Magazine Issue 3 - English

International exchanges with young people y

• Magic Journe

rest

in the fo e c a p s g in d in F •

On German Radio • Rapping in Spanish and German

1 A Space to Speak Up

This project has been funded with support from the Daphne Programme of the E uropean Union.

The content of this publication does not reflect the official opinion of the European Commission.

Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the publication lies entirely with the authors and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

A Space to Speak Up 2

Contents

again!

Good to have you with us again and I hope that you will enjoy Issue 3 of A Space to Speak Up

The last few months since our last issue have been hectic. The young people in our Transpace project have been working hard in their local workshops – and some have been visiting groups in other countries to see what they do and how they go about it.

Take a look at how the youngsters are exploring new ways of finding out about themselves their peers and how to assert themselves and their space in their everyday lives. Check out the raps from our Spanish and German groups on our web site www. transpaceproject.eu and see how they were put together in the articles in this issue.

What’s more, for some that has meant visiting other countries. We have had exchanges to swap experiences and knowledge between Bulgarian and Italian young people and between Austrian, German

3

aves Transpace hits the airw Rapping in Frechen Brandt Trainer profile Barbara

6 8

Pages 21- 22

9

e Partner profile Borgoret

a Magic journey in Perugi Sofia The magic continues in rgelli Trainer profile Letizia Ba ps Young People’s Worksho

and Spanish youngsters. See what they did and read how they felt about the experience.

We may not yet be radio stars but we are on our way.

CJD Frechen secured a slot on local community radio to relate what the project was and what they were doing.

You seem to like A Space to Speak Up as is apparent if you have a look at p… where you will see what readers from around Europe think of the magazine. We want to hear more because this magazine is for you and we want to feature the kinds of issues that you feel are important. Also don’t forget that we want to hear what you are up to - so let us know and we will feature your future activities in “”What’s On”.

10 - 11

12 13 14

Finding space in the Austrian forest aths class 1+1 = trouble in this m

Group cohesion in Sofia Wishing well Page 15

15 16 17 18

n Izquierdo

Trainer profile Eva Gala Inspiring changes

lid

Rap Song – from Vallado Transpace goes further

Partner profile University of Maribor

Swapping experiences in Valladolid

Regular features: ing up What activities are com What you think

19 20 21 - 22 23 24 - 25 26 - 28

29 30

Production team Editor – Roy Smith Design and graphics – The MRS Consultancy Illustrations and editorial assistant – Jack Robert Smith

We would like to hear from you, the readers, about what you thought of our magazine – and – do you have anything that might help us spread our message.

If so email Roy Smith at info@transpaceproject.eu

3 A Space to Speak Up

Transpace hits the airwaves

“

What is Studio ECK?

The Friends Studio ECK eV, the studio Protestant Christians Cologne began in 1992.

Its primary role is actively promoting the community radio with professionals and good technical equipment to help Protestant communities and initiatives and other interested groups in the planning and completion of radio broadcasts on the station.

About 30 Protestant congregations and institutions in and around Cologne are currently eV member of the ECK Center, which has its own studio in Cologne Media Park. A team of 20 free radio journalists and journalist inside support interested groups and individuals in production.

“

Users include: churchgoers, youth and seniors groups, kindergarten parents, confirmation and religion classes, Green Ladies, choirs with trumpets and without, children from children's homes, homeless people and their carers, you and I, and ...well that’s upto you..

Our German partners, CJD Frechen, have been making a big impact in the regional media around Cologne.

A Space to Speak Up 4

Transpace hits the airwaves The team were asked to take part in a radio programme explaining what is going on in the project. Here is a transcript of what was talked about:

Radio programme on the EU-Project TranSpace in CJD Frechen (27th of April, 8:00 pm on Radio Erft)

Intro:

It is not new for CJD Berufsbildungswerk Frechen to offer young people with special needs vocational training in 30 occupations with a Chamber degree. But now there is a new training programme that is designed to protect against different types of bullying. Since the start of the year CJD Frechen has been running the “Transpace” programme, which is being carried out simultaneously in five European countries.

Birgit Niclas investigates what it’s about at TranSpace.

Hearing example: RAP – Rhythms- Training

1 Birgit:

These Rap rhythms have been developed in the two day creative workshop as a part of an EUProject called “TranSpace”, in which 40 trainees from CJD Frechen are taking part. Mobbing and Bullying are the topics. Young people are facing moments of violence mainly via the internet and in their daily school life.

