educators and youth workers in providing accurate materials and tools to show how the European heritage and values are linked to particular fields of knowledge the young people are being taught at schools. Our project thus brings forth the idea of creating new materials in form of a simple manual, updated by good practices from Poland, Germany and Romania. By identifying common challenges and specific problems in each country through critical approach towards European integration and issues in school curriculum we will engage educators, youth workers and young people to work on materials addressing the EU – the concept of integration, its demography, history, cultural and natural heritage as well as its institutions, competences and specific actions. Two training courses for educators and youth workers as well as one blended mobility for youth will be organized and constant work with local working groups will be conducted. In order to encourage deliberate learning processes inclusive and interactive methods will be used.In a participatory way, engaging educators, youth workers and youth, a manual on European education suited to the partners’ environments and needs will be created, tested, implemented and disseminated. In a long-term perspective the Manual aims to become a permanent resource for comprehensive European education in schools and youth-work. The project will therefore enhance the interest, critical approach and willingness of youth to participate in democratic and civic life of the European community by understanding it better.

The concept of the project was transferred and realized to the greatest extent possible. The burning topics of „Flight and migration“ were key issues that were tackled that both youngsters as well as partner organisations were concerned about with for a longer period of time. The wish to deal more intensively with these issues and to talk about it not only from one’s own national perspective and to learn and share in a European dimension has been realized. The discussions and vivid debates about the so called refugee crisis were the incitement for all partners of the project to learn, to discuss and to experience about various aspects of the topic. All facets of the discussion about flight and migration were involved: lack of knowledge, missing depth of the facts and figures, prejudices, face-to face contact to refugees, people with migration background, nationalistic answers, fears and xenophobia. This conflict situation was uncovered and structured with all its different pieces. 60 young Europeans from eight different European countries (Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Austria, Slovenia, Spain and Germany) have dealt intensively with the topics of flight and migration and they also included talking about the tendencies of renationalization and xenophobic or even racist trends within the European debate. Next to the huge gain of new knowledge and new facts the emotional approach and the raising of an empathetic understanding of the whole picture of the topic was crucial to this project. Within a non-formal approach of learning and experiences young Europeans have done a multi-layered journey through the topic. Moreover they have learned much about themselves and had the opportunity to increase skills and competencies that are be crucial for their future life: Human Sculptures, Kapla-Stones, creative collages, Mini-LARP, Mobile-Movie-Festival, face-to-face meetings cooperation with refugees, NGOs and activists, workshops and many more things produced an exciting and sustainable learning process with vivid experiences. The project included young people from all social and educational backgrounds as well as youngsters with migration history and refugees and brought them all together on one platform for joint exchange and collaboration. The project produced public multiplication and dissemination and also included already in the project planning phase a long-term benefit and usage of the experiences and project results for all people involved. The participation of all project partner and all youngsters involved had already in the preparations a central significance so that in result an eclectic European youth project had been developed. This project followed an overall red thread and offered to all people of the project the opportunity to gain competencies and qualifications within a European dimension that have a clear benefit and will be available to third parties as well. Thus we a vivid contribution to the European debate about flight and refugees have been generated and also produced exceptional learning experiences on different levels. In the same time a European network have been revived and revitalized with a clear contribution to the Europeanisation of youth education. This is reinforced by the plans to rotate to other European countries of the partnership and continue from this point onwards with the good project work. Not least this project is a preventive education project that tackles actively xenophobia, populism and racism without moralizing but through achieving these goals via individual learning experiences.

