FinlandLatviaWales (FLW) – Follow Erasmus Project

Project Title

FinlandLatviaWales (FLW) – Follow

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 : Partnerships for Creativity

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

GENERAL IDEA
This is a transnational and interdisciplinary project “FinlandLatviaWales (FLW) – Follow” that aims to explore and exchange practices on using creative body-based approaches for social inclusion and community building. It will do so by involving groups of young women in empowerment programmes that combine practices from contemporary dance and non-formal learning. The project is carried out by a team of 12 resource persons from 6 organizations (3 countries) and 2 different sectors – contemporary dance field and youth work. Throughout the project the team will not only have the chance to meet, exchange experiences and learn from each other (in national and international settings), but in each country they will also work with a group of disadvantaged young women in order to empower them. They will provide a series of kinesthetic and non-formal learning workshops and based on those put together a performance that actualizes some societal challenges/problems that they identify with and wish to see positive changes in. The project also includes 2 team meetings as well as 2 learning activities.

The project approaches art and creativity from the perspective of art as one of basic and always present ways of human existence, as a way of processing the unanswerable questions. As any other thing also art in capitalism is turned into a product and entertainment, that leads to predictable contect, easy to access, easy to sell to the majority, following once again pushing away the groups with less possibilities. FLW stands against any clear vision of how artistic creation or outcome looks like to be good. It is all about the process, unfolding of layers of experiences, doubts, questions, fears. It is about shared journey into the unknown to become brave enough…

Objectives:
1.) To share, exchange and develop approaches and methods to reach out to young women that have distant relationship to dance and movement and empower them (combining tools and experiences from dance/movement/improvisation and non-formal learning and youth work field)
2.) To provide a safe space for marginalized young women to explore their relationship with body, empathy, connection between body-mind-emotions and with others, authenticity, creativity within and thus promote their self-awareness, self-expression, self-support capacities (also in the context of COVID-19) through dance and movement
3.) To promote solidarity and peer-support within single-gender groups and discuss the meaning of being women (sharing stories from life, challenges, etc.) and explore in depth a theme that each community wishes to focus on with creative means
4.) To prepare a performance as a creative process AND the result and as a form of expressing oneself, being socially active and promoting inclusion
5.) To establish a learning support system – both for the team/resource persons as well as the young women (to observe the personal and social (and professional) development throughout the project) and use group as a learning and support community
6.) To document and share project results with youth work and dance/creative communities (videos, stories of team and target group, insight into tools used)

NEEDS & TARGET GROUPS
– The direct target group of this project are experts/resource persons in our organizations, who wish to improve their professional competences in order to improve and innovate the work they are doing and reach out more effectively to communities and young people. We will have a team of 2 community workers/youth workers and 2 contemporary dance field professionals from each country. The project will increase the quality of work we do because it allows us to work together on a long term basis with colleagues that are from different “bubbles” – social work/youth work and dance/creative field. Although there are actually many similarities in what we are doing, everyday work does not provide many chances for cross-sectorial cooperation.

– Another direct target group benefiting from this project and participation in activities in each country will be a group 10-15 young women* who NEED empowerment. They will be age 16-30 and the majority in the group would have faced challenges of any kind: difficulties, social exclusion, are more vulnerable, marginalized (victims of violence, refugees, young mothers, women in rural areas, young women at risk, with learning difficulties, with minority background, with disabilities, etc.). Preferably with NO (or little) experience with dance and movement (ideally – women who claim they undoubtedly can not dance!).
– When the project starts to generate results, we will share them with the communities we work in and the women come from. Results will take the form of public performances and sharing of stories and showing videos from the process of working together.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 81263 Eur

Project Coordinator

LAUKKU & Country: LV

Project Partners

• disakamula oy
• Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of Wales
• Kokoro Arts Ltd
• Rezeknes novada pasvaldibas iestade Maltas apvienibas parvalde
• Pakolaisnuorten tuki ry