Evens Foundation_Annual Report 2015

EVENS FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 2015 LIVING TOGETHER HARMONIOUSLY IN EUROPE

CONTENTS OUR MISSION I WHAT WE DO I ABOUT THE EVENS FOUNDATION

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CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

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PEACE EDUCATION

Ghent nursery wins Peace Education Prize 2015

Conflict management learning lab is a great success

Conflict Matters conference draws participants from 27 countries

New online platform highlights good practices in peace education

Peace Education On The Move all across Europe

Highly praised conflict management program reveals need for training

Belfedar proves a winning tool in promoting cooperation

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MEDIA

Media Education Prize 2015 promoted good use of social media

Magazine focused on good practices in use of media at home

Conference gathers media literacy professionals from all around Europe

New platform answers three crucial media literacy needs

Dutch EU correspondent wins European Journalism Prize

Young journalists focus on constructive reporting of hot issues

WawaLab multimedia materials reach over 300,000 viewers

Street School wins French government recognition

Training produces 75 new MediaCoaches

Turn On social campaigns attract widespread coverage

Ersilia project honored by the French government

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EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP

Cycle of Conferences tackles alienation of EU citizens

Arts Prize awarded to Artway of Thinking

What’s Your ID? tool inspires debate on European values

Seven cities unite in City Ghettos exploration

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LOOKING FORWARD

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OUR MISSION The Evens Foundation initiates, develops and supports projects that encourage citizens and nations to live together harmoniously in a diverse Europe in the world.

It promotes respect for diversity, both individual and collective, and works to strengthen people’s physical, psychological and moral integrity.

WHAT WE DO The Evens Foundation initiates and supports sustainable projects, and awards biennial prizes that contribute to the progress and strengthening of Europe, based on cultural and social diversity, in the fields of: · Peace Education · Media · European Citizenship

ABOUT THE EVENS FOUNDATION The Evens Foundation is a public-benefit foundation with headquarters in Antwerp, Belgium and additional offices in Paris and Warsaw.

Created in 1990, it owes its existence to the generosity of the late Mrs Irène Evens-Radzyminska and Mr Georges Evens, philanthropists and European enthusiasts. Of Polish origin, they settled after the Second World War in Antwerp, where Mr Evens pursued a remarkable career in the diamond industry. Given his great success in business, he and Mrs Evens-Radzyminska decided to give something back to society – through the Evens Foundation.

Mrs Corinne Evens – daughter of the two founders – is Honorary President of the Foundation.

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can browse a map of Europe to discover such practices, or select

France s’engage initiative, which helps to disseminate inspiring social

practices by category. We’ll add lots more cases as we discover them.

innovation projects.

On a more playful note, the Belfedar cooperative game enjoyed another

Finally, some highlights in our European Citizenship program. Our rea-

This past year has been a great success on many fronts. Having

year of expansion and is proving a very popular tool for teaching co-

sons for organizing the Cycle of Conferences in 2015 are clear from the

developed our new biennial strategic plan, we launched new pro-

operation and conflict resolution.

title “How to bridge the gap between European Citizens and European

CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

Institutions”. The four conferences (in London, Bologna, Krakow and

jects and initiatives in 2014 that bore fruit in 2015 in the form of exciting events, conferences, projects and Evens Prize winners.

In our Media program, we focused strongly on children and adoles-

Brussels) welcomed almost 4,000 participants from all over the world.

cents to use social media in a careful, constructive way. The Evens Prize

The talks and discussions were dynamic and often passionate.

It has been wonderfully rewarding to see our plans, our expertise, our

for Media Education 2015 – awarded to the Dutch network organization

sustained work and activities converging in initiatives and projects that

Mediawijzer.net – was all about promoting good use of social media,

We also continued to promote our What’s Your ID? platform for meeting

help to realize our core mission of seeing us all “living harmoniously to-

as was the second edition of our Media Literacy in Europe magazine,

and reflecting on European values, in Belgium, France and Poland. Any

gether in Europe”.

“Inspiring ways to involve parents”.

group that wants to reflect on European values can freely access a film,

I’ll look briefly at the 2015 highlights of each program in turn: Peace

The prize was awarded at the Media Meets Literacy… in Warsaw con-

specific theme, around 1,500 people took part in our City Ghettos of

Education, Media, and European Citizenship.

ference in May, which celebrated our work in the media and information

Today project, which concluded in February with debate and a large-

literacy field over more than five years. The conference gathered over

scale installation-performance.

a manual and various presentations on the Evens website. On a more

First, Peace Education. We organized a Learning Lab in Warsaw

200 participants.

in January, attended by NGOs from various EU countries, focus-

We can think about political and citizenship matters in more indirect

ing on constructive conflict management. As a result, six organi-

Turning from consumers of the media to those who produce the content,

ways. The Evens Arts Prize was awarded to Artway of Thinking, which

zations partnered and gained Erasmus+ funding for a project to de-

our Prize for European Journalism was awarded to Marc Peeperkorn,

researches collective creative processes; 120 international guests were

velop and promote conflict management in education throughout

EU correspondent for De Volkskrant, while the Evens Encouragement

welcomed to the prizegiving ceremony in the beautiful Palazzo Mora

Europe. We also partnered with Fundacja Swiadomego Rozwoju

Award for European Journalism went to Polish freelancer Katarzyna

in Venice.

to provide four days of Nonviolent Communication training to around 50

Zachariasz. They were honored at the Difference Day event in May in

(future) teachers in Poland.

