Pirouette "PerformatIve aRts fOr yoUth EngagemenT and communiTy rEgeneration"

Aims & objectives

“Pirouette” is a 24-months Capacity Building aimed at promoting the use of performative street arts such as circus, street dance and street painting as an innovative NFE methodology to foster social and civic engagement of youth and, eventually led to a community-led regeneration of urban/disadvantaged areas.
The idea behind the project stems from the recognition of youth’s social and civic engagement as a driving force for community development.

The project objectives, in line with the EU priorities in the field of Youth, are:
• foster young people’s active participation in society by providing them, through NFE methods, with skills and competences necessary to carry out community-based cultural initiatives using performative arts and street arts.
• foster processes of regeneration of urban and/or disadvantaged areas through arts and culture and youth-driven initiatives that may end up with the creation of civil society organizations (CSO)
• foster cooperation across different regions of the world through transnational non-formal learning mobility between Programme and Partner Countries.
• Contribute to the implementation of European Youth Goals 1 and 9: building inclusive societies and provide space and participation for all (EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027)

The Project aims to produce the following results:
• Research conducted on best practices of performative arts for educational, community development, regeneration purposes
• Training Format designed and tested
• Toolkit designed and tested
• Mobility of youth workers
• YE of young people on creative urban regeneration through performative arts

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

Target groups of Pirouette can be divided into two groups:
Direct:
• Young educators, youth workers and trainers from programme and partner organizations
• Young people living in urban and/or disadvantaged areas

Indirect:
• Young people with an artistic background or a background in event organization
• Youth organizations and NGOs, cultural associations, civil society organizations (CSO), etc.

Participant Organizations:
- NGO NEST BERLIN EV (GERMANY)
- Q Code Social Club (ITALY)
- UDRUZENJE AGENCIJA LOKALNE DEMOKRATIJE IZ MOSTARA (Bosnia and Herzego)
- The Youth of Ura (ALBANIA)

Training methods used & main activities

“Performative Street Arts in NFE” will be tested. Youth workers from partner organization will use it also as a basis to start to develop a Toolkit, aimed at demonstrating the potential of deploying performative arts as a tool to engage young people in the social and civic life of their communities.

Youth workers from partner organization used it also as a basis to start to develop a Toolkit, aimed at demonstrating the potential of deploying performative arts as a tool to engage young people in the social and civic life of their communities. The Toolkit, targeted at youth workers first and at young people then, gathered tools and activities to implement workshops and other training activities to give youth the skills and competences needed when designing, implementing and managing community-based cultural and creative initiatives, with and for young people. The development of the toolkit started during the training course.

Introduction and Team Building

In the beginning of the Training course the trainers introduce themselves and gave also insights on the schedule of the program and the activities to be carried out, following this introduction participant were invited in a circle to introduce themselves one by one in a circle by saying their name, country and background but also the relation to the topic of the program and their interests,
Rules were also written down and discussed together with the group, later on the participants had the opportunity to express their fears, contribution and expectations in relation to the upcoming program.

Social Inclusion through Street Art

The second module started with an introduction about street art and relation to social inclusion by the trainers, following a constructive learning and discussion, participants, divided by national groups were asked to research about the relationship between street art and social inclusion in their country, given the following guidelines to follow in their explanation to the group; events, perception of street art, acceptance of street art and most common type of street art.

Circus

This module started with a group discussion carried by the trainer on street art performative arts and circus in specific to introduce the topic, after that there was an energizer as team-building activity for participants, the group was then divided in 4 smaller groups each group received performance activity that is typical from in the circus (clowns, acrobats, magicians, ventriloquists) they represented it in a small theatre act and at the same researched how this figure was implemented into the circus in the history, feedback session followed.

Graffiti

In the beginning of this module the participants were provided with an engaging learning experience, which started with a discussion on different street artists. This discussion served as a platform for the participants to explore the different styles and techniques of various street artists, enabling them to develop a better understanding of the art form.

Street Dance

In the context of street dance, the participants were given an opportunity to show their creativity and talent by creating their own performance based on a style of their choice, in relation to performative street art.

Outcomes of the activity

TC outcomes
• Training about performative arts for educational community development, regeneration purposes;
• Training Format designed and tested;
• Toolkit designed and tested;
• Mobility of youth workers;
• Ideas on creative urban regeneration through performative arts;
• Use of performative street arts such as circus, street dance and street painting as an innovative NFE methodology;
• Recognition of youth’s social and civic engagement as a driving force for community development

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

My Personal Tasks were taking care of the activities and management of the flow of the sessions and delivering the knowledge and facilitate the activities about.
- ICE Breakers and Team Buildings;
- What is NFE, FE, IF;
- Street and performative arts for youth workers;
- increase competences necessary to carry out community-based cultural initiatives using performative arts and street arts.;
- Erasmus Plus presentation and potential project ideas facilitation;
- Toolkit Creation.

All this were my responsibilities to make sure they understood the concepts and manage to transform the tips and theories into practice to share among themselves and get an outcome.

I worked on this training for 5 days as a full time trainer.