e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009
e.p.a. study seminar
Report
Let’s get out of the shell! how to encourage young people from tough areas to discover citizenship
supported by 24th - 29th September 2009
Bratislava
Contacts
Ulita Community Centre Kop!ianska 90 • 851 01 Bratislava Slovakia Tel. +421.914 19 55 91 petra.hranova@ulita.eu.sk www.ulita.eu.sk
e.p.a. • european play work association Erzbergerstr. 3 • 22765 Hamburg Germany Tel. +49.40.433 190 epa@go-epa.org www.go-epa.org
e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009
Introduction This is a report of the e.p.a. study seminar “Let’s get out of the shell how to encourage young people from tough areas to discover citizenship!” held in Bratislava from 24th to 29th of September 2009.
to-face all logistics and the programme. They prepared invitations and all documents for visas. They compiled and translated documents and information about the seminar for the participants, for other Slovak organisations and the Kop!any community and they discussed and agreed workshop contents and methodologies.
Host The seminar was hosted by one of the youngest e.p.a. partners the Community Centre Ulita, based in the Kop!any community in Bratislava. The goal of Ulita (Shell) is the improvement of quality of life of children and young people from urban communities. The programme aims for diminishing the risks and impacts of aspects related to social exclusion. The programme is put into practice through the wide range of counseling, leisure-time, and preventive activities. Ulita is participating in e.p.a. International youth exchanges. (www.ulita.eu.sk)
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Preparation The seminar was prepared by a team of four people: Petra from Slovakia (Ulita), Jonna from Finland (e.p.a.), Janez from Slovenia (Youth Aid Centre Association) and Remo from Germany (e.p.a.). They e-mailed, talked to each other on the phone and in video conferences and met in June for two days in Bratislava to organise face-
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Finances The seminar was supported with a grant by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe (www.eyf.coe.int/fej), by e.p.a. and Ulita and some others who offered good conditions, resources and a lot of voluntary work. All participants paid a personal contribution. Those who could gave a contribution to their travel costs.
e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009
Participants Apart from the Slovakian host group and a people from other projects and organisations in Bratislava the seminar brought together 12 more colleagues from 8 European countries who work face to face with children and young people - as volunteers, part time or full time play and youth workers.
Venues
We also enjoyed the company of local young people from the Kop!any community who prepared an interactive Bratislava city tour, who helped to organise the community play day and finally surprised all International guests with a farewell BBQ in the Bratislava city forest on their own spontaneous initiative!!! Indeed we created the conditions for participation of local young people, but we (and the workers) where overwhelmed by the initiative and enthusiasm of these normally "hard to reach" young people during this international seminar.
Visas Participants from Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo needed visa to enter Slovakia. Despite joint efforts from all ends our colleague from Kosovo couldn’t participate, because Slovakia doesn’t recognise Kosovo as a state. Unfortunately it was not the first time during this year that colleagues of the e.p.a. network were kept from joining our activities by International visa policy! > see www.go-epa.org/en/globalpassport
Our venues for playing, learning, discussing, debating and sleeping were spread in the little big city of Bratislava - as the Slovaks call their capital. We slept in the central Bratislava City Hostel, had our main seminar room at walking distance in a student’s tea house (organised by Klub Pathfinder), we were active in the Kop!any community and in a park and got to know the state of youth work in different areas of Bratislava through project visits in the city.
Travel and transport Apart from our Portuguese and English colleague who had to fly everybody else arrived at the geographical centre of Europe over land by train or bus. As part of their personal contribution and to save money all participants showed a great responsibility to look for cheap and ecological transport. In Bratislava we walked or used the good public transport system.
e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009
Programme The programme was created around the themes citizenship, participation (as important parts of youth work concepts) and media work (as an exchange of European experiences on how to generate useful publicity effects for our work whilst preserving the dignity of our “disadvantaged young people”, our “young people with less opportunities” or our “hard to reach young people”). It was balanced between theoretical input, sharing of experiences and
all days of the seminar we peppered the programme with little breaks to enjoy short project presentations prepared by all participants.
