TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Marco Marinelli
The aim of this training course is to explore how the Clowning attitude can be used to create more inclusive youth work.
Participants will get in touch with the concept of Failure and Success in relation to Mental Wellbeing, with the attitude of a Clown, connecting this point of view with youth work, facilitation and training.
Specific objectives:
- development of the competence area “Facilitating Learning” (referring to ets competence model for youth workers)
Readiness to improvise and accept ambiguity;
Being open towards learning/unexpected learning (for oneself and others);
Readiness to be challenged and take risks;
Knowledge about emotions and emotional mechanisms;
Skill of initiating and supporting self-reflection on learning;
Is OK with imperfections, failures, and mistakes
- Learning creative tools and methodologies to create and deliver inclusive and engaging activities for young people and with fewer opportunities:
theatre of the oppressed methodology, with image theatre and different variations to address the effects of emotions in power relations and in a situation of conflict;
Creative writing and drawing to represent emotions as resource and/or limit;
Physical theatre and clowning, to explore emotions and sensations, to develop self awareness through the relation with others.
The team was composed by me and Linda Ulane, both co-trainers active in the program design, implementation and report of the project. During the training, we were supported by a logistic responsible from the hosting organisation.
The target group was made of 27 youth workers, trainers, coordinators and facilitators from all fields of non-formal education who are motivated to learn new
creative tool to support youngsters.
In the project were involved 10 partner countries:
Slovenia, Latvia, Turkey, Czech Republic, Spain, Belgium, France, Estonia, Serbia.
This training is shaped with the non-formal education approach, with group dynamics and creative activities that promotes active participation during the training course.
- The process is based in experiential learning, also giving some theoretical input and space for individual/group reflection.
- Creative methodologies such as Clowning, Creative Writing, Participatory and social Theatre are used to
dig deeper in the topics of this training course;
- Creation of a Safe (enough) Space where all participants feel free to express ideas and proposal;
- The learning process is shared among individual participants, the group of participants and the trainers. The program is flexible and sensitive to the participant’s needs;
- ETS Competence model for youth workers to work internationally has been used as a framework to reflect on the learning journey in relation to competences.
The project had an impact directly on participants, by working on their attitude to deal with failures, to be able to recognize emotions and the resources available to overcome frustration and confusion. One of the outcomes more shared among the group is “learn to dedicate time to failure, giving space to the unexpected with lightness and playfulness”, as the learning process is not always linear and the pressure of reaching a “positive” result. Besides this, the participants had a chance to practice emotional intelligence through creativity and lightness. Part of the program was dedicated to dealing with emotions and participants during learning harvesting have admitted that it has been one of the highest impacts on them. Here is some insight from participants’ evaluation through google forms on the last day of the TC “what do you think you learned during this training”:
“I could finally experience that failing is okay. That is a HUUUUGE step for me. Coming from saying that, to actually feeling that and internalizing that. Thank you for creating this safe space, that helped me with this thing.”
“The most important thing: failure is okey. And, also, how to make a safe space for young people and how to teach them that failing is okey.”
“To fail. To be confident. Mora About the oppressed théâtre and how to do it, lots of energizers, lots of tools to know themself. I Will use these tools to facilitate meetings or training course with the people who work in my organisation and people who work with youngsters. And maybe to organise exchange between youth.”
“I learned about the importance of failure and success in mental well-being. I also learned how to use clowning and creative activities to connect with others. In the future, I will use these methods to create safe and fun spaces for teamwork and learning.”
In this project I was involved as trainer and supported the ideation of the project and preparation:
- with Linda we created the infopack and searched for partner organisation able to send participants to the training course;
Regarding the program, I worked with Linda on the project design, by taking in account needs of participants, priorities of the program and learning objectives set in the ideation of the project.
During the training course, I delivered with Linda the different activities. I dealt mainly with the topic of social inclusion and theatre of the oppressed.
I brought in the program clowning activities, more connected to performance in public and physical theatre
Together we created activities for reflection, debriefing and harvesting the learning outcomes of the day and the entire week
Marco is passionate educator who believes in the power of participants and is not afraid to challenge them with lightness and safe enough way. He truly inspired me as a colleague not only because of how he is able to engage the group but also how much he cares about the political dimension of youth work. What is important, he is also a youth worker, which lets him relate to current issues of youth (that is something I sometimes lack among colleagues - educators).