Virtual Immersive Arts Learning System
BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT:
Covid-19 has probably changed forever the way young people and youth workers come in contact and do online training activities. As 1 out of 4 young people in Europe are into cultural and creative projects, networking is a fundamental part of their creative process, work, experience making.
Pre-pandemic networking was normally provided by youth mobilities, fairs, events, exhibitions etc. but now as youth organisations we need new ways which go beyond physical access to spaces and make networking easier and more integrated to new competencies that youth workers have to acquire – online facilitation, digital collaboration, digital tools proficiency, capability of online selection of youth, with particular focus on disadvantaged ones etc. Furthermore, as depicted by the CULT Commission of the European Parliament (2021) in the report “Cultural and creative sectors in postcovid19 Europe”, the covid19 had the harshest consequences on young artists and young creatives, and young people which were involved in any creative/artistic activities, mainly due to LACK OF ALTERNATIVES.
In this context, the project ViRALS wants to work alongside the 2019-2027 EU youth policy cooperation strategy, focusing on ENGAGE – CONNECT – EMPOWER to:
- Enhance networking skills in preparation, implementation and follow-up of creative/artistic youth projects;
- Facilitate how to create, manage and disseminate cultural/creative youth projects and personal portfolios of young artists/creatives & youth workers through a app system that allows one to browse for projects or be found according to competencies.
The implementation of ViRALS leads to enhancing the collaboration between youth work, technology and creative arts through:
- ENGAGE: we want to create a visual map to elevate and amplify young people’s voices collecting online creative practices, and mapping youth centres and youth-friendly cultural places to facilitate networking, encountering, as well as staging. We want to analyse existing criticalities/barriers for networking among young people and create a bank of resources, good practices and a competence framework for each detected gap for young creatives and youth workers. This part will render an innovated DIGITAL NETWORKING METHODOLOGY for youth workers, young creatives/artists and disempowered young people.
- EMPOWER: we will develop an online Academy and select n.24 young people experimenting and cross-sectioning different expertise, piloting training material and encouraging distance-based creative work through the enrolment in an online competition. Through the experimentation of online work, we want to facilitate the development of 6 transnational creative works, to improve the skills of involved youth workers in online facilitation & at the same time experiment the different networking steps by young people in making something concrete. The online learning material will be then accessible & open to any young person/youth worker who wants to approach online work.
- CONNECT: we’ll create an experimental web application, that facilitates young people and youth workers to enhance competence-based to join each other’s projects, to simplify digital skill portfolios, to immediately ‘like’ and learn about existing digital projects and share experience in a very attractive way, making simple to resume one’s skills/interest tags and on project concepts.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES & RESULTS:
Throughout 2 years of project implementation, ViRALS’s Transnational Partnership set the following results and outcomes to be achieved:
- Project Result 1: Framework of digital networking competencies for youth
- Project Result 2: Online academy for youth workers and young people in creativity and arts: blended learning course for youth workers on digital networking competencies & Distance-based coaching for the co-creation of distance-based cooperation projects by young people/creatives involved
- Project Result 3: CreApp: APP that connects young artists and youth workers through their projects to simplify the way collaborations are disseminated, browsed, created, developed
- C1: Short-term joint staff training event in Turkey for 22 Youth Workers
- Multiplier Events in each Country (E1-E7): Partners will organize a set of 6 final dissemination events to reach at least 115 attendees in total.
TARGET GROUPS
The development of the project ViRALS was planned and will be organized in a way that the participation of the following target groups will be consistent in any phase of the project:
- Partner Organizations and their Staff
- Young people in creative sectors, young artists/creatives, wannabe artists etc.)
- Young People with fewer Opportunities
- Youth Workers, Facilitators and Educators
- Youth Associated Partners
- Creative/cultural stakeholders (music producers,videomakers,creative hubs etc.)
- Public Administrations
- Youth education departments of local/regional/national stakeholders
- Local youth migrant organisations, among others
*Additional target groups will be identified and targeted alongside the project implementation and any other interested parties can also benefit from the freely accessible results and findings of the project ViRALS.
PARTNERSHIP
P1-Coordinator) HELLO YOUTH – SWEDEN
P2) Polygonal – ITALY
P3) Social DNA – THE NETHERLANDS
P4) FAAL DERNEGI – TURKEY
P5) OLEMISEN BALANSSIA RY – FINLAND
P6) SMARTUP N.B. SYSTEMATIC MANAGEMENT SL – SPAIN
