CREATORS: Courage REborn – creAtive writing TOols for young tRauma Survivors
Grant Agreement No.: 2022-2-RO01-KA220-YOU-000100459
DURATION TIME: 1/03/2023 – 31/01/2025, 23 months
organizacje zaangażowane w projekt:
Plataforma de alternativas sostenibles y solidarias, Spain
Fundacja LAJA, Poland
CENTRUL DE FORMARE SI EVALUARE IN ASISTENTA SOCIALA, Romania
The CREATORS project was born to attend the psychological needs of the most socially excluded youth that are war refugees and other disadvantaged youth that in the light of deepening economic
crisis are often forgotten. Expressing the effects of a trauma through art, music and dance is not as effective as expressing the feelings through language. It seems that people need to express negative
experiences in words – either through writing or speaking – to reap the health benefits.
PROJECT DETAILS
Project Overview:
This cooperation partnership was established with the aim to:
- create a toolbox that will develop resilience and help overcome traumatic experiences without having an actual access to a professional therapist;
- nurture creativity in young minds, which is believed to be crucial for the future of Europe;
- build upon the known benefits of creative writing:
- catharsis & clearer thinking,
- brain activity regulation
- better cognitive ability & memory
- stress control
- reaching goals & increased happiness
- overcoming chronic pain, boost to immune system, depression, & other benefits.
Objectives:
- O1. Exchange of knowledge of youth workers from the non-formal and informal education sector in the field of creative writing for young trauma survivors.
- O2. Support the development of creative writing tools for overcoming trauma and creating resilience in the face of crisis, with a special focus on disadvantaged groups, especially young war refugees.
- O3. Support increased access to knowledge through the development and dissemination of material and awareness-raising events and establishment of lasting links between organizations
The main activities are as follows:
- Visit in Romania
- Visit Poland
- Training Course in Spain to share our experience in creative writing for trauma work.
CREATORS development to foster creative writing for work with young trauma survivors, documented in an interactive book and tested during the CREATORS Workshops.
Implementing a Dissemination Strategy containing Multiplier Events in Romania, Spain and Poland, Internal Workshops and Consultation Period to increase the project’s scope.
Project Results
Youth workers will gain more tools for working with young trauma survivors, centered in the 3 areas of creative writing: identity, creativity, and emotional management. They will obtain practical insights of how to use those tools, how to best transfer them to other youth workers and young trauma survivors, who then will be able to jumpstart their trauma work without waiting for being attended by a mental health professional. Partners and the society will be better prepared for the multicrisis.
The main result of this project will be the dissemination of an interactive book on cyberbullying and ways to counteract it, considering the gender perspective. Based on the number of contacts that we,
as a partnership and associated partners, have locally, in Europe and worldwide, we can estimate that we will be able to reach.
IMPACT:
- Youth workers participating in the project gained knowledge and skills in creative writing (identity, creativity, and emotional management), improved their language proficiency, increased intercultural contacts, learned how to apply gained tools in practice, became project ambassadors, obtained official training accreditation, gained a clearer vision of their future, and improved their motivation and attendance rates for excluded social groups they work with.
- Third sector organizations received information, practical examples, and materials free of charge from the project, practiced gained tools during workshops, and learned how to foster creative writing for transforming personal trauma among disadvantaged youth.
- Young trauma survivors can jumpstart their trauma work, explore applications for creative writing, create or re-create their identity, manage emotions, and problem-solve using gained tools, and are equipped to handle crises. They also gained practical experience in applying the project’s method theory.
- Participating organizations, including CFCECAS, PASOS, and LAJA, improved their ability to handle traumatic experiences of their young service users, gained knowledge of international collaboration, increased visibility on the international arena, updated their green project management skills, and added creativity, emotional management, and creating identity to their trauma work cornerstones. Additionally, they learned how to create better digital project outputs.
KICK OFF MEETING IN SPAIN
APRIL 05-06, 2023
The first face-to-face meeting was held in Santander (Spain) to officially start the Erasmus + project: CREATORS – Courage REborn – creAtive writing TOols for young tRauma Survivors
This kick-off meeting was attended by representatives of CFCECAS (Romania), FUNDACJA LAJA (Poland), and PASOS (Spain) and its main objective was to overview the project and agree on the main management aspects, including timelines, financial control, working plan, and task distribution, among others.
Besides, the participants had the opportunity to better introduce the entities and establish common objectives and goals throughout this project. Finally, they evaluated the meeting and visited Santander together.
The CREATORS project aims to create a self-help toolbox that will develop resilience and assist in overcoming traumatic experiences without having actual access to a professional therapist.
The Partnership aims to focus on fostering creativity among young minds, as we believe that the future of Europe relies on their innovative ideas. By adding the unique experience of each NGO, we want to build upon the known benefits of creative writing.
TRAINING COURSE IN SPAIN
JUNE 12-20, 2023
This Training course was attended by youth workers from the partner entities:
FUNDACJA LAJA (Poland), CFCECAS (Romania), and PASOS (Spain).
Throughout the course, they acquired the necessary knowledge to utilize
creative writing as a tool for emotional management. They participated in
sessions on emotional management, creative writing, storytelling, videography,
group work, and developed their own audiovisual materials to showcase their
results.
Training course as part of the Erasmus+ project:
„CREATORS: Courage REborn – creAtive writing TOols for young tRauma Survivors”
(2022-2-RO01-KA220-YOU-000100459).
Moreover, they had the opportunity to connect with one another, strengthen
boundaries, and explore local places, creating unforgettable memories together.
(PL) an article written by a participant in the training:
About empathy, trust and trauma
STUDY VISIT TO POLAND
JUNE 23-25, 2023
A Study Visit to Cieszyn, Poland, took place from the 23rd to the 25th of June 2023,
as part of the Erasmus+ project: „CREATORS: Courage REborn – creAtive writing
TOols for young tRauma Survivors” (2022-2-RO01-KA220-YOU-000100459).
Attendees from FUNDACJA LAJA (Poland), CFCECAS (Romania), and PASOS
(Spain) participated in this activity.
The visit aimed to transfer best practices in working with young trauma survivors
through creative writing, improve cross-sectoral information exchange, and address
multicrisis challenges. It included workshops, presentations, and discussions on
various topics, such as creative writing methodology, the psychological effects of
trauma on creativity, and the power of words for social integration.
The program lasted three days and incorporated activities focused on retrieving
meaningful words, fostering creativity, and exploring ethics and trauma. Daily
assessments and social activities were conducted, providing participants with a
holistic learning experience.
PURPOSE OF THE VISIT
Transferring best practices in young trauma survivors work through creativity in writing from
LAJA, improving the cross-sectoral information exchange, allowing mutual use of expertise,
and better addressing multicrisis challenges.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Demonstration of best practice examples and tools will allow better addressing the needs of the YTS (young trauma survivors), improve the culture of dialogue for transnational and cross-sectoral information exchange.
- Mobilities are important not only as an exchange of good practice, but also as a basis for the subsequent creation of the Interactive Guide.
- The LTTA will provide free access to relevant information and improve the participants’ soft skills (interpersonal, management, substantive, analytical, etc.) as well as support access to lifelong learning.
