Wires Crossed – A Balancing Act for Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Wires Crossed – A Balancing Act for Europe

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 youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Health and wellbeing; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Wires Crossed – Balancing Act for Europe project came about from the desire to provide an inclusive, safe and engaging outlet for young people to take part in physical and creative activities which enhance their sense of well-being. The project partners were Galway Community Circus from Ireland, École de Cirque de Bruxelles from Belgium and CABUWAZI from Germany – all youth circus schools which use circus arts education as a tool for social, personal and community development and for promoting social inclusion and positive physical and mental wellbeing.

The project reacted to the hidden crisis on youth mental health in Europe by preparing a training for youth circus trainers in funambulism (tightwire walking with a balancing pole) – an activity that combines physical activity, mental well-being techniques and circus arts. All three areas help young people by providing opportunities for self-expression, building self-confidence, social interaction and integration as well as improving their control over symptoms of anxiety and depression. They also increase positive risk taking both physically and emotionally, they promote physical health and body awareness, increase self-confidence and self-efficacy, improves social connectedness, teamwork, and leadership skills within the group and enables participants to acquire a broadened skill base relating to circus as well as more generic ‘life skills’.

This project was the first European project of a multi-annual programme, ‘Wires Crossed’, delivered by Galway Community Circus as one of the anchor projects of Galway European Capital of Culture 2020. Wires Crossed are leading to a large-scale Galway 2020 project culminating in big community gathering in Galway in June 2020 where 400 people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds from all around Europe cross the River Corrib on tightwires to celebrate diversity and highlight the importance of physical and mental well-being.

There were two groups of participants in the project – 12 youth circus tutors learning how to teach funambulism to young people and 12 youth participants with fewer opportunities (including young refugees) taking a part in a youth exchange.

The project activities comprised of:
– Two transnational meetings of project coordinators in Galway and Brussels.
– Three professional trainings in Galway and Brussels led by French funambulism experts Denis Josselin and Bruno Frenette for the group of 12 youth circus tutors that enabled them to teach funambulism in heights up to 2 meters and gave them basic rigging and health and safety training necessary for delivering funambulism activities. Two of the trainings also included the crossing of a waterway on the tightwire – over a canal in Brussels and the Claddagh Pool in Galway City. [To see a video of crossing in Galway please go to: http://bit.ly/2o8bzan]
– A youth exchange in Berlin for young people from the three partner countries which brought together youth participants from disadvantaged backgrounds and young refugees.

All of the initial project objectives were met:
– To develop the skills & competences of youth circus trainers
– To improve the health & wellbeing and social, personal & life skills of participants
– To develop and share effective methods of reaching out to marginalized youth
– To promote social inclusion, solidarity & intercultural dialogue
– To help young people with fewer opportunities to become more engaged & involved in society
– To help young refugees become more integrated in their local community & connected to youth in other parts of Europe
– To help youth circus organisations increase their capacity
– To make funambulism a widely used innovative educational method in the youth & social circus sector and beyond

This project has helped establish a methodology for teaching funambulism to young people in the participating schools and their local partner organisations (please see a best practice document attached).
Thanks to the thorough training that the 12 youth circus tutors received there can be first funambulism workshops for young people bringing all the mentioned benefits to young people in Ireland, Belgium and Germany.
This methodology will be disseminated to partner youth circus schools which are members of International Youth and Social Circus Network CARAVAN.
funding for Level 2 training for the first twelve tutors to provide them with further training in funambulism and teaching in heights over four meters along with health and safety training and rigging. this was approved in April 2018 through the Irish national agency. And we are awaiting a funding decision to being 5 new partner countries into the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 65520 Eur

Project Coordinator

Galway Community Circus Ltd & Country: IE

Project Partners

• GrenzKultur gGmbH
• Ecole de Cirque de Bruxelles