The Cultural Associations, organising the so called "boutique" festivals, have raised the specific need of improvement of young workers and volunteers’ skills in the field of social inclusion in order to create Safe Places from any discrimination and exclusion. The organization of a “Boutique” festival is generally promoted by local associations, which deploy a large number of enthusiastic volunteers willing to contribute with their own capabilities, natural talents or just with their own work force to the realization of an event bringing a new whirl of life in peripheral small towns, natural spots or unusual locations. Volunteers, regularly involved in these organisations, are mainly committed to deal with several aspects and problems raising during the planning, communication, organisation and realisation phases. During their activity, volunteers, mainly young people (between 20 and 30-year-old students, unemployed or NEETs living in difficult socio-economic contexts) , acquire relevant competences and skills that can be deployed in different cultural sectors but that they are not aware of or they are unable to communicate and valorise them, therefore it is necessary to foster the a methodology for recognition and validation of their skills acquired through informal and non formal ways.. Through a cross-sectoral partnership, the project is willing to upskill the young workers and volunteers in the field of Inclusion and to increase their employability, by promoting transnational mobility and facilitating the path towards the recognition of competencies and skills, so as to improve their entry into the European labour market. The Covid Outbreak has strongly affected the music festival sector and in general cultural sector, and this situation will persist still for the coming years. The cultural sector is facing a severe crisis and therefore there is an urgent need to create and deliver artistic products in a different way. This situation is more critical for those events and cultural products strictly linked to peripheral areas since travel restriction and a general lack of confidence to travel is still strong. In response to this critical scenario, the project aims at the enhancement and the development of skills and competence related to the organisation and delivery of musical and cultural events in such a critical time. Communication and Inclusiveness are key elements for the success of peripheral festivals. Inclusion will be tackled from different point of views: • Gender inclusion: against gender discrimination and protection of gender minorities in the musical sector. Technical expertise is still conceived as typically male job such as light designer, or stage managers. There’s a need to increase equal opportunities in music industry; • Ethnic Inclusion: discrimination on ethnic diversity is a phenomenon creeping in the society at multiple levels and it emerges in different seriousness levels: from language to violence. A SAFE PLACE from this kind of discrimination needs to develop communication skills that prevent any discomfort for all the people joining music events and festivals. Starting from a fair and inclusive communication it is possible to prevent any distress for artists, workers and the general public. • Cultural inclusion: attending cultural events is an opportunity generally deemed for granted but it is not. Less advantaged condition and different abilities may affect a democratic access to culture of any kind. The Covid outbreak forced a complete stop in organising events in arts and music excluding even more disadvantaged people from fruition. In this landscape it is necessary to explore new tools and methodologies for ensuring inclusiveness in cultural events from different points of views: digital, technological and social, by collecting best practices for replication. The specific objectives of the project are: Ob1 - to promote empowerment and sense of initiative among young people in order to ease their integration into the labour market and increase their professionalism Ob2 - to develop a transnational learning path focused on non-formal and informal learning aimed at increasing young people’s knowledge about several aspect of cultural sector by empowering creative attitude and transversal skills; Ob3 - to develop an effective methodology for the recognition and validation of their competences and skills; Ob4 - to share good practices at European level and strengthen transnational cooperation among partner organisations. In order to achieve these objectives, the strategic partnership aims at leading to the following expected tangible results: • Learning material and training resources for volunteers • Joint Staff Training for Teachers, Educators and tutors. • Blended mobility of learners to facilitate international experience • Guidelines for the recognition and validation of learning outcomes • Multiplier events to disseminate the project results and outcomes
The specific objectives of the project are empowerment, transnationalism, recognition and cooperation. We wanted to empower young workers and volunteers, in order to make them more confident and to promote their labour (professionalism) and social integration, as well as self confidence to be able to pursue new and unusual ways to define their lives (which still is considered working in the music sector), and apply European values such as diversity in all as forms, inclusion, as well as green transition. Also, promoting an out-of-the-box, multi-disciplinary view has been amongst the ideas within the project. To do so, we found it essential to develop a transnational learning network, both formal and informal, widening the knowledge about the cultural sector and encouraging creative attitudes. While being aware and positive to digital transition, the core of the project needed to be a physical experience, similar to the events around which this project circles: music festivals. Young workers and volunteers’ efforts need to be recognised: therefore, we wanted to develop a methodology for the recognition and validation of their competences. Finally, we wanted to share good practices at a European level, also pursuing ever greater cooperation among partner organisations. Also, we wanted to broaden the horizon of both young people and the partners, by sharing best practices and opinions, to strengthen (partially) existing but rather loose connections among like minded people. Specifically, we wanted to contribute to the growth of the personal and professional profile of young people.
The principal needs for applying have been training/capacity building of volunteers and young people within alternative music festivals especially, as well as artistic cultural organisations, with a special attention to festivals in small towns and remote areas recognition of competencies and skills, so as to improve young peoples’ entry into the European labour market make young workers and volunteers more aware of the risks of discrimination and exclusion in work environments (internally as well as towards audiences/clients and stakeholders/the community), especially in festivals and cultural events: being able to detect and face any kind of threat to social inclusion is an essential skill for someone who wants to work in this field (and for anyone in general). raise the overall topic of volunteering in music festivals as part of a greater debate on sustainability amongst the music sector Therefore, the needs we’ve addressed are those related to the creation of spaces in which everybody feels welcome and safe. For small organisations such as Glenn Gould as well as the involved partners, being able to spend such amounts of time and energy, as well as resources on international mobility to focus on said topics has been, to such an extent, only possible by such a project. Thus was the driving motivation to address the above needs.