The ImMusic - Impulsive Music Activities to Promote Intercultural Relations project proposes a new type of activities within youth communities. The special musical sessions offer joyful and playful hours for youngsters and through the transfer influence of music improve their skills and competences. The competences which can be improved through music activities are as follows: social cooperation, inclusion, concentration, creativity, coordination etc. The initiative came from previous music trainings and experiences of the project coordinator (Hangkeltő Alapítvány), the concept formed during the discussions with the partner experts of youth workers (Tudatos Ifjúságért Alapítvány). After the concept was formed by the two Hungarian partners we were looking for similar organizations, who can add more values to the project. In the ImMusic project we have the chance to cooperate with World Music School Helsinki (Finland) which use innovative methods in music teaching, Coyote Initiatives CIC (Findhorn, United Kingdom) which has practice to organize international mobilities under Erasmus+ and "Microkosmos" Associazione Culturale Italo-Ellenica per la Formazione (Turin, Italy) which has double language and intercultural experiences. All participating organizations will offer their competences, abilities and experiences concerning the objectives of the project. The main objectives of the project are the following: to improve impulsive and innovative music activities for young people to improve their skills and competences, to initiate an international and inter-professional discussion among musicians and youth workers about the possibilities of the role of music in youth communities and inclusion, to offer interactive music programmes for youth clubs, communities to get familiar with different music activities and to use music as a universal language for strengthening intercultural experiences. The target groups of the project are the young people who spend their free-time in local community spaces, clubs or youth houses, as well as representatives of youth communities, NGOs dealing with youth activities, who are ready to enrich their skills in organizing and managing musical activities for young people. As an expected result, the project will increases awareness of using music as means of communication and training in youth work in a transnational context, and develop intercultural competences for young people. With close cooperation between the partners we create detailed innovative activity programmes for youth communities including materials and timetables. The programme sheets attached them will show all the steps the animator uses and include at least one-hour program for listening and creating music individually and in a group. The innovative character of the outputs is their usability without any musical background of the youth worker and the target group (youth community) and gives opportunities for transferable development of skills like cooperation, expression and inclusion. The musicians and youth experts of the participating organizations will elaborate the vocal-based and instrument-based toolkits (vocal exercises, games, instruments, videos, recordings, activity sheets, tutorial sheets, training plans etc.), and youth workers will add information about the expectations, applicable methods, youth groups, and they will organize the activities using the actual toolkit among youngsters. The toolkits will be available in English and the languages of the partner organizations. The three days long ImMusic training program aims to present the toolkits elaborated by the project team and make the participants capable to use them within their own group of youth communities. During the training, participants have the opportunity to try themselves in different musical activities. At the end of the project the products elaborated by the experts will be published at different platforms as the result and the professional outcome of the project. The publications and presentations will include extracts from the articles published in the toolkits, as well as photos and videos made in youth communities using the tools, games, sounds, exercises, scores, activity sheets etc. We intend to use the ERASMUS+ Project Result Platform for implementation and follow-up of our project to give up-to-date information concerning the common work and the results achieved. We also hope that this project will be the first step in cooperation, and that we will continue working on more musical activities for the benefit of young people. The training programme can be developed for a special course for teachers and announced at the School Education Gateway platform as well. Partner organizations may announce study visits for youth workers according to the project instructions under ERASMUS+.
In order to promote intercultural relations, ImMusic proposes a new type of music activities in youth communities. Special music sessions offer joyful and experiential lessons for young people and improve their skills and competences through the transmission of music. The toolkit, which places music at the center in this way, fills a gap in the Hungarian youth profession, but based on the preliminary discussions, it became clear that there is also a need at an international level for the creation of a collection of exercises specifically aimed at this area. The exercises of the jointly devised toolkit develop the participants' individual skills (self-control, self-expression, movement coordination, focus, thinking in a team, etc.) in a playful form, with minimal equipment requirements, and the social and communication skills necessary for cooperation between group members (listening to each other, keeping pace, solidarity, mutual aid, etc.). We developed the exercises with international collaboration, and we considered it important that interculturality prevails both in the musical materials used (folk songs, popular songs, dances) and in the methods.
For many years, the programs organized by the Hangkeltő Foundation have successfully featured music sessions and special exercises that offered enjoyable, playful activities even for young people with no prior musical training, and represented an experiential encounter with music with relatively little effort. The idea for the implementation of the project was formulated based on joint thinking and our experiences in previous international (European) projects. The application concept was formed during the search for international partners and consultation with Hungarian youth organizations and communities. It was also a motivating factor that, in addition to the almost exclusively dominant pop music trends among young people, the youth workers, and through them the youth communities, get closer to other musical trends without receiving formal music education. The group and identity-forming power of music - especially among young people - is evident, it is also known to professionals that with the help of music (and the result of the transfer effect) not only the personal abilities of the individual can be developed, but it also has a beneficial effect on the social and communication skills of the members of the community.