Partners

Leaving Places – Shaping Places is a project of
The Kreisau-Initiative Berlin
and
The Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe

The Kreisau-Initiative was founded in in 1990. Its mission is to support the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe in Poland ideally and materially, while also being the German contact office to the Polish Foundation. Through its projects, the Kreisau-Initiative aims to bring youths from all over Europe and other parts of the world together in order to foster dialogue and inter-cultural communication. Other objectives of the organisation include building up a European platform for exchange of knowledge and improvement of understanding of the functions and politics of EU institutions, while spreading EU values and goals, stimulating active youth participation in civil society projects and engagement in political decision-making processes and creating networks between schools, academia, governmental and non-governmental organizations and EU-institutions.

The Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe initiates and promotes activities that develop peaceful relationships between nations, social groups, and individuals. The Foundation applies social concepts developed by the World War II German resistance group, the Kreisau Circle, by advancing European mutual understanding.
The Foundation runs four main programs: The International Youth Meeting Centre, The Historic Site, The European Academy, and The Conference Centre. The Foundation has the goal of establishing an ecological farming project.

The work of the International Youth Meeting Centre (IYMC) is at the heart of the foundation's activities. The IYMC organizes programmes and seminars for young people from Eastern and Western Europe throughout the year. The programmes address a broad palette of topics: Europe, multi-cultural art, the environment, history of resistance against totalitarian systems, and intergenerational encounters. Working together in these projects makes it possible for participants to replace nationalistic and cultural stereotypes with curiosity, trust, acceptance, and willingness to engage in dialogue.

This project has been realized with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures. The contents of this website are the sole responsiblity of the Kreisau-Initiative Berlin e.V. and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the positition of the Anna Lindh foundation.

 

The project has been financially supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.