"<< Objectives >>Participants and partners of this highly innovative project will find themselves thrown into the Zombie-Apocalypse and over the course of 8 days will have to find a cure against the Zombie-Virus. Along the lines of this immersive popcultral storytelling we will look into ourselves and the world(s) around us. What is it that we personally and the world globally really needs in order to change for the better? The Zombie-Virus metaphor is thus an equally powerful and playful approach to think and learn about social, political and cultural developments. Believing that true learning (that leads to a change of actions and behaviour within the participants) does not only require the cognitive level, we have developed this project to take into account emotional (EQ) and bodily intelligences (s. Guy Claxton) as learning entities to design a transformational project, that helps participants to come to a full and deep understanding of who they are in the world and how they can make a difference. For this project to reach these ambitious objectives we have therefore carefully and collaboratively curated experiences ranging from drama games, immersive theatre, life acting role play or phantasy journeys to Virtual Reality. The anthropocene provides one of the projects most pressing and urgent questions: ""Since humans are a geo- and sociochronological factor on this planet, what do we have to evolve into to make our countries, Europe and finally the world a better place?"" However, Zombieland is neither an academic nor a philosophical project, but one that centres also on the power of intercultural exchange as one of the very essentials of European Identity development. << Activities >>The activities planned for this project develop along the ""Zombie-Apocalypse-Storytelling"". The activities range from immersive theatre, Drama Games, social and political simulations, Virtual Reality, playful group flow sessions to Life Action Role Plays, interactive presentations and creative Workshops. Every activity will be carefully evaluated. That way real transformational experiences are created. This way Zombieland becomes a highly innovative education project that will help the 40 participants to unfold their potential within a safe environment. << Impact >>The results of this project are as just as vast as the project itself and they lie within everyones very own responsibility and individual willingness to delve into the projects different processes. Above all we are going to develop soft skills that are essential to change this (European) society for the better: Growing empathy in times of refugee movements, fostering of resilience strategies in times of rightwing-populism, the ability to live self-suficient and autonomous lives, the ability to search for and find creative solutions for urgent problems, intercultural collaboration, critical thinking and the readiness to change and spring into action - just to name a few. The Anthropocene has long begun and we need new ways of communication and a renewed consciousness (a new mindset that shifts from I to WE), in order to really pattern this new age. The objectives listed above contribute to the solution to solve these problems and also prepare a new generation for the challenges they will be facing in the years to come. The objectives of ""Zombieland"" are aligned with the ones formulated in the Erasmus+ programme und are not only pursued in this project, but we are positive that they can actually be achieved."

<< Objectives >>First of all, it is necessary to point out that this project was initiated and applied for in 2019, the physical gathering planned to be implemented in March 2020.With the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the project was paused and only continued two years later, finally implemented in person from 26 November to 4 December 2022.The program was initiated in order to find out which topics are actually of concern for young people in Europe, what moves them and what makes them interested in politics or even pushes them to become actively involved. Furthermore, the project’s goal was to bring those young Europeans from different countries together and give them a space to share and discuss these issues as well as their needs, and to be a stepstone on their way to becoming responsible European citizens.At the start of the project, young people from seven European countries (Greece, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway and Germany) shared their concerns and formulated a common statement, which from then on became the core of the project. In their statement, they embraced the original idea of the European Union, but strongly criticized the politicians, above all regarding their handling of the climate crisis, the refugee situation, and the European education system. Although the young people did not know much about politics, they wanted their opinions to be heard, their questions to be asked, and they wanted to use this project to make their common dream of Europe become real.They also expressed their interest in Europe’s history, its origins in the times after World War II, and in the unprecedented success of having created peace in those war-torn times.Unfortunately, those young people who were part of the initiation of the project could not be the ones coming together in Bad Marienberg at the end of 2022, but all of us partners bothered to remain in that initial spirit of their “European dream project”. The actual group of people meeting in person in 2022 obviously brought an even wider range of topics with them. Still shaken by the experiences of illness and lockdown during the pandemic, everyone was accompanied by the everyday dark news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.But although these were other young people than those initiating the project (the Dutch delegation even dropped out completely), we found the same concerns and questions in that new group of youngsters. With almost no expressed differences between countries, they all worried about a lack of activity by politics, and they all shared the same hopes for their futures.Thus, we stayed with our initial objectives and centered around this European dream, asking questions like: Where do we come from? What are our (common) values? Are we still living this dream? Which topics move us? What can I individually do to become active and be an agent of change?This project was also designed to be an intercultural learning experience, including informal parts that cater for new friendships, fun and informal processes to grow, individually and as a group.