You Are The Engine of Change Erasmus Project

Project Title

You Are The Engine of Change

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 : Capacity Building for youth in ACP countries, Latin America and Asia

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

We developed this project to answer to different needs detected in partner organisations’ countries and regions. In youth work field there is a lack of advanced competencies in practical methods aiming to improve the situation of their direct target groups. Partners involved in this project and which made it true are coming from Burundi, Bulgaria, Kenya, Latvia, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania and Tanzania.The main goal of the project was to raise the capacity of youth work sector to increase the participation and involvement of young people by enabling them to use theatre of the oppressed methods.The project achieved the following objectives:-To introduce innovative methodologies in youth work field on 2 continents; -To raise the capacity of partner organisations to operate at European level and in intercontinental mobility projects;-To stimulate the exchange of best practices in youth work field across continents;-To increase quality of youth organisation projects in the 2 continents;-To develop and improve competencies in Theatre of the Oppressed methods for youth workers from Europe and Africa;-To stimulate the development of a network of Theatre of the Oppressed multipliers in various regions of Europe and Africa; -To develop proactive attitudes and the sense of initiative among the NGO partners’ members and, also, among the beneficiaries of the partners (young people). -To increase the level of active participation among the direct and indirect beneficiaries The project’s main beneficiaries (32 youth workers) took part in a long-term training course focused on developing practical working competencies in theatre of the oppressed methodology.The training approach was designed as the following:1)An initial training course for developing basic competencies in theatre of the oppressed methodology (Image and Forum Theatre) for the future multipliers (it took place in Bujumbura, Burundi, in October 2018);2)A practice phase in each of the partner countries, where the multipliers, prepared and implemented Forum Theatre performances for at least 1600 young people (at least 200 in each country). Topics of the performances were bullying, mobbing, domestic violence, family manipulation, gender inequality, drug abuse and early pregnancies. 3)The practice phase was followed by the second training course (which took place in Busteni, Romania, in March 2019), for assessing the first practice phase results, for developing advanced competencies in Theatre of the Oppressed and developing skills in Newspaper and Invisible Theatre.4)The second practice phase took place in the partner countries, where the multipliers transferred their competencies in a new round of performances for more than 100 people in each country. The topics tackled in this phase were: bullying, violence against women, cyber bullying, emotional manipulation in a relationship, road accidents etc.5)A final evaluation meeting was organized in Riga, Latvia, in August 2019, in order to assess and evaluate the impact of the whole project and plan how the network will continue to work in a coordinated manner from now on.6)Each partner disseminated the project results in their communities, to interested people and other organisations, in order to increase the interest of the civil society towards theatre of the oppressed methodology and its impact.The main project results were:-A network of strong organisations competent in theatre of the oppressed on 2 continents.-32 multipliers who are confident and independent practitioners in theatre of the oppressed field.-120 volunteers who got involved in the local performances as actors and support members.-52 performances-2100 direct young audience members-53 additional local partners -9200 indirect beneficiaries-A manual to support youth workers

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 145872 Eur

Project Coordinator

ASOCIATIA A.R.T. FUSION & Country: RO

Project Partners

• VOLUNTEER ACTION FOR CHANGE KENYA
• YOUTH EMPOWERMENT AND LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE
• BIEDRIBA EUROFORTIS
• TEATRO METAPHORA – ASSOCIACAO DE AMIGOS DAS ARTES
• AFRICAN CENTRE FOR DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH LTD
• TANZANIA YOUTH CULTURAL ORGANIZATION
• RAVNOVESIE