Bozar, Brussels, on World Press Freedom Day.

Peace education is indeed on the move; in fact, that’s the title

In Athens, the 2015 Annual Congress of the FEJS, which the Evens

all our projects, within budget, and we achieved our goals for the year,

of another project in which teachers from all around Europe ex-

Foundation supported, focused on “Stereotypes, media exclusion and

reaching almost 200,000 people directly and over a million people in-

changed visits in 2014/2015, to share their expertise and insights

far-right rhetoric in European media”, and was attended by journalism

directly.

into peace education in schools. By all accounts, the Peace Education

students and young journalists from all over Europe. In Warsaw, our

On The Move participants found the experience inspiring. They joined

WawaLab project resulted in a manual, “How to make a CITY.LAB”,

Much gratitude is due to our donors and external partners, to the mem-

the more than 300 people from 27 countries who attended the first

which shows how to organize a similar project in the context of a dif-

bers of the Advisory Board, the members of the Board of Administration,

edition of our Conflict Matters – Learning Across Difference confer-

ferent city.

and to Corinne Evens for her passionate commitment to our mission,

That, then, is a quick run-through of the year’s main highlights. Our staff worked with great competence, application and focus; we implemented

and her strong focus and direction.

ence in Brussels in October. At this great conference, the third Evens Prize for Peace Education was awarded to the Ghent nursery Tierlan-

Still under our Media program, the Foundation has been supporting the

tuin, a model in developing the social skills of babies and toddlers.

Street School for Young Journalists in Paris since 2012, so we were

We hope you enjoy reading through our report of activities, which we

delighted to hear that it had been recognized as a Grande Ecole du

hope to emulate and develop further in 2016.

On the Conflict Matters website, you will see a new online platform

Numérique (#GEN). A further French government distinction went to the

that we launched to highlight good practices in peace education: you

EF supported Ersilia (image literacy e-tool) project, laureate of the La

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Luc Luyten, Chairman

PEACE EDUCATION The Evens Foundation highly values the contribution of active, critical and responsible citizens to achieving a more harmonious and democratic society in Europe, based on cultural and social diversity. With the Foundation’s Peace Education program, we wish to encourage children, young people and adults to think critically and become agents in a culture of peace within their families, schools, social networks, communities, etc...

We are convinced that a constructive attitude towards conflict – seeing it as an opportunity rather than a problem – is crucial so as to further a culture of peace in an ever more diverse society.

The Peace Education program thus initiates and supports educational projects and organizations that promote the management of interpersonal and intergroup conflicts in a positive way.

We work on different levels: we initiate innovative pilot projects; support the exchange of inspiring practices; fund research related to the topic; facilitate networking among EU-based organizations active in the field of conflict management in education, and support organizations in their efforts to convince policymakers of the importance of conflict management education.

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GHENT NURSERY WINS PEACE EDUCATION PRIZE 2015 The external jury for the Evens Foundation Prize for Peace Education 2015 selected Ghent nursery Tierlantuin unanimously from a shortlist of 14 projects from all over Europe. The prize was awarded on 22 October 2015 in De Loketten of the Flemish Parliament in Brussels in the framework of the Conflict Matters conference. On this occasion, all selected candidates were invited to an exchange seminar so that they could share experiences and good practices.

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In this edition of the biennial European prize, the Evens Foundation looked for initiatives and practices that strive to awaken and strengthen the social competence of preschool children – below the age of six – with particular focus on skills that facilitate a constructive attitude towards conflict.

The independent jury of international experts was particularly impressed by the Ghent nursery’s visibility and accessibility within its

neighborhood, the strong parental and community involvement, and the ongoing and natural integration of diversity (working in various languages, diversity of personnel, etc). According to members of the jury, the implicit, integrated approach adopted by Tierlantuin is exactly what is needed to encourage the development of social skills among babies and toddlers. The nursery received a cash award of €25,000, some of which is to be used to share their vision and good practices with colleagues in other European countries.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT LEARNING LAB IS A GREAT SUCCESS The Evens Foundation invited a select group of NGOs from different EU countries to participate in a Learning Lab in Warsaw in January 2015, dedicated to the development and promotion of constructive conflict management in education.

