IMPROVision - Inclusion through Art

One of the ongoing challenges in youth work is the integration of disadvantaged groups in the society or in regard of the European youth work sphere, their involvement in international projects. There is a constant need for new and innovative methods, which would ease this process and also give them an inspiring environment to develop their potential. Artistic forms of expressions are very promising in this field for several reasons. Regarding the aspect of personal development, artistic methods are very powerful as they give an opportunity for self- discovery. In the process of creation we always express more than we are consciously aware at the moment. Especially the spontaneous creations in an improvisation setting are very useful in this sense and the outcomes can be used as a mirror to reflect on your ‘inner world’. Especially youth who are not very strong in verbal expression can gain a lot through the expression in creative ways. Apart from the benefit regarding personal development, they have the clear advantage of not relying on spoken language. This can be very helpful while organizing international encounters with people whose language skills are not good enough to get into verbal communication. it also becomes an important topic for the work with mixed-background groups in a local context and is already used, e.g. while working with groups of refugees and locals in integration projects. Despite their usefulness and potential as described above, artistic methods are not very wide spread and far away of being in the standard tool box of youth workers. Especially in the EECA region this field is still underdeveloped and it would be therefore highly beneficial to educate multipliers in this field. The proposed training course therefore wants to gather 29 youth workers and youth leaders from program and EECA partner countries to explore the potential of artistic forms of expression in (international) youth work setting with disadvantaged groups.