StageCraft for Youth Workers

ABOUT "STAGECRAFT"

"StageCraft for Youth Workers"  is the second edition, funded by the Erasmus+ programme and promoted by the Czech NGO Vice Versa, of a training format on advanced communication, presentation and facilitation skills development, targeting primarily youth and social workers and educators. The project is a 7 days residential training which combines approaches such as theatre, comedy, storytelling, psychology, sociology, education, music, social & creative community work.

The project will take place in the Czech Republic, close to the city of Olomouc, in the beautiful ecological centre Sluňákov (www.slunakov.cz/en), from the 3rd to the 10th of August 2019 (travel days included). It will involve 24 participants and 4 trainers from 10 different European countries (Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and United Kingdom).

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE TRAINING COURSE

The objectives of the training course are:

• To develop and build on a greater understanding of the presentation and engagement skills and experiences of youth workers;

• To explore and understand the effects of effective presentation and engagement with an audience of young people and in the role of youth worker;

• To gain a greater awareness of the theory behind “Stagecraft” taken from the fields of psychology, sociology, education, theatre and creative community (comedy, music and drama);

• To identify and realise the opportunities to put the skills developed into practice;

A WORD ON THE APPROACH

The course seeks to develop what we think are the advanced skills - sometimes neglected - of being able to use the environment, our physiology, our body language and the content of our message to make our youth work even more effective. We will draw from applied psychology and from skills-sets used in theatre by professional presenters and comedians, to make the training diverse and exciting.

Participants will have opportunities to reflect on the fact that - as well as expensive and ubiquitous technology - there are many other resources and skills we can use to keep young people engaged, and develop effective relationships with them. Our course will be highly interactive, we will apply each methodology on the spot, and participants will have many chances to challenges themselves in and out of their comfort zones to develop new awareness and skills. Be prepared for some real Stagecraft thrills!