Kick-off meeting in Palermo, Italy
Three representatives from each organization met in Palermo from the 26th of April to the 1st of May 2015 to analyse the project’s topics and discuss about the activities’ planning, tasks and roles each one has to cover and the next steps to be taken.
All partners prepared a presentation of the local context and places where to carry out the study phase foreseen by the project. They discussed all the details of the activities, not only from an organizational point of view but also from a pedagogical one, in order to ensure the complete understanding of the activities.
This first meeting has given way to the partners to have a first taste of musical and cultural context of the other participant countries and to establish objectives, procedures and working methods for the future.
Study phase in all countries
In each country, partners’ organizations set-up a national Local Working Groups (LWG) composed by:
- 2 coordinators for each partner country: 1 youth worker with music background, 1 youth worker with educational background;
- 4 unemployed youth workers for the EU countries; 7 unemployed youth workers for the non-EU countries.
LWGs will carry out a study on traditional music in their countries. By discovering their roots, participants will gain knowledge of a side of their own culture, enriching themselves and learning hidden stories and information about their cultural origins.
The results of the research will be used both during the International Training Course – allowing an intercultural exchange through music – and in the local workshops with youngsters at local level, allowing workshop participants to discover their roots, taking inspiration from their tradition and developing furthermore the research results with creativity and innovation.
Each LWG will upload traditional songs of the belonging country into the online platform of the project in order to allow the development of a “catalogue” of the music traditions of each country.
International Training Course in Madrid, Spain
24 youth workers, members of the Local working groups, will meet in Spain to take part in an international Training Course on non-formal education methods, new media and music. The TC will be held by AIPC PANDORA in the city of El Escorial from the 6th to the 12th of December 2015.
There, participants will have the opportunity to present and share the results of their researches, to experiment new non formal methodologies as the Reciprocal Maieutic Approach developed by Danilo Dolci, as well as to plan the following activities.
Participants will be provided with expertise on integrating the innovative approach of maieutic and music with the effective use of social and new media in order to increase their employability and enrich with innovative ideas the non-formal methodology at the basis of the project.
It will be a chance to plan the preparation of the Training Manual, the task division for contributions of contents as well as the coordination among all the youth workers involved in the project.
Training of trainers and local workshops
Each partner will organize a local Training of Trainers, one day for sharing the International Training Course contents with the LWG, and five local workshops.
During the Training of Trainers, LWGs will:
- share the contents, examples and good practices of the International Training Course;
- plan the local workshops;
- divide the tasks among the group members.
All partners will build their educational workshops on their experience in designing and carrying out non-formal education activities with young people and will apply their expertise in using art and creativity as a mean for fostering social inclusion, adapting it to the Reciprocal Maieutic Approach.
At the same time, the partners will adapt their social inclusion methodology for local communities to the target group of youngsters, stressing the importance of music traditions as a way to expand employability skills.
The 270 youngsters participating in the workshops will gain new skills that will enable them to make an entrepreneurial activity out of music traditions and to exploit the employable capacity of ICT and new media. Local music associations and people working in the music sector will be involved.
The local workshops will address the following themes:
- Music as a pedagogical tool;
- Reciprocal Maieutic Approach and music;
- Creation of new music;
- New media and digital skills for online promotion and planning local events;
- Meetings with music production experts.
Development of a Training Manual
Youth workers will collect reports on activities carried out in each country. Each LWG will develop contents and audio materials for the final Training Manual according to what agreed on during the International Training course. It will be available for education institutions and for download after the end of the project.
The training manual will contain:
- A collection of best practices with tips on how to use Reciprocal Maieutic Approach together with music, both for youth work and for music schools and music professionals as well as to create new music;
- New media and digital skills for online music promotion and event planning at local level;
- Stories and evidences of local meetings with music production experts;
- Music promotion tutorials: how to choose media, design a promotional plan, prepare the digital files and using social media for cost effective music promotion, etc.;
- Ideas for music activities run with local communities to raise awareness in traditional music;
- RMA as a community building tool (music festivals, workshops, etc.);
- Information on and sharing the experience of the BOEMI project: photos, activities, project timeline and goals, etc.
Final seminar in Palermo, Italy
During the final seminar of the project, participants will exchange their views on experiences during the local workshops. It will focus on media skills and their diffusion amongst young people with fewer opportunities. Unemployed youth workers will be offered an innovative methodology, fostering their confidence and self-esteem, enriching their competences and increasing their chance to enter in the labour market.
Music Roadmap
It is an ideal music path proceeding from one country to another. Each organization will hold a final concert involving the local community. Youth workers will be allowed to further develop and use the new methods and skills acquired locally. Local music associations will be involved in order to promote the contents and results of the project in the best way.
A final concert will be organized in Italy, where all countries will participate sharing their traditional music and cultures.
Job counselling
After attending the local workshops and holding the final concerts, young people with fewer opportunities will also benefit from job counselling sessions on music promotion. Musicians, local music associations and other local stakeholders will be involved to give advices and suggestions on how to put in practice the plan the youngsters have developed. Each youngster will create an online music portfolio that could be useful for their music careers and future.
