Context & objectives
The migrant youth, and in particular refugees and asylum seekers, are vulnerable groups whose precarious and uncertain conditions expose them to the risk of social exclusion. Research shows that creative arts therapy (including dance and art therapy), can prove useful in supporting migrants and refugees’ social inclusion by improving their physical, mental and emotional well-being. Creative arts therapy is an innovative approach that is particularly well suited for children and teenagers who can reconnect with play, self-expression, and positive emotions, while reprocessing some more difficult feelings or thoughts. Its non-verbal and symbolic nature makes creative arts therapy particularly helpful for publics for whom it is difficult to communicate verbally because of cultural barriers, including language and societal norms.
Our project is a train-the-trainer intervention which aims to bring the benefits of dance and art therapy to young migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, by reinforcing the capacity of youth workers to use creative tools and techniques to improve young people’s well-being.
Specific objectives:
- To build capacities for youth workers dealing with children and teenagers at risk of exclusion, with a focus on migrant, refugees, and asylum seekers.
- To achieve this by using tools and techniques inspired from dance and art therapy approaches to improve the emotional well-being of young people.
- To facilitate the inclusion of these groups.
Activities:
- Design, test and implement a training for youth workers to equip them with knowledge and practice of some dance and art tools and techniques to be used with their publics to foster their well-being.
- Develop handbook and didactic videos in EN/FR/IT/GR as well as other learning resources to be shared online.
- Establish a community of practice to promote exchanges between dance and art therapists and youth professionals.
Impact
The project is still ongoing. To date, the project has yielded the following results:
- Collection and examination of dance and art therapy methodologies to support for social inclusion of migrant youth.
- Collection of the specific needs of youth workers
- Design of a training program for youth workers comprising 6 dance and art-based workshop.
- Mutual learning and training of (lead) trainers.
You can also take a look at the dedicated website and social media
Partners
This project is co-funded by the European Union (Erasmus +, KA220-YOU – cooperation partnership in youth) and is the result of collaboration with Ceipes (IT), Hope for Children (CY) and Essevesse (FR).
