Project
This project is led by the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) with the participation of ACCEM (Spain), University of Galway (Ireland), Università di Verona (Italy) and Glocal Factory (Italy).
The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, with a financial contribution of 400,000 EUR.
The duration of the project is 36 months and its period of implementation runs from 1st of September 2022 to 31st of August 2025.
This project is based on the service-learning (SL) methodology, an educational proposal that combines learning and community service processes in a single well-articulated project in which participants learn while working on real community needs for the purpose of improve it. University students from different areas of knowledge identify, together with teachers, migrants/refugees and social entities, the inclusion needs of third-country nationals, in order to design and implement solutions to meet these needs (service).
Our aim is to contribute to the European intercultural project, strengthening, through the participation of all, a more democratic, equitable and inclusive society. Definitely, it is a matter of implementing social and intercultural actions at a local level but with connections at a supranational level, involving debate, reflection, analysis and action regarding the analysis and action regarding the situation of migrants/refugees in Europe.
Our purpose is to bring together the academic world and social agents to work on an intercultural educational project that favours the processes of inclusion of migrants/refugees in Europe, training future professionals and their teachers in ethnic and cultural diversity, and involving everyone in community projects that contribute to the development of common values and civic engagement of all participants. In addition, innovation will be promoted in the teaching-learning process at the university.
Objectives
The main objective of the SL(M) Project is to create alliances between host community groups and third country nationals in order to form national support networks that will interconnect with each other.
It involves the collaboration between different areas of knowledge of the University as it is sought that the service-learning projects are developed in different degrees (Medicine, Education, Pharmacy, Law, Engineering, …) depending on the needs detected.
At a more specific level, we aim at:
- To promote the social inclusion, as a two-way process, of third country nationals in Europe.
- To train university students in civic and social competences.
- To contribute to increase the social and cultural capital of university students and migrants/refugees through collaborative networks, reciprocity and social support.
- To learn about the reality of migrants/refugees in Europe.
- To encourage the democratic and civic participation of university students by promoting opportunities for social engagement and intercultural development.
- To analyse the role of universities in the European social and intercultural project.
- To strengthen the development of European civil society through the participation of local communities working in networks.
- To contribute to the achievement of goals 4 (quality education), 5 (gender equality), 10 (reduction of inequalities), 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) and 17 (partnerships to achieve the goals) of the new sustainable development agenda.
- To promote SL at the University as a social learning methodology.
- To promote transversality in university education, reinforcing content linked to the aforementioned goals.