TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Marta Skorczynska
This project anticipated developing competences of youth workers to communicate in a nonviolent way – acknowledging own and others’ needs, recognising and expressing emotions, building peaceful relations with young people, and co-workers. It related to the existing need among trainers, facilitators, youth leaders, and project coordinators to approach situations of conflict and misunderstanding in their work environment with a fresh perspective. Especially working with multinational and cross-cultural groups, youth at risk, migrants and refugees, where backgrounds, contexts and understandings might be so different, and may lead to frustrations in the communication process.
This activity involved youth workers from the following countries: Portugal, Spain, Romania, Italy, Germany, France, Estonia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Poland
Name of the project comes from two main methodologies upon which has been constructed the programme for the activity of the project. THEATRE refers to Theatre of the Oppressed and applied drama methodology, created by Augusto Boal, a theatre director and social activist. GIRAFFE refers to emphatic communication language – called the language of giraffe, from Nonviolent Communication method by Marshall Rosenberg, a psychologist and mediator.
The frame for learning in this training course was created with methods and techniques from applied drama. From building a safe and emphatic environment, participants were invited to become more aware and familiar with their body, and later encouraged to take roles, explored various desires, and improvised in search for different strategies in the communication process, creating a Forum Theatre. The content to practise in that frame was based in the Nonviolent Communication method. Participants discovered the meaning of needs and emotions for reaching a satisfactory compromise in a conflict situation. Using drama they practised the skills to form observations free from opinions, recognise and express needs, and to construct peaceful solutions.
Participants of the course have developed emphatic attitude, shared their challenges, contacted with their emotions and needs, went through experienced frustrations and approached them as a resource for learning. They have improved knowledge and skills in Nonviolent Communication as a tool to deal with similar situations in the future.
To read more about the project visit the website: kobiety.lodz.pl/portfolio/theatre-of-the-giraffe/
I was part of the trainers' team, responsible for introducing applied drama and Theatre of the Opressed methodology, and facilitating an embodied Nonviolent Communication practice for participants.