In some European countries or regions, constructive conflict management is part of the official school curriculum or educational policy. In certain cases it took a campaign to convince policymakers of the importance of conflict-management education. In other cases, a particular incident provoked educational actors to respond. But the question remains: What kind of educational policy best develops the skills and competencies that facilitate a constructive attitude towards conflict in the school context?

Although the educational contexts in European countries differ widely, NGOs active in the field can be inspired and motivated through sharing best practice, advocacy actions to promote constructive conflict management in education, and insights into contexts where conflict management education is integrated in educational policy.

Dedicating a European learning lab to explore the policy dimension of conflict-management education also links actors throughout Europe and contributes to a Europe-wide movement that draws attention to the importance of positive conflict management in education.

The learning lab was a great success. It led to six organizations partnering and gaining Erasmus+ funding for a project aimed at developing a common conflict-management training curriculum for teachers, researching the state of the art in policy related to conflict management in education, undertaking advocacy actions and further expanding the network in this field.

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CONFLICT MATTERS CONFERENCE DRAWS PARTICIPANTS FROM 27 COUNTRIES More than 300 people from 27 countries attended the first edition of our Conflict Matters – Learning Across Difference confe­ rence in Brussels (21-23 October 2015), including over 100 future teachers from the Erasmus University College.

At this three-day event, practitioners, teachers, policymakers, students and researchers discovered good practices and inspiring initiatives, and forged new partnerships to better promote conflict management in education. The Conflict Matters conference also offered them a platform to share and reflect on educational policies in the field of constructive conflict management.

The conference started with four keynote speakers who challenged the audience to reconsider our relation to conflict and explore its potential for learning and transformation, both personal and social. The next day was dedicated to exchanging good practices, knowledge and experience to deal with urgent challenges such as prejudice, racism, school violence and dropouts. In the evening, as a festive intermezzo, the third Evens Prize for Peace Education was officially awarded to the Ghent nursery Tierlantuin (see above). The final day focused on how to expand this exciting movement for conflict management in education.

© copyright Martin Tverling

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NEW ONLINE PLATFORM HIGHLIGHTS GOOD PRACTICES IN PEACE EDUCATION The Evens Foundation has launched a new tool for practitioners: an online platform to discover and highlight good practices in peace education, and to discuss the key issues with colleagues from all over Europe.

For some years now, the Evens Foundation has been gathering information on such good practices through its Peace Education Prize as well as through practitioners, school exchanges involving job-shadowing, and practitioners’ learning laboratories.

Knowing that educators are keen to discover and share new approaches and practices, the Evens Foundation launched this website as a new platform to enable dissemination and connection. It will also help to identify the key elements that make a practice a success, and it provides a space for reflective practice and external assessment among peers.

The practices have been selected and described following a process of dialogue between the Evens Foundation, the Escola de Cultura de Pau (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and each of the practitioners. This process allows us to identify the strengths of each practice, reflect on the process of implementing it, and highlight its good results. We will continue to update this website – www.conflictmatters.eu

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PEACE EDUCATION ON THE MOVE ALL ACROSS EUROPE In the school year 2014/2015, teachers in schools all around Europe exchanged visits with each other to share their experience of and insights into peace education in schools.

Through the Peace Education On The Move project, the Foundation sought to detect, recognize and disseminate good practi­ ces in the field of conflict management in education. We identified 18 primary/elementary schools and their teachers – from Belgium, Poland, France, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Germany – that have integrated and consistently implement peace education principles in their school policy and functioning, with particular focus on positive conflict management.

The core of the project consisted of two-week teacher exchanges on the peace education practices in the schools. Each school was both host and guest. Every school was invited to send two of their educational staff to another school for one week. Each school received two people to get to know their school and projects related to peace education.

All the participants were invited to attend the Conflict Matters conference. There was a great appetite to find out about each other’s experiences and the changes implemented as a result of the exchanges, and enthusiasm about the next steps.

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HIGHLY PRAISED CONFLICT MANAGEMENT PROGRAM REVEALS NEED FOR TRAINING Being active in the field of conflict management in education for several years, the Foundation noticed that the practice of constructive conflict management in education was quite new to the Polish educational system. Convinced that Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a good and gentle way to start reflecting on constructive conflict-management strategies in the educational context in Poland, the Foundation partnered with Fundacja Swiadomego Rozwoju to set up a pilot training in Nonviolent Communication for (future) teachers.

In total, about 50 people participated in the training. The evaluation shows that the participants considered this training of great value to better deal with conflicts in their professional and personal lives.

As a result of this collaboration, a four-day training was organized for two groups of future teachers from Warsaw University and one group of young teachers. The training included an introduction to the principles of NVC, as well as understanding of how NVC can be applied to the variety of conflicts that may arise in the participants’ daily work with kids and young people, and gave a lot of space and time for practice and feedback. It also helped to share another perspective on conflict: conflict as an opportunity for dialogue rather than as a problem.