Workshops After we got to know each other and got an introduction into youth work in Bratislava we had some theoretical but very playful sessions around citizenship and participation ...
practical exercises in workshops, also project visits and cultural and social activities like a nice drum session conducted by a musician - and an intercultural night with culinary delights from all over Europe. During
First of all we tried to find out in a group about the meaning of these terms in a collective brainstorming. European citizenship, national citizenship, consumer citizenship, active citizenship ... to give just a few ideas about the wide range of the debate on citizenship(s).
e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009
Hart). We invited participants to link their own project or organisation to one of the rungs and to explain this estimation. As a workshop facilitator it was very good to see how this group enjoyed interacting, collecting experiences from different ends of Europe and trying to find words in English and other languages.
“Citizenship is all about power!”, “If you are poor forget about citizenship!”, “Citizenship depends on the passport!” etc. ... we played the famous zebra game (black or white agree or disagree): the whole group was confronted with these more or less provocative thesis. After a short time of thinking ... all participants were invited to move to the “I agree”position or to the “I do not agree”position. In the following process the two formed groups had the opportunity to discuss the presented thesis, trying to convince others to come over. The discussion becomes warm slowly but in some points almost hot.
Regarding ourselves and our young people we asked in another session: what do we need to become an active citizen? We need to be informed, to be trained. We need to know how to participate and to know where to participate. In a workshop about participation of young people (with fewer opportunities) we also introduced the ladder of participation (according to
Around media work we started with a session on case studies. Some participants prepared little examples of printed press releases, videos, publications etc. The idea was to exchange experiences how to handle challenges and problems dealing with different kinds of media, to discuss consequences and to bring in ideas how we can become active in media work in our communities.
Everybody will remember the quite shocking example from our colleague from Bratislava where a TV station was capturing their play day in the community to use the pictures in a context of violence, prostitution and
e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009
drugs in a community that is mainly inhabited by Roma people and to present all this in one of the most popular Slovakian evening news programmes ... But we had also some nice, inspiring and very professional examples of media work.
During another media workshop session we did some practical exercises in small groups from writing a newspaper text about our play day, sketching a postcard to maintain contacts, editing a video to document the play day.
Another workshop result - a list of collected tips for media work: • Talk with journalists about your expectations • Try to check text before it is published and demand authorization • Make long term relationship with journalists • Unofficial networking; invitations for media lunch etc. • Make and use connections (friends) with media • Ask journalists to stay a whole day with you so they can see the different sides of your work (also good for emotional connection!) • Try to involve journalist students as PR experts into your work
• Go directly to journalists and try to get their attention as often as possible in all situations, for example when they are waiting for politicians: “Bunter Hund”-strategy (german for “to be known all over town”, the painted dog strategy) • Influence media as far as you can: Internet articles, wikipedia, own webpages, “fake media articles” • Respond to negative articles • Prepare good material for the journalists. Send them before they come. • Media education for young people and youth workers is important • Use different media ways and creative actions (for example; when doing baking action with kids, you can contact professional bakery journal etc.)
• Try to integrate new and surprising topics to your work (for example environment, animals etc.) and find new perspectives • Get parental consent and put information about media-interviews etc. on the action-poster in advance • Make an offer to the TV (fill the gap in program) or invite “children TV”/specialized programs • Involve the movie faculty students • Share information among organization working with children about their experiences with certain journalists BUT also learning to cope in some cases • Contact “Broadcast and retransmission council” if there are problems • Appreciate good media work (event) • Find journalists who understand the topic • Get a quote from “somebody important” • Space for youngsters and children in newspapers • Beat one bad article with “thousands” good articles • Use umbrella organization
e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009
Participants comments What can you share with your colleagues, young people and your community? The idea of next international youth exchange which was brought up during the seminar; new games, tips on how to work with media; the concept of community center like the one in Kop!any and Kaspian; the challenges, which children, young people and parents in social excluded areas of Bratislava are facing on a daily level. I’m really happy that I met different old and new friends from different countries and to see we share similar ideas, experiences and philosophy about play, youth and community work. JANEZ, Maribor
