Stagecraft for Youth Workers

ABOUT "STAGECRAFT"

StageCraft for Youth Workers" is the 3rd edition, funded by the Erasmus+ programme and promoted by the UK NGO Coyote Initiatives. The project is a 7-day residential training for youth workers, social workers and educators, using approaches including theatre, comedy, storytelling, psychology, sociology, education, music, social & creative community work. The training format is based on non-formal education techniques, and utilises advanced communication, presentation and facilitation skills development. 

The project will take place in Scotland, UK, in the town of Moffat, which is 50 miles south of Edinburgh. The venue is The Well Road Centre, a large Victorian building which was once a boarding school, and now hosts trainings, events, youth groups and other events. The training runs from the 16th – 23rd March 2022. The 16th is a travel day, and also the first day, with the course starting at 5pm. It will involve 24 participants and 4 trainers from 8 different European countries (Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and United Kingdom).

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE TRAINING COURSE

• To develop and build on a greater understanding of the presentation and engagement skills and experiences of youth workers;

• To explore and understand the effects of effective presentation and engagement with an audience of young people and in the role of youth worker;

• To gain a greater awareness of the theory behind “Stagecraft” taken from the fields of psychology, sociology, education, theatre and creative community (comedy, music and drama);

To identify and realise the opportunities to put the skills developed into practice;

To explore the opportunities for realising their youth work potential through Erasmus+ and develop future collaborations.
 

ABOUT OUR APPROACH

The course seeks to develop what we think of as advanced skills – sometimes neglected - of being able to use the environment, our physiology, our body language and the content of our message to make our youth work even more effective. We will draw from applied psychology and from skills-sets used in theatre by professional presenters and comedians, to make the training diverse and exciting. Participants will have opportunities to reflect on the fact that as well as expensive and ubiquitous technology - there are many other resources and skills we can use to keep young people engaged and develop effective relationships with them.

Our course will be highly interactive, we will apply each methodology on the spot and participants will have many chances to challenge themselves in and out of their comfort zones to develop new awareness and skills. Be prepared for some real Stagecraft thrills!