Author: drnicko

On 18 November in Brussels, Belgium the four partners of the DiARC Project organized final dissemination conference to share the accomplishments of the DIARC project. The brief of the project »DiARC« presents digitalization, art, resilience and creativity, principles on which its mission is based: to build resilience of youth and artistic communities to the negative consequences of the pandemic.

The event was curated by Svetoslava Stoyanova from NMCT, Belgium, who also served as a moderator. Nick Owen, from TMC, UK guided the participants through the DiARC activities and outcomes of the project. 

 – Developing open-source content, the Youth Creativity Training Course, to be shared with youth workers and people from training and development – the outcomes;

– Training 15+ youth trainers from the partnering countries and supporting them to create learning content for youth groups they work with;

 – Created support facilitation tool on boosting creativity and workshop design, the online and physical deck of Creativity Cards: 

– Delivered over 10 youth trainings to 150+ various youth audiences both online and onsite in Bulgaria, Slovenia, Belgium and the UK – through our trainers and our core team of partners in the project;

– Delivered online training From Creativity to Resilience to 6 young Ukrainian people who fled the war and are now based in Belgium (one in the UK);

Diana Filip, deputy CEO of JA Europe was invited to deliver a keynote speech on bridging creativity and entrepreneurial thinking. 

Edit Lakatos, one of the Belgian trainers who joined the project shared her lessons learned and how thanks to DIARC she made a transition from jewellery designer to youth worker teaching young people creative practices. 

Mira Pisarevskaia, who fled the war in Ukraine earlier this year and is based now in Belgium shared her learnings and insight from joining the project as a participant. 

 Lachezar Afrikanov from NMS Bulgaria involved the participants in creative workshop activities and helped them gain new inspiration on how to utilize creativity in work and life. Katja Kolenc from MCC Slovenia showed the participants how they can easily define and achieve their goals with the help of creativity and art. 

Nick Owen presented a writing activity which was truly engaging about the audience. 42 guests attended the conference and workshop – youth trainers, university lecturers, individual artists and young people from Belgium who are at the first stage of their career life.

The conference was attended by two international guests, professional coaches, and facilitators from The Netherlands. 

Based on the answers to a feedback survey, participants were completely satisfied and motivated to continue working towards developing creativity as learners as well as trainers. 

“Last Friday I had a chance to meet some very inspired and dedicated persons who are changing the world around them by developing inner resilience and proactive thinking. The impressive work of the whole team of https://diarc.org/!” shared one of the participants in a LinkedIn post after the conference. 

andrew martyn sugars is an artist and facilitator with interests in holistic processes such as forest school. practice is transdisciplinary. concerns orbit around space, time and play – what it is to be a curious human being.

His project has demonstrated how DIARC can be suitable for a work experience project for an Further Education college. Recommendations from participating in the course include:

1. For artists

• Have an open mind. Think of the learners holistically.
• Listen to what is happening and be adaptive within the boundaries you set forthe group. Be in it for the whole duration.
• Be passionate, share relevant aspects of your practice with the group. Believein human centred design. Be willing to fail. Be open about not knowing aboutstuff the learners know about.
• Embrace the chaos – the more chaotic it feels – the better the session will befor those taking part.
•  Let go of being in control of absolutely everything. Believe in outcome as partof the process.
• Create a space in which the learners feel safe to take risks. Let the learnerstake the lead. Make the young people feel heard, respected and that they belong in the group.

2. For young people.

• Create space in your thinking – this model is about exploring potential andpossibility because in so doing you will experience thoughts and do things thatare going to be fresh to you.
• Have a ‘problem’ to work with and look at it fantastically. Anything is possiblebecause this is a programme about letting your thoughts and imaginations explore the boundaries of what you set for yourselves. Dare to go beyond those.
• Use the skills you already have to explore these fantastical ideas. Develop stories to go with the images you make – tell those stories, repeatedly.
• Build in ideas from the other stories, into your own.

Edit Lakatos is the Founder of Tulipane Design, a social enterprise in Belgium that focuses on the creation of ethnic jewellery and aims to fight domestic violence. She also leads creative workshops to pass on weaving as a tool for relaxation. More info on my project can be found here

She says:

Diarc helped me to find a new way to communicate with young people and taught me techniques to engage an audience in general. The cards especially are such good ice-breakers for online and in-person events as well, that I will continue using them in the future.

Lessons learned for me and therefore recommended for other artists:

• Include a moderator that provides structure for the training
• Always have an ice-breaker exercise
• Overall training time should be shortened (if online): young people cannotfocus for a long period of time
• Involving an external speaker is key to keep interest
• In-person events are more efficient to engage the audience

The international conference “From Creativity To Resilience” will take place on 18^th November from 9:30 to 12:30 in Brussels (Full Circle House, Ch. de Vleurgat 89 Brussels 1050).

This is the closing event within the DiARC project. The conference is dedicated to promotion of the goals and results of the DIARC project, funded by Erasmus+ (https://diarc.org/). Key focus: building resilience of young people and art communities to the negative financial consequences of the covid-19 pandemic.

During the conference project partners from UK, Belgium, Slovenia, and Bulgaria will present the results (online creativity cards and training methodology) and conclusions from the project and open space for new collaborations. 

