Troisvierges

The municipality signed the “Pakt vum Zesummeliewen” on the 3rd May 2023. A steering committee was set up shortly afterwards.

While the commune of Troisvierges already had a number of good practices in terms of intercultural living together (Member of European Charter, Konscht am Gaart), a review of the situation highlighted additional areas of interest.

At a meeting on 27 September 2022, where the steering comittee took into account  the residents' responses to the awareness-raising letter, they decided to prioritise the topic of “languages”. Troisvierges is home to many different nationalities, and the steering comittee found it interesting to find ways to interconnect residents through language projects.

Around 20 residents took part in the citizens' workshop on the 18th November 2022, to which all residents had been invited via a personalized letter. During the workshop, participants had the opportunity to discuss four topics:

• Language learning and practice
• Access to information
• Language barriers to participation in meetings of the Council, advisory committees or other institutions 
• Language barriers in associations

A number of concrete proposals for action emerged and were subsequently presented to the steering committee. 

The steering committee has decided to organise language cafes and a welcome evening for new arrivals. 

• Welcome Day 

The new arrivals of 2023 were invited to a convivial evening on the 8th May 2023, where local associations had the opportunity to introduce themselves. One of the aims of this Welcome Day was to promote the language cafe. Seven new arrivals took part in this event. 

• Training volunteers for language cafes 

Eigth volunteers came forward to take part in the training course to become hosts of futur language cafe. On the 16th May 2023, at this training course run by ASTI, the volunteers were given advice and tips on how to run a successful conversation table. They were then able to put what they had learned into practice through a simulation exercise.

• Organising a language café

The first Language Café was scheduled for the 25th May 2023. However, no participants turned up. The volunteers and members of the steering committee took the opportunity to carry out an on-site analysis.

An initial analysis of the mistakes made has been carried out, and a number of guidelines have been drawn up for the continuation of the project. New language cafés will be organised with an adapted concept.