How can youth work benefit from art to foster inclusion?
The 2030 UNESCO Agenda places inclusion “at the heart of all the efforts” as “inequality raises economic anxiety, erodes public trust and undermines social cohesion, human rights, peace and prosperity” and the most disadvantaged groups are youth, children, women, minorities, individuals with disabilities and rural communities which are facing the greatest challenges and exclusion.
Young people with fewer opportunities (YPWFO) face a variety of challenges that make it more difficult for them to become active members of their communities and have access to certain resources they need to equally participate in society. Those challenges include social, economic and cultural barriers such as a lack of access to education and training, discrimination and stigma, limited financial resources and limited access to services they need (e.g., legal or health services).
At the same time, youth workers, trainers/facilitators, educators and other experts (named in the project youth workers) working with this target group face challenges such as balancing their needs and the opportunities their communities offer, limited access to financial and other resources to do continuous needs analyses and to fully incorporate inclusive practices, limited policies that enable full inclusion, and a lack of innovative resources for personal and professional development that would help them work with YPWFO more effectively.
These factors can combine to create a complex web of barriers that make it more difficult for YPWFO to fully participate in society. Through the project Inclusionary – Art for Social Inclusion, we are addressing these barriers, and we are promoting greater inclusion that requires a multifaceted approach that includes addressing systemic inequalities, providing support and resources, and creating more inclusive environments and communities. More than this, we are using different forms of arts with the aim to be a powerful tool for promoting creativity, skill development, cultural exchange, a sense of belonging, and the positive self-image of our beneficiaries.
Inclusionary – Art for Social Inclusion is an Erasmus+ project aimed at leveraging the transformative power of the arts to enhance social inclusion and develop essential life skills among young people facing social, economic, or educational barriers.
The project activities combine non-formal education and creative expression to comprehensively approach the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities, especially young people from rural areas, young people with a migrant background and young people with disabilities. We aim to equip 45 youth workers, trainers, and educators with the tools and knowledge to facilitate this empowerment through creative expression. Besides that, the project will engage at least 225 young individuals and create a base of examples of good practices and educational materials that will serve in work with young people for informal learning and their active inclusion in the life of the local community.
Over the course of 28 months (from March 2024 to June 2026), our initiative will not only cultivate a sense of belonging among participants, but also strive to foster a sustainable model for community-based inclusion practices.
The project’s implementation involves partners collaborating to create a comprehensive report on effective practices, develop a TOOLBOX of artistic methods for youth workers that work with disadvantaged youth, conduct three Learning, Teaching, and Training Activities (LTTAs) for the practical application of these methods, and launch a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) featuring innovative artistic approaches.
The project is implemented by five partners: A4CTION (Romania), INTERAKTION (Austria), Association Delta (Croatia), Espacio Rojo (Spain) and GAIA Museum (Denmark). Each partner contributes to the consortium with their specific knowledge and experience relevant to this project.
A4ACTION is a non-profit association located in the Snagov community of Romania. It is dedicated to developing the community by promoting sustainable youth initiatives in lifelong learning, culture, ecology, youth participation, and civic engagement. Its mission is to foster strong community involvement by enhancing communication and cooperation among young people, teachers, parents, and stakeholders.
Espacio Rojo is a non-profit association founded in 2004 in Carabanchel, Madrid, Spain, that understands art as a fundamental right, essential for the integral and kind development of the human being. It promotes spaces for reflection, experimentation and meeting between people related to the cultural field and our community, and it develops projects that foster interculturality, integration, social awareness and gender equity.
Association Delta Udruga Delta from Croatia aims to foster a culture of active citizenship, focusing on empowering responsible and proactive youth through activities like non-formal education, research, public policy and advocacy.
GAIA Museum from Denmark is an art museum for outsider art, a socioeconomic workplace and pedagogical activity for people with learning disabilities and other special needs. In connection with the museum is GAIA Academy – a studio and art education whose purpose it is to support the artists’ work and development
InterAktion is a non-profit association based in Austria, active in the field of human rights, sustainability and integration. We support young people from migrant families and young refugees in their integration process by providing them with educational opportunities and helping them to navigate through professional orientation.
