Solidarity is About Youth

The Solidarity is About Youth: The voice of fraternity (SAY) programme has been run in Poland by the School with Class Foundation since 2017. The aim of the programme is to sensitize students to the other and to create a space for conversation at school on current social issues. Young people who take part analyze and interpret contemporary photographs and then turn their thoughts into text – they write a postcard and send it to selected strangers or institutions.

Each card carries a double message: on the one hand through the images themselves, selected in collaboration with outstanding photographers from all the programme countries, and on the other through a personal message written by the students.

The SAY programme is run internationally, with schools from France, Croatia, Slovenia, Spain and Italy also taking part.

Please visit the project’s international website: www.fraternity-card.eu.

What do we offer in the programme?

educational material to talk about important social issues such as social inequalities, climate change, migration or mental health problems
training with experienced trainers on how to run image analysis and writing workshops with students
ready-made scripts for anti-discrimination classes, image analysis and writing workshops.

What will you learn from the programme?

what elements make up image analysis and the importance of photography in shaping our consciousness
how to encourage young people to write personal messages without guidelines and rigid rules
how, through critical image analysis and conversation, we can teach about openness towards others and break down stereotypes
how to encourage young people to express themselves and form their own opinions.

I often talk to students about important issues, but with this programme and the hours we spent analysing first the photos and then writing the cards, I actually felt that we had done something really great and good. I think it gave the students a lot to know that their thoughts, their words were important and that it was their message of solidarity that would reach a complete stranger.

teacher, secondary school

The programme draws the attention of children and young people to important themes, such as solidarity, tolerance, poverty, migration and racism. The programme is designed so that it can be carried out with both younger and older children. I think that the project gains in attractiveness due to the fact that the children's activities have a measurable character - receiving feedback.

teacher, primary school

In Poland, the programme involved:

schools and kindergartens

teachers

students

Solidarity is About Youth: The voice of fraternity program is co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus + programme and run by: La Ligue de l’enseignement in France, Fundacion CIVES in Spain, CMS, Center for Peace Studies in Croatia, Humanitas in Slovenia, ARCI in Italy and School with Class Foundation in Poland.