The Mingling Experiences were carried out jointly by members of GFBM gGmbH’s and our partners at MetropolisNet. GFBM gGmbH’s task was to acquire the TCN and Metropolis.net was responsible for the locals. We tried to organize the meetings in small groups so that 5 TCNs and 5 potential mentors (locals) came together. This was important because it enabled us to do more intensive exercises in the smaller group compositions during the sessions. In the Mingling Experiences, an initial exchange with the participants should take place and the first constellations for the mentor meetings should already arise. Cultural differences and their effects were also highlighted. In the sessions the intercultural sensitivity of the participants was stimulated, and an intercultural exchange took place. Our trainers received specific training before the Mingling Experiences and were able to direct the small groups intensively to ensure substantial gains from the meetings. Due to structural problems in scheduling and acquisition of interested people in the competitive environment with an abundance of language café’s and similiar language acquisition offers in Berlin, we were only able win 55 TCNs for the Mingling Experiences.
Aim of the best practice:
The aim of the Experiences was to organize first meetings with potential mentors and to touch on intercultural topics. It should be a coming together that benefits both sides, TCNs and mentors. A space for exchange has been created with a focus on: What is culture?; What’s important to me? How can social participation be achieved? What are international and transnational similarities? etc. have been treated.
Objectives of the best practice:
Through selected methods, TCN and Locals were gradually introduced to interculturality. The aim was also to change perspectives and to consider how cultural differences can lead to problems. The main part of the meetings, however, was to work out commonalities during this Mingle phase. Our trainers used well-prepared exercises, which were aimed precisely at commonalities and should show that despite origin, gender, religion and cultural socialization, much is the same in the world and that of the stranger is often not foreign at all.
One activity to support the idea of equality was to paint the story of the own name. Both TCN and Locals painted on a flipchart the history of their name from the perspective of where it comes from, what meaning it has, what influence the given name has on their identity. After both partners had painted their name story, they tried to create a fictitious person with the positive characteristics of both and presented it in the plenary. The focus was on similarities. These commonalities could convey to the TCN that despite different backgrounds, there is much that is the same, no matter what culture.
Trainers: Roberto Colis /Ingrid Gödde/ Sonja Biering
Coordinator
GFBM gGmbH: Pantelis Milek / Sonja Biering
MetropolisNet: Antonia Restemeier
51 TCN (low in numbers)
With our partner MetropolisNet, we have started to perform the first Mingling Experience. In regular intervals the Experiences took place from November 2019 up until March 2020. The preparation and coordination took some time. In preparation, 10 GFBM gGmbH trainers attended the preparational workshop. In the end, 3 trainers were actively involved in the Experiences.
We had to coordinate strongly with our partner, as it was only possible to perform the sessions late in the evening or on weekends. The personal time-schedules of locals clashed with the available times of the TCNs. The locals are all very busy in their work and family life. The planning was difficult, because sometimes there were cancellations and we had to quickly restructure and find new appointments and new premises.
Nevertheless, we managed to implement several Experiences and fill them with beautiful and rich content. Our trainers have chosen the exercises well. Social and cultural identity were the focus and could be realized well with simple means of bright colors and papers. The Experiences were our highlight in the process so far, as the coming together of interested TCN and Locals for the meetings we held went very well and everyone understood the idea of the project.
In the process of experiences were 3 trainers involved, namely mentioned above. We used the facilities of GFBM and metropolis.net in partnership. In addition to the method case, materials included beamers, flipcharts, pin boards and papers to create collages.
The strengths of these Mingling Experiences in general lay primarily in the first direct contact of locals and TCNs and a first joint approach to exchange and expectation queries for successful mentoring. In addition, it was important for us to recognize who was interested in mentoring and to make a first pre-selection of possible couples with the help of the matching questionnaires.
The strength of the identity activity was to deal with self-perception and the perception of others and to find commonalities and emphasize them positively despite the different origins of the partners. This led to the TCNs being able to recognize that, despite many difficulties, they are an integral part of the whole event and that their active participation is the key to transform the success of the Mingling Experiences. The transfer of knowledge and the exchange with interested locals in general was also a great benefit.