The conference is organized in the blended format of a conference and workshop, facilitating the individual exploration of creativity of each participant. Be our guest and be also ready to re-discover the power of your own creativity as professional and as human. 

The event will be attended by 40+ people, among whom will be the consortium of partners, participants in the project – youth and adult trainers and young people, representatives of the youth training field as well as education and art sector, and academia. It will be an inspiring meeting place for all stakeholders dedicated to supporting young persons in their personal and professional development in times of critical challenges.

The event is with free entrance upon registration, please apply to attend it – here:

EVENT REGISTRATION

This is the final Module 5 of the Youth Creativity Training Course. Participants have already discovered the power of their creativity, explored different creative approaches, increased their skill to team up with other participants and are now in the final phase of this journey, where they can “harvest” the knowledge and think further how and where in their lives they can apply it.  

Module 5 starts with a recap of the work from previous module and check-in with DiARC Digital Cards: https://nmct.eu/creativecards/  

At the end of the final two modules, there will be a reflection time on what are the main learnings from the whole course. 

• How to practice creative solution design?
• What is the challenge? 
• What are the individual and group tasks? What is the impact we would like to achieve? 
• What are the outcomes from our creative design? 
• What have we learnt from the course and what has been improved? 

You can access the whole module here: 

The Youth Creativity Training Course that was developed within the DiARC Project, consists of 18 academic hours, broken down into 5 modules. In between the modules learners are to be engaged in individual and group learning activities. 

The Course contains 5 modules covering spectrum of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, that will equip learners to be social innovation practitioners in the CSO space. 

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

The current Module 4, as well the next Module 5 are dedicated to demonstrating how creativity can be applied to our daily challenges, both individual and community. The content will introduce trainers and learners to a tailored process of creative solution design and implementation, based on Design Thinking, entrepreneurship, and project management methodologies. 

Learners will be introduced to a brief description of the methodology and invited to engage in a group project on a community challenge they identify. 

You can access the whole module here: 

The Youth Creativity Training Course that was developed within the DiARC Project, consists of 18 academic hours, broken down into 5 modules. In between the modules learners are to be engaged in individual and group learning activities. 

The Course contains 5 modules covering spectrum of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, that will equip learners to be social innovation practitioners in the CSO space. 

Photo by Amélie Mourichon on Unsplash.

Art comes in many forms; you could address the art form of storytelling and writing in module 2, whereas in module 3 learners will be immersed toother forms of art, particularly visual art. 

The current module 3, “Exploring ways of developing your creative practice: Common art projects”, will guide you through a common art project resulting in the creation of an online art exhibition. To come to the opening of the exhibition, the participants need to address other relevant competencies. 

In this module, learners will embark on the path on gaining new competencies, including learning  about their inner saboteurs. 

At the end of the course further readings, links to creative content and videos are available. 

You can access the whole module here:

The Youth Creativity Training Course that was developed within the DiARC Project, consists of 18 academic hours, broken down into 5 modules. In between the modules learners are to be engaged in individual and group learning activities. 

The Course contains 5 modules covering spectrum of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, that will equip learners to be social innovation practitioners in the CSO space. 

Photo by Sergio Rota on Unsplash

Youth Creativity Training Course | DiARC Project

The Youth Creativity Training Course that was developed within the DiARC Project, consists of 18 academic hours, broken down into 5 modules. In between the modules learners are to be engaged in individual and group learning activities. The Course contains 5 modules covering spectrum of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, that will equip learners to be social innovation practitioners in the CSO space. 

The objective of the module 2, on creative writing is to provide a concrete training structure with accompanying training materials and concrete exercises for people to boost their creative writing skills. Creating compelling stories that inform, touch and inspire audiences is one of the most sought-out skills in the history of humankind. 

Creative writing is a form of writing where creativity is at the forefront of its purpose through using imagination, creativity, and innovation in order to tell a story through strong written visuals with an emotional impact, like in poetry writing, short story writing, novel writing,
and more. Given the fact that creative writing is often of an experimental and innovative nature, it is no surprise that it takes a number of different forms such as: poetry, short fiction, novels, plays and screenplays, comics, graphic novels, and graphic narratives, personal essays, humor writing, etc. 

In this module, learners will enhance their creative writing skills by following and implementing short yet powerful exercises. At the end of the course further readings, links to creative content and videos are available. 

You can access the whole module here:

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

Youth Creativity Training Course | DiARC Project

The Youth Creativity Training Course that was developed within the DiARC Project, consists of 18 academic hours, broken down into 5 modules. In between the modules learners are to be engaged in individual and group learning activities. 

The Course contains 5 modules covering spectrum of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, that will equip learners to be social innovation practitioners in the CSO space. 

In the first module, “Discovering the power of Your Creativity” DiARC trainers help the participants  to connect with their inner creativity as individuals and share the different ways one creates things in our everyday lives. 

At the end of the module, participants arrive at three main guidelines on how to nurture creativity, based on the research presented in the documentary “The Creative Brain: 

• Try something new;
• Push boundaries;
• Accept failure.

You can download the file here.

The Youth Creativity Training Course that was developed within the DiARC Project, consists of 18 academic hours, broken down into 5 modules. In between the modules learners are to be engaged in individual and group learning activities. 

The Course contains 5 modules covering spectrum of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, that will equip learners to be social innovation practitioners in the CSO space. 

Photo by Joshua Woroniecki on Unsplash.