The evaluation also shows that there is a need to develop the skills as part of formal and continuous teacher training. The amount of negative thoughts and difficult emotions related to conflict that were recorded in the pre-training questionnaires points to a serious issue we are facing within the school system.

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They especially praised its practical character, based on real-life experiences. Already after four days of training, the participants experienced a notable shift in their approach to conflict situations: acting instead of ignoring, and finding that their actions, far from contributing to conflict, had a positive impact.

If the adults feel overwhelmed with emotions, and do not know how to deal with conflict, they cannot model and promote constructive ways of dealing both with conflicts and emotions.

BELFEDAR PROVES A WINNING TOOL IN PROMOTING COOPERATION The Belfedar cooperative game in 2015 enjoyed its second year of intensive, successful promotion and dissemination, in Poland, France, Belgium and Spain. Together with our partners, we orga­­ nized dozens of workshops for educators and animators, in-depth training for teachers, game sessions in schools, social centers and libraries, and presentations at boardgame fairs.

We got involved in new, interesting partnerships in the fields of both formal and informal education, and presented the game to hundreds of boardgame and cooperation enthusiasts. We also promoted the game through mass and specialized media, ad­ding to its visibility and recognition.

Belfedar is now increasingly po­pular as a tool for teaching cooperation in a group and in conflict resolution.

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Belfedar is the fruit of a partnership between the Evens Foundation and the Université de Paix. A boardgame for 4-8 players aged over 10, it encourages constructive communication, co­operation and group solidarity. It also helps to develop social skills for mana­ ging conflict and preventing violence. Through amusing exercises, players better understand both themselves and others, develop self-esteem, and learn creative expression, management of emotions, listening, cooperation, etc. The challenges offered are both active and interactive: mime, drawings, word-games, writing, movement, singing, and so on.

We will continue to promote peace in Europe in 2016 in this “playful” way in order to raise awareness among educators about the importance of constructive group dynamics, and to teach groups of all ages positive conflict management.

MEDIA To promote harmonious living together, the Evens Foundation seeks to stimulate efforts to increase media literacy – by raising critical awareness and by encouraging media creativity. Both of these activities contribute to the development of highly aware, active and responsible citizens.

The Evens Foundation defines media literacy as the ability to access and understand the media, take a critical approach to media content, and be able to create communication in a variety of contexts. In the media domain, the Evens Foundation will thus continue to work in particular on projects that: • Enhance the media literacy of citizens, with special focus on media education for children and young people • Raise a critical attitude to the media by enhancing understan ding of how the media influence perceptions and convictions • Encourage a strong sense of responsibility among journalists and editors, and in particular young journalists, so that they use the power of journalism to reduce conflict and promote har mony in European society • Research the role of the new social media in both conflict and conflict management

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MEDIA EDUCATION PRIZE 2015 PROMOTED GOOD USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA The Evens Prize for Media Education 2015 was awarded to the Dutch network organization Mediawijzer.net for its Media Masters. The Austrian Institute for Critical Digital Culture, Cracked Labs, was awarded the runner-up prize for its online game Data Dealer.

bute to a wiser use of social media”. The aim was to support existing initiatives that contribute to the education of children and adolescents (aged 9-16), directly or through their teachers or parents, so that they use social media in a sensible, constructive and ethical way.

The awards ceremony was held during the Media Meets Literacy conference that the Evens Foundation organized in Warsaw on 21 and 22 May 2015.

An external international jury of experts awarded the main prize to Mediawijzer.net. Among other noteworthy elements, the jury highlighted the organization’s holistic and thorough approach to increasing the overall media literacy level in The Netherlands.

It praised the winning project for its playful yet very effective way of educating children on a broad range of media issues. The organization received the sum of €25,000, which is partly allocated for creating a mobile version of the Media Masters game.

This Media Education prize focused on an important and omnipresent domain within contemporary media: the social media networks. The title of the prize was “Young People and Social Media: Meeting the Challenges – For projects that contri-

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Cracked Labs was selected as the runner-up for its Data Dealer project. This project was especially praised for its innovative approach in creating an extraordinary learning context for children. Also, the provocative oddity of this game, in which young players are invited to play the role of the ‘bad guy’, was much appreciated.

The organization received the sum of €15,000, which is partly allocated for creating educational materials that accompany the online game.

More information on evensfoundation.be/en/prizes/ media-education/2015

MAGAZINE FOCUSED ON GOOD PRACTICES IN USE OF MEDIA AT HOME Our second edition of the Media Literacy in Europe magazine is titled Inspiring ways to involve parents. This time we decided to focus entirely on the role that parents play (or should play) in their children’s media education. After all, the first place where children are confronted with media is within the family, so parents (and grandparents, too) play a crucial role. This is why we decided to highlight a series of good and inspiring practices from all over Europe.

