Conference Agenda

This practice-based paper presents the “Grass and Roots” Intercultural Mediation Syllabus developed within the European project MILAGRO (Migrants and Local Communities Actively Growing Together for Inclusive Societies) in Siena, Italy. The contribution is particularly linked to Track A, as it explores how service-learning can foster democratic competences, empathy, civic agency, and refugee empowerment through community engagement.

The syllabus emerged from the experience of “Grass and Roots,” a refugee-led volunteer group initially created by Pakistani refugees to support newly arrived asylum seekers in Siena. Within the framework of MILAGRO, this spontaneous community initiative progressively evolved into a structured intercultural mediation training coordinated by Nuova Associazione Culturale Ulisse (NACU) and SIS Intercultural Study Abroad. Over time, this pathway of service, reflection, and community participation also contributed to broader forms of social and civic empowerment, eventually supporting the creation of the intercultural social cooperative “Lux e Nur,” established through the collaboration between refugees and local citizens.

Grounded in the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) and inspired by the EUFICCS pedagogical approach (European Use of Full-Immersion, Culture, Content, and Service), the project re-elaborates service-learning within the context of forced migration. Refugees were not positioned as passive recipients of support, but as active social actors progressively developing mediation competences through service, peer support, guided reflection, and civic participation.

The paper reflects on the pedagogical role of both the “service” and the “learning” dimensions in the development of democratic competences and forms of active citizenship. Weekly volunteer activities supporting newcomers were combined with practices focused on intercultural encounters, empathy, civic responsibility, cultural diversity, and social belonging. Reflection was intentionally designed in flexible forms — including dialogue, drawing, storytelling, and oral sharing — in order to respond to participants’ heterogeneous linguistic, educational, and literacy backgrounds.

Particular attention is devoted to the concept of “social acting,” understood as the transition from being assisted to becoming active contributors, mediators, and bridge-builders within the host society. Through situated service-learning experiences, participants progressively developed competences connected to empathy, cooperation, openness to cultural otherness, civic-mindedness, and community leadership, in line with the RFCDC framework.

The MILAGRO experience suggests that service-learning can provide an effective and transferable pedagogical model for fostering democratic culture, refugee empowerment, and intercultural mediation competences while simultaneously strengthening inclusive civic engagement and community-based social innovation.