Handbook
The second project result of ReCAP consists of an Art and culture toolbox for youth workers, as an innovative set of instruments to be used for the social inclusion and empowerment of disadvantaged youths in the post-pandemic context: a new and specific-to-the post pandemic social context output for youth work. With this regards, the Toolbox is based upon the first project result (Analysis of needs and local context) through which an analysis of the post-pandemic situation was carried out at the local level, through questionnaires administered in the communities of reference of each partner, and at the national level through a desk analysis referring to each of the countries in which the project partners are based, alongside the identification of the most urgent needs of vulnerable young people in the post-pandemic context. Moreover, the PR1 confirmed that most youth workers consider artistic and cultural tools useful and motivating for youngsters. The Toolbox has been therefore designed, with the contribution of each partner of the ReCAP consortium (10 organisations from 7 European countries, who are all NGOs working directly or indirectly with youth, in the cultural or artistic areas), to intervene specifically in the post-pandemic context and to respond to the specific needs of young people that emerged from the PR1. La Piccionaia, responsible for the project result, coordinated the process of creation of the toolbox through two steps:
- Collection from each partner, through their youth workers, 3 of a series of existing cultural, artistic, creative, and theatrical tools, used or usable with vulnerable young people. The criteria for the selection of the tools to collect had been previously agreed by all the partners. Moreover, the partners were asked to provide different types of contributions (youth worker’s direct experience, youth workers’ knowledge, relevant theories, and literature in the specific field).
- Adaptation of the collected tools to the specific needs of vulnerable young people in the post-pandemic context, emerged from PR1, along with the individuation of possible solutions for their implementation in the case of challenging situations (e.g., lockdown). The Toolbox will therefore represent an innovation in the field of youth work in general, and even for the youth organisations, among the partners, which already use art and culture as methods to promote social inclusion, since applying these tools for the specific needs of the post-pandemic context is something completely new for everyone. The creation of the Toolbox upon the solid preliminary analysis of PR1 allows us to ensure that this tool will effectively and positively impact the quality of the youth work of the partners. They will be trained on the use of the Toolbox through a specific Training of Trainers activity, so that they will be able to design a specific Roadmap for social inclusion (PR3), for each of them to intervene in their specific local communities and to become multipliers of the Toolbox, beyond the consortium