In this publication, we highlight projects that raise parents’ interest in and understanding of their children’s media activities, that offer advice on how to introduce children to digital media devices, and that teach parents and children (together) the mechanics of the new media.

These projects allow parents and children to discover media together, empowering parents to question, evaluate and discuss the use of media within their home. This is crucial because it is the family that creates a media culture, determining from the beginning what kind of media the children will get in touch with, and what importance media and media activities will have in their everyday lives. How children will use media outside the family depends on how they have experienced media (usage) within it.

Therefore, media education is more than ever a family affair.

We hope that this magazine helps to, first, show how essential it is for parents to be actively engaged in their children’s media literacy education, and second, to stimulate readers with a selection of good practices to serve as sources of inspiration for future projects. Supporting parents in their media education is the responsibility of many actors, such as policymakers, schools and NGOs, so we hope, too, that many of them will also be inspired to action in the near future.

More information on issuu.com/evensfoundation/docs/medialiteracymagazine_issuu

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CONFERENCE GATHERS MEDIA LITERACY PROFESSIONALS FROM ALL AROUND EUROPE “Media Meets Literacy… in Warsaw” was, above all, a learning and networking event, taking place in a pleasant atmosphere. It was aimed at Media and Information Literacy (MIL) professionals from all over Europe – from policymakers and researchers to academics and, in particular, practitioners.

Organized by the Evens Foundation, it celebrated the Foundation’s work in the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) field over more than five years. The main objective was to create a festive event where the participants could meet, exchange, learn and make plans for future collaboration.

We started on the afternoon of 21 May with a Frontstage day, which was kicked off with a keynote speech by leading media education researcher David Buckingham. He critically analyzed the state of MIL education in Europe today. He then engaged with the audience in a lively Q&A. During the second half of the afternoon, we presented a dozen 12 min. storytelling presentations; educators, academics, policymakers, entrepreneurs, etc from various EU countries talked about the MIL lessons and insights they wanted to share.

On the second day, our more informal Backstage day featured innovative ways for participants to engage in networking, interaction and learning. After the plenary morning session, 8 parallel interactive workshops were hosted by our partners in two series, in a rotating system.

The conference closed with the official launch and presentation of a new project by the Evens Foundation and the Modern Poland Foundation: MIL/PEER – the Media & Information Literacy Platform for Exchanging Educational Resources (see details below).

More information on www.mediameetsliteracy.eu

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NEW PLATFORM ANSWERS THREE CRUCIAL MEDIA LITERACY NEEDS “MIL/PEER – Media & Information Literacy Platform for Exchanging Educational Resources” is a tool developed by the Evens Foundation and the Modern Poland Foundation to prepare, translate and publish educational resources. It allows organizations to work collaboratively on joint projects. Our goal is to increase the number and quality of media literacy projects in Europe by encouraging international cooperation among media literacy organizations and supporting them in applying for European funds.

Before we started working on MIL/PEER, we consulted a number of European media literacy NGOs. They identified three areas where support is most needed: fundraising, international co­ operation, and tools for sharing educational materials. MIL/PEER provides an answer to all of them.

MIL/PEER is a free-licensed software and many of the published materials are available under free licenses, which means you can use them, and change and publish adapted versions free of charge. The technology used to create the resources allows for easy conversion to custom HTML pages, PDF files, e-books, etc...

The next step of the project is a series of workshops during which interested organizations will have a chance to work together on application forms and discuss their ideas.

More information on milpeer.eu

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DUTCH EU CORRESPONDENT WINS EUROPEAN JOURNALISM PRIZE Under its Media Program, the Evens Foundation launched in 2013 a biennial Prize for European Journalism. It rewards journalists whose work contributes to making the European project more comprehensible and accessible for a broad audience.

The 2015 prizewinner, selected by an international jury, was Marc Peeperkorn, who has been EU correspondent for De Volkskrant, the main quality paper in The Netherlands, since 2008. The Evens Encouragement Award for European Journalism, created for a talented EU journalist of up to age 35, went to Katarzyna Zachariasz, a Polish freelancer who mainly writes for Gazeta Wyborcza and Polityka.

The Prize for European Journalism includes an award of €10,000 and the Evens Encouragement Award an award of €5,000.

Both laureates were honored at the Difference Day event on Sunday, 3 May 2015 in Bozar, Brussels. The Evens Foundation co-organized this event with the Brussels Platform for Journalism (a joint initiative of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Erasmushogeschool Brussel), iMinds and Bozar, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. For us, celebrating freedom of the press and freedom of expression means honoring people and organizations that make a difference in protecting and promoting these values. Freedom of expression implies respect for the opinions of others. It recognizes the fact that there is a difference between each of us and the opinions we hold. To celebrate freedom of expression is to celebrate diversity. Freedom of the press is an essential aspect of the freedom of expression. Without free and independent communication, it is impossible to build and sustain a democratic society.

