Case study summaries

Case study 01: Vielfalter – Diversity as chance

Vielfalter was set up in 2009, in cooperation between the Vienna hub of Western Union, an international US-based company specialised in money transfer, the Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture and Interkulturelles Zentrum (IZ), an independent non-profit organisation based in Vienna that was founded in 1987. Vielfalter aims at contributing to a gradual change of perspective in the Austrian education system by regarding diversity and multilingualism as valuable resources. Children and their parents from diverse cultural and social backgrounds should feel ‘proud to belong’ and be empowered to actively participate in kindergartens or schools and in society in general. The term Vielfalter is a play on words: Vielfalt means diversity, Falter means butterfly, the project is thus a butterfly that brings diversity to the education system, which is considered in need of social innovation: as it solely focuses on German skills as a prerequisite to integration it does not use the potential of a diversity of languages and cultures. Vielfalter is a project competition for initiatives in the field of intercultural education in kindergartens, schools (at all levels) and for associations (working with children and adults with a migration background). The funded projects aim at helping the target group to discover their talents and to strengthen their self-esteem while at the same time establishing inclusive structures at kindergarten and school level. The Vielfalter has a relatively long and successful history –only on very rare occasions does Western Union fund a project for such a long time and in a Central European country. Vielfalter is one of several contributions to reform education in Austria and make it more inclusive and open for cultural diversity.

Case study 02: A project to support Roma children in education and social inclusion pathways in Lecce, Italy

The initiative started in 2013 and looks for ‘Pathways of Social and School Inclusion of Roma Children living in the Camp Panareo in Lecce/Italy’. It was designed and managed by a local association for the promotion of social inclusion called Alteramente.