The South Yorkshire Black Cultural Development Project (SYBCDP) This Cultural Tools Project is funded by the European Union, with the stated aim being to Use Cultural Tools to Prevent and Combat Social Exclusion (Budget Line ..... ) and exchange of Transnational Experience and Cultural Information across the European Union Partner Cities. The aim of the project is to create a common European Experience on how ethnic minority cultures can use Cultural Tools to prevent and combat social exclusion, and on the basis of this make policy recommendations to Brussels at the end of the project cycle. (See Topics for Aims and Objectives and full documentation on this scheme). An essentail element of the project has been to create local networks and linkages, so that the wider communities in each one of the cities can make a contribution towards project development through a City-Network in each partner city. At a very early stage in Sheffield, due to the existance of a vibrant Cultural Industries Quarter and the Black 'Positive Negatives' Project, funded by the Urban Programme over the years, without the element of prior planning the local city-network has developed dynamic links with other networks in South Yorkshire. In order to reflect this reality it was felt important to give local designation to the project which recoignises this reality e.g. SYBCDP

Reports & Analysis: ROTTERDAM – CULTURAL TOOLS FINAL REPORT Aims and objectives program Methodology adopted City Networks (a) Bureau Medelanders Two projects in the borough of Noord: (i) Youth theatre project ‘De schatten van Noord’ (ii) ‘Small Scale Neighbourhood initiatives: - Art and refugees. - Moroccan girls en poetry. - Dowry, hundreds of women of different ethnicity work together. (b) Foundation Art and Culture Rotterdam (i) ‘Kids over de brug’ (ii) ‘From Kids parade to living room performance. (c) Foundation Rotterdam Neighbourhood theatre (Wijktheater) Training and coaching of local players. The production starts with visitors of neighbourhood community centres. With the coaching of professionals neighbourhood inhabitants show there experience on stage and which originate plays about the daily live in the Rotterdam neighbourhoods. (d) Municipal of Rotterdam, director ‘social and cultural affairs’. (e) Different Ethnic minority radio station. (f) NGO Apna Bhavan Meetings A number of meetings on neighborhood and borough level regarding exchange of best practice. Focus group Focus group of more than 15 participants and different meetings. Published Dec 29, 2002 - 07:59 PM

Reports & Analysis: Final Report : Preparatory Actions to Combat & Prevent Social Exclusion Final Report : Preparatory Actions to Combat & Prevent Social Exclusion through the use of Cultural Tool, Grant Agreement No VS/2000/0710 1. Project Background and Partners The project – the use of Cultural Tools to Prevent and Combat Social Exclusion, has SPAT-C (Sheffield) as the lead partner. Other partners are Southwark in London, CITTA de Torino (Italy), the Provincial Government of Modena (Italy), Institute of Comparative Social Studies (Berlin-Germany), Stichting Stimulans / KROSBIE in Rotterdam and the Bureau Discrimination in Den Haag (both, Holland). The central thesis of the project, as approved by Brussels, is that all across Europe the diverse ethnic minority cultures present a dichotomy in terms of social policy. The ‘dichotomy’ rests on the belief and presumptions of the Project holders that, on the one hand these often enormous differences in culture are a source of the social exclusion and discrimination faced by ethnic minority communities (due to the perceived ‘otherness’ and foreignness’ of these cultures). On the other hand, these diverse cultures also have the potential to unify communities, regardless of the differences of race/colour/social status. Throughout December 2000 and January 2001, the project carried out consultative work and exchange of information between partners, to develop preliminary outline of the methodology for project development and implementation. This programme report seeks to present the project development progress and insights gained, with a view to highlighting experiences and transnational exchange shared, as well as ‘best practice’ modalities developed by the end of the project cycle. However, illness of a couple of key actors and discontinuation by Modena, as well as restructuring of relevant department in Southwark led to a loss of time and lack of focus at a critical juncture. Fortunately due to the quality and speed of progress in the first phase the actual damage was minimal at the point of pick-up. A separate section contains the final report and other achievements in each city, as city reports. Published Dec 25, 2002 - 08:06 PM

Reports & Analysis: CULTURAL TOOLS PROJECT - TORINO FINAL REPORT 1. Summary of the cultural policy in Torino with special attention to Black and Ethnic Minorities. The enhancement and promotion of culture is today central to the development policies of European cities. In Torino, culture and cultural activities, in traditional sectors and in those linked to interculture, represents one of the key components for the improvement of the population’s quality of life, but is also a potential driver of economic development with a major impact on employment. A recent study by the European Commission has estimated that two fifths of employment growth in the European Union in the coming years will be produced by the culture industry. Torino has a dynamic and diffuse cultural life, with many enterprises and NGOs linked to the sector and several actions are undertaken to trigger a fully-fledged growth sector and build a new image of the City: a great attraction for visitors, deeper integration between the city’s museums, a stronger international season of theatre, music and cinema events, a new pole that encourages the development of young people’s artistic and cultural work as well as a mayor attention paid for new forms of artistic expression such as ethnic music and intercultural events . The cultural strategy aims at ensuring a climate of pluralism and pay attention to the diversity of autonomous cultural proposals. This report is particularly focused on a specific area of the City named Porta Palazzo where the UPP Project ended in December 2001 has been the trigger for developing more effective inclusive policies and antidiscrimination as well social inclusion actions and initiatives. Published Dec 19, 2002 - 07:48 PM