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The news media, as “the Fourth Estate”, counterbalance the legislative, executive and judicial power of the state. Only in a system where there are solid and transparent checks and balances, can creativity, free research, culture and the arts flourish.

On Tuesday, 3 May 2016, the Foundation is organizing a second edition of Difference Day. More information on www.differenceday.com

YOUNG JOURNALISTS FOCUS ON CONSTRUCTIVE REPORTING OF HOT ISSUES For the third time in a row, the Evens Foundation supported the Annual Congress of the FEJS, an international organization dedicated to the exchange of information between European journalism students, young professionals and citizens interested in the journalism field.

The FEJS attempts to bring such individuals together and promote interaction and networking while providing them with the educational tools and framework to improve their knowledge and professional skills. The 2015 edition, held in Athens, Greece, focused on “Stereotypes, media exclusion and far-right rhetoric in European media�. More than 100 journalism students and young professionals from all over Europe gathered to absorb lectures, interact in lively debates and participate in interactive workshops.

The topic of the conference was chosen because the organizers are worried about the direction Europe is going in, and about the ways European media are covering issues such as immigration, sexual orientation, poverty, religion, etc, in a context that is more and more defined by the rise of nationalist and far-right movements in many European countries.

During the conference lectures, debates and workshops, young journalists explored new narratives to develop more constructive reporting on the issues mentioned above.

More information on www.fejs.info

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WAWALAB MULTIMEDIA MATERIALS REACH OVER 300.000 VIEWERS WawaLab is an Evens Foundation project aimed at improving the media skills of Polish young people and promoting new media and technologies as tools for social change.

In 2015, WawaLab was a meeting: a meeting with the city, its energy, its people, its space and its history. We invited 30 participants from Warsaw, aged from 12 to 19, to meet once a month throughout half a year. Each of the meetings had a separate subject – from history, to the citizens, to urban activists.

The exploration of the topics elicited fresh and personal points of view about Warsaw, and involved a search for places, stories and people who try to change their surroundings for the better, take responsibility and actively shape their space with the use of new media and new-technology tools (audiovisual, software, apps, etc).

The Foundation invited institutions, organizations and personalities who are models and benchmarks in promoting grassroots civic thinking about the city to collaborate with us and guide our parti­cipants to take part in civic activities.

Experts from the field of media and new technologies facilitated the meetings, sharing their skills in using the new media and tools.

The material results included short videos, podcasts, visual materials and video tutorials for young people on how to use new technologies for social change. These were marked on a project map.

Our project manual, addressed to an international audience, shows how to organize a similar project in the context of a different city. Titled How to make a CITY.LAB, it’s available for free download.

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The project was also popular with the media: the biggest Polish daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, the main media partner of the project, posted the multimedia materials that resulted from the workshops on its Internet platform, reaching over 300,000 viewers.

The WawaLab project is a follow-up to the Evens Foundation’s successful PragaLab project, which was implemented in 2012 and 2013, and will be continued on a larger scale in selected Polish towns in 2016/17.

STREET SCHOOL WINS FRENCH GOVERNMENT RECOGNITION The Evens Foundation aims to support the democratization of the media while maintaining high-quality newsmaking standards. Since 2012, we have been supporting the Street School for Young Journalists in Paris, helping a new generation of journalists from diverse social backgrounds to emerge.

Since its inception, more than 60 young people have benefited from the school’s four-month program of workshops, based on the principle of “learning by doing” and run by experienced journalists from major French media.

The School alumni work today at AFP, Le Figaro, RFI, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, and Alternatives Economiques – in Paris, Berlin and Melbourne.

In 2015 the Street School was awarded the national label Grande Ecole du Numérique (#GEN). This governmental distinction for the best intensive and free digital training will allow the school to expand its educational offer and deliver certifications and internship agreements, and benefit from a nationwide promotion campaign.

TRAINING PRODUCES 75 NEW MEDIACOACHES For the second time, the Evens Foundation supported the Belgian MediaCoach program, in Flanders, French community and Brussels.

The MediaCoach program in Belgium focuses on preparing professionals – including teachers, youth workers and librarians who work with young people – to integrate media literacy into their work practices. The 10-day training provides participants with a theoretical framework on different media literacy topics (media identity and privacy, media production, media and relations, etc).

It also focuses on concrete media literacy activities.

Trainees in the program are challenged and coached to develop a media literacy project in their work environment and present that to an external jury for their graduation. This year 75 MediaCoaches graduated from the training.

More information on www.media-coach.be

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The project was developed by StreetPress, a young online medium, with the support of the Open Society Foundations and numerous media partners. More info on school.streetpress.com

TURN ON SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS ATTRACT WIDESPREAD COVERAGE In 2015 we concluded a second edition of a highly successful “Turn On. Youth and Media” project, implemented in cooperation with the Polish Centre for Citizenship Education.