It is important to learn the right tools to deal with these difficult situations. The TranSpace project aims to support people with learning disabilities by developing these kinds of tools. They learn how to face and defend themselves in moments of mobbing, cybermobbing and violence and so enhance their self-confidence. Bearing this in mind a training concept has been developed, which is being tested in Germany in CJD Frechen and in partner organizations from Bulgaria, Italy, Austria and Spain.

How to develop these kinds of tools through rap music will be explained by the leader of the workshop -Fabian Menz from the organization for percussion and rhythm in Cologne.

Fabian Menz

We started with the training focusing on words and practiced how to connect words to each other and how to develop a rhyme. We developed funny but very difficult sentences, which are too hard to say, but which leads to a deeper knowledge of the rhythm of speaking.

The topic of mobbing slowly went into these practical parts via brainstorming and “Just write down what you think to the topic of e.g. fear, grief or anger” - exercises. Out of these texts we have chosen some words to develop the rap out of it.

Courage, trust and friendship were important topics, especially why friendships are important e.g. to develop trust. The topic of fear mainly dealt about competition, dishonesty and what other people say about me.

5 A Space to Speak Up

2 Birgit:

Transpace hits the airwaves

The rap songs are a way to express feelings, fears and sorrows that you are feeling from your own experiences of mobbing. Every participant of the creative workshop had the opportunity to create his own song, record it and take it home at the end of the workshop. Fabian Menz organized microphones and a sound system for beats and rhythm, so every participant had the possibility to rap his own song.

We are now hearing one of the results:

4 Birgit

3 O-Ton: results of the rap against mobbing

Do I feel helpless, weak or strong?

2 Birgit:

The TranSpace project lasts one year with nine workshops. An important part is the anti-mobbing trainings which are done by several trainers.

The trainings include exercises for stabilization, strengthening of self-confidence, teambuilding and acting as a group against mobbing. Other key parts are how the topic of mobbing is recognized, what does mobbing mean to me, what kind of experience do I have with mobbing and how do I deal with it.

One of the anti-mobbing trainers is Barbara Brandt.

3 O-Ton Barbara

Most of the children and young people who suffer from mobbing are shy and introvert, have no selfconfidence or self-esteem. This is what the project is about, as we are undertake exercises for trusting each other - for example one has to close its eyes and the others guide him through the room. The one with the closed eyes has to trust the others.

Other exercises are with the voice, e.g. they have to shout at each other or are just allowed to speak in a low voice and they realize that speaking with a low voice doesn’t help but with a loud voice people listen to you and you can ask for help.

More information is available at:

www.cjd-frechen.de

Part of the training is the movie “Three Days“, in which a boy gets mobbed by classmates and teachers. The participants find out about the victim’s situation, that of the parents, the teachers, and the classmates. They take on the roles of each:

How do I feel as an actor?

What do I do?

How do I feel?

Maik Schuck, CJD trainee in gardening and landscape architecture, and Agostin Ott, doing a preparatory training as a cook, are two participants from the TranSpace-Project. They speak about their impressions:

5 O-Ton: Maik:

I like talking to the people and meeting new people. With a lot of them I’ve been getting along well together before and currently get along well together.

Agostin: The mobbing training was very helpful to me. I am now able to help somebody who gets mobbed and if somebody is mobbing somebody I can help him to stop it.

Closing remarks: Future important activities for the TranspaceProject are the “Day in Space”, a survival training in Bad Münstereifel, and the international exchange to sharing experiences from the project in Spain.

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Rapping in Frechen The rap was developed and recorded over 2 days 10 - 11 April 2014 and here you can see some of the young people who created and performed this work.

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Rapping in Frechen To hear the full rap download from www.studioeck.de/node/1436 or visit the Transpace web site “A Space to Blog” www.transpaceproject.eu

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That´s me Barbara Brandt

I was born in 1986 in Cologne, which is - in my opinion - one of the most beautiful cities in Germany.

The 2000 year old city, with its famous Cathedral, which is part of the world’s

examinations and cannot wait to teach in school - even though student life has its

largest river, the Rhine.

In 2006 I completed the general qualification for university entrance and was simultaneouly

But the best thing about Cologne is the “fifth season” and that is carnival. In addition I ‘m

trained as a national recognized educator and worked in this profession for three years.

cultural heritage, but it also impresses with a beautiful historic centre and Germany’s

just Koelle Alaaf.

Our football team 1.FC Cologne has been promoted to the first division, which was a big pleasure for me.

