Wires Crossed - Level 2 is the second step of an innovative education programme to promote positive physical and mental well-being, safe risk-taking, self-control and social inclusion among young people through the art of funambulism (tight-wire walking with a balancing pole). The project develops competences for youth circus trainers and promotes high quality youth work that is inclusive and reaches young people with fewer opportunities. This project is a continuation of cooperation leading to a large-scale European project led by Galway Community Circus and their partners École de Cirque de Bruxelles and CABUWAZI in 2017-2021 as part of the Galway European Capital of Culture 2020 programme. The objectives of the project are to develop skills and competences of youth circus trainers; help youth circus organisations increase their capacity; improve health and wellbeing and social, personal and life skills of young people; develop and share effective methods in reaching out to marginalized youth; promote social inclusion, solidarity and intercultural dialogue; help young people with fewer opportunities become more engaged and involved in society; help young refugees become more integrated in their local community and connected to young people in other parts of Europe; and to make funambulism a widely used innovative educational method in youth and social circus sector and beyond. The project is delivered through non-formal education in a youth work setting using the creative and physical methods and active participation of youth circus education. It will include three Transnational Project Meetings and four staff training events for youth circus trainers. The project sets out to develop high quality skills and competences for twelve youth circus trainers from Belgium, Germany and Ireland. This will be done by providing a twelve-month training programme for staff of the partner organisations. During this twelve-month period the youth circus trainers will take part in three short-term staff training events in Galway, Berlin and Brussels. The training will focus on technical competences in funambulism and pedagogic competences for educators, rigging and safety as well as skills to work with diverse target groups. The Wires Crossed - Level 2 project educates alumni of Wires Crossed - A Balancing Act for Europe Strategic Partnership organised in 2017/18 in further pedagogical and technical funambulism skills. The funambulism training will use and improve methodology developed by the partners and an expert team during the first Wires Crossed Erasmus+ project. The LTT activities will test and evaluate the methodology for this project and other future funambulism pedagogy projects in Europe. After this project the methodology will be disseminated to nine European countries in the next phase of Wires Crossed project. The funambulism training during the LTT activities is facilitated by a funambulism expert team from France. The project themes of mental health & wellbeing, social inclusion, engagement and participation of marginalised youth and young people with fewer opportunities and innovative projects to support young people’s development are highlighted in the EU Strategy for youth Investing and Empowering Youth, EU 2020 – Youth on the move and the priorities of Erasmus+. The Wires Crossed project is the first of its kind in the word and will play a key role in building capacity and international and cross-sectoral cooperation for the growing youth circus sector in Ireland, Belgium, Germany and beyond. The results of the project are shared widely through the International Youth and Social Circus Network CARAVAN and through partnership with Galway European Capital of Culture 2020. Long term benefits of the project include improvement in physical and mental wellbeing and social inclusion among young people and youth circus education becoming a better recognized tool for social change.
Wires Crossed - Level 2 was the second step of an innovative education programme to promote positive physical and mental well-being, safe risk-taking, self-control and social inclusion among young people through the art of funambulism (tightwire walking with a balancing pole). The project developed competences for youth circus educators and promoted high-quality youth work that is inclusive and reaches young people with fewer opportunities. This project was a continuation of cooperation leading to a large-scale European project led by Galway Community Circus and their partners École de Cirque de Bruxelles and CABUWAZI in 2017-2021 as part of the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture programme. The objectives of the project were to develop skills and competences of youth circus educators; help youth circus organisations increase their capacity; improve health and wellbeing and social, personal and life skills of young people; develop and share effective methods in reaching out to marginalized youth; promote social inclusion, solidarity and intercultural dialogue; help young people with fewer opportunities become more engaged and involved in society; help young refugees become more integrated in their local community and connected to young people in other parts of Europe; and to make funambulism a widely used innovative educational method in youth and social circus sector and beyond. The project was delivered through non-formal education in a youth work setting using the creative and physical methods of youth circus education based on active volunteer participation. It included three Transnational Project Meetings and four staff training events for youth circus trainers. The project set out to develop high-quality skills and competences for twelve youth circus trainers from Belgium, Germany and Ireland. This was done by providing a twelve-month training programme for tutor teams from the partner organisations. During this twelve-month period the youth circus trainers took part in three short-term staff training events in Galway, Berlin and Brussels. The training focused on technical competences in funambulism and pedagogic competences for educators, rigging and safety as well as skills to work with diverse target groups. The Wires Crossed - Level 2 project educated alumni of 'Wires Crossed - A Balancing Act for Europe Level 1' Strategic Partnership organised in 2017/18 in further pedagogical and technical funambulism skills at a more advanced level. The funambulism training used the methodology developed by the partners and an expert team during the first Wires Crossed Erasmus+ project. The LTT activities successfully tested and evaluated the methodology, allowing for improvements, revisions and further development for its use in other future funambulism pedagogy projects in Europe. The final methodology will now be disseminated to other European countries in the next phase of the wider Wires Crossed project. The funambulism training during the LTT activities was facilitated by a funambulism Expert Team from the European Centre of Funambulism, made up of funambule master Denis Josselin, funambulism technical and pedagogical expert Bruno Frenette and co-ordinated by Vincent Wauters. Denis and Bruno each led 2 LTT activities in this project. The project themes of 'mental health & wellbeing', 'social inclusion', 'engagement and participation of marginalised youth and young people with fewer opportunities' and 'innovative projects to support young people’s development' are highlighted in the EU Strategy for Youth Investing and Empowering Youth, EU 2020 – Youth on the move and the priorities of Erasmus+. The Wires Crossed project is the first of its kind in the word and the project results will be used to play a continual key role in building capacity and international and cross-sectoral cooperation for the growing youth circus sector in Ireland, Belgium, Germany and beyond. The results of the project will be shared widely through the International Youth and Social Circus Network CARAVAN and through European partnerships/organisations, such as the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture. The Wires Crossed activities to date will be showcased at a major funambulism event in Galway in August 2020 as part of the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture. 400 participants from all strands of the project will be involved in a highwire crossing of the River Corrib and Claddagh Basin in Galway over a continual period of 2020 minutes. The event will provide a public display of solidarity, highlighting the importance of looking after mental health and wellbeing within our communities. Long-term benefits of the project include improvement in physical and mental wellbeing and social inclusion among young people, improved quality of youth circus education on offer across Europe, and Youth and Social Circus/education becoming a more widely recognized tool for social change.