1. To promote youth sense of initiative on gender equality integrating ART/PSYCHOLOGY/ACTIVISM practices. 2. To design and test paths where Art Therapy is explored for vulnerable women empowerment. 3. To facilitate youth workers/EU organizations competences to work on Art Therapy/Artivism from a gender perspective. 4. To design and test paths where Artivism are explored for youth active participation on gender equality. 5. To promote youth engagement for gender sensitive communication and positive messages.
We applied for this project because of the need to address the decline in youth participation in institutional politics. According to the Youth Participation Toolkit, youth involvement is crucial for both action and voice in democratic processes. The partners need analysis shows that 44,74 % of youth don’t take part in democratic life and 18,42 % not so much. This reluctance seems to be accentuated by more difficult socio-economic conditions and by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The EU Parliament Youth Survey 2021 shows how youth have a greater propensity to take part in non- institutional forms of political participation to raise their voice, especially through media and online. However, vulnerable youth remain excluded from this type of non-institutional participation. Protection of human rights and gender equality emerges as a priority value, confirmed by partners’ need analysis (73,69 % of interviewees interested). Take pART! combines the concepts of art, psychotherapy, and activism to give vulnerable women and youth a voice with a gender sensitive approach. Art Therapy and Artivism have been chosen as the means towards active citizenship and inclusion for their therapeutic and communicative benefits, fostering freedom of expression.