The project EXULI promotes an integrated approach born from the synergy between the non-formal education practices of youth work and the Lacanian psychoanalytical field. Both approaches support resilience, intended as the ability to effectively deal with the contradictions of the exile condition of young migrants, to give new impetus to their existence and even to reach important goals.
In the so called “age of trauma”, advanced tools and methodologies are needed in order to deal with the historic phenomenon of migration which is affecting the whole Europe, answering to the urgent need of the communities, where these forced migrants (therefore exiles, ”exuli”) are flowing into, to be more equipped and ready to work towards the creation of real conditions of inclusion, in all its different forms.The action of overcoming a condition of vulnerability, which in most cases are often related to reiterated and perpetrated trauma, tackles the process of marginalisation of migrants, who are often quickly labeled as “disadvantaged” or deviant individuals compared to a number of standards of the hosting society, so that they end up in a lower and prejudiced status.
The project EXULI answers basically to those needs related to the social inclusion of young migrants through a process which combines tools of non formal education and psychoanalysis in order to re-write the subjective stories. This process wants to bring a feeling of continuity within the new hosting country, taking into account the impossibility to carry on usual behaviours and the inevitable differences of what’s new (either coming from afar or not). The project aims to develop an educational strategy based on the pedagogical and psychoanalytical use of trauma narrative through expressive communication tools, overcoming the barrier created by the use of a transmissive language (lack of details and nuances, lack of being able to associate concepts to feelings) and therefore increasing the accessibility of the method designed through the project EXULI. In order to reach this goal and involve young migrants who arrived in different times and who are living in different conditions within the hosting country, the expressive tools which were chosen go beyond the idea of language.
The specific objectives of EXULI will be:
- to collect and systematize the knowledge and professional experience of non-formal education and lacanian psychoanalysis in the field of work with young migrants in a Compendium accompanying the preparation of the expressive laboratory pathways (ateliers);
- to enhance the competences of youth workers, educators, teachers, mediators and psychoanalysts active in the work with young migrants;
- to create the conditions for young migrants to express/acknowledge the experienced trauma through expressive laboratory pathways (ateliers) which will adopt different expressive media;
- to produce original instruments available for the prevention of radicalism both in contemporary and second generation migrants;
- to foster the synergic exchange between actors (professionals and volunteers) coming from different fields of intervention, in order to support innovation and the research of synergic tools suitable for the new challenges on inclusion and integration which Europe is called to face nowadays;
The project connects four of the main countries involved in the reception of migration flows (Italy, France, Spain and Greece) and has built a partnership made of organizations experienced in the field of non-formal education (REPLAY NETWORK Italy, PISTES SOLIDAIRES France, ACP Greece) and Lacanian psychoanalysts (CCP ONLUS Italy, FORUM OPCIO ESCOLA CAMPO LACANIANO Spain). The project can therefore count on a relevant experience in educational programs of European cooperation and can avail itself of support from associated partners of depth and relevance also on an academic level.