But enough about my hometown,

advantages ...

Working with children, adolescents and young adults gives me a lot of fun and is a great benefit for me.

CJD Berufsbildungswerk Frechen, is an institution that gives young people who have

failed in their previous school career a second

what about me!

I am 27 years old and a student of Special Education for the funding priorities of mental development and learning disabilities combined with the subjects German and Catholic theology.

This year I ‘m starting with my state

chance.

I have been a team member of CJD since 2001.

At first I’ve covered the religious education core competence and managed a Part of the EU-project SUVOT with our psychologist.

Now I am working with Martin Kroeber along the TranSpace project, which is a great

pleasure to me. I noticed that our students are getting bolder and also changing their views on this topic. The participants are open to each other without prejudices.

In my spare time I like meeting my friends, cooking and baking, bicycle tours with my friend around Cologne.

9 A Space to Speak Up

Partner Profile

Borgorete Borgorete is an Italian Social Cooperative active in Perugia (Umbria), which is a beautiful Etruscan town of over 160,ooo people, located right in the centre of Italy, surrounded by green hills and little medieval towns full of history and flavour. The river Tiber runs through its countryside and the large, beautiful, Lake Trasimeno is part of its landscape.

The Cooperative, as it is today, was founded in 1997, however its history dates back to the 1970’s, when two different groups of about 20 young people felt the need to start working in and for the community, to open up the local area to social activities aimed at social inclusion. They founded two social cooperatives at the time, called “Borgo” and “Rete”. Later on, in 1997, the two cooperatives decided to merge together and “Borgorete” was born. As is the norm for Italian Social Cooperatives, internally Borgorete works through democratic mechanisms, whereby the majority of employees are members of the Cooperative and take active part in decision-making processes, through regular assemblies and, most importantly, through the election, every 5 years, of the Cooperative’s President and Board of Management. Borgorete wants to propose the ‘cooperative’ as an original model of social enterprise, it is a founding member of Consorzio ABN (social network) and has important established collaborations with local authorities and policy-makers, such as the Municipality of Perugia and the Region of Umbria.

Website: www.borgorete.it

Often, the services provided by Borgorete to the community are offered on behalf of local authorities.

Today, Borgorete has maintained the ethos and mission of its parent cooperatives from the ‘70s and works to provide important services to disadvantaged groups in the community. Its work continues to be aimed at fostering processes of social inclusion and create awareness within the local community about issues of social justice, in order to recognise the fundamental rights of all people and fight the main causes of exclusion. In general, Borgorete works with all people who are at risk of social exclusion, particularly with the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, and its main target groups in the local area are: children and minors (youth), people with disabilities, people suffering from addictions, people living with mental health problems and victims of human trafficking and exploitation. To these groups, Borgorete strives to offer an efficient service for human promotion from a social, educational, health and rehabilitation perspective. In the last few years, Borgorete has been involved in international work, through funding from the European Commission for some of its work, allowing the Cooperative to establish very beneficial and fruitful long-lasting partnerships with like-minded European organisations, such as the Transpace project partners.

Contact: Michela Lupi m.lupi@consorzioabn.it

A Space to Speak Up 10

An important element of the Transpace project is the sharing of experiences not only between members of the group but also across frontiers.

Here the group from MHC prof.N Shipkovenski, Sofia, Bulgaria describe the visit they made to Perugia, Italy – the sights they saw, the people they met, the games they played and, of course, this being Italy, the food they ate.

“We, Al, Maya, Natalia and Gabi, started in the early Monday morning from Sofia, arrived in the beautiful city Perugia on rainy afternoon of 28-th of April 2014. We left our luggage in the nice apartment in old Castle, just in front of “Fontana Maggiore”. From our windows we looked at the Cathedral and listen it’s bells. Immediately all of

us went out to discover the amazing beauty of the narrow streets, castles, fortresses, gates and arks.

Next morning with a magic auto drive Mini Metro (without driver!!!) we arrived in BorgoRete. There we met Michela, Sabine and Letizia, who told us a wonderful fairytale for children, struggling with “monsters”, named “illness” and “problems”, using smiling, games and friendship.

After that we all together visited a place, named Daily care center, where part of the same children spend pleasant time in the afternoons and together with Claudio, Silvia, Zeno, Sara, and learn, play, eat and have fun.

11 A Space to Speak Up

In the afternoon, back in BorgoRete, we met 6 of these children. We were very friendly welcomed by them and together we played “cat game” with wool ball and created a nice spider web.

