Youth between stupid boy prank, political or culturell protest and vandalism Erasmus Project

Project Title

Youth between stupid boy prank, political or culturell protest and vandalism

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

It is a stroke of luck that the European Union enables cooperations between schools by providing very generous financial support. With this project the Fachoberschule Cham was able to investigate the destructive rage of adolescents and young adults with our partners in Portugal, Greece, Italy and Poland at the first project meeting in Cham. In a first workphase, the students investigated specific forms of vandalism in their countries of origin. In Italy, for example, cultural monuments are often the target of vandalism, which understandably outrages locals and tourists alike. It quickly became clear to all those involved how necessary it would be to develop prevention concepts against vandalism.
In Portugal, the causes and solutions for vandalism were in the foreground. The evaluation of the survey results on the basis of a jointly created questionnaire showed country-specific differences. At a panel discussion, the results of an international comparative study by representatives of politics, administration and science were discussed.
The project meeting in Greece emphasized the creativity of the students of the participating countries: posters documenting country-specific forms of vandalism were presented. They are part of a travelling exhibition that will later be shown in all countries. The highlight was then a graffiti spraying action: Under the guidance of a street artist, prepared walls were allowed to be designed with spray cans. In the period between the mobilities, the participating project schools carried out various actions to sensitize the students to the phenomenon of vandalism and to show them legal ways to express their creativity. In Cham, for example, together with the graffiti artist Jonas Heigl from Regensburg, the lettering “FOSBOS” was designed in the schoolyard, which then visually enhanced the construction fence during the renovation of the vocational school center.
In the follow-up to this action, the fundamental problem was addressed in a panel discussion: Is this art or damage to property? The participants from local politics and the art scene were surprisingly unanimous: Graffiti as a protest or as visually appealing art had its justification – but not everywhere. One solution can be surfaces released for spraying.
The fact that the city of Cham is now providing a wall for spraying on the grounds of the Quadfeldmühle of the Cham Technical High School enabled us to conclude our project on 1 July 2021, which was severely slowed down by the corona pandemic. The graffiti artwork of FOS Cham is visible from afar and documents that European school projects can have an external impact on the public.
We would like to thank you very much for this opportunity. Similar actions have also been planned and carried out in partner countries.
No doubt that the corona pandemic has severely affected the implementation of the project. Initially, our project period was extended by a whole year, the two missing project meetings in Poland and Italy were made up for in August 2021. The main focus in Jelcz-Laskowice near Wroclaw was the inspection of publicly accessible graffiti and the preparation of the final report. In Martano (Italy), the long-planned travelling exhibition was finally opened. It gives a complete overview of all stages of our project. Here, too, the European added value is unmistakable:
In addition, headmaster interviews were conducted to evaluate the project. The survey focused on the extent of vandalism in the participating countries, the respective prevention concepts and their implementation in the partner schools.
The final conclusion of the project will be the opening of the travelling exhibition in the remaining participating countries. Thus, the interested public learns all the essentials about the 5 country meetings in Germany, Portugal, Greece, Poland and Italy. The focus is on reasons for vandalism, manifestations and preventive measures. If we have contributed to raising awareness of this socio-political issue with this project, we have achieved our goal.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 136407 Eur

Project Coordinator

Berufliche Oberschule Cham & Country: DE

Project Partners

• 1 epal peiraia
• Zespol Szkol im. Jana Kasprowicza
• Escola Básica e Secundária de Canelas
• I.I.S.S. “S. Trinchese”