Summary

The FUTURE project focuses on the integration of a special category of refugees, unaccompanied and separated minors, providing them with the opportunity to express themselves in an universal language and tell their story from their point of view. The purpose of FUTURE is to pull together two good practices in Europe and disseminate them through the distribution of the feature-length film and arranging ad hoc events and conferences, in order to promote the integration of unaccompanied refugee minors. The project seeks to provide this special group of refugees, who often does not have the ability to express themselves verbally as they would like to, with the opportunity to tell their story using the universal language of images, with the aim of showing their gazes, capable of observing the world with curiosity and discernment. 

Description

The FUTURE - Fostering The integration of Unaccompanied Refugee minors project focuses on the integration of a special category of refugees, unaccompanied and separated refugee minors. With the objective to pull together and disseminate two good practices in Europe, the FUTURE aims at providing a new model for the expression and integration of unaccompanied and separated refugee minors. The project combines the experience of AccoglieRete, a Sicilian non-profit organization that promotes the role of legal guardian for refugee minors, and the experience of Vedozero format, a project of visual literacy for children.

Project aims at providing a new narrative plot and point of view to the integration discourse: a creative partnership of film producers will work with a group of minors on the power of images and videos as a mean of expression, using smartphones as cameras and acquire the technical and theoretical skills necessary to narrate their own story: who they are, what they feel in this new situation, what their actual life is like, the hopes and fears, wishes and deceptions. For the first time the unaccompanied and separated refugee minors will be let to spread their voice out.

The main project output will be a documentary feature, FUTURE film, based on videos directly filmed by the minors about their experience of integration in the context of the so called “volunteer guardianing” practice. It will be complemented with additional backstage video, a research study, a toolkit for NGOs and a wide range of dissemination outputs and events.

Objectives

The main objectives of the FUTURE programme are:

• - helping refugees and migrants socialize and express themselves without necessarily speaking the host country language.
• - learning platforms that foster respect and understanding for diversity, intercultural and civic competencies, democratic values and citizenship.
• - giving EU citizens the opportunity to discover, learn from and understand the values and cultures of refugees and migrants and rediscover and enrich their own.
• - showcasing and co-creation of cultural and/or audiovisual works across Europe.
• - offering the possibility of collaboration with organizations in other sectors in order to stimulate a more comprehensive, rapid, effective and long-term response to this global challenge.

UNINETTUNO Role

First of all, Uninettuno will have the role to support from a theoretical and methodological point of view the project within psychological and communicative field of research and expertise. It will conduct a research, and social analysis, through two faculties, faculty of Psychology and faculty of Communication Sciences .

Thanks to its cooperation activities, the UNINETTUNO has also set-up a wide network of contacts that will be useful to disseminate and exploit the project outcomes, media relations, press releases.  It will also be responsible for the organization of workshops, conferences and seminars.

Lastly, it will contribute to web design, hosting and maintenance of FUTURE website and web video streaming, distribution through satellite TV of FUTURE film.

Partners