Then in couples “mute” person guided “blind” one to overcome different obstacles and barriers. At the end we sited in a circle and chat as old friends for everything that we like to do.

Before say good bye we invited them to visit us in Sofia.

When we went outside there was a beautiful sunny day, no rain any more. This magic journey ended with famous Italian ice-cream, special Perugino chocolate and nice walk in this fairy city.

Coming from the opposite part of Europe we shared space, positive emotions, and real friendship“.

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The Magic continues in Sofia At the beginning of June 2014 Mental Health Center prof. N Shipkovenski hosted a trainer and children from Perugia. In very happy and rewarding few days the children and trainers shared their knowledge, experiences – and some of the skills they had learnt.

In this exercise called “islands” children had to make their own island where all of them lived, using costumes and props they had to hand.

Then they introduced it to the others - saying what is it on it, what he/she is doing there and if she/he goes anywhere and whether some guests are coming to visit her/him. Three of Bulgarian children decided to do the island together and made a big one!

Claudio was a sheikh on his island, he had guards and he fulfilled wishes. One of Bulgarian boys went to him, he to fulfil his wishes – he wanted a car and a motorcycle. Sabine and Melissa were on an island together and they were survivors of a ship…. Not everybody went to other people’s islands but at the end they had a picture together.

They enjoyed dressing as different people using the costumes and props.

It was good to share experience and to discuss all the problems in the groups. The Bulgarian group showed Italian partners how they do Psychodramatic role play using the game “Islands”. It was new to them but they became involved in the game very much and that helped the everybody to be more involved too.

13 A Space to Speak Up

My name is Letizia

and I was born 33 years ago in Perugia, a medieval town on top of a hill in the centre of Italy.

My name is Letizia and I was born 33 years ago in Perugia, a medieval town on top of a hill in the centre of Italy.

I like the town where I live, because even if it’s not a big city Perugia has some of the most beautiful and interesting characteristics of a metropolis. First of all, it is multi-cultural – along the streets in the city centre and in the squares you meet people coming from all over the world and hear the most different languages.

It is in Perugia that I studied to become a professional educator. The dream which accompanied my studies was to be able, one day, to work with children and young people who are disadvantaged and have special needs.

The dream became a reality as soon as I graduated, when I started working in a centre for minors. For six years I took care of children and adolescents who, for different reasons, could no longer live with their families of origin. This was, for me, a professional and a life experience that I will never be able to forget.

Since 2011, I’ve been working with the Social cooperative Borgorete,

as an educator and trainer. My job is split into the involvement in a few European-funded projects and the pedagogical coordination of three crèches. My involvement in European-funded projects is giving me an opportunity to work in the area of education for children, young people and adults, as well as, at the same time, getting to know so many different European contexts, allowing me a constant and enriching exchange of knowledge and skills.

This is exactly what is happening with the Transpace project. The social vulnerability of children and young people with special needs is an issue of huge interest for me; the possibility to discuss this issue and exchange experiences with others who have been working on it in different contexts over the years has offered me the opportunity to continue to learn and be “trained”, so that I can offer a better and better service to the people with whom I work and will work in the future.

A Space to Speak Up 14

Young P eoples’ Worksho ps The partners in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and Spain are busy running workshops with their various groups of vulnerable young people. The activities are usually great fun but have serious objectives. They are designed to provide the youngsters with tools with which to combat aggression and to create their own space.

The next few pages provide a review of what is happening but we also have a check list of

LESSONS LEARNT

15 A Space to Speak Up

Finding Space in the Austrian Forest The proup from Pro mente, Austria, took to the hills in the Spring of 2014.

Here we can see some of what they encountered and of the activities that they engaged in.

A Space to Speak Up 16

= trouble in this maths class.

The Pro mente team is a keen user of theatre workshops to help and support the young people to understand and deal with issues of violence and bullying. In this workshop the group has developed an episode in a school classroom.

The woman in the brown shirt is the theatre tutor (pictured above).

Standing in the front is the teacher (blue pullover) with the school class which is a maths class.

One pupil has to come to the teacher to show an example

of maths that was needed as homework.

In general the class is very loud and the teacher has a hard time to show his authority.

17 A Space to Speak Up

Group cohesion in Sofia The group from the Mental Health Center “Prof. N. Shipkovenski” Ltd (MHC) in Sofia took part in an exercise designed to build cohesion between members of a group so that they start to work as a group rather than disparate individuals. The exercise took around 20 minutes and needed some chairs and a sense of fun.

