Partner Conference Brede School Molenbeek
15 May 2025
Brede School Molenbeek organised a partner conference today at Foyer. The central theme was ‘connecting communication’ in a diverse society. Through instructive workshops on intercultural mediation, communication and parent involvement, the organisations and schools present were able to gain new insights.
Brede School Molenbeek acts as a connector between schools and the neighbourhood. Through various collaborations with partners and Dutch-speaking schools from Molenbeek, they aim to offer young people maximum development opportunities.
Three Foyer services explained their operation and approach to (intercultural) communication to the schools and organisations working with children and young people.
The Intercultural Mediation Service focused on contact with both the aid applicant and the aid provider. Among other things, the service offers language assistance and cultural interpretation and gives various information sessions. Two colleagues also talked about their personal experiences and how misunderstandings caused by miscommunication are both tried to be rectified and avoided. Indeed, good communication is one of the prerequisites for understanding between the two parties. The service is committed to making quality healthcare accessible to all.
PIM (Partners in Multilingualism) focused on parent involvement in the (multilingual) upbringing and education of their children. They showed in what ways they communicate with parents, for example through videos because images sometimes convey a message more clearly than text. They proposed several sessions where they engage with parents in an interactive way to get them thinking and engaging in conversation about their children’s multilingual education.
The Jongerenwerking elaborated on their communication on three levels: with the youngsters themselves, with parents and with external partners. They started from the point of view that they do not always reflect on intercultural communication because for them all communication is intercultural and it therefore happens naturally. They also emphasised the diversity within their team so that for any topic, youngsters and parents always feel comfortable talking to at least one person about it.
