CRAFT:IN Crafting the Inclusion: Crafts and Practices in non-formal education for increasing social inclusion

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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PROJECT’S ID CARD
Programme Erasmus+ Key Action 2 (KA2) Strategic Partnership in adult education
National Agency Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes – HR01 // Zagreb, Croatia // https://www.mobilnost.hr/en/
Contract number 2020-1-HR01-KA227-ADU-094674
Official Project Webpage (European Commission) https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details/#project/2020-1-HR01-KA227-ADU-094674
Title Crafting the Inclusion: Crafts and Practices in non-formal education for increasing social inclusion
Acronym CRAFT:IN
Implementation 1 March 2021 – 31 August 2022 (18 months)
Total Budget 84,654.00 EUR
Coordinator: Association for Prevention of stigmatization and Education through theater – UPSET // Zagreb, Croatia // http://upset.hr
Partners
Blauschimmel Atelier // Oldenburg, Germany // https://www.blauschimmel-atelier.de/
Zavod Tri // Škofja Loka, Slovenia // http://www.zavod-tri.org/
Arts & Disability Forum (University of Atypical) // Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom // https://universityofatypical.org/
Guerreiro & Silveira, Lda // Lisbon, Portugal // https://www.facebook.com/guerreiroesilveira/

SHORT DESCRIPTION
Crafting the Inclusion: Crafts and Practices in non-formal education for increasing social inclusion (CRAFT:IN) is a partnership focused on exchange of various crafts that will develop human resources within partner organisations, develop key competences of their staff, start new non-formal educational activities and entrepreneurship initiatives, and promote social inclusion of marginalised groups.

CRAFT:IN consists of five partner organisations from Croatia, Germany, UK, Portugal, and Slovenia with transferable knowledge of a craft – one that their educators use in educational work with adults from various marginalised groups (refugees, Roma, people with disability, migrants…).

Working with marginalised groups, partner organisations noticed that crafts can play a role in raising social inclusion, cultural awareness and mutual understanding between the dominant local culture and marginalised. Simply said, doing crafts, working with hands, sharing tools, methods, and owning their final products helps motivation, communication and mutual understanding.

For the most part, crafts can be thought nonverbally (through practice) and, as such, are ideal for outreach campaigns and inter-cultural work even with communities who don’t speak the language. Crafts bring together people from various backgrounds (including marginalised groups) and promote interest in both “old” (local) and “new” (e.g. refugees) tradition, heritage, culture, skills, and design. As such, crafts help preserve the local culture, but also mirror the cultural diversity of peoples in Europe and can be platforms for intercultural exchange.

However, positive effects are limited and quite vulnerable. To overcome this, activities should be continuous and explicitly established. They simply don’t occur spontaneously, as researchers Erasmus Universiteit in Rotterdam found in 2018. In other words, there has to be an agent that will facilitate inspiring craft programmes for marginalised groups, after which crafts show positive effects and harbour social inclusion and build “new”, mutual European cultural identity.

For this reason, partner’s gathered in CRAFT:IN as they will gain knowledge of new crafts they can then introduce to their marginalised groups and develop new craft educational programmes of higher quality and international appeal. This will enable partners to develop their human resources and network further, their staff members to raise their EU Key Competences (multilingualism, cultural expression, entrepreneurship), and (with time) help heal social divide between the locals and marginalised groups.

Each partner will host one independent Learning Teaching and Training (LTT) workshop where each host will, through methods of practical learning and non-formal education, share a craft they are masters of, and incite cultural exchange through practical experience and face-to-face participants’ interaction. Each workshop will end with an exhibition of products made at the workshop and/or public event where participants will promote inclusion, meet the locals, and discuss the role of crafts in developing inclusion at local level. In order to utilise newly gained knowledge and skills the most, partners will send two representatives to each workshop, to learn new skills and crafts. Upon their return, they will organise follow-up presentations (20 in total; 4 per partner) of the new skills and, where possible, start new inclusive programmes in the local community based on their new craft. To make their experiences tangible, partners will publish a Manual on various crafts we shared in effort to promote inclusion.

In the background, but equally important, partners will host three Transnational Project Meetings (TPM) where managers will monitor project’s implementation, evaluate its past activities, and plan the future ones; including online campaigns for promotion and dissemination, and coordinating production of informal outputs.