The latest edition aimed at increasing teachers’ competences, providing educational material, inspiring action, providing young people with online space (blogs), and creating social campaigns in order to help youngsters and teachers become competent in understanding and creating media.

This edition’s focus was on raising social awareness about hate speech, manipulation and radicalization in the media.

The project was designed for teachers of history, civics, Polish, computer science and foreign languages; librarians and guidance counselors in primary and junior schools, and students in primary, middle and high school all over Poland.

The results of the project are impressive. A few dozen materials for pupils and teachers were prepared (lesson scripts, articles, presentations, infographics, all available on the project website and licensed on Creative Commons); an online course on Internet social campaigns was taken by 300 teachers and over 500 students from 130 schools from all over Poland; over 90 student blogs were set up and moderated, and five media actions were taken: collective works on a specific subject with professional journalists and media specialists.

The most visible media effect of the project was social campaigns created together by teachers and students, tackling problems and issues of major importance to local communities. They were broadly disseminated by online and offline media, and widely commented on by both media specialists and local activists, having a big impact on both local communities and a broader audience.

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These campaigns also proved that, after the “Turn On” course, both youngsters and their teachers are capable of creating effective, professional media actions for social change.

ERSILIA PROJECT HONORED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT Together with LE BAL (an independent venue in Paris, dedicated to the document-image in all its forms), the Evens Foundation engaged in joint reflection on methodologies of media and image education and in producing a teacher-training e-tool in image literacy.

LE BAL has extensive experience in media and image education.

Thousands of students from schools all over France have participated in the workshops of La Fabrique du Regard, the educational leg of LE BAL. The goal of these workshops is to develop a critical approach in young people so that they question the conditions in which images are produced, circulated and assimilated.

w.ERSIlIa.fR

In 2015, the e-tool prototype was finalized and tested in the classroom. The final version of Ersilia will be launched in 2016, offering pedagogical programs, methodologies, evaluations, critical texts and image selections, as well as concrete ideas for projects to PlatEfORmE numéRIquE carry out in the classroom. The objective is to raise awareness D’éDucatIOn à l’ImagE of the importance of image literacy among teachers and PEnSER provide a practical POuR toolbox to develop educational workshops En ImagES and projects with students.

un mOnDE D’ImagES In 2015, the Ersilia project was the laureate of the La France PaR lE bal/la fabRIquE s’engage governmental initiative, which helps to disseminate Du REgaRD

the most inspiring social innovation projects. The award was presented by President Hollande in December 2015 at Le Palais de l’Elysée.

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www.ERSIlIa.fR www.ERSIlIa.fR

www.ERSIlIa.fRwww.ERSIlIa.fR DOSSIER PRESSE

PlatEfORmE numéRIquE D’éDucatIOn à l’ImagE POuR PEnSER En ImagES un mOnDE D’ImagES PaR lE bal/la fabRIquE Du REgaRD

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lancEmEnt lancEmEnt jEuDI 12 maI 9h30jEuDI 12 maI 9h30 au bal au bal DOSSIER PRESSE

DOSSIER PRESSE DOSSIER PRESSE

DOSSIER PRESSE

Š copyright Martin Tverling

EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP Major steps have been taken toward creating a peaceful, democratic and multicultural society in Europe. The Evens Foundation seeks to contribute to this process by raising people’s awareness of the need for peacebuilding and by collaborating with those who work to maintain harmony in European society.

The Foundation also seeks to empower citizens and encourage them to take an active part in shaping the future of Europe. In the European Citizenship program, the Foundation focuses on projects linking the local with the European level.

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CYCLE OF CONFERENCES TACKLES ALIENATION OF EU CITIZENS In 2015 the Evens Foundation organized for the first time the Cycle of Conferences in collaboration with universities and institutions in various European cities. The central theme was “How to bridge the gap between European Citizens and European Institutions”.

The project was initiated because of the deep, widespread concern about the growing distance between European citizens, especially young people, and the European institutions. All four conferences had their own format but shared one and the same goal: to hear the views and insights of critical but inspiring European keynote speakers and to provoke dynamic debate among the audiences, which included many young people with passionate ideas about the kind of Europe they want to live in.

The conferences took place in collaboration with the London School of Economics (London), Johns Hopkins University (Bologna), Villa Decius Association (Krakow) and Bozar (Brussels), and welcomed almost 4,000 participants from all over the world.

© copyright Martin Tverling

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ARTS PRIZE AWARDED TO ARTWAY OF THINKING The Evens Arts Prize, awarded every two years to a European artist, supports artistic initiatives that help us rethink contemporary European realities and envision new perspectives for shaping our common world.

The expert jury decided unanimously to award the Evens Arts Prize 2015 to Artway of Thinking, a contemporary Italian art research project originally developed by Stefania Mantovani and Federica Thiene in 1992.

