Handmade Wellbeing – Collaborative learning in craft and welfare interfaces Erasmus Project

Project Title

Handmade Wellbeing – Collaborative learning in craft and welfare interfaces

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Health and wellbeing; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The aim of the Handmade Wellbeing project was to enhance and expand professional competences of arts and crafts professionals and to design and carry out creative activities in elderly care settings. Increasingly, the arts and crafts professionals are employed in challenging community engagement areas that are outside their traditional core skills and abilities.Evidently, arts and crafts offer creative and empowering activities that would be important to include in the activities of wellbeing and health-related services.

The targets of the Handmade Wellbeing project were:
• to expand professional competences of arts and crafts specialists to work in the elderly care sector
• to co-create a novel educational model, in cross-sectoral collaboration both nationally and internationally, for working creatively with older people
• to research the pedagogy suitable for working with older people
• to research links between creative activity and overall wellbeing of older people
• to distribute educational models, working methods and research results.

The project was carried out by four European partners.
The University of Helsinki was the coordinator of the project. The Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki is one of the leading European units providing teacher education and engaging in education research. The department houses the Craft Teacher Education which was participating in the Handmade Wellbeing project.

The British partner, Superact is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company that uses creative engagement and the arts to develop and deliver a wide range of social impact projects. Based in the UK but with an international reach, Superact delivers creative interventions that make a positive difference in key areas of community development, skills development, employability and health and wellbeing.

The Austrian partner, KUNSTLABOR Graz is part of uniT-arts association at the Karl Franzens University Graz. It consists of a multidisciplinary team of artists from various disciplines (film, photography, fine arts, dance and theater), psychologists, education experts and scientists. KUNSTLABOR Graz addresses elderly people, youth and migrants.

The Estonian partner, Viljandi Culture Academy, is one of the four colleges of the University of Tartu. The main partner of the Handmade Wellbeing project was the Department of Estonian Native Crafts. Their purpose is to use the cultural higher education potential to promote new working fields and opportunities, such as the care sector that their students were practising in during the Handmade Wellbeing project.

Each partner arranged training for art and craft students and professionals to work and develop their professional competences in elderly care centres. Each partner arranged a learning and training week for the other partners. Through observations, visits and practical participatory activities, the partners got a good understanding of the practices that each partner were using. The reflection sessions during each training week formed the basis for developing the educational model together. Each partner arranged a seminar for the stakeholders, and an exhibition about the project activities. The project activities were shown on the website of the project, and they were presented in the international conferences and at local events, such as public lectures and interviews to the media. Throughout the project, research activities were carried out to collect the data.

During the project, many arts and crafts students and teachers received training on working with older people in care settings. For many of them, this provided new employment possibilities; for example in the UK, some of them have since been employed to run monthly art activities in local care homes. All the learners were sent an anonymous questionnaire about how satisfied they were on the project, and how it has benefited their professional development. The responses reflect mainly positive learning experiences.

The ongoing research was introduced in articles and conferences and thus reached a wider audience. The collaboratively produced handbook is published in the project website and in the websites and other media in each partner country, as well as EPALE. The handbook is available for everyone to access.

The social and health care staff in the participating care centres learned new skills and methods to arrange creative activities for older people. The participating partners and their learners have broadened their understanding of the European approach to the topic.

The produced Handmade Wellbeing Handbook is available online for all the interested stakeholders to utilize in their work. The research results will be published in the coming years to fulfill the need for evidence-based scientific basis about the required creative pedagogy for older people. The results will benefit the future work in the care settings, and the training to work in them.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 221134 Eur

Project Coordinator

HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO & Country: FI

Project Partners

• TARTU ULIKOOL
• uniT – Verein für Kultur an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
• SUPERACT! COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY