Limehurst and Sacred Heart take part in peace project
THE Loughborough based Equality Action has hosted an international training course for youth and community workers entitled the Peace Project.
The residential training course, at the end of September, was designed to provide a platform for the youth workers, leaders and community workers from eight countries, to explore cultural and faith diversity through the face-to-face dialogue.
It equipped them with tools to help with intercultural dialogue and bring communities together.
It also raised awareness on vulnerability of young people to grooming, even when at home and importance of community engagement to counteract radicalisation.
The eight day course, funded through the Erasmus plus programme by the European Commission, involved many local organisations, including Loughborough Council of Faiths, Charnwood Arts, and Charnwood Chai, to name a few, who shared their success stories and lessons learnt.
The main venue was at the United Reformed Church in Frederick Street, Loughborough and included participants from Italy, Latvia, Poland, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia and the UK.
As part of the programme those taking part presented sessions on tolerance and diversity to two local schools, Sacred Heart Academy and Limehurst Academy.
Both schools said they would welcome similar projects in future.
Jon Mellor, Limehurst’s head teacher said: “Limehurst has always been proud to represent such a diverse community, and so we were delighted to welcome the Peace Project in order to give students further opportunities to experience a variety of world cultures.”
And Sacred Heart head teacher Mrs Lisa Atkins added: “Tolerance and acceptance of differences should be explored in order to promote a common universal language of peace and harmony.
“The Year 6 class prepared a whole school assembly based on subcultures and the Bible story of The Good Samaritan.”
• Equality action is running a similar training course in Loughborough from October 23.
If you are interested in applying for a place email udiversity2017@gmail.com and if you like to learn more about the work of Equality Action follow the group on Facebook. Alternatively you can e-mail contact@equalityaction.org.uk