Until now, however, their needs have been neglected, and the lessons they can teach us have been largely ignored. This project aims to help put that right. It was undertaken in partnership with Attiko in Belgium and the German Forschungsstelle Migration und Integration . True integration can only be achieved by recognising and valuing people's own ethnic backgrounds, and the emphasis is as much on where people come from as on where they now live. This project took a more positive approach, stressing the added cultural value of having people from diverse backgrounds within a society.
Education is a key tool in achieving a harmonious and well integrated community.
The more people know about themselves and others, the less suspicion and fear they feel. The project is designed to develop training and education materials for use in adult education, and for general reading. They worked closely with consultants and local groups in the two countries who had extensive knowledge of the communities involved. One measure of the project's success was the huge interest the programme generated among the target audience. The courses were massively oversubscribed, and the project team had to impose selection criteria.