In total, 40 educational mobilises, 10-15 participants from marginalised groups, 3 project meetings, 1 online publication on inclusive crafts, 5 workshops and exhibitions/public discussions will be held. These activities will significantly increase partner organisations’ human resources, develop individual key competences, and promote crafts as means of inclusion and non-formal learning.

In the long term, partner organisations see this partnership as a “stepping stone” – the first of many that will follow and lead to a sustainable and open European platform for inclusive crafts and social entrepreneurship. Partners are committed to building this platform that will help preserve, develop and promote crafts for social inclusion.

LEARNING, TEACHING AND TRAINING ACTIVITIES (LTT’s)
The core activities of our partnership are the co-called “LTT’s”, educational workshops where partners get to share their craft. There are other activities, but these ones are special (and at the core of our goals). One partner hosts the event and shares their craft/method, while others participate and learn. Of course, this process is one of non-formal education and both “sides” get to learn and share – hosts and sending partners. This is ensured by feedback sessions held at the end of each of the workshops, where participants share their insight into what was “good, bad, and the ugly” (what they learned, what could be better, and what should be avoided in the future).

Here are the descriptions of LTT’s, as planned at the beginning of our partnership:

LTT C1: Enterprise, Play, Include, Create (EPIC) aromatherapy, clay work, hygiene and disinfectants production crafts for inclusive work – Zagreb, Croatia
LTT C2: Felt Future – the fibres of connection and inclusion – Belfast, Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)
LTT C3 Form, include, cooperate in weaving and tiles – Lisbon, Portugal
LTT C4 Let’s flourish! Participatory crafts(wo)manship for inclusive community – Škofja Loka, Slovenia
LTT C5 Arts and inclusion – mask building and mask playing – Oldenburg, Germany
MAP OF OUR PARTNERSHIPS AND PARTNER ORGANISATIONS (click on image to open the interactive map)

PROJECT’S CHRONOLOGY AND ARHIVE
12 June 2021 Open Days of Associations 2021: Presentation of our inclusive Erasmus + projects CRAFT: IN and Urban Survival Kits
19-23 July 2021 LTT C1 “EPIC” workshop held in Zagreb, Croatia
24 July 2021 Kick-off & COVID-19 transnational meeting of project managers
1 – 3 October 2021 LTT C2 “Felt Future” workshop held in Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK)
16 October 2021 Presentation of the project on Erasmus+ Days 2021
21 – 25 March 2022 LTTC3 workshop in Lisbon, Portugal
26 March 2022 TPM2 Interim project managers meeting in Lisbon, Portugal
08 – 15 May 2022 LTTC4 workshop in Oldenburg, Germany
13 – 17 June 2022 LTTC5 workshop in Škofja Loka, Slovenia
18 June 2022 TPM3 Final project managers meeting in Škofja Loka, Slovenia
PHOTOS
Here you can find photos from activities held during the partnership.

EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS

LTT C1: Enterprise, Play, Include, Create (EPIC) aromatherapy, clay work, hygiene and disinfectants production crafts for inclusive work – Zagreb, Croatia
LTT C2 Felt Future – the fibres of connection and inclusion – Belfast, Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)
LTT C3 Form, include, cooperate in weaving and tiles – Lisbon, Portugal
LTT C4: Let’s flourish! Participatory crafts(wo)manship for inclusive community – Škofja Loka, Slovenia
LTT C5 Arts and inclusion – mask building and mask playing – Oldenburg, Germany
MEETINGS OF PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS

TPM1 Zagreb, Croatia: Kick-off & COVID-19
TPM2 Lisbon, Portugal: Interim Report
TPM3 Škofja Loka, Slovenia: Final Report
E-BROCHURE
To enable those who did not participate at our workshops to learn the basics of producing hand craft objects, partners decided to publish e-Brochures (brochures published online in PDF format). Each brochure depicts step-by-step the process of production of hand craft products that participants learned how to do during our workshops.

Click on links below to open (or download) e-Brochures:

Enterprise, Play, Include, Create (EPIC) aromatherapy, clay work, hygiene and disinfectants production crafts for inclusive work
Felt Future – the fibres of connection and inclusion
Form, include, cooperate in weaving and tiles
Let’s flourish! Participatory crafts(wo)manship for inclusive community
Arts and inclusion – mask building and mask playing
E-VIDEO
Alongside e-Brochures, partners made short e-Videos that follow the proces of production of hand craft products.

