We wanted to increase the accessibility of theatre for youth and support their holistic development through artistic content. Our first goal was to thoroughly research the needs of young people wi...

We wanted to increase the accessibility of theatre for youth and support their holistic development through artistic content. Our first goal was to thoroughly research the needs of young people with fewer opportunities. In addition, we set ourselves the goal of strengthening youth workers, mentors, and educators in organisations that already worked with youth but needed additional support in working with young people with fewer opportunities. The second goal was to provide youth with fewer opportunities with a continuous theatre experience to develop a more positive attitude towards culture. Through exercises, we wanted to encourage empathy, reflection, cooperation, responsibility, acceptance of diversity and self-initiative. We also wanted to provide youth with international experience, introduce them to new approaches, and strengthen their creativity and solidarity. We have set ourselves the goal of developing high-quality materials and methods and actively disseminating them to motivate and empower youth workers, theatre educators, teachers, and others outside the partnership to work with young people. We also shared our findings with decision-makers in the form of policy recommendations, thus taking our first step in advocacy.

We started the project by researching the needs of young people with fewer opportunities. We conducted 15 interviews and 4 focus groups with experts in youth work. We compiled our findings in an international report. This was followed by activities to empower educators and youth workers. We conducted international training, followed by local training. We combined all the knowledge gained into Guidelines for working with young people with fewer opportunities. In the second half of the project, we conducted at least 10 local theatre workshops for youth in all countries. At the same time, supervision took place at the national and international levels, where youth workers shared their experiences and challenges in conducting the workshops. Some of the young people who participated in the workshops also took part in international mobility. We combined our experiences and knowledge in the Handbook The stage is ours! Throughout the project, we also actively disseminated the results via the project website, social networks, and various youth platforms. We held four live events and one virtual event to present our results to a wider target audience. We formulated policy recommendations to present the project findings to decision-makers.

We prepared a qualitative study and an international report on working with young people with fewer opportunities, which strengthened our understanding of their needs and provided a basis for developing higher-quality approaches. On this basis, we conducted international and local training for youth workers and theatre educators, thereby strengthening their competencies for inclusive work. We further enhanced our knowledge with Guidelines for working with young people with fewer opportunities. The guidelines are an important product of the project, written in English and translated into Slovenian, Spanish, French, and Dutch. We established inclusive theatre workshops where young people gained continuous theatre experience. We monitored their progress by observing and measuring emotional intelligence with a questionnaire, which we presented in a report. Some of the young people participated in international mobility. The results of all activities with young people were compiled in the handbook The Stage is Ours!, which has been translated into several languages. The final result is a set of policy recommendations that summarise the added value of the project and address decision-makers as a first step towards systemic change.