DE.LI.SY.T : Developing Life Skills in Young people through Theatre

KEY ACTION 1 (KA1) PROJECT: YOUTH TRAINING

YEAR:APRIL 2017, 8 DAYS TRAINING 

PLACE: PANTIN, PARIS, FRANCE

LiSkS: LIFE SKILLS ON STAGE

A project proposal by Arrevuoto

The project DELIST – Developing Life Skills in Young People Through Theatre, has the objective to provide a training course for youth workers, focused on teaching educational methodologies related to theater, for the development of “Life skills” in young people.

Life Skills are those “skills / abilities that allow us to acquire a versatile and positive behavior, thanks to which we can effectively address the demands and challenges of everyday life. “(official definition of World Health Organization).We believe that these skills are very important for young people in the current context, full of uncertainties, in constant change, in which the traditional references are in crisis (family, school, work, politics), and which require a great ability to adapt to change, find creative solutions, knowing how to process the life experiences, even the negative ones.

These skills are learned usually primarily through the concrete experience, in its various forms: work, leisure, volunteering, travel experiences and inter-culture, education both at school and in non-formal and informal contexts….. In other words, all that we learn just by living. Task of educators who work with young people is to offer instruments that accompany the development of these skills, supporting reflection, awareness, exploration of new possibilities, the ability to communicate and share with others, “learning to learn”. Hence the importance of using methodologies that are derived from theater, as highly effective in cultivating the skills to basic life skills.

Theatrical methods in education, in fact, allow to work on different levels:

– corporeality, as development of self-awareness, development of attention, the “presence” in the relationship with the other, the different possibilities of expression;

– creativity, given by the art of inventing solutions, through the ability to think “out of the box”:

– the self-awareness and self-esteem;

– emotional intelligence;

– critical thinking;

– the intercultural dimension;

– the ability to communicate;

– social skills;

– the sense of initiative