Every Picture Tells a Story

.....I think it's fair to say, consensus amongst partners being that it was a good one.? We are sad to end this story of stories...?

A common comment from partners is that it has been a very ?memorable, culturally enriching experience & extremely valuable learning curve.? The learning was very broad & happened on many levels with many unexpected outcomes both hard & soft.?

And so what did we learn? We evaluated:

• ?individually, personally with reference to our own interests
• organisationally with reference to our work & country
• totally as a partnership with reference to the project joint aims

I will attempt to briefly summarise the learning through the sub headings below which are collated from our evaluation framework.

Language skills - every single person involved said that they had somehow increased their language skills, some slightly, some expressed interest to go on formal language courses, with 20% to informal learning & self-study of specific languages. Others were happy that they had learnt a few words in each of the partner?s languages ? we made a point of learning greetings & useful basic phrases in all tongues. As English was the working languages English speakers had a better experience of speaking English. And the U.K. & Irish had more experience of speaking clearly & correctly without the use of dialect and listening whilst taking into consideration accents & use of formally learnt English vocabulary.

Other organisations - there was a lot of comparisons to be made between organisations, structures, practices, working culture, it was very useful to consider & compare our ways all went home with new ideas for this e.g. better food on day centre menu?s made a better experience for groups, which could set the tone for the working day. It was good to learn the ways that other organisations help to fund their work and e.g. selling their work in craft shops, producing high quality well finished articles.? Some organisations felt that the project had consolidated their way of working, even if they were familiar with practices, they could take new ideas and build on them e.g. drama work but perhaps at different times of the day to maximise social opportunity for groups. There was definitely something different & new to learn during each mobility.? There was also feeling that the work would have sustained impact within their organisation, such as improved attitude to inclusion & calculated risk taking.?

Cultural knowledge: All participants said that they had learnt more about Europe and other Europeans. All felt that we definitely now had better understandings of each other?s ways e.g. politics, education, economics or how not all cultures greet strangers with a smile & what cultural/political experiences may have led to that way off being. Experiencing different diets & rhythms of living & working in a country is very different to being on holiday there.? All learners said that they were more confident to travel independently across Europe - even if you don?t know the language, that there are other human resources that can be drawn upon - such as the non-verbal communication - if you have the raised confidence to do so, but also that basic human needs are all the same. We have learnt that you can find a way, some way, to communicate.? Some found the Euro single currency very useful.

Others said they were happy to organise their own travel & not use an agent having done the project, going off the beaten track, to find the real experience away from the tourist traps. That confidence was higher to do this through organising & experiencing the project travel.

Towards good practice:?

All felt that they had learnt something to take back to their work & lives.

• The work that was least prescribed had the best results in terms of learners confidence as they felt freer to offer ideas & contributed more, therefore were more engaged & more included.

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• When a diversity of people were most involved - the product was the best.?

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• Where the learners had equality, respect & freedom to feel free in the participation the strongest communication happened. This could be clearly seen in the practical work of performance making, rehearsals & methods used in devising.?

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• Involving people who are not normally asked for ideas or involved in decisions can have surprising results & offers further skills for inclusion.

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• Include people: if people feel included they will contribute.

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• Good communication is the key to a good project ? of any kind.

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• Questioning is eternally useful. Checking understandings cannot be done too often.

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• Good planning & coordination is key too so that everyone is confident within the work.?

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• Step out of the routine, try new things, variation keep things healthy.?

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• Well managed risk has good results.

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• Changing things takes will, time, have faith & patience, trust in the process ? people will respond.

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• Creating a good working atmosphere leads to confidence to try things.?

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Practical skills were exchanged in a safe supportive environment, the atmosphere was positive within the project was one of e.g. useful group drama exercises, storytelling techniques, theatres skills, evaluative skills, visual arts skills, contact theatre, movement & music, songs & stories shared (cultural heritage). Brand new skills were built e.g. puppet making, devising, using stimuli, using the arts broadly to engage people. The importance of clear & strong organisational skills before beginning work with groups as well as tutors approaches to working with groups were noticed, shared & absorbed.

There were both formal & informal opportunities for specifics to be discussed between organisation such as how people are employed, different staff & organisational structures, standards, working cultures & positive approaches to groups. This learning had both soft & hard outcomes in terms of skills - the positive effects on self-confidence on learners & self-awareness of practice or attitudes. All learners had different interests, this enriched & gave diversity to the learning of everyone.

From a personal perspective - working with so many different nationalities & disabled people's further communication needs, together has definitely increased my interpersonal skills (which I felt were fair anyway given my experience & working practice). However I have learnt to be more patient and less worried about such situations and that there is always something else to learn. I would now approach anyone to attempt a conversation, not be swayed by doubts about language barriers and would find a way to somehow communicate & invite further dialogue. I have discovered a new found sense of being European. I am interested now in finding our how this discovered identity feels further in Europe & across this whole wondeful &wild world.?

The project legacy for Headway Arts is that this work has helped to consolidate our working practice, hone skills old & new, define our methods & identify strengths (& weakness). It has developed our knowledge about what else we can offer as an organisation, for example excellent partnership working.?

~ Alison Walton-Robson, Creative Director, Headway Arts?

& Learner Every Picture Tells A Story.

Source: http://grundtvigepts.blogspot.com/2012/10/120-normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x.html

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