<< Implementation >>The activity we implemented was a youth exchange entitled “European Jamboree - European dream project”, bringing together around sixty young participants from seven different European countries in the initial phase of the programme, while during the physical gathering, only people from six different countries were able to join.All participants were high school pupils between 16-18 years old, and although we were aiming at a gender balance in quantity, we had more female participants in the end.We were all especially appreciative of the fact that we brought together people from very different parts of Europe, i.e. from Germany as a founding member state of the European Union, from CEE countries which experienced the East side of the Iron Curtain, from a Southern European country, and also – for the first time within this partnership – from a non-EU country in the North of Europe. Not only for this reason did we have a very diverse group of young people. They also came from both rural and city areas, from various family backgrounds, with different social and economic status, with and without migration background. Their levels of international experiences and their learning abilities were also of a wide range.Accordingly, they brought along diverse individual challenges and different views about life and social situations.However, all of these young people were confronted with the same topics within their local societies as well as global issues, and they all shared similar emotions like fear of future or frustration with regards to politics. Many of them expressed their interest in becoming involved and making themselves heard, because they felt that whatever is decided in politics will affect their own futures.Our activity gave them an opportunity to exchange opinions and perspectives and supported them in sharing their hopes as well as different approaches to political engagement.In order to do so and to include everybody, we used very diverse methods, so that each individual found at least one way of getting involved, according to their mindset or inclination. By providing different ways of access to the project’s content and overall objectives, we also took into account the different backgrounds of the participants.The young people had access to different learning activities that always dealt with the questions initially raised by themselves, the development of own opinions and approaches for the future. Our methods also varied over the course of the week, not only to keep up everybody’s motivation, but also in order to delve deeper into topics and have conversations from different angles. Next to cognitive learning elements, we learned by playing games, became creative in writing, painting or handcrafting, performed or designed a campaign.During the excursion trip to the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate in the city of Mainz, they had the opportunity to experience the reality of politics as well as to meet two representatives of a European initiative for understanding among nations – an example of commitment outside of institutional politics. These experiences brought another layer to our discussions and opened their eyes to circumstances some of them had not known yet.Next to intercultural experiences where they could learn about the other countries and cultures, the week consisted of many group building activities, group or tandem work in changing constellations, and energizer games.Quiet reflection and journaling elements were used to deepen the learning experiences and to support the development of personal empowerment.More details on the methods will be mentioned further down in this report.<< Results >>Our project gave the young participants the opportunity to live and feel the idea of Europe and the European Union directly themselves. Getting together with people of the same age from other European countries made them learn about other cultures and societies and gave them new perspectives on their own topics. They were not only able to improve their English language skills, but also gained social skills when they worked and discussed and shared bedrooms with each other.The teenagers found out that although they live in different countries in which some major aspects strongly differ, like the education system - they have a lot in common, believe in the same values, have similar dreams, follow the same idols in social media.The topics which crystallized were the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and the handling of refugees in Europe, next to the financial crisis which many of them were deeply concerned about and becoming aware that they will not be able to live their lives like the generation of their parents. Furthermore, various issues of the climate crisis were debated, particularly heated in the context of political participation and the question whether it is legitimate to use violence in order to save the climate.One theme they were all eager to talk about was their education system. Although they carved out differences between the countries, they all equally felt that they are put under a lot of pressure, having to secure high marks in order to have chances on the job market later on, and that they are being expected to already know which career they are heading to at the age of 16. They also felt that it would not socially be accepted in case they take time for self-reflection at some point of their upcoming careers.Next to the content related discussions, we always circled around values and human rights, often isolating the term of justice and the power of working together instead of against each other.The young people were thankful about the digressions on European history that we included as cognitive learning elements as well as in playful methods. This enabled them to understand the development of the European Union and the connections to nowadays' situation on the continent. Outstanding contributions were made by the Greek delegations who were all very educated on European history, even before World War II.The overall impact on the participants was extremely high according to the feedback they gave us, including remarks like “It changed my life!”. Many of them pointed out that through getting to know other people’s circumstances and challenges in life, they were now aware of the importance of open-mindedness. Across the whole group, the participants evaluated their individual learning success as very good. A few of the young people saw the fact that they had to step out of their comfort zones for some of the methods as very positive. They also affirmed that the interactive methods made it easier and more fun for them to remember and engage in what they have learned.