Youth, art-therapy and social inclusion: discover ARTCOM results!

According to a famous definition by the Psychology Today, art-therapy “involves the use of creative techniques such as drawing, painting, collage, colouring, or sculpting to help people express themselves artistically and examine the psychological and emotional undertones in their art”, but what is art-therapy for ARTCOM project after 2-year of exploration and experience?

The idea behind art-therapy as tool of social inclusion arises from the research made by the partnership to find a way to support concretely young people from different disadvantage background creating an impact in all countries involved in the project. Two continents, Africa and Europe, that meet and talk each other to promote common values and visions, exchanging knowledge and experience under the art-therapy umbrella. To follow this ambitious aims, ARTCOM project implemented two different type of mobility activities: an international training course for youth workers in Italy in July 2018, a European voluntary service for 12 young people in every project country. Last December a final conference in Muzuzu (Malawi) was the opportunity for project coordinators and representatives of local youth organisations to meet and share the project results. Thanks to ARTCOM, we contributed to improve competences and skills to spend in our local communities, improving our daily job and using new and innovative tools to enhance the active involvement of young people with disadvantaged background. Such tools are available now in the Open Educational Resource, supporting youth workers in the daily activities with youngsters.