The “kick-off” meeting of the project partners took place from April 15th to 18th in the Danish city of Randers, where GAIA Museum is located.
The employees of the GAIA Museum – Outsider Arts institution hosted the meeting and presented their work, which is unique in combining art and social services for people with disabilities. In addition to exhibition spaces and a museum shop, GAIA also contains a café/restaurant, office premises and the GAIA Academy – an art studio where artists create their works. Here the partners had a chance to meet some of the artists, who warmly welcomed them and showed them what they are currently working on.
After the tour of GAIA, the partners held a two-day program where they discussed all aspects of the upcoming project and the next steps for the following months. The meeting was productive and successful, resulting in a revision of the tasks, division of work and the establishing of some important dates and deadlines for the next 2 years.
After the official part, there was also an opportunity for the partners to get to know each other, socialize and exchange experiences from their area of expertise. Each returned home inspired and ready to start working on the upcoming project activities.
The first step of the project is to conduct a research to map the existing methods and practices that youth workers use in their work with YPWFO to foster social inclusion, with a focus on creative and artistic methods, and to describe the common challenges they face in assessing the needs and interests of their target group.
Data are being gathered through desk research, questionnaires and focus groups with youth workers and other experts, in each partner country. All the research results will be compiled in a State-of-the-art report that will serve as a repository of good practices in fostering social inclusion and a guide on how to choose and use them. It will offer youth workers and other experts valuable information and skills to improve their work with YPWFO using creative and artistic methods.
So far, most part of the research is done – 132 youth workers, trainers/facilitators, educators, and other experts have filled the questionnaire, and each partner has conducted a focus group in their community.
Some insights on the topic can already be found in the questionnaire results. For instance, the most common way to assess the needs of the target group is done by observations (81.8%) and community meetings (62.9%). At the same time, most of the participants listed insufficient financial resources (62.1%) as the main challenge they face in fostering inclusion in their work with YPWFO, which is followed by reaching their target group (41.7%). Besides insufficient financial resources (53%) being the main challenge in fostering inclusion through art, on the second place is the lack of community centres (33.3 %). As expected, enough financial resources is listed as the most important thing that would help them overcome these challenges (65.2%). Most importantly, the second thing is connecting and networking with other youth workers that successfully apply artistic methods in their work with YPWFO (61.4%). That shows once again the importance of international collaboration on this project and the potential positive impact the LTTAs will have on the participants.
The State-of-the-art report will be finished until the end of October. It will contain the research results, telling us more about the existing methods that are being used to foster social inclusion of young people using art and creativity.
An introductory part will outline the key issues on the topic based on the literature review and other existing research. The existing methods and practices will be listed as 25 (five per partner) good practice examples that are being implemented in partner counties and on the EU level.
The report will also include an analysis of challenges in non-formal education regarding the inclusion of YPWFO, as well as a conclusion with key recommendations for youth workers and other experts.
With the beginning of September, the partners will start working on the creation of the TOOLBOX with non-formal methods using arts as an inclusion tool. It will be composed of four modules:
M1 – Needs analysis module
M2 – Music methods
M3 – Visual Arts methods
M4 – Theatre methods
Each module will be the basis for an LTTA that will be hosted in different partner counties (Croatia, Spain and Romania).
The first LTTA on Needs assessment of the target group will be hosted by Delta and will take place in the city of Rijeka (Croatia) in January 2025. The program will involve 15 participants and last for five days.
Meanwhile, December will mark the beginning of the MOOC development. This online course will include videos, exercise, study cases and theoretical part of the topic. It will be available after the finalization of the project on an online learning platform.
The project is co-financed by the European Union through the Erasmus+ programme and will be conducted by the following organisations: A4ACTION (Romania) – coordinator, Udruga Delta (Croatia), InterAktion (Austria), Asociación Espacio Rojo (Spain) and GAIA Museum Outsider Art (Denmark).
