"Open Mind" - Ustinov Diversity Training
“Children are born without prejudices; they have no prejudices that could be traced back to their birth. It is something they pick up later, at school, through education and religion.” Sir Peter Ustinov
The lifelong fight of our founder, Sir Peter Ustinov, against prejudice is the guiding principle of the Peter Ustinov Foundation and is a central element of the projects. Open Mind – a project for developing the diversity competence of students and teachers – implements this project in a very direct way.
At the present time, Ustinov Diversity Training is implemented at the seven Peter Ustinov Schools, together with the project partner Diversity Works. The aim of the training programme is to make the participants aware of prejudice as a theme and help them to achieve a better understanding of people with other ethnic roots. As a result of the experience gained during the workshops, which are taught by very experienced trainers from Diversity Works, it is intended that the participants will identify the prejudices of a society, and learn and practise mutual respect.
Selected teachers and students attend the training programme in the Peter Ustinov Schools so that they can then use the skills they have learned to implement specific measures in their schools. Individual training measures also take place across schools so the participants can get to know each other and share experiences. In addition to this, an internet forum facilitates an ongoing exchange of information.
However, the project does not only benefit the schools that take part: society as a whole gains. Assurance on how to act in a world that is becoming increasingly diverse is taken by the participating students and teachers into society as a whole and it also gives them the best possible preparation for their later life. It lays a foundation stone for the attitude the children and young people will have towards their fellow human beings in everyday life, their leisure time and, later, in the world of work.
The aim is to develop a transferable “Open Mind” guide, which can also be multiplied as best practice for application in other schools and organisations. The project can therefore be used to counteract the increasing tendency for bullying to occur in German schools and it can also give schools optimum preparation against the backdrop of an increasingly intercultural school population.
The Peter Ustinov Foundation becomes involved in this and further projects to benefit children and their families. Please join us in our humanitarian project and give children a future with hope.
For more information please contact: www.diversity-works.de