They are instructed that they are survivors from a shipwreck and they are in the ocean. They are on some floats \chair\ and they can’t step in the water. The task is to get to a safe island and they have to think how to make it.

The trick is that they can get to the island only when they think as a team and act collectively.

At first they were confused but later they thought of how to do it. At the beginning two of the boys made it by themselves, but the rest were still in the ocean. Then they returned and safe all of them.

They were happy afterwards.

A Space to Speak Up 18

The Wishing Well in Sofia

The group first wrote on a sheet of paper what qualities are needed to be a friend and to create a friendship. Some of the qualities they mentioned were – to be good, smart, to help people, funny, to be honest, to treat me well, should keep secrets, not to talk behind your back, to be polite. After that the children had to write on everybody’s back some ability that this person has or some greetings to him.

They had a lot of fun

19 AASpace SpacetotoSpeak SpeakUp Up

When I was 18 years old I moved on to Salamanca, and when I finished my studies, I moved on again to Valladolid, where I found my first job as a psychologist. I like the feeling of being by myself but when I have a couple of days off I drive my car direction home! I still have lots of friends in Tarancon, and I love to see my relatives and tell them funny stories with a cup of coffee.

I studied Psychology at the University of Salamanca. As I said before, I lived in this beautiful and amazing city for 5 years! Then, I studied a Master in Clinical Psychology, at this time I also chose a wonderful city in the South of Spain: Granada. Now I continue studying a master in Brief Therapy in

I love dancing (I took some lessons of belly dance!), listening to music, going to concerts, spend time with friends and also sports, running is one of my challenges now! I am getting better and better everyday!

My favorite place to disappear is… I don’t know, anywhere if it has a beach! I love to lay on the beach and relax.

Madrid.

My first job was in the field of human resources, but since 2007 I have been working in different facilities of Intras Foundation: during the first period I worked in the memory clinic, supporting people with brain damage or memory lost to improve their cognitive skills. Currently, I work hand in hand with service users, adults suffering from mental illness and teenagers with special needs. I also enjoy my work with users’ relatives.

My favorite hobby is TRAVELING; I try to travel as much as possible around the world! I use to travel with friends or with my boyfriend, Carlos. Last city I visited was Amsterdam and my best trip ever was in Cuba.

Eva Galan ! My names is

Izquierdo.

982 on 1 of April 1 n r o b s a w I . in Tarancon, p u w e r g I t u I’m from Spain B rid. of Spain, Mad l a it p a c e th in e of Cuenca. c in v o r p e th a village in

¡Hola

A Space to Speak Up 20

Intras Local Workshop

Inspiring Changes Participants tell us about their first encounter with TranSpace Project:

"Today we started a new activity, which will last a few months from now, we have spoken about a European project called TranSpace and have seen a video-clip on bullying. My colleagues and I believe bullying is quite common in schools; One of my colleagues commented that at least one person from each class feels lonely and sad at some point during the course. We had a brainstorming about how we can improve this situation in our local context; in my opinion, teachers should watch this video too.

Eva suggested that we could begin changing things in our group, as there are some things which can be improved. Together we have thought about an internal code; this code gathers all points of view of how we would like to be treated. Some of my colleagues said that when you're alone you do not feel unique, but alone! And to talk to someone is a relief. After the discussion we sit on the floor and stood up as a group�

21 A Space to Speak Up

RAP SONG First Phase

As part of the Transpace project we have been running musical creativity workshops! In these workshops, we have focused on hip hop as a musical style because it is popular with the young people and they are motivated by it!

These workshops have taken place in 4 phases.

We approached the music like hip hop DJ’s! Here the young people were exposed to new concepts like rhythm. The new DJ’s learned the basics of mixing because a fundamental aspect of this phase was researching various musical rhythms and beats. The young participants were also asked to research songs whose lyrics were related to bullying in school situations.

Second Phase

The young people compiled a list of songs which deal with the issue of bullying. Four songs were selected from this list and the group watched the music videos on YouTube. Afterwards, the young people started to write their own lyrics to the songs, karaoke style!

