Creativity & Change are grateful to Leargas and Erasmus+ for funding our many residential training courses over the years. Some of these include:
The Art of Changemaking was a 10-day collaborative learning experience connecting head, hands, and heart, hosted by Creativity & Change in 2013, and by the Knowmads and the Amsterdam University of Applied Science in 2014.
It was a unique intercultural space where participants could come together to discover ways to enhance and maximise their capacities as ecological citizens and imaginative agents of change.
The Fast Forward training programme brought together young people and youth workers from Ireland, Hungary, Italy and the UK in Cork in January 2015. The programme was delivered in partnership with Youth Work Ireland Cork and was supported by Leargas under Erasmus+. The purpose of the training was to explore, learn, and share our insights about the themes of creativity, resilience, and global citizenship.
Through the programme, the participants identified a range of competences that they believe are important to nurture if young people are to grow as resilient, active global citizens. A resource was then created to support the nuturing of these competencies, which can be accessed through this link.
An accompanying publication, Creativity, Resilience & Global Citizenship – Explorations, Reflections and Recommendations, presents the connections between the programme themes, our learning outcomes and recommendations. It is useful to provide a context for anyone engaging others in the creative activities presented in this toolkit.
Streetwise was a 7-day residential programme delivered by Creativity & Change in partnership with Youth Work Ireland Cork. The Streetwise programme provided a space to build skills, competencies, motivation and methodological approaches for Youth workers and organisations who engage young people to nurture competencies to enable them to grow as responsible, empathetic, resilient and critically engaged Global Citizens.
It focused on creative writing and urban arts for public engagement and the street as a place to communicate messages of Global Citizenship and to advocate for justice issues.
You can get an insight into the Streetwise training below:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGRdvM0xCGw
Empathy 2 Action was a training course for youth workers, funded by Erasmus+. We embraced the idea that exploring attitudes, behaviour, and action is as important as engaging with knowledge and so created a rich learning environment that would suit a range of learning styles and allow people to engage on a range of levels and from a range of perspectives.
Find a resource we created from the training all about creating visual and stimulating learning environments and the positive impact they have on groups at this link .
Create & Share was a week long, residential training course in digital tools for youth workers that took place at Cloughjordan Eco Village, Tipperary in June 2019, hosting participants from around Ireland, Hungary, The Netherlands, and beyond. The week focused on addressing global issues - particularly the issue of climate change - through creative, digital methods.
During the week, a zine was contributed to by all participants, who created each page by hand, and then compiled and edited it to be scanned and shared digitally - just one of the tools participants were introduced to over the training course. Check out the zine at this link.
This residential training course was for youth leaders and young people to activate their potential in communicating through the arts and to explore creative forms of political activism.
We covered topics such as how European projects such as Erasmus+ Youth Participation Activities and European Solidarity Corps projects can support artivism, developing relationships with like-minded peers involved in similar activities across Europe, and identifying issues that matter to you and how to use visual arts as a means of activism and a form of political participation.
The week culminated with the participants creating a large mural in Cork City Centre raising awareness around Séan Binder and his peers and their unfair detention for their humanitarian work in the Mediterranean.
This Cork-based residential training was a collaboration between Creativity & Change and Sauti Studios/Cork Migrant Centre. Funded by Erasmus+, it looked at leveraging the power of young voices in peacebuilding efforts across borders.
It was an opportunity for youth leaders and young people to have a safe space to unlock their potential in communicating through the arts and exploring creative forms for enhanced collaboration, acknowledging the need for many peaces. We combined the power of art with the energy of young visionaries from diverse backgrounds to explore how transnational cooperation can lead to a more peaceful and sustainable future.