' To make Europe competitive, cohesive and resilient in the future, we now need to invest in people: in education and training, skills, creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation, and health in the European Union,' reads the European Commission proposal for 2021-2027. In response to this appeal, we have decided to create a "European partnership for skills development and social inclusion through creativity and the arts". The implementation of this project will contribute to eliminating the problems of marginalized groups (people with disabilities, seniors, migrants) and their social exclusion, and help them improve their key competences. These people, sometimes with problems of an emotional or psychological nature, often only by various art forms (music, art, dance, theatre) are able to open up. Art opens access to our interior: emotions, needs, fears. This is especially important in the times of the pandemic that all of Europe is currently struggling with. The pandemic seriously hindered this part of society both in terms of access to culture and art, as well as active participation in its creation. Counteracting the effects of these difficulties is therefore particularly important now. In our project, we want to train educators working with groups at risk of marginalization, so that they can show their students the way to active and creative participation in culture and art, and thus improve their position in society, including the labour market. The aim of the project is to develop cooperation and exchange of experiences of educators for the creative activity of the above-mentioned people at risk of exclusion, as well as to raise and expand the professional qualifications of people working with them; disseminating art therapy methods of work; increasing digital competences among staff working with people from communities at risk of marginalization and people working for the above-mentioned environments, as well as increasing the opportunities for individual development of educators and volunteers cooperating with partner organizations; obtaining new and improving the psychological, interpersonal and methodological skills necessary in working with people at risk of exclusion. The aforementioned groups will be participants of workshops and demonstrations of methods of work. The indirect recipients will be participants of the project dissemination activities at the local, national and international level. They will be both educators and people with whom educators work. International cooperation will, to a much greater extent, guarantee the acquisition of fuller and richer knowledge, and will also allow each partner to learn about solutions, programs and methods that are worth imitating in other countries. Their implementation will enrich the education of adults and change the perspective of individual partners to the currently used methods of work. The partnership consists of organizations specialized in working with specific groups of vulnerable groups: senior citizens, people with mental disabilities, deaf and blind people or immigrants and refugees, in Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Israel and Poland. We have planned 5 partnership meetings to monitor all aspects of the project and training workshops in all partner countries, as a result of which educators will be equipped with new skills and creative forms of working with people at risk of exclusion. About 1,500 people will participate in the project. The result of the project will be published in an e-broshure.
The partnership established the following goals for the project: • reduce social exclusion and develop key competences of people at risk of marginalization by using culture and art • increase accessibility to culture and art for people at risk of social exclusion • cooperation and exchange of experiences between educators from partner institutions working with people at risk of exclusion • improve the professional competences of educators from partner institutions working with people at risk of exclusion in the field of art and social therapy • development of international cooperation between theatres and educational institutions in using theatre techniques as a tool for education and social inclusion
The project was a response to the deteriorating social and educational situation of people with disabilities and socially excluded people during the pandemic. • Strengthening the role of art in work with excluded people: The project promoted art as a tool that opens access to emotions, needs and fears. Especially in the context of the pandemic, where access to culture and art was difficult, the project counteracted the effects of emotional and psychological difficulties through active participation in various forms of art. • Problems of marginalized groups: Through artistic and educational activities, the project supported these groups in improving key competences, while counteracting their social exclusion. • Professional development of educators: The project trained educators in art therapy used in groups at risk of exclusion. • Development of international cooperation: The international nature of the project allowed for the exchange of experiences and practices between organizations specializing in working with specific groups at risk of exclusion.