'Hestía: Belonging through Community Theatre'

Background "Hestia - Belonging Through Community Theatre" was a project about the exchange of good practices based on the concept of Community Theatre as a tool for social inclusion in youth work. All partners specialize in youth work/arts and community development through non-formal education practices and have extensive experience in running youth projects on a European level. However, we recognized a need for collaboration in order to develop tools to strengthen communities through cultural participation,as well as for expanding our impact on more diverse groups. Each of the partners has expertise in a field that others don't: Spain - community theatre, Ireland - devising theatre, Greece -physical theatre/public space performances. The primal need of the youth workers/artists involved in the project was to develop new competencies related to inclusive youthwork and to have the opportunity to receive training and practice on that sector. They lacked transnational experience and the tools to develop more complex projects involving arts and youth in their local communities - while all three organizations are based in rural areas. Lastly, participants shared the need for in person transnational collaboration after isolation due to Covid-19. Objectives The project’s objectives were the exchange of good practices through study visits and the development of skills relevant to community theatre, social inclusion and cultural participation in youth work. Also, the encouragement and empowerment of young people’s active participation within their local communities through intercultural mobility experiences, based on a community arts programme, such as the youth exchange. Additionally one of the main objectives was to equip youth workers and theatre makers with new competences related to inclusion within the community and the youth work sector. Lastly, to create a video documentary about the results and the experience of the project, in order to disseminate the results on a national and a European level and also to share an audiovisual outcome that would demonstrate the impact of this project. Implementation We implemented several transnational activities, such as study visits in each partner country focusing on the different expertise we have. Through this activity we increased our capacities to work trans nationally, deepened our partnerships and developed new skills and competences for higher quality youth work in the field of social inclusion. We measured this result by continuous monitoring of youth workers' participation and made internal questionnaires that helped to assess the planned goals at the beginning of the activities. Another activity was the youth exchange that resulted in the development of new competences for young people and the active involvement of the local community. The youth exchange resulted in a performance open to the public and community groups were able to take part. It was a way of spreading the knowledge, the experience of the study visits and the training course among other youth workers from the associated partner organizations. We created documentaries filmed by filmmakers, recording the whole process on a regular basis. They are posted on YouTube with English subtitles. Achievements The partners gained a deeper understanding of each organization's specialization, increased their network, strengthened their relationship with local and European youth work entities and enhanced their capacity to implement more innovative and complex Erasmus+ projects. The youth workers and artists who participated in the activities gained new competences necessary for implementing inclusive youth programmes in their local communities. This has positively impacted on their employability, on their capacity and motivation to develop their own social, youth and cultural initiatives both on national and European levels. The young people involved in the youth exchange (and who were also part of the study visits on the local levels) through non-formal education practices and tools from the community theatre approach, developed their skills of self-expression, creativity and critical thinking as well as their social and cultural participation. They became empowered towards active citizenship in their community, developed connections and exchanged experiences in a multicultural environment, through discovering and enhancing their sense of belonging.