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DEEP Communities

2020-3-ES02-KA105-0164702020Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: ES|HR|PT|IT · Grant: €8,676
Health and wellbeingCivic engagement / responsible citizenshipCreativity and culture

Objectives

We applied for this project in October 2020, a few months after the very harsh confinement derived from the Covid-19 pandemic and still with many restrictive measures due to health recommendations. During these years (even today), we notice that youth work has changed a lot. Youth organizations and workers have needed to find new tools in our work with young people to cover their needs, which have also changed compared to what they needed in previous years. Studies indicated very high levels of anxiety among young people and an increase in mental health problems, with a complication in relationships between peers and with other generations. Another of the focuses of attention of the project was that society, in a general way, tended to blame young people for not doing enough to reduce their social life and, therefore, as generators of infections and even new outbreaks of covid. Tremendously unfair and that left young people in more vulnerable and complex situations. All these circumstances are what lead SPLORA and the rest of the project partners to create a training course for youth workers to equip them with tools that support community building, empowering young people as active agents of that community building. The agreed project title was DEEP Communities. DEEP is an acrostic in English whose translated acronym means: Discovery, Empowerment, Courage and Fun. All these are the elements that we want to bring to our neighborhoods with this and other projects. Thus, the MAIN OBJECTIVE was "To strengthen local communities by empowering young people and supporting their role as creators of change in their social environments". As SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES, Deep Communities proposed: -Provide 20 youth workers (funding for 15 participants was finally approved) from Italy, Croatia, Portugal and Spain with tools to help them identify and gather the needs of their local communities and provide the right solutions; -Explore the "SocioTeatro" method, which allows to know and strengthen local communities through the use of various theatrical, narrative and artistic techniques; -Use different narrative and theatrical methods that support the well-being of young people and empower them to become change-makers in their local communities; -Exchange good practices between entities that are dedicated to the training of youth educators and the development of community projects directed by young people or for young people. The main resource of the training was the "SocioTeatro": community work method that allows rediscovering a community/neighborhood based on theatrical techniques and using different resources, such as the senses (observe, feel, touch, smell, taste... ) . After the observation and exploration of various techniques, an installation/exhibition is created with different artistic forms (photo, theater, painting...) open to the neighbors. This process increases the sense of belonging to the community, neighborhood or territory where people live and is a method that helps foster the creativity of the participants, the creation of positive emotions and a synergy between young people as agents of change. The 7-day training course, held in Valladolid, had a participatory installation at "la Rondilla" neighborhood, using theatrical, narrative and artistic techniques, which was open to the public and was warmly received by part of the neighbors The objectives of this project, moreover, are fully aligned with one of the Erasmus + Program Objectives such as "Promoting education for entrepreneurship". Entrepreneurial skills are based on the ability to take initiative, carry out ideas, assume responsibilities and work in a team to achieve defined objectives. These skills were developed during the project, since the participants fully developed the aforementioned activity at "la Rondilla" neighborhood in Valladolid.

Project partners (4)