Artway of Thinking is a non-profit organization for researching collective creative processes, whereby the artist gets actively involved in the process of social change, collaborating with various professionals, and applying creative thought, perceptual sense and talent in order to generate “new beauty”. Artway of Thinking activated collaborations with administrative authorities, companies and professionals, worked in Italy and abroad on 38 projects, and has established six workshop models focused on increasing the capacity to “co-create” new realities.

The prizegiving ceremony was hosted by the European Cultural Centre in the Palazzo Mora in beautiful Venice; 120 international guests were welcomed to the palazzo to honor the laureate and listen to the laudation by the world-famous artist and co-founder of the Arte Povera movement, Michelangelo Pistoletto.

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WHAT’S YOUR ID? TOOL INSPIRES DEBATE ON EUROPEAN VALUES “What’s Your ID?” is a platform to meet and reflect on European values, a space to discuss the importance of what we all share, our common values. At the same time, the tool builds dialogue among different nations, cultures, religions or political options, and links generations by exploring deeply our identity.

A film, a manual for facilitators and various presentations (accessible via the Evens website) are free to use by all groups wanting to reflect on the theme of European values.

During 2015 we continued to run workshops and promote this tool in Belgium, France and Poland. Together with the New Horizons Association in Poland, we presented the project in schools and organized open debates where seniors and young people discussed the different approaches to values and shared their experiences. This all showed that “What’s your ID?” can be an inspiration, a helpful tool, and a great platform for people to get to know each other better.

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SEVEN CITIES UNITE IN CITY GHETTOS EXPLORATION With The City Ghettos of Today project, which started in 2014, we wanted to redefine and reexamine the concept of ‘ghetto’ in the context of today’s closed migrant districts. This European collaboration, involving over 1,500 participants, concluded in February 2015 with a large-scale installation-performance and a debate that brought together materials culled from each of the city workshops.

The project united artists, cultural actors, academics and social workers to explore the broad themes of ‘ghetto’ and ‘migration districts’ in participating European cities.

The City Ghettos of Today reflected the Evens Foundation’s interest in creating a peaceful, open and multicultural society in Europe, and the interdisciplinary dimension of the Strefa WolnoSłowa foundation, which combines academic and theoretical methodologies with practices of artistic and cultural creation.

Through artistic reflection and intellectual research, this collaborative project sought to unravel the complex and problematical theme of ‘migrant ghettos’ in contemporary Europe, paying particular attention to various definitions and visions of ghettos within the contexts of Warsaw, Paris, Bologna, Milan, Helsinki, Berlin and Antwerp. The conclusions of the project can be found in the final publication, available online at www.conflictmatters.eu

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LOOKING FORWARD‌ The year 2015, indeed, was very fruitful. At a time when we are threatened by and, in some cases, the victims of hatred, divisivethinking and destructive ideologies, it is rewarding to see the results of dedicated activities that seek to bring harmony to our local communities and to Europe overall, to witness the enthusiastic engagement, learning and sharing of participants of all ages in our projects and events, and to see how well-focused initiatives can bring huge benefits to thousands of people, whether directly or indirectly.

Each year, we build on our work of previous years. Now we look forward to another exciting year in which we will build on, develop and extend the projects and initiatives that we worked on in 2015.

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EVENS FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

THE TEAM

Corinne Evens, Co-Founder and Honorary President Luc Luyten, Chairman Yolande Avontroodt Angélique Berès Monique Canto-Sperber Alicja Pacewicz Jacques Ehelberg Daniel Kropf Ernest Van Buynder Xavier Vidal

Antwerp The Evens Foundation Greet De Wilde, General Program Manager © 2016 Evens Foundation Tim Verbist, Program Manager, Media www.evensfoundation.be Marjolein Delvou, Program Manager, Peace Education Caroline Coosemans, Office Administrator

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Luc Luyten, Chairman Corinne Evens Xavier Vidal

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PUBLISHED BY

CONCEPT, GRAPHICS & PRODUCTION

Paris Anne Davidian, Program Manager France Warsaw Joanna Krawczyk, Program Manager Poland Magdalena Braksator, Project Manager

Wils & Peeters Graphic Design

CONTACT DETAILS ANTWERP OFFICE

PARIS OFFICE

WARSAW OFFICE

Stoopstraat 1, 5th floor B-2000, Antwerpen T +32-3-231 39 70 F +32-3-233 94 32 antwerp@evensfoundation.be

7, rue Charles V F-75004 Paris T +33-1-44 54 83 90 F +33-1-44 54 83 80 paris@evensfoundation.be

Ul. Chmielna 21m. 20 00-021 Warszawa – Poland T/F +48-22-692 49 21 warsaw@evensfoundation.be

Fondation Evens France is under the aegis of the Hippocrène Foundation

www.evensfoundation.be