Reports & Analysis: BERLIN - Cultural Tools Final Report FINAL REPORT REGARDING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CULTURAL TOOLS IN BERLIN AN APPROACH FOR DIMINISHING SOCIAL EXCLUSION BY JOCHEN BLASCHKE 1. Introduction - A Summary of Cultural Policy and Cultural Tools in Berlin Berlin is defined today as a city of cultures, yet its economic situation is currently severely limited. The future of Berlin is foreseen by most specialists, politicians, scientists etc. as being based in cultural developments. These developments have been influenced over time, through the historical structures of Berlin, where culture has always been a very central feature in the city. Despite its foundation in cultural experience, Berlin has also been one of the largest industrial cities of Europe - as was clear prior to the second world war and even earlier than in the last century. Being known as an industrial city, a likely location for obtaining work and a hub bub of cultural activity – Berlin has naturally attracted many immigrants in the past. Hence, this has led in part to Berlin being one of the many centres of immigration throughout Europe for hundreds of years. The city has a long tradition of having established cultural institutions for immigrants. However, in the early sixties, this was forgotten as the first new guest worker immigrants began moving into the city. At that time, Berlin was divided in two sectors run by the Bolshevist Party in East Berlin and a regime mixed of occupying forces and democratic structures of the Federal Republic of Germany in West Berlin. Industry became highly subsidized since Berlin represented an island, surrounded by the German Democratic Republic and defined at least in West Berlin with its immigrants, as an enemy state. West Berlin was threatened several times of potentially being occupied by Eastern troupes. Under this circumstances, West Berlin was subsidized intensively and developed a wide labour intensive industry: from the chemical industry, food industry, textiles and tobacco producing industries to the development of electronic industries, where parts were brought together to produce an end product. Published Dec 17, 2002 - 11:56 AM

Combating social exclusion in Sheffield Harnessing self-help to combat social exclusion A new study considers whether helping people to help themselves and others can be developed as an additional tool for tackling social exclusion to complement job creation. The researchers, Colin Williams and Jan Windebank, surveyed 400 households in deprived neighbourhoods of Southampton and Sheffield to examine the current extent of their self-help activity, the barriers to people doing more for themselves and others, and how these might be overcome. They found that: Everyday life in deprived neighbourhoods is characterised by households inability to complete a large number of basic tasks necessary for maintaining a reasonable quality of life (such as home maintenance). Published Mar 09, 2002 - 04:22 AM

Conferences & Seminars: July 2001 Transnational Conference Published Jan 15, 2002 - 06:26 PM

Conferences & Seminars: Background information to July 2001 Conference SPAT-C Parnership project with Italy, Holland, Germany - ‘Combating and Preventing Social Exclusion through the use of Cultural Tools European Conference. Sheffield is a host to an important conference o­n culture and its links with social exclusion and racism from 5th to 8th July 2001. Delegates from Holland, Germany, Denmark and Italy will engage with their local partner, the Sheffield Positive Action Training Consortium (SPAT-C) and the local communities to discuss these issues – There is no entry fee for participation at the conference. Funded by Brussels and supported by the Council, the conference will look at how cultural differences feed into racial prejudice and create divisions in our communities. But more importantly, the conference will also explore the powerful way in which cultural activities can create communication and sharing between different races, cultures and communities, who do not sometimes even share each other’s language. The conference, at the Centre for Popular Music, Paternoster Row, promises to be more than a mere talking shop. Practical examples of poetry, music, films and cultural happenings from across Europe, and those which challenge racial stereo-types, will be presented - Cllr Steve Ayris, Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion in the City Council said “The SPAT-C conference is an important event for Sheffield and will help shape Council’s cultural policy to reflect cultural diversity and the role of ethnic minority art forms in promoting a multi-cultural society”. Published Jan 11, 2002 - 06:27 PM

Documents: Aims and Objectives of this Site Mission It is this websites mission to strengthen communication among its project members, encouraging international and intercultural communication and collaboration, as well as joint research & development towards promoting the objectives of this European Funded Scheme. Further this network is specially designed in such a way that it can become a wider forum for exploring the diversity and dynamism of ethnic minority cultural expressions through the sub-region and the European Disapora, so as to deepen the impact of the notion of cultural tools as a weapon in teh fight against social exclusion. At the end of the European Union funded project cycle, it is hoped that the longer term objective is to development a world-wide information system for the study of cultural development and cooperation. To this end, SYBCDP collects, processes and disseminates information on cultural development, cultural life and policies, examining existing cultural tools from various parts of the world e.g. In theatre, cinema, music and documentary material. We are fortunate enough to have inherited an exceptionally diverse source of quality material in the form of a video library donated to us from the Sheffield City Council. Published Jan 04, 2002 - 10:19 AM

Documents: Cultural Tools Grid - Observed during project implementation : 5. Cultural Tools – Observed during project implementation : Published Dec 11, 2001 - 07:27 AM

Documents: Cultural Tools Grid - Transnationality 4. Transnationality – Learning Experience Published Nov 12, 2001 - 07:24 AM