And all in all, it was magical.
Art of development is a training course in which we had a chance to dig deeper to our bodies and minds: to feel it physically and to understand it consciously. Using body movement as a tool for personal development and using the benefits of coaching to reflect. We believe that to give others, first we need to be full: in those 9 days, we have recharged energy and lightened the inner fire that each youth worker brought in one or another form. We dedicated time to sit and work together to create new non- formal education methods that could be used in the future by anyone who wishes so! Please find the booklet with few but strong methods, created by participants, here:
Let’s start from the beginning. To organize a training in the middle of the pandemics is challenging. We had to prepare precise action plan as well as be ready for some surprising circumstances. Anyway, 2 years of being in this situation prepared organisers and participants well: everything went smoother than expected.
From the first day, all the methods we chose were related to movement, arts and coaching: step by step, gently, without pushing too much. As usual, starting from ice breaking and team building activities, slowly getting to know each other, checking our limits and boundaries. Step by step, we moved deeper: to see how our bodies react to different emotions and what our minds tell us about it. I bet, participants sharing about their experience, can best describe it:
Miglė Galvonaitė from Lithuania „The writest”: “We had a week full of body, movement, touch, emotional practises and learning by experience in a villa surrounded by snow and forests close to Trakai city. I think it is the best way to get to know yourself and your surroundings better – through playfulness, experiment, reflections on what you experience and why it feels so. From the training I brought the feeling of belonging, the one I was looking for before and could not understand where and how to find it.“
Ilze from Latvia “Piedzivojums meza” shared „Be present, to learn, support young people, open my heart to their pain and encourage! Laugh together, give and receive countless hugs! Never in my life before I’ve felt and spread so many hugs in so short time! Amazing! And yes, tears, tears and tears. We all were allowed to be as we are. I personally received invisible permission to be myself and permission to encourage youngsters to be themselves, encourage them to take risk, encourage them to speak, encourage them to perform and to move!“
It was not only great opportunity to experience deep processes for participants but also learn new tools that later could be used in our daily work. We used improvisation, body movement, writing, coaching tools to experience leadership and initiative. The personal toolbox of each participant is fuller than before and this is amazing! During the open space activity, we had the chance to see what a rich background all participants brought- we have the dejavu of the future initiatives that will be created together!
Training Course took place in Lithuania, magical town Trakai in January 27- February 4, 2022 and was organized together with partners from Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Latvia, and Poland. We also had participants from Germany, Syria, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia- all in all good variety of cultures, attitudes and experiences! Different knowledge, positions, believes, attitudes were combined and some magic was created.
Official partners of this project:
“Innovative Generation” Lithuania – info@innovativegeneration.eu
“Baltijas Reģionālais fonds” Latvia – apmacibas@brfonds.lv
“Stowarzyszenie Sztukater” Poland – info@sztukater.pl
“Subtiluship C.I.C.” United Kingdom – hello@abroadship.org
“La Vibria” Spain – info@vibria.org
“Oriel” Italy – orielassociation@gmail.com
All organisations that were represented here:
“Creative Youth Platform” Georgia – info.cyp.org@gmail.com
“Soul Express Europe” Italy- info@soulexpresseurope.org
“PINE edukacja w nature” Poland- kontakt@edukacjawnaturze.pl
“Fundacja Rysy” Poland- mt@fundacjarysy.pl
“Kindervereinigung Leipzig E.V.” Germany- lorenz.c@kv-leipzig.de
“The writest” Lithuania- galvonaite.migle@gmail.com
“Piedzivojums meza” Latvia- ilze.amerika@inbox.lv
“Miško istorijos” Lithuania- miskoistorijos@gmail.com
Beautiful participants: Caroline Renate Lorenz, Joseph Gibbons, Nicole White, Hasan Alaiban, Mohammad Al Zaim, Migle Marija Galvonaitė, Arnoldas Grišius, Vytautas Šliuburys, Marco Daldoss, Sillian Ferrari, Kristiāna Kazakupča, Ilze Amerika, Paula Cukura, Maria Kardash, Maciej Tomkowiak, Maria Lebioda, Lluis Sanchez, Marta Núñez de Arenas Sala, Irene Closas Flaño.
Team members: Marco Baldascino and Darya Korolkova
With Love,
Trainers Raminta Rusovičiūtė and Gvantsa Mezvrishvili
