TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for José Branco
The aim of this project is to enable 22 youth workers from 10 European and MEDA
countries, to use Theatre as a tool to limit the inactivity and polarisation of young people at
risk of social exclusion through a training course organised in Lebanon.
According to the interim report published on May 2018 by the High-Level Commission Expert Group on Radicalisation (HLCEG-R); “there is no official account of how many radicalised individuals are currently present in EU Member States and posing a potential security threat. Approximately 20.000 individuals in France and 20.000 in the United Kingdom, have been featured in security service inquiries. The German security authorities, have reported 11.000 Salafists, with a shift towards a more violence-prone and terrorist spectrum. Some are considered as being particularly “dangerous”. In addition,
available threat assessments indicate an increase in right and left-wing extremism promoting anti democratic, intolerant and divisive messages.”. The amount of youth involved is unknown, but history shows that Extremism and Radicalisation had always found a very fertile ground among young people.
The TC fit the goals of participating organisations since all of them are working with target groups, social and youth workers that felt the need to increase their awareness and capacity of response to the topics addressed in the mobility.
Countries involved in the activity were Algeria, Denmark, Italy, Jordan, Portugal, Morocco, Latvia, Netherlands, Lebanon, Palestine.
The target group were youth and social workers that work in risk-environment context where youth needs to be supported with methodologies of inclusion that provide awareness and empathy towards single individuals.
There were many different methods used inside the scope of theatrical expression. Some of the main methods use were 'body and voice' exploration, storytelling techniques, theatre of the oppressed, puppet theatre and shadow theatre.
The training achieved the expected outcomes since participants felt empowered and equipped to put to practice the methods learned.
Multiplier events like the following report prove the application and reproduction of the work developed during the mobility: "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fFcOAQa0KGGGsIBUro1jjgZsEIMFKuTH/view?usp=sharing" prove the
I was one of the trainers and facilitators of the Training Course. My role was diverse, I was naturally responsible for the sessions of my expertise like body and voice expression, storytelling and theatre of the oppressed. My role as a trainers implies that I have to conduct the briefings and debriefings, present the program, give feedback on reflection groups and the initial team building activities. Close to end of the mobility I'm also responsible for giving information about Erasmus+, conduct the dissemination and multiplier event session and finally the evaluation.
Energetica and with sense of humour. Definetely recommended.