The world is living one of the most challenging times due to Coronavirus. It has changed dramatically youth work, non-formal education and work of art and cultural organizations. Artists and youth workers are looking for new ways to continue their work in current conditions and new tools to use in their work with young people and local communities. The situation of young people has also changed. Often different social groups point out to others, especially to young people as one of the main groups who are guilty of new covid-19 outbreaks that separate society apart. All these elements create a high level of tension in society and leave many young people in more vulnerable and complex situations. Above all, if we want to overcome this pandemic and consequences that will come, the whole society needs to work as a team without leaving anyone behind and supporting each other. Therefore the project team wants to implement this 16 month long KA2 "participART: art and culture for youth engagement in local communities", a good practise exchange project in order to strengthen local communities in urban areas - neighbourhoods by empowering and involving young people as positive change makers in their societies. We trust, from our experience, that art and culture are binding elements that facilitate this social change. The project team wants to focus on NEIGHBOURHOOD in urban areas because these are places that bring together people of different cultures, generations, socio-economic backgrounds, places where people acually live and that gives an opportunity to reach them and support their needs. Besides that 3 urban areas that are involved in the project are different from each other and complementary at the same time: Riga - with large experience with bottom-up urbanism neighbourhood revitalization projects, Valladolid - with some strong neighbourhood communities, Torino - industrial and one of the most multicultural EU cities. AIM: To create synergy between Art, Theater and Community development that strengthens local communities by empowering local organizations, young people and supporting their role as change makers in their societies. Objectives: + to create a strong learning partnership, based on learning with and from each other, that strengthens the capacity of all partner organisations and their local and international networks; + to share methods and tools of community work through art, culture and participation, develop and adapt them to other communities and target groups. + to create opportunities for organisations and professionals to develop themselves as supporters of young people and their local communities; + to design and facilitate 3 Learning Mobilities to equip and empower the professionals involved with self-confidence, competencies and skills to exchange and innovate their practices with new methods, tools and approaches. During the project, the team is going to work with following pillars: PARTICIPATION in order to enhance young people to become active and positive change makers for their local communities. CULTURE AND ART that actively engages the local community. The direct target group of the project are youth workers, artists, cultural and communit workers working in or with the partners involved, in total 32 directly involved participants that will involve min. 140 young people in local activities. Participants will develop their competences, gain experiences and exchange best practises. To support reaching the aim of this project, the partnership plans 3 Learning Mobilities, 4 rounds of local acivities and 2 TNM: Following learning mobilities will be organized: -Study visit in Latvia “THE NEIGHBOURHOOD - LINKING PEOPLE THROUGH CULTURAL ACTION” - Seminar in Italy “THE ART- LINKING SOULS THROUGH ARTISTIC PARTICIPATION” -Implementation eminar in Spain “THE COMMUNITY WITHIN THE ART” As a result the project team will create a digital installation on the web where all gathered materials during the project: photos, videos, stories, activities, creative initiatives, city profiles are located and available for all involved youth workers, artists, policy makers etc. at the local, national, Europe and international level. Participants of the project will gain self-confidence, develop necessary readiness and competences to work in international teams,networks, share and learn new methods, tools and approaches in order to innovate and create innovative participatory activities and projects in their neighbourhoods. As a result of the project participating organisations will strengthen their capacities, have more empowered staff, and a new trustworthy transnational team to encounter upcoming challenges with. The project team and participating artists, youth workers have found practical options and solutions for the challenges of corono-virus that they can apply in their local communities.
PROJECT OBJECTIVE: To create synergies between art, social theater and community development that strengthen local communities and empower partner entities in their youth work, to support their role as agents of change in their communities. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: + create a strong strategic partnership, based on mutual learning, that strengthens the capacity of all partner organizations and their local and international networks; + share methods and tools for community work through art, culture and participation, develop them and adapt them to other communities and target groups. + create opportunities for organizations and their professionals and volunteers to develop as supporters of young people and their local communities; + design and facilitate 3 learning mobilities to train partner organizations in new competencies and skills, from the exchange and innovation of their best practices in community work through art and culture. The main focus of the project is community development through artistic interventions.
The last decade and especially the pandemic have drastically changed youth work, art, cultural organizations and participation. We artists and youth workers are looking for new tools to use in working with young people and local communities. The situation of young people has also changed a lot. Often singled out as individualistic and in the pandemic blamed for new covid outbreaks, it generates in young people a high level of anxiety that puts them in a vulnerable situation. We need to work together, leaving no one behind and supporting each other. This is why the participART team proposed this 16-month KA2 best practice exchange project to strengthen communities by empowering young people as creators of positive change in their communities through art. We focused on urban communities for being multicultural and multigenerational poles, very marked in the 3 cities from which the partners come: Riga - with great experience in projects of revitalization of urban neighborhoods of humble origin; Valladolid - with strong networks of neighborhood collaboration; Torino - industrial city and one of the most multicultural cities in Europe.