Nowadays youth in Europe live in a challenging and rapidly changing world. The competitive and complex world we live in makes it more challenging for them to make choices and develop into confident persons. They face pressure to be engaged and excel in all fields. The overload of incentives complicates concentration. Many youngsters become anxious and are afraid to fail. This project connects the world of mental vulnerability among youth and the world of creative circus arts. The partners decided to engage with the world of psychologists, psychiatrists and psychomotor therapists to deepen the knowledge and skills in dealing with a set of challenging behaviours among more mentally vulnerable youth. The 3 partners are non-profit organisations that use circus arts, theatre, music and movement as a tool for personal development. In their daily work they notice how circus is a language that improves self-confidence and many social skills. Being faced with youngsters with challenging behaviour due to psychological vulnerability or mental disorders, a clear need was identified to learn more about the world of psychological and emotional development of children and youth. The objectives of the project are: a/ to improve the preventive work with youth participating at circus classes and in other youth care and youth work settings b/ to increase the knowledge and skills of circus teachers related to different mental challenges among youth c/ to offer alternative treatments based on circus arts and physical literacy for youth with more specific mental disorders in psychiatry or in setting of youth care and youth work. d/ to increase awareness about the benefits of circus as a tool for mental well-being. A first group of participants are 32 circus teachers from the 3 countries, educators and psychologists working with youth who want to increase the use of movement and circus techniques to reach a higher level of mental well being among them. A second group of participants are a total of 100 circus teachers, in the 3 countries, who will be trained at different local dissemination workshops following the international learning sessions. A third group of participants are 150 people, circus teachers, artists, educators, psychologists and other professionals in youth work and youth care settings who will participate at the 3 multiplier events which will be organised in each country. The main activities consist of: - 3 coordination meetings - 5 research and learning sessions - different dissemination workshops in each country - the development of 1 intellectual output: the manual: "Circus Clinic: the art of well being". - the organisation of 3 multiplier events The expected results of the project: 1. New insights, methods and tools to advance the mental well being among youth through circus techniques and physical literacy 2. A total of 250 circus teachers and youth workers, in 3 different countries, introduced in new insights, approaches and tools related to well being through circus; resulting in a more effective and flourishing work with the youth themselves. 3. A practical attractive manual in four languages (English, Italian, Czech and Italian), containing all the obtained insights, information, illustrative cases and alternative treatment methods and tools based on circus techniques for educators and psychotherapists to work with children with mental disorders or challenging behaviour. 4. 3 multiplier events organised to introduce and distribute the manual 5. A strengthened and sustainable partnership for further development and implementation of activities in relation to the outcomes of the project
A first research into the way psychology and circus can interact; researching the diffrent ways we use circus in a therapeutic setting or use circus in a "normal" setting and feel it can have a therapeutic value. All three partners felt they were working in a similar way but felt they wanted to investigate this together and exchange their knowledge to make it stronger. Creating an intellectual output together will benefit so many people working in our field and will also benefit the youngsters we work with.
In our previous circus work we focused mainly on "social" circus and on the idea of making circus possible for EVERONE! no limits, no borders, no thresholds but we wanted to make circus possible for all. In this project we go deeper into one aspect of this work namely the way in which circus can help youngster facing their vulnerablity and fears. We had come across this need working with youth; they have a need to feel safe and to explore their bodies and its boundaries. We feel a need to improve our preventive work with youngsters using circus as a medium to reach them. For this we need to increase our knowledge as circus teachers and social workers in relation to the menthal challenges we have working with young people. We feel that all three partners have started this work and would benefit immensely from working together and sharing our expertise and also from inviting experts in the field to increase our know how.