Art as means to develop low skilled inmates Erasmus Project

Project Title

Art as means to develop low skilled inmates

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Inclusion – equity; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The project “Art as means to develop low skilled inmates” proved to be a successful undertaking. The issue addressed in “Art as means to develop low skilled inmates” is the possibility of teaching prisoners basic skills through artistic activities. We managed to conduct several interesting workshops that normally prisoners would not have a chance to take part in. Since social rehabilitation in majority of penal units across EU is quite a neglected field, our project was a remedy to counteract in this area. We offered inmates the following undertakings (and thanks to that we managed to teach them basic skills that they lacked or had a low level of):

• Classes with target group on textile pieces,
• Classes on using words, to express ethos of ethnic group,
• Writing a book of personal stories illustrated by students,
• Making cards with wishes workshop,
• Identifying suitable QQI (Quality and Qualifications in Ireland) exam modules,
• A huge poster was done with pictures about Erasmus+ project,
• Two blogs in both languages about the project (https://artasmeanstodeveloplowskillsinmates.blogspot.com/; https://artedein.blogspot.com/)
• A newsletter about inmates’ accomplishments,
• Workshops with inmates on making and writing cards and postcards,
• Noticeboards made in the Spanish lessons,
• Patchwork workshops,
• Lettering to celebrate the International day of the book,
• Calligraphy classes,
• Workshop – Stained glass window making,
• Activity book with basic mathematical problems was prepared. This was used as a base to start a workshop (Stained glass window making) – one of the therapists started a maths course and taught the group of inmates’ basics of maths,
• Making the model of a village (made of wood, cardboard paper and other stationery materials),
• Making a video of a “life in a village” (using the mentioned above model). Before that there was a workshop on IT tools usage (mainly ‘how to make a video’ tools),
• Learning/Teaching Event in Poland for prison educators.

We estimate that across the whole partnership there were about 200 inmates involved in all our doings. It is not easy to provide with a rigid number of beneficiaries – one should be aware that the number of participants of any activities in prisons may fluctuate due to the fact of complexity of the environment. If it comes to the educators who were the leaders of the project, each partner institution had two such persons. Additionally there were (on average) three other educators/trainers who were involved directly on indirectly into the process of the project.

Thanks to the implemented ideas majority of involved prisoners managed to increase their basic skills. Not only hard ones but the soft skills, too, which we think is also of great importance. One of the most desired long term effect of our activities that we could mention here is the fact that inmates who took part in our project, thanks to being better educated, will contribute to reduce re-offending. We believe that our project had an extremely positive and concrete influence on the participants. They will see that one can choose a different path in their lives – different from the one chosen so far, namely felonious. Another long term impact that it is worth mentioning is impact on prison educators. We see our project as an opportunity to share our knowledge and experience gained within the project time with other teachers working in prisons during and after the project. We strongly believe this might be a good example to be innovative to support the growth and development of the prison education profession across Europe.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 49054 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stowarzyszenie na rzecz edukacji osób wykluczonych spolecznie o nazwie “Busola” & Country: PL

Project Partners

• cepayucatan
• European Prison Education Association
• CENTRO PROVINCIALE DI ISTRUZIONE PER ADULTI NUORO
• Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board