“I have never been asked” is the reaction we often get from young people when we ask for their demands and wishes for their future both on political and private levels. Especially disadvantaged youth from different social, migrant, geographic, educational backgrounds is not able to express themselves and their demands towards others, especially not towards the society as a whole and its political leaders. This is due to a lack of possibilities for political participation on all levels, legal hinderances and a lack of self-esteem to just try and express themselves. As a Partnership for Creativity our project will solve this and raise self-esteem to express oneself in creative artistic ways, give opportunities to find and formulate demands and wishes and bring these demands to politicians on national and European level. The final event of the project will be an art performance in the European Parliament and/or the House of European History where the young people present their demands through art. The main objective of the project is to empower young people to voice their political demands as active European citizens by creative means of e.g. theatre, music, dance, digital stories and express those on EU level. This is supported by the following sub-objectives: - Increasing creative skills and raising self-esteem of young people, developing a range of qualities through creative trainings with different artists - Develop activist and advocacy skills to express demands on political level through EU advocacy seminars - Develop methodologies and training materials tailored to the needs of youth workers, youth organisations and artists on self-expression and expression of political demands of young people to enable them to act in the present European context. - Bringing youth workers and artists together in trainings to learn from each other, develop creative methods together and put those in methodological guides making it easily replicable throughout Europe. The numbers and profile of participants of "My Creativity - My Power": - 320 young people (13-23) from youth centers, afternoon schools, vocational schools, youth organisations mainly from disadvantaged backgrounds participate directly in the blended mobility cycle, the sounding boards and the national workshops. - 82 youth workers participate in multiplier event, the blended mobility, and the national preparatory workshops. - Artists and cultural centers and initiatives are hit hard by the Covid19-situation and are usually not used to work with (disadvantaged) youth - Policy makers e.g. parlamentarians, MEPs, EC officials often have no opportunity to exchange with (disadvantaged) youth As preparatory activities a sounding board of young people is established enabling to directly participate in the design of project activities, also on national level 24 creative workshops for youth to raise their demands and express in creative ways will be conducted In a joint international workshop (staff training) between youth workers/NGO and artists best practices are gathered as well as new innovative methods for the digital toolboxes developed Two digital toolboxes for creative and for activism and advocacy workshops will be developed as Intellectual outputs. In a blended mobility cycle of online and offline workshops young people will develop creative ways to express their demands together and will eventually present their performances in the European Parliament. A concluding multiplier event will train youth workers and artists on using the digital toolboxes as well as exchanging on EU level. The project methodology will be based on Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and Global Citizenship Education aimed to empower disadvantaged youth to become active EU citizens. It will use a wide range of creative methods like theatre, dance, music, illustration/comics, video and digital storytelling developed with artists enabling the best fitting creative expression for each young person. The project results in 1) tailor made Training materials for youth work on self-expression, creative expression and expression of political demands 2) Trainings of youth workers and artists to learn from each other and develop creative new methodology, 3) Training activities to increase creative skills and raise self-esteem of young people and 4) Develop activist and advocacy skills of young people to express demands. The project will have sustainable impact on young people enabled to express themselves creatively, work with others, participate politically and become active European citizens. The youth workers reached directly and through the digital toolboxes will disseminate and multiply the projects methodologies in their organisations and youth centers leading to at least 4 bigger youth work organisations taking them up, enabling easy and wide replication in European youth work, thereby leading to long term sustainability and benefits beyond the project countries and duration
The goal of implementing this project was to achieve several outcomes. Firstly, it aimed to provide an opportunity for young individuals to explore art and self-expression, allowing them to reflect on their own identity and demands. Additionally, the project sought to share energy and knowledge with young people, generating new power and providing a platform for expressing political demands. The project also aimed to provide mental health support and encourage activism, fostering the ability to express oneself and speak up. Collaboration with artists was an important aspect, exploring how different arts can be part of activism and how art can be used in political work. Empowering young individuals and giving them a voice, as well as providing opportunities for travel and meeting new people, were also desired outcomes. The project aimed to address self-expression and develop soft skills, while promoting non-violent but strong action. It also aimed to test how art and social engagement can coexist and foster cooperation between partners and organizations. Building a community of young people and enabling communication between politicians and youth were additional goals.
The project consortium recognized the need for a different approach to working with young people. We wanted to find ways to engage and empower young individuals in social and political activities. The COVID pandemic made it even more important to combine art and politics to support young people and artists, since those groups we disproportionally hit. The project aimed to use art to create positive change and connect it with political work. Art can contribute to social change and to a better world, this was also one of the key motivations of the project. To connect internationally with arts and political work was crucial for the application of the project. We wanted to empower young people, to make them understand that personal issues can be political and give them the tools to express themselves, raise their self-esteem and be politically active. The project focused on providing opportunities for youngsters, especially disadvantaged young individuals to explore art and understand its connection to political engagement. The project's work and resources available on the weblog mycreativitymypower.eu for other youth workers, artists, and NGOs to use and replicate, stay as a resource, which can be used after the project ends.