The NEW ABC project will carry out nine innovation actions in nine EU countries aimed at enhancing the inclusion of refugee and migrant children and young people into host societies through education. In fact, the impossibility for children and teenagers to learn experiment, develop and freely foster their capacities, talents and aspirations (Save the Children 2017), is one fundamental factor in how these inequalities contribute to determine lack of integration and undermine the future of immigrant and underprivileged children.
Top-down poli
cies and the poor incorporation of children and young people’s voices and capacities for the agency have meant that immigrant children and young people have been largely absent at worst, or included in tokenistic ways, at best. NEW ABC is committed to sustainable and innovative change in mainstream education that enables and empowers all stakeholders to become the real actors of change, rather than just recommending policies. Therefore, NEW ABC’s co-created pilot actions are multidimensional and involve diverse groups of stakeholders. Children and youth (migrant and non-migrant students, unaccompanied minors, young asylum seekers and refugees) will be involved as active participants in all actions. These actions include the participation of schools and teachers, local CSOs, NGOs, teaching and intercultural centres, community and families and will develop school and out-of-school formal, informal and non-formal learning resources.
Apart from co-creating and implementing new good practices, several existing good practices that have proven to be effective in a particular country will also be adopted. Each pilot scheme represents a response to locally identified needs determined by specific linguistic, cultural, social, emotional and challenges that children and youth face when they access the educational system or are left out of it. By adopting these practices, the aim is to achieve more effective local, national and international policymaking in education and inclusion.