The Project "Cultural education for adults with sociotherapeutic needs" is an international enterprise run in Poland, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and Great Britain. The main problem in the project refers to the lack of holistic methodology of using critical-cultural education for gaining real social change. We plan to develop an innovative methodology of holistic educational work with people who need sociotherapeutic support, to bring together the tools of artistic and cultural-critical education with psychological and sociotherapeutic competences. We would like to develop a model of cooperation between cultural and artistic educators, sociotherapeutic institutions and groups socially excluded, for example in prisons, hospitals, for homeless people, for seniors in institutions of social care. Agents of educational initiatives have difficulties with defining synergy between social, cultural and sociotherapeutic goals in educational projects. They are trained in using tools of, for example, anti-discrimination in education but often don’t know how to implement them in a wider context of the socio-economic situation of recipients and how to use them to satisfy their psychological needs. Likewise, tools of cultural education (art, theatre, drama) do not meet social and therapeutic goals on their own. Specialists of cultural education usually don’t cooperate with therapists and these very rarely cooperate with social workers. Knowledge from the three fields of the cultural, social and psychological don’t yet create the common basis of educational research, diagnosis, and in the consequence of methodology of critical cultural education. Our project will begin to change that.
Our aim was to develop an innovative methodology based on activities in the education of adults in need of sociotherapeutic support, combining tools of art education, cultural education, psychological support and sociotherapeutic support. With this project, we wanted to develop a basis for a cross-sectoral cultural education methodology to be used with individuals and groups in need of sociotherapeutic support. The cross-sectoral methodology incorporates elements of cultural education (including art therapy, and anti-discrimination, democratic, equality, and social education), psychotherapeutic support, and social care. We wanted to create innovative and modern categories to describe vulnerable groups, as well as people in crisis and dependency situations. Because of the above, we have chosen teaching methods that require complex educational, psychotherapeutic, and social competencies. Furthermore, the choice of methods was closely linked to the need to train the educators, trainers, and facilitators from the above-mentioned organisations, to ensure that they could start testing said methods with different target groups in the future.
Those involved in adult education often struggle to combine social, cultural and sociotherapeutic goals in their activities. They use, for example, anti-discrimination education tools, but often do not know how to implement these tools in the diverse socio-economic conditions of adults' lives. Cultural education tools (art, drama, theatre) often fail to meet social and therapeutic goals. Cultural educators rarely work together with therapists and social workers. Knowledge from the three fields of the cultural, social and psychological don’t yet create the common basis of educational research, diagnosis, and in the consequence of methodology of critical cultural education. With this project, we wanted to change that.