It was great meeting you and I had a great time with all of you. It was such an amazing experience for me. Being abroad was fantastic and I'm glad I spent my time with such nice
people. I liked hearing about all work you guys do and about your"organisations, you really make a difference in peoples " lives. Thanks for all the media you gave me, the postcards, leaflets, booklets " etc., they're great and always make me think good things."All the work we did was very new to me, but I enjoyed everything, and was glad about all the things I learnt. If I am lucky enough to come again I will be more prepared and will have more to add to the discussions. DANIEL, Liverpool
I think we agree that International encounters are very important and in this sense we have to develop something for our young people. This seminar was well prepared even though the preparation team was suffering sickness. MARTYN, Berlin
e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009
It was a really good possibility to share experiences and develop them. Everything was really good prepared ... workshops, host, food, cultural stuff. The young people impressed me with their politeness and their responsibility to prepare a dinner and sightseeing for us. So many different kind of work with the same tool: play. MONIQUE, Berlin
What would you change for the next time? I am critical person but this time I really don't know. Maybe think in advance if there wouldn´t be any other possibility to get visa for a guy from Kosovo. This was the first time I have experienced multicultural seminar like this one. So e.p.a. brought a completely new experience to my life which is unique and I still keep remembering some moments, feelings and ideas. IVANA, Bratislava
The nicest and most interesting experience during the seminar was of course the play day but also the project visits and the workshops about media were very interesting, because they were practical. The motivation of the group was great. TONI, Lisboa
e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009 from Bratislava visit neighbourhoods such as Kop"any or Pentagon in Vraku#a. The image of their inhabitants’ lives is framed by notorious problems such as drugs, prostitution, low standard of living or social inadaptability. Superficially elaborated reports that should keep spectators near the screen or to make readers buy their newspapers thus initiate impenetrable clichés, making the situation in communities even worse. As Petra Hra#ová from Ulita told us, Slovak NGOs face this mode of “journalism” a way often: “Reporters often come to hunt for sensations and attempt to generalize the situation so they write about people in communities as inadaptable and problematic. They use right these words, which are not truth, however, especially as labelling the whole neighbourhood. Only rarely someone is willing to name the strong sides of the neighbourhood that can be use for a basis for solutions. People we work with are no detached from an “outer” world. They are angered when they are presented in such a way and it neither helps our work. There was a workshop as a part of the seminar that has brought several ways and options how we could secure more objective information for the public”. Foreign guests also visited youth programmes Kaspian and Mláde! Ulice (“Street Youth“). The highlight of the seminar was a play-day, an opened event for particularly youngest inhabitants of Kop"any. Older ones played football, younger children created badges and posters and some even had their bodies painted. Some young people expounded their feelings about the international visit in Kop"any:
Press Article How NGO’s crawl out of the shell Ulita (“Shell”), an organisation from Petr!alka working in the Kop"any neighbourhood, hosted participants of the international seminar about more efficient communication of NGOs and media. Besides workers of the Community Centre Kop"any and the youth club Mixklub from Vraku#a, youth workers from Finland, Portugal, England, Germany, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Austria took part. The seminar with a symbolic title “Let’s Get Out Of The Shell” was German organisation European Playwork Association from Hamburg. TV screen or newspaper are often the only “transit” vehicle by which many people
Ma!o B. (age 17): On Friday , we took everybody to the city. I showed them some sights of Bratislava. They liked especially the churches and the old town. We wanted them to depart with an impression that Bratislava is a nice place. Bekim C. (age 16): The visit was very relaxed. We showed them the St. Martin’s cathedral, Main Square, statues of $umil and Schöne Naci. Remo from Hamburg told us he really liked the city. So we made the point so we would visit Hamburg next year in September.
e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009
Conclusion The seminar created a space for colleagues from “though areas” to share their thoughts about sensitive topics. It provided a possibility to network, to reflect local challenges in an International environment that helped to valorise the importance of the work that is often neglected. The seminar was a great success for the community centre in Kop!any who did a wonderful job as host by involving young people.
The workshop results contained interesting aspects of respectful media work and integrated the theoretical and practical knowledge of the overall seminar. In many years of e.p.a. experience it is part of the process but still astonishing how an International seminar became a catalyst for actions in a community. Thanks to the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe for the financial support, thanks to our host Ulita, thanks to all supporters behind the scene and thanks to all active participants!
e.p.a. study seminar • Let’s get out of the shell • Bratislava 2009
european play work association www.go-epa.org/en/lets-get-out-shell