Final Conference

From July 28 to August 1 2022, coor­di­na­tors and urban artists, who are also pro­fes­sion­als in the field of youth, that took part in project activ­i­ties, trav­elled to New York (Unit­ed States) for the Final Conference/Meeting of the project.

The main objec­tives of this last inter­na­tion­al activ­i­ty were:
─To eval­u­ate the project, its activ­i­ties and the achieve­ment of results among project organisations;
─To present the project and its results to local pop­u­la­tion, pro­mot­ing the reflec­tion on the inclu­sion of migrants through urban art;
─To spec­i­fy activ­i­ties for the mon­i­tor­ing and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the project;
─To reflect on the future of our partnership.

The activ­i­ty starts with an inter­nal meet­ing among project organ­i­sa­tions where we reflect­ed on all activ­i­ties that have been car­ried out and the imple­men­ta­tion of the project in each coun­try. All par­tic­i­pants pre­sent­ed the knowl­edge and learn­ing acquired by the organ­i­sa­tion thanks to the par­tic­i­pa­tion in this project, how they are using the new acquired and/or improved com­pe­tences, the ben­e­fits the organ­i­sa­tion received/had thanks to the project and the com­pe­tences that direct par­tic­i­pants affirm to have acquired and/or improved.

The next day, we could know more in details the his­to­ry of hip hop and we vis­it­ed rel­e­vant places in a tour where we could meet with local artists and peo­ple from all over the world. Par­tic­i­pants had also the oppor­tu­ni­ty to see the loca­tion, at 1520 Sedg­wick Avenue, in the Bronx, that is now con­sid­ered the birth­place of hip hop.

On July 31, after pre­sent­ing the project, its activ­i­ties and main results, pro­mot­ing the reflec­tion on the inclu­sion of migrants, free work­shops con­nect­ed with the project top­ics have been offered by inter­na­tion­al par­tic­i­pants to local chil­dren and young peo­ple. First­ly, all par­tic­i­pants took part in a dance/breaking work­shop where facil­i­ta­tors sup­port­ed the reflec­tion on the impor­tance of the recog­ni­tion and respect of the oth­ers and edu­cat­ed in val­ues. After­wards, par­tic­i­pants brain­stormed on the con­cept of inclu­sion and, after clar­i­fy­ing some of the con­cepts that show up, they were divid­ed in two small groups for the next activ­i­ties: a rap work­shop and a graf­fi­ti work­shop. Dur­ing the after­noon, a dance event took place with two dif­fer­ent con­tests: a 1 vs 1 break­ing bat­tle and a 2 vs 2 inclu­sive all­styles bat­tle where par­tic­i­pants ran­dom­ly chose the coun­try of the traditional/popular music they had to dance to. Besides that, the danc­ing pairs had to come from two dif­fer­ent coun­tries to pro­mote the mutu­al col­lab­o­ra­tion, the inter­cul­tur­al exchange and the cre­ation of new ties among par­tic­i­pants. Dur­ing the event, the pub­lic was impressed on how we can work dif­fer­ent social con­cepts on a fun­ny and par­tic­i­pa­to­ry way that can be eas­i­ly under­stand­able by chil­dren and young people.