The songs they have worked on are: n

Bazzel – THE LAST ROW

n

Chojin – THE SAD STORY OF NEIGHBOUR FROM ABOVE

n

NACH – TRACK

n

PORTA – IMAGINARY FRIEND

A Space to Speak Up 22

RAP

Third Phase

SONG

Now the young DJ’s were asked to write a song as further progression into their musical training! As a group, they wrote lyrics for a song that was later recorded! Read the results of two session of the lyric writing workshop below:

“

I AM HURT, SAD, DEPRESSED I WILL MOURN

IT IS WAITING ME, ME WILL CRUSH IT WILL CRUSH ME/CRUSHING ME

Fourth Phase

WHEN I THINK WHAT HE SUFFERED AND I AM NOT CRAZY STAND UP AND TELL I DO NOT WANT TO FOLLOW, I FEEL FATAL IF STILL THAT WAY I WILL DERAIL I CAN’T ANYMORE, I'M TIRED OF HOLDING ON, I WILL EXPLODE IN YOUR EYES I SEE EVIL I CAN’T ANYMORE, I'M TIRED OF HOLDING ON, I WILL EXPLODE AT THE SAME SURPRISING END POINT THEY ARE GOING TO KILL HIM AND YOU LOOK CAREFULLY WITHOUT THINKING WHAT YOU’D DO IF IT WERE YOUR SKIN

Then we began the process of recording the song! The young DJ’s looked for a suitable base rhythm for the song and then recorded it. Then they worked on post-production in order to balance the song and achieve the best sound quality possible. The end result of all the musical training can be heard on

www.facebook.com/ Transpaceproject or on the “A Space to Blog” www.transpaceproject.eu/.

Listen to the song in MP3 format!

NOT SEEING THAT HE IS IN SHOCK MUCH COCKINESS, MANY CHALLENGES, BOTH CHEATING PROVOKING WRATH , CAUSING HURT AGGRESSION , SO MUCH VIOLENCE , MUCH EVIL YOU WORTH ? THUG, IT REALLY DISGUSTS ME. I CAN’T ANYMORE, I'M TIRED OF HOLDING ON, I WILL EXPLODE IN YOUR EYES I SEE EVIL I CAN’T ANYMORE, I'M TIRED OF HOLDING ON, I WILL EXPLODE AT THE SAME SURPRISING END POINT IF YOU MOCK THINK OF THE DAMAGE YOU DO MAYBE YOU DO BECAUSE SUFFER YOU WENT FROM VICTIM TO OFFENDER AS IF YOU WERE A CARRYING A VIRUS DESTROYING YOURSELF FROM THE INSIDE THE INTRAS FOUNDATION IS AGAINST THE OFFENDER, IF YOU ARE BULLYING, THINK TWICE. BEFORE YOU PROVOKE THINK OF THE PAIN, AND IF YOU WITNESS AND DON’T DO ANYTHING, THEN YOU ARE THE SAME AS THE OFFENDER.

IQe UE N U ARE ne els

YOUDo not letoaunfyeoel bad, e!

y u Make u are uniq make o y ll ry to t d For a l u , co thers thless And o u feel wor l , Yo fina union A sad make the e world, out th ences differ ty through e s u ct ...

Beca nd equali perfe a s i t c e e n p ing No o Res believ Stop are better they That are unique ecial You nd sp ique a rong… n u e r t You a you are s ore fights le. k m n i t peop h l n l T a a w g t n ’ e don y amo s No! w d harmon e in other v n e a i l e d be eac od, Just p espect an em feel go you R re for h t e h e k e b Ma best s, I’ll r arm e and the re unique! u o y Open are uniqu ial, you a You spec eone m o s re You a

“

23 A Space to Speak Up

During the sessions in Zamora we involved a user from the Psychosocial Rehabilitation Centre managed by INTRAS. He does not like to be involved in any activity and it was a challenge for trainers to get him exciting for something. We presented to him the project and negotiated with him how he would like to be involved, and as he knew how to use a camera and a video-camera, we tried to involve him as a "photographer". We explained to him his responsibilities throughout the sessions and at the end he explained his experience as following: “My name is Pedro, I'm 43 years old and my hobbies are reading, walking and driving, also watch TV (shows, movies, series, sports, etc.) I have had many different jobs, such as bar tender, ice cream seller, I worked in a book store…

My participation in this project came from Eva who invited me to help her taking pictures of participants. She explained that it was a program to prevent bullying using psychodrama. At first I didn’t want to participate but Eva was really insistent…

My job was to take pictures of the sessions, document everything which happen during the workshops and do not miss any detail.

During the first session, participants were confusing when looked at me. I can say that they felt embarrassed at the beginning, but over the sessions they felt more and more confidence, and started to act as a group.

