ARTSQUAD aspires to support youth professionals in developing and sharing effective methods in reaching out to disadvantaged young people and in promoting social inclusion. Through its innovative integrated approach, the project will provide the people working directly with the youth with practical tools to use in their work.
ARTSQUAD will offer to youth workers and youth trainers a continuous professional development training opportunity with an innovative curriculum that they can use when working with disadvantaged youth.
The project is co-funded by the EU Programme: Erasmus+ Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. Action: Strategic Partnerships. Field: Strategic Partnerships for youth. Main objective: Development of Innovation.
Background of the project
According to the report “Working with young people: the value of youth work in the EU” (European Commission- EACEA, 2014), a common thread in many of the European countries is the instability or unsustainable employment that youth professionals experience in the sector and the high level of volunteering associated with youth work. At the same time, access to educational opportunities becomes more difficult for them the further away their target- groups are from the mainstream. There is a clear need for supportive measures in order to continuously develop the skills of those working with young people. ARTSQUAD will address the need to improve:
(a) The employability of youth professionals, a need which is underestimated due to the paradox that it is the youth professionals that focus their work in the employability of all the other target- groups and there are no initiatives towards their own and
(b) The quality of their work with the youth.
In their daily practice, the partners have witnessed that although the youth professionals involved with the partners’ operations have strong motivation, they are not always prepared to address the needs of young people with disadvantaged backgrounds. For example, the refugee crisis in Europe culminates at an extremely fast pace while the youth professionals are not prepared to meet the needs of asylum seekers and refugees. While most youth professionals are qualified to academic standards many of the educational interventions that form such an important part of their daily work are based on intuitive learning. With ARTSQUAD we want to address the lack of specifically tailored continuous professional development supports for youth professionals.
Another issue the partners are tackling is the attractiveness of youth initiatives to disadvantaged young people. This is why they have chosen the creative arts as alternative educational tools for the acquisition of key competences. The partners have observed a gap in the provision of training for professionals working with young people (especially when it comes to disadvantaged youth) where the use of creative disciplines is concerned. To address this deficit, they will develop, test and pilot a suite of train-the-trainer materials that introduce youth professional to the use of four creative disciplines which can reach out to marginalised groups of young people and become powerful mechanisms of social inclusion:
- Digital Media,
- Storytelling,
- Drama,
- Music.
ARTSQUAD aspires to support youth professionals in developing and sharing effective methods in reaching out to disadvantaged young people and in promoting social inclusion. Through its innovative integrated approach, the project will provide the people working directly with the youth with practical tools to use in their work.
The end beneficiaries of ARTSQUAD are going to be young people with disadvantaged backgrounds and/ or fewer opportunities due to disability, educational difficulties, economic obstacles, cultural differences (immigrants or refugees/ asylum seekers), health problems, social obstacles, or geographical obstacles.
Proposed intervention
Consortium partners have identified a gap in the provision of training for professionals working with marginalized young people where the use of creative disciplines is concerned. To address this deficit, the project ARTSQUAD will develop test and pilot innovative tools to introduce youth professionals to the use of digital media, storytelling, drama and music for the development of key competences. These tools include a suite of train-the-trainer materials, an E-Learning Portal, a full suite of modules for a train-the-trainer curriculum and a suite of 8 prototype tools developed using the above artistic disciplines.
With the use of these tools the youth professionals can reduce disparities in learning outcomes affecting learners with disadvantaged backgrounds and we can support them to acquire social, civic, digital, intercultural competences and media literacy.
The partners will follow an innovative, integrated enquiry-based learning approach based in non-formal education methods and tools. ARTSQUAD proposes a new approach to key competence building in youth work environments which is based on a youth-centered design approach. The course-ware supports free agent learners allowing youth professional and young people the opportunity to learn in new, exciting and engaging ways. For many disadvantaged youth, formal education approaches have failed to deliver the learning outcomes required in today’s economy and the creative arts can be a more effective teaching method to acquire basic and transversal skills such as social and civic competence, digital competence, cultural awareness and expression, entrepreneurship and critical thinking.
Impact
ARTSQUAD will equip the youth professionals with practical tools to use in their everyday work with disadvantaged youth. It will also support them to work in non-conventional environments and will enhance their employability, their reputation, professionalism and standing even if they now work in completely different educational settings. This way the youth professional will become more efficient in supporting the social inclusion of disadvantaged youth to formal education or employment and their progression as valued and contributing members of European society.
The informal nature of youth development work is the perfect setting to provide alternative educational environments that differ completely from the more formal school settings that have proved unsuitable or inaccessible for certain young people. The creative arts are one of the most inclusive environments for training people of all personality types, skill levels and interests. With the competence development resulting from the project, the youth professionals will be able to provide to young people with fewer opportunities (a) a direct route to reach their full potential (b) solutions to many of the barriers to social inclusion. The impact on this target group will be significant and ongoing as the youth professionals develop their competences to support disadvantaged youth in different, more innovative ways. Ultimately, the project will impact the impact and recognition of youth work.