Experience sharing : Erasmus Youth Worker Mobility / Training course “My body, My Gender” in Brno

Sidenote: this is an old blog post, initially written on Medium, that I wanted to transfer to ATProto. The style might need some arrangements, yet I'm happy to have it visible !

I took part this summer to the “My body, my gender” Erasmus training course in Czechia, thanks to two NGOs: Lorelei Youth Center, who was my sending one, and Brnoforyou, who hosted the training week. (In fact, to participate in such a project, you need both). We worked on themes such as art therapy, biases, land art, and how we could use those to figure out connections to one’s body and gender. Today, I’d like to share a glimpse of my experience, and to give a sneak peak over what a “Youth Worker Mobility” is at all.

(I’m here in the top corner with hat and sunglasses)

Presentation

I am Aymeric, a 26 years old Parisian, and I graduated recently from computer engineering, but failed some exams for being the highest category of secondary school teacher (we call it agrégation in France).

As a student, I had the occasion to go an a university exchange, which was a mandatory task for my master’s degree in engineering. I chose Norway for my destination; thus, I benefited from and took part to the Erasmus program. This led me to some encounters across Europe. From there, I met some people that told me about European Solidarity Corps program, that I also ended up participating in. Finally, from there, I met a (Czech) fellow volunteer who let me know about the other types of Erasmus projects, including the Youth Worker Mobility, or “training course” as we informally nickname them. He was actually about to facilitate one himself a couple of months later.

That is how I got to join this beautiful projects, titled “My body, My gender”, organized by the Brnoforyou NGO, in Moravec, next to Brno, the second biggest city of Czechia. We exchanged to find which sending organisation could suit me, and it appeared Lorelei Youth Center was a relevant pick. Hence, they enabled me to go, which I have to thank them for.

What was it (about)

The “My body, My gender” project had one main focus: Art therapy, with an emphasis on a less well-known type of art, which was Land Art. This intent of bringing land art into the equation was part of an effort to encourage community-created art.

Work in progress land art.

We were introduced to what art therapy is, and what it is not. We discovered how this technique could be self-driven, but also led by a specialist. Those specialists are called “art therapists”, although not all countries recognize officially this profession — yet. Still, those people, who have deep psychology understanding and background, are useful to get the most of what it can deliver.

Art therapy can help framing some personal trouble or traits. This one week time-window was the right amount to get an introduction about the specific question of one’s relation with their own body, gender, and how they interact, influence and/or define each other. It was the base topic of the training course, after all !

Some materials aimed at animating the mentionned presentations/group workshops with discussions

What we actually did

This week was built around different time slots, each dedicated to various purposes. We had an introductory sequence aimed at getting to know the members of this 30 people group. This was a bit of a challenge, as there were people from a lot of different nationalities (especially given I was the only french). We had people from North Macedonia, Spain, Estonia, Georgia, Poland, Turkey, Bulgaria, and France, and of course Czechia. (We can also include Germany if we take into account Ani, the course leader). Some of them were in big groups: for instance, the Estonians were 6 !

After that, we entered the real topic of the course. We had some more formal presentations for learning about the different topics (art therapy, body, gender, biases).

Those were mixed with some little workshops to help us grasp all the notions, discuss about them in groups, and express what was our link with the notion. For example, we were asked to bring an object representing our relation to our body, leading us to present them and talk about them to the others and, for some, to the whole group.

Each of these activities were accompanied by some possibilities of crafting some artwork in relation to them. In the beginning, we were encouraged to create artwork that would let us introduce ourselves. After that, we were told, with some guiding, to create some specific craftwork related to the presentations and/or the activity we had. At the end of the day, we also had a “reflexion” time during which we could share, in small groups, our impressions about the day, along with our personal mood. This was also an occasion for us to create artwork, more freely, that were representing our personal state.

In addition, we were also lucky enough to get some yoga practice, which was there to foster our well-being and enter in a closer “discussion” with our body.

One of the two morning yoga sessions, this one being indoor.

Some further personal contributions

Besides the main curriculum of the week, we also had the chance to bring some personal contributions. One could present their sending NGO (some of us running their own NGO), other Erasmus mechanisms, and their home countries during dedicated moments