As an external witness, I may say that this bullying prevention course has been very positive for participants; they had fun and reflected upon the problems of bullying, maybe they were not 100% able to deal with previous experiences related bullying, but they are ready for them now.

Eva asked me if being the official photographer of the course helped me in any aspect, and I think it helped me with my daily routine, but also I learnt more things about teenagers’ problems and different ways to deal with them. I found my involvement in this activity very positive; it helped me to improve some skills and to focus on something. Eva will then assess the quality of the pictures”.

A Space to Speak Up 24

Partner Profile University of Maribor, Slovenia University of Maribor (UM) is a public university covering all classic scientific disciplines and is a broad-based institution committed to excellence in education, the extension of knowledge through basic, applied research, creative and artistic expression. UM promotes international cooperation and a multi-disciplined approach. UM also aims to promote partnerships with businesses, governmental and NGOs in society to enrich teaching, research and creativity; prepare engaged citizens; strengthen democratic and ethical values, and civic responsibility.

For further information: http://www.um.si/

The Faculty of Arts of the University of Maribor was established in 2006, but its study programmes and departments have been in place for a long time, having been developed in the framework of the former Faculty of Education. The Faculty has set clear goals: it wishes to become a visible centre of human and social science development in north-eastern Slovenia,

an important promoter of positive regionalism in the state, while at the same time remaining ready to cross borders and to make connections with the best European faculties and universities. The Faculty covers three basic fields: the humanities, the social sciences and teacher education, and this means that it provides preparation for pedagogical and non-pedagogical professions in fields that are developed by twelve departments at both undergraduate and postgraduate study levels.

Today, we can proudly claim that in a very short time we have become a vital centre of educational, research and intellectual space in the town, a place that is open for constructive dialogue and information flow and welcoming to the rational diversity of an intellectual environment and its concomitant creative capacity and freedom.

For further information: http://www.ff.uni-mb.si/

25 A Space to Speak Up

Faculty of Arts Scientific work of the members of the Department of psychology is directed towards research in the fields of educational, developmental, social and organizational psychology, cognitive and neuropsychology, learning and instruction. Professors are included in national and international research projects and cooperate with professional and scientific institutions at home and abroad, and they also take part in international conferences and various scientific meetings. It is from this department that we have brought together a team of experts for Transpace.

TranSpace team: Nataša Vihar is a project officer at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Maribor. She provides administrative support for national and international projects. For successful obtaining the EU funds and other funds from the market, it is necessary to have proper information, knowledge, skills and competencies in order to prepare project applications and manage projects.

Karin Bakracevic Vukman is professor of Psychology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor.

Her research is focused on developmental psychology: cognitive and socio-emotional development, development of self-awareness and self-regulation in children and adolescents.

Bojan Musil is assistant professor of Psychology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor. His main research interests are social psychology, cross-cultural psychology, psychology of education, psychology of information technology usage.

Sara Tement is an instructor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Maribor. She holds a doctoral degree in work psychology from the University of Vienna. Her current research interests include work–family conflict, work–family enrichment, burnout and individual differences.

Maribor City

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Swapping Experiences in Valladoid On 2nd June, Spanish, Austrian and German young people met in Valladolid to exchange techniques for the development of self esteem, group creation, communication and expression of emotions as key factors in the fight against bullying.

Over three days, 10 young people and 6 trainers participated in group activities about safe space.

They used Psychodrama techniques to overcome challenges set for them in Valladolid.

So what happened…

The German and Austrian landed on Madrid in the afternoon. They got in Valladolid in the evening. Spanish people were already waiting to bring them into the most delicious food: TAPAS! The group beginning to feel like a group ordering food together, eating and sharing it!

The group is ready for the next challenge…

The second day was full of activities, learning and fun. People met at the hotel and in 30 minutes we all were at “El Parque de las Contiendas” (Contiendas park). First thing was to get to know participants names, so Eva, Annalisa and Borja organized amusing games related trust and confidence. At the end of the morning, the three groups became just one and everyone knew everybody’s names!

Some of the exercises -we experimented a lot… required a lot of confidence and even though we all met the day before, we cooperated very well!

After the activities and some shopping, it was time to visit Valladolid. A guide talked about the history of Valladolid, we did not know that some centuries ago, the king of Spain lived here, just in the city centre and close to where we had lunch!

xhausted a

We all were e

e back to the

had to com t the time we

hotel…

27 A Space to Speak Up

Today was crunch time! We had tested ourselves and our fears or difficulties, but not only in theory - today it was for real! We went to an adventure park and starting thinking about negative emotions, memories or fears in our lives, we wrote them into a diana for archery and we shot them with positive arrows.