Click on links below to open (or download) e-videos:

LTT C1 (EPIC) workshop (Zagreb, Croatia)
Felt Future – the fibres of connection and inclusion (Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
Form, include, cooperate in weaving and tiles (Lisbon, Portugal)
Let’s flourish! Participatory crafts(wo)manship for inclusive community (Škofja Loka, Slovenia)
Arts and inclusion – mask building and mask playing (Oldenburg, Germany)
Watch all CRAFT:IN educational videos on our YouTube Channel:

Crafting the Inclusion: Crafts and Practices in non-formal education for increasing social inclusion (CRAFT:IN) is a partnership focused on exchange of various crafts that will develop human resources within partner organisations, develop key competences of their staff, start new non-formal educational activities and entrepreneurship initiatives, and promote social inclusion of marginalised groups.
CRAFT:IN consists of five partner organisations from Croatia, Germany, UK, Portugal, and Slovenia with transferable knowledge of a craft – one that their educators use in educational work with adults from various marginalised groups.

Working with marginalised groups, partner organisations noticed that crafts can play a role in raising social inclusion, cultural awareness and mutual understanding between the dominant local culture and marginalised. Simply said, doing crafts, working with hands, sharing tools, methods, and owning their final products helps motivation, communication and mutual understanding.

For the most part, crafts can be thought nonverbally (through practice) and, as such, are ideal for outreach campaigns and inter-cultural work even with communities who don’t speak the language. Crafts bring together people from various backgrounds (including marginalised groups) and promote interest in both “old” (local) and “new” (e.g. refugees) tradition, heritage, culture, skills, and design. As such, crafts help preserve the local culture, but also mirror the cultural diversity of peoples in Europe and can be platforms for intercultural exchange.

However, positive effects are limited and quite vulnerable. To overcome this, activities should be continuous and explicitly established. They simply don’t occur spontaneously, as researchers Erasmus Universiteit in Rotterdam found in 2018. In other words, there has to be an agent that will facilitate inspiring craft programmes for marginalised groups, after which crafts show positive effects and harbour social inclusion and build “new”, mutual European cultural identity.

For this reason, partner’s gathered in CRAFT:IN as they will gain knowledge of new crafts they can then introduce to their marginalised groups and develop new craft educational programmes of higher quality and international appeal. This will enable partners to develop their human resources and network further, their staff members to raise their EU Key Competences (multilingualism, cultural expression, entrepreneurship), and (with time) help heal social divide between the locals and marginalised groups.
Each partner will host one independent Learning Teaching and Training (LTT) workshop where each host will, through methods of practical learning and non-formal education, share a craft they are masters of, and incite cultural exchange through practical experience and face-to-face participants’ interaction. Each workshop will end with an exhibition of products made at the workshop and/or public event where participants will promote inclusion, meet the locals, and discuss the role of crafts in developing inclusion at local level. In order to utilise newly gained knowledge and skills the most, partners will send two representatives to each workshop, to learn new skills and crafts. Upon their return, they will organise follow-up presentations (20 in total; 4 per partner) of the new skills and, where possible, start new inclusive programmes in the local community based on their new craft. To make their experiences tangible, partners will publish a Manual on various crafts we shared in effort to promote inclusion.

In the background, but equally important, partners will host three Transnational Project Meetings (TPM) where managers will monitor project’s implementation, evaluate its past activities, and plan the future ones; including online campaigns for promotion and dissemination, and coordinating production of informal outputs.

In total, 40 educational mobilises, 10-15 participants from marginalised groups, 3 project meetings, 1 online publication on inclusive crafts, 5 workshops and exhibitions/public discussions will be held. These activities will significantly increase partner organisations’ human resources, develop individual key competences, and promote crafts as means of inclusion and non-formal learning.
In the long term, partner organisations see this partnership as a “stepping stone” – the first of many that will follow and lead to a sustainable and open European platform for inclusive crafts and social entrepreneurship. Partners are committed to building this platform that will help preserve, develop and promote crafts for social inclusion.

Sponsors