Joint organization of an intercultural event
Civic society organizations in a city are often lone fighters, so joining forces might be a good idea. A way to connect these organizations could be the joint organization of an event. In our case, it was an intercultural Danube Bridge Breakfast. Amongst the civil society organizations were: Food associations, various international cultural clubs, human rights organizations, etc. The event itself was organized by one of the organizations, and the other organizations functioned as table hosts at the event. The table hosts were given the opportunity to offer food and small delights to the visitors of the event. The table hosts were responsible for the preparation of the food and for their table. Before the event various prep-meetings took place at which the table hosts gathered ideas and were being briefed about the event.
Further recommendations:
- Organizational difficulties with volunteering groups: spokesperson was sometimes hard to reach, the changes of spokesperson made it difficult for ILEU and caused communication problems (but the minutes of the meetings helped a little bit to solve these problems)
- Make sure to comply with all the regulations of the municipalities concerning safety etc. (E.g.: escape routes)
- Some visitors are just attending this event because of the food and do not talk to the table hosts. Make sure that the volunteers at the tables are not shy and maybe show them one or two tricks for conversational openings
- Always remember: you are working with volunteers not paid professionals – get the tone and motivation right
Pedagogical Information
Many variations of the event itself, its organization and its participants would be possible: only local groups, integration of more different groups/disadvantage groups, international event with migrants, could be transferred on a European-wide or even world-wide event, breakfast not outside but inside, breakfast for migrants on square.European Dimension
This method is ideal to bring together groups with different backgrounds and show the unity in Europe’s diversity.
Applied in projects
Intercultural Danube-Bridge-Breakfast
The Danube Bridge Breakfast was a public two-hour event on a bridge crossing the Danube in Ulm/Neu-Ulm. The educational network “The Danube-Networks” hosted this event with the intention to create the opportunity for the Danube neighbors to get to know each other while tasting bread and small regional delights from the Danube countries. In a relaxed environment, the participants were given the possibility to get to know people from different cultures and backgrounds, to see the diversity within unity in Europe, and to get the feeling of what a peaceful European unity means in real life. The event was open to everyone, free of charge and was part of the International Danube Festival in Ulm.a
