ART ConnectiON is a Strategic Partnership for Creativity in response to COVID created by five entities from Spain, Italy, Poland and Turkey, among which are associations in the field of youth and inclusion, municipalities and educational centers. The context and needs that we share is caring for young people with functional diversity and fewer opportunities living in rural areas, who have been especially affected by covid-19 as they experience greater isolation derived from the digital gap and social exclusion existing in this area, but who also recognize the strengths of the creative and cultural activities that they carry out to maintain their mental and physical well-being to face these difficulties. They propose the need to develop their social, digital and artistic skills to promote social inclusion and the dissemination of inclusive creativity through digital media. To answer these common needs, we propose a Strategic Partnership for the development of Innovation to tackle the horizontal priorities of "Development of Skills and Inclusion through Creativity and Arts" and "Innovative Practices in a Digital Era" plus the YOUTH priority of promoting engaging, connecting and empowering young people. As main topics we tackle attention to disabilities and special needs in the new reality of covid-19, the development of digital tools and the support of creativity and culture as tools for inclusion and mental well-being in circumstances of crisis and social isolation. Our main goals are: 1. Develop and disseminate innovative tools that combine CREATIVITY (dance, music, theater, crafts) and DIGITAL TOOLS (YouTube, social networks and videoconferences) to address the needs of inclusive care and education for young people with disabilities on key issues for personal development (equality gender, emotional management, social skills, independence, digital security and mental well-being) in the new covid-19 reality. 2.Create more inclusive youth mobility opportunities for young people with disabilities, through training in adapted innovative NFE tools. 3. To increase visibility of young people with disabilities in social media, promoting alternative models 4. Train and empower youth workers, social educators and teachers, through the sharing of needs, good practices and training in creative tools and digital media for inclusion. Our target groups are: -Young people with functional diversity and fewer opportunities from rural areas and their families. -Professionals of the field of youth, educators, teachers, social workers, pedagogues, etc. from associations, public entities, schools and other entities working in the field of inclusion and diversity. To achieve our goals, we propose a roadmap of activities during 20 months that allow us to get to them progressively: -3 Transnational Meetings for coordination, monitoring and evaluation. -Development of 2 intellectual outputs: 1. "Youtubers for Inclusion": Methodology on ITC + CREATIVITY = INCLUSION. 2. "YouthWorkers for Inclusion": tools and games based on Non Formal Education adapted to be inclusive -2 Learning activities related to the IOS: • Short-term training event (during 6 days) for 8 youth workers about digital tools and creativity for inclusion (IO1) • Combined Mobility of 16 Young People with disabilities, during 2 months, including a Youth Exchange during 6 days (IO2) - Development of local workshops and activities to test intellectual outputs. Art ConnectiON will have a wide impact from the local to the international level and in different target groups, which will be sustainable beyond its life, thanks to: -A stable transnational and cross-sectoral cooperation network that will continue to develop synergies in the future -Creating new mobility opportunities for young people with functional diversity in rural areas -Use of the methodology and tools created during the project through the application in the pedagogy of each association and its extension to other sectors, entities and youth groups. -Making common creative resources available through accessible, free and open platforms.
The main objectives to be achieved with this project were: -Create inclusive creative tools that could be developed through digital media and platforms to adapt to the new reality (need for digitization, response after the confinement situation but also the need to move forward in the digital divide for people with disabilities and in rural areas ). -Create greater inclusive youth mobility opportunities for young people with disabilities, through training in innovative adapted NFE tools. -Making young people with functional diversity visible on social networks, promoting alternative models. -Train and empower youth workers, social educators and teachers, through the sharing of problems, good practices and training in creative tools and digital media for inclusion.
This project was requested to meet the development and inclusion needs of young people with disabilities and face the difficulties of serving our target group during the new reality of covid-19, since a series of common needs were detected, especially linked to the gap digital. The needs we addressed were: -Carry out creative activities, maintain active routines and social contact through digital media to guarantee mental well-being in periods of confinement. -Address key issues for the full development of youth adapted to people with disabilities (digital education, social skills, affective-sexual education in equality, digital security, development of creativity). -Lack of social awareness, visibility and acceptance of diversity, especially in the digital sphere (social networks, media, creation of different models). -Lack of tools for the training of youth workers and entities to include young people with diversity in youth, training or European mobility activities -Lack of digital tools to adapt inclusive educational activities to digital and distance formats