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Participants: 8 per country (7 participants + 1 group leader)
Countries: Austria, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Türkiye and Italy

Project Description

This youth exchange ‘Shakesperience: Theatre and drama to increase intercultural competencies’
aims to provide the newcomers their first opportunity to participate in the international activity,
to provide them a space to become self-confident, to get the experience of working with people
from other countries. Main tool of youth exchange will be a theatre because we believe that
theatre provides great opportunities to interact, to cooperate, to learn about each other.
Moreover, theatre can also be used without words. It means that people who do not feel
comfortable to talk in English can take part in theatre-based activities without having the extra
pressure of the communication, especially at the start of YE.
Overall, youth exchange ’Shakesperience: Theatre and drama to increase intercultural
competencies’ addresses following needs:
• the need to develop the self-confidence of young people, newcomers, to encourage to
interact and communicate with their peers coming from other countries;
• the need to develop intercultural competencies and intercultural understanding of young
people, newcomers, enabling them to effectively communicate and work with people
from other cultures;
• the need to break the circles of misunderstanding, discrimination, and negative
stereotypes to contribute to building a more cohesive and tolerant society;
• the need to advance creativity and communication competencies of young people and to
empower them through theatre to address the issues of discrimination, negative
stereotyping, and prejudices so present in our society.
In a way, to address the stereotypes and prejudices we set the following objectives:
• to bring together 56 participants, including 28 young people to empower them by using
theatre as a tool of intercultural learning;
• to include a minimum of 35 newcomers in the Erasmus + Programme from a total of 56
young people who will take part in YE;
• to provide the participants an opportunity to advance their intercultural competencies;
• to increase the self-confidence of the participants and to enable them to effectively
communicate and work with people coming from diverse cultural backgrounds:
• to address the topic of stereotypes and prejudices and to provide the participants an
opportunity to face their stereotypes and prejudices through theatre-based activities;
• to raise knowledge of the participants on the Erasmus + Programme, non-formal learning,
YouthPass and to empower them to be active in the field of international youth work;
• to prepare theatre evenings for hosting local communities reflecting the experiences of
the participants in the field of intercultural learning, addressing stereotypes and
prejudices.

 

 

Participant profile

● Young people age 18 to 30; Newcomers to the Erasmus+ Programme;
● Strong interest in art and arts-based tools and methods, be open to work on increasing
their creativity;
● Strong interest to explore the concept of non-formal education, to increase knowledge
and understanding of the YouthPass and the Erasmus+ Programme;
● Motivation to work on new project ideas, visibility, and dissemination of products
including videos.

 

Group leaders profile

● youth workers, leaders with experiences in international youth field, with non- formal
education based methodology;
● with previous experiences in the field of youth engagement, project management, Erasmus
+ Programme, KA 1 – youth exchanges;
● being able to support the participants during project: to organize and implement preparatory
meetings, to communicate with other group leaders in the process of preparation of
programme, to assist participants with arranging practicalities for YE, to support participants
during YE, especially to support their learning process and active participation, to organize
and to implement evaluation meetings with participants, to support development follow-up
activities.
● There is no age limit set for group leaders.

 

 

Working method

● Learning by doing method.
● Ice-breakers and team building games to get to know each other.
● Workshops will leave room for discussions and debates
● Simulation games will allow us to identify current challenges of non-formal education and
show possible measures that strengthen them.
● These sessions will provide the participants with concrete ideas that can be implemented
in their local communities, thus ensuring an important multiplier effect.

 

Accomodation and food

Accommodation and food are 100% covered by the Erasmus+ programme. The participants will
be lodged in “Die Lams” Rettenegg, Austria (Maps Link). Retteneg is a small
town located one and a half hour from Vienna and Graz, surrounded by mountains and typical
Austrian architecture. The facility is rented out to schools, associations, organizations and private
individuals, primarily with a focus on children and youth.

Important information about the accommodation

● During the activity participants will be accommodated in a room with 3-5 other people
from different countries.

● Each participant will have a room-mate from a different country and we can’t make
exceptions to accommodate people from the same country in the same room. The
rooms will be gender divided.

● We can’t arrange separate rooms for couples or make additional changes in the room
match.

● The rooms have bunk beds. Mattress, duvet and pillows are provided (bed linen
included). The participants must bring their own TOWELS and toiletries.

● Every room has its own bathroom.

Meals

Food: There will be 3 meals per day provided, prepared by a cook. Participants will have a
responsibility to help with food preparation, and learn more about international cuisine. Each
participant will be responsible to wash their dishes and silverware after eating.
During the official part of the event, and in the territory of the hotel alcohol and drugs are strictly
forbidden! Smoking is not recommended and in case of urgency only permitted outdoors in a
designated space.
Everyone is welcome with these restrictions. Violation of this entitles the caretaker to
immediately dismiss the person(s) concerned. No refund on travel costs will be guaranteed in
case of dismissal.
Please, inform us in the application form about your food needs (vegetarian, vegan, food
allergies).
The accommodation is covered at Rettenegg in “Die Lams”, only for the days of the activity (21.04 – 29.04.2023).
In case of a longer stay there is no chance of reimbursement of travel costs.
You are not allowed to arrive after 21st of April or leave earlier than 29th of April. Please keep
in mind when booking the tickets. For any other questions consult with the group leaders form
sending NGO.

HOW TO REACH THE VENUE

We are not able to reimburse missing tickets!!!

IMPORTANT: Travelling sometimes requires an additional day for catching a flight and
staying for an additional night at the city, where the airport is situated. We are aware of
such situations, but organizers can’t cover this cost, it is participants own cost. For that
reason, we recommend you to use hostels (http://www.hostelworld.com/) or friends
https://www.couchsurfing.org/).

An invitation to try to travel mindfully – with no excess luggage and extra effort to store it.
Welcome to use tips from EC: https://bit.ly/3r23I00
1.Fly to Vienna Airport
It is the closest airport to the venue. Flying to Bratislava is an alternative if you are arriving
earlier. If landing in these airports, you will have to take a Bus, Metro or a Train to Vienna City Centre
2. At 20:00 Jump on a Private Bus to “Die Lams” – Rettenegg.
There will be an organized, private bus waiting for you at HBF Wien – Vienna Train Station
(https://goo.gl/maps/woF5oCxZJ1dJ6EEo7). The hosting organisation will provide the bus and
share with you the exact location (all partners will get info for the location). The same bus will
drop you off there at 09 am on the departure day.

NOTE: The bus will leave at 20:00 sharp so make sure you are there on time. There is no other way
to reach the venue. Same bus will drop you off at 09am.

If you are arriving from another place and not using the arranged transport please use the most
economical way of transport.

SEE YOU IN AUSTRIA ☺