A world in which every person is respected and valued,
regardless of gender, ethnic origin, abilities, religion, sexual
orientation or social status! In order to reach this vision,
educational activities play a decisive role. Today, learning and
awareness-raising for diversity and inclusion take place in
different types of formats – in person, virtually, or in a hybrid
format.
This handbook has been developed in the framework
of the project “DIGIVERSITY – Exploring best non-formal lear-
ning practices in digital settings in the field of education for
democratic culture and intercultural dialogue” by two partner
organisations with long-standing experience.
Since 1987, IZ – Association for the Promotion of Diversity,
Dialogue and Education has been implementing a wide range
of projects which aim to contribute to a society based on
solidarity. As part of the IZ Academy, we offer a wide range of
training courses on the topics of diversity, intercultural skills
and unconscious bias-education. People – in all their diversity
– get together in our seminars, courses and projects.
The Intercultural Institute of Timisoara initiated its work in the
1990s and has also been implementing various local, natio-
nal or European projects on these topics. From the start of
its activities until today, the Intercultural Institute has been
cooperating with the Council of Europe and has promoted in
Romania the values and the work of this organisation, inclu-
ding, in recent years, the Reference Framework of Competen-
ces for Democratic Culture.

The coronavirus pandemic had a major impact on our edu-
cational activities. Training courses which were previously
offered as Face to Face events suddenly shifted to the digital
space and new methods and training approaches had to be
developed quickly to cope with that new reality. This was
especially challenging for us educators working in a field
where personal interaction, engagement and connection
within a group are key elements of learning. Due to busy sche-
dules there was hardly any time and resources left for sharing
and exchanging experiences with other educators on this new
reality. This gave rise to the idea of launching an international
project – the idea for Digiversity was born!
Today we can look back on an exciting project period. Toge-
ther with a group of very experienced and dedicated educa-
tors from across Europe, we could give space to a profound
and critical exchange of experiences and allow a joint for-
mulation of pedagogical principles that we stand for as well
as the development of methods which were tested for their
practical suitability and summarised in this handbook. We are
now delighted to share this treasure trove with our readers.
With this in mind, we wish you an exciting read, lots of ins-
piration for your own training work and food for thought for
further educational work!