For young people, and especially for vulnerable youth, the COVID-19 crisis poses considerable limitations to their mobility, education and leisure activities and consequently generates risks for social exclusion, employment and mental health. In the context of our project we focus on these points and on the strong impact that the pandemic is having on the cultural sector and especially on that part of the youth population connected with it. Culture is a vector for youth development and civic engagement, in its expression of art it brings young people to pursue their passions, to understand their talents, to follow their dreams. Limiting the access to culture means restricting the opportunities for personal (and professional ) development of these youngsters. On the other end, the crisis has revealed the weakness of the Creative and Cultural sectors in reacting and resisting unknown situations. Other sectors, like entrepreneurship and youth work itself - well represented in this partnership - showed power to react, invent solutions and are still trying to sustain the society. In this context, we believe that the youth work sector has values, methods and tools to share with all those youngsters that have some artistic talents and need to individuate the inner potential they own but they are not aware of. The overall objective is to develop innovative pathways to support young people in transforming their talents into competences empowering them towards a resilient personal and professional development. With this in mind, YW4CULT aims to: To equip young people with the necessary tools and competences needed to build a cultural industry that is able to face unpredictable and adverse situations; To encourage and support the creation and consolidation of collaborative networks by young people for the empowerment of the creative sector; To develop and test innovative learning methodology that support the creative potential of youth, in each partner country and gather feedback for improvements; To increase their capacity for developing entrepreneurship works and encourage them to create new creative projects thus contributing to social transformation; To strengthen cooperation and exchange of information and good practices between different areas of Europe; To put the bases for policy transformation of the cultural sector. The project will develop and pilot tools and methods that will contribute to build capacity in the art & culture sector, empowering the youngsters involved in it and putting the basis to build a stronger European art & culture community able to counter adversities and obstacles and in the long run to generate opportunities for an income. The “social laboratories for culture and entrepreneurship” are the solution that we have thought to empower young artists and youth cultural organizations with competences that will enlighten their talent, opening different doors for professional and career development. Through a mix of methodologies borrowed from the youth work and driven by non formal education, the trainers and facilitators of the SOLAB will firstly identify individual talents, then support the development of personal competences and from entrepreneurial competences (ref. EntreComp) they will complete the path with professional competences. Short term results 1. The youngsters will have an assessment tool that will help them to individuate which are their strength points that, connected with their talents, will become competences 2. A methodology for personal and professional empowerment of young artists - Created in the 4 modules that will be run in the Social Laboratories) 3. An international network of 13 youth workers trained to empower young artists . This will also put the base for the creation of a pool of trainers for this category 4. Functioning of 1 Social Laboratory per country that will support building capacity of the young artists and of the structures to which they belong (associations, foundations…) 4.1. Testing the effectiveness of the laboratories with 20 young artists per country (80 in total) 5. Establishing a European network of Social Laboratories that will support the art and culture sector, favouring the sharing of good practices, the exchange of ideas and of artists, creating space for future joint initiatives Long term results The social laboratories become a point of reference for the young artists that would like to transform their talents into competences and open their carrier to new opportunities. The network spreads in at least 8 countries (including the project partner countries) by the first 3 years of action The analysis conducted, the developed methodology and the platform will help build better evidence to support the policy change. The methodology is result of the need to empower the art & culture sector and the League shows a model of inter-sector collaboration that could be replicated and become mainstreaming.
The overall objective has been to develop innovative pathways to support young people in transforming their talents into competencies empowering them towards a resilient personal and professional development. With this in mind, YW4CULT aimed to: - Equip young people with the necessary tools and competencies needed to build a cultural industry that is able to face unpredictable and adverse situations; - Encourage and support the creation and consolidation of collaborative networks by young people for the empowerment of the creative sector; - Develop and test innovative learning methodologies that support the creative potential of youth, in each partner country and gather feedback for improvements; - Increase their capacity for developing entrepreneurship works and encourage them to create new creative projects thus contributing to social transformation; - Strengthen cooperation and exchange of information and good practices between different areas of Europe; - Put the basis for policy transformation of the cultural sector.
Young people, especially vulnerable youth, suffered significant limitations on their mobility, education, and leisure activities due to the COVID-19 crisis, resulting in potential risks related to social exclusion, employment, and mental health. Within the context of our project, we focused on these issues and the substantial impact that the pandemic had on the cultural sector, particularly concerning young people associated with it. Culture serves as a crucial channel for youth development and civic engagement. Through artistic expression, it motivates young individuals to pursue their passions, discover their talents, and follow their dreams. Restricting access to culture inevitably narrowed the opportunities for personal and professional development for these young individuals. The crisis exposed the vulnerabilities of the Creative and Cultural sectors in responding to unprecedented situations. In contrast, sectors such as entrepreneurship and youth work demonstrated the ability to react swiftly, create solutions, and continue to support society. We believed that youth work possessed values, methods, and tools to share with young artists and creatives and needed to unearth their latent potential.