Under the name "ArtE, the Art of Employability", a group of European partners have worked together since 2019 to strengthen the model and test it in Spain and Portugal.
The aim is to activate resilience processes among people that are far from the labour market in order to break discouragement and isolation and increase employability.
Integrating arts in the social field
Alongside 6 weeks at the beginning of 2021, professionals from Fundació Comtal and Espai Teatre will accompany a group of young people in developing a theatre play. By combining this activity with tools from social work and entrepreneurship training, socio-emotional and labour skills development is articulated. Once the play has been staged, participants will engage in practical activities that will enable them to apply their recent learnings.
The pair formed by a professional from the social field and a theatre pedagogue is key to the model, and this is the reason why participation of both organisations is essential: Fundació Comtal, experienced in the accompaniment of children, youth and adults in vulnerable situations; and Espai Teatre, specialised in using theatre as a tool for emotional education, transformation and social inclusion.
Experimentation, the first step towards scaling
The pilot project, co-founded by the European Commission through the Erasmus + programme, brings a unique learning opportunity that may accelerate the definition of a scaling strategy. UpSocial is opening conversations with key stakeholders with whom collaboration frameworks could be explored in this sense.