Then we went further through trees and poles; we faced and passed different tasks (some of them in the air!) and finally we made the entire journey together. TEST PASSED! The day ended with an analysis of the time we spent together: using a set of stairs we measured the degree of satisfaction of participants and trainers. For everyone it was a great experience! It was an amazing meeting!!

Goodbye Spain!

Everyone returns to their own country and to their daily lives but this time armed with new knowledge, new experiences and no fear at all in the suitcase!

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The Spain journey I am one of three fortunate who traveled within the “TranSpace” project to Spain, to meet with the Spanish and the German participants of the project. We flew together with our two trainers to Madrid and took the train to the more northern city Valladolid.

Already at the station we were warmly welcomed by the two other groups and could get to know each other during the dinner with typical Spanish food. By the way, the Spanish food is very much influenced by seafood, which I really like. Therefore the food was one of my highlights of the whole trip. But also the other very much enjoyed it. The next day we spent together with an “experience educator” in a huge park ,near the city. There we got to know each other even more and we made a number of exercises for team building and self awareness raising. We could very well communicate in English with each other, and in case that did not work, a member of the German group could translate from Spanish into German.

In the afternoon we had a sightseeing tour of the history and monuments of Valladolid. Additionally we had the time to explore the city on our own or as a group, and actually used this time for shopping. The evening was again reserved for eating out, and then we had a drink and sat by the river.

The weather was always beautiful and lucky us, the hotel was air-conditioned.

On Wednesday we drove to a nearby “Climing - adventure garden”, which was a challenge for some of us, but in the end everyone did very well and we had a lot of fun. In the evening we sat all together in a restaurant in a cozy atmosphere, reflected about the last days and had a feast. Then, unfortunately, it was already time to take the train back to Madrid, to catch our flight back home the next morning. We said goodbye to everyone, thanked our hosts and agreed to stay in touch. Despite the few hours that we could spend in Madrid, I can say that we still saw quite a lot of the city.

At the end of this day we sat together in a nice little bar before we began our return journey the next day.

I was very glad, to be able to make this trip and to meet new people and get to know the Spanish temperament. I had a lot of fun with everyone and would not like to miss this experience for anything. The best thing is, that I was able to gather a lot of impressions and we could try new things. This let me grow a little and makes my life richer, as it gave me the courage to explore new adventures and foreign countries.

And once more ... the food was amazing!

Tobi

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l Partners and trainers applying what other partners training methods and experiences to workshops with their young people.

For example in Italy - July 2nd: day in space for group 2. The kids will be taken to the “Tibetan bridges” for a fun physical challenge!

- during the month of July, Borgorete will start and finish working with the 3rd group of children. This will take place in a summer camp, and the activitiers will be very focused on bullying

l September 8 - 11 September 2014 in Linz, pro mente Upper Austria - Exchange workshop between the trainers in which they will swap knowledge and experiences and discuss how the practices could be developed and transferred to other organsations and projects. l Creative workshops for the youngsters to encourage them to express their sense of space. l Art exhibition for the young people in the project in every country to be hosted on the Transpace web site and featured in “A Space to Speak Up”

Final conference for the project The partners will be presenting the results of the project to stakeholders. The aim is to provide interested organisations with experiences they can share and practices that they can apply and develop for their participants and learners.

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“It’s very good! I like it a lot and it’s funny to see myself in a newspaper”

Rodrigo

“The drawings and !I comics are very cool e like a lot the magazin and the articles”

Patricia

“Can see the value for many of the youngsters that we work with”

Greek Trainer – Stratos

“The magazine is very funny, very young, very dynamic because there are not only texts but a lot of photos, comics and drawings!”

Clara

t “It’s great to see wha the other guys are doing at the same time! I like it! it is not boring!”

Oscar

“Very catchy style”

Italian School Teachers

“This magazine is very cool, it’s very well done and the information is very interesting!”

David

eat “Great project and gr s magazine! The article are very interesting and the layout is very appealing”

Austrian Trainer and Manager

“They look to be having lots of fun!”

Kirsty who attends a workshop for people with learning disabilities

This project has been funded with support from the Daphne Programme of the European Union.

The content of this publication does not reflect the official opinion of the European Commission. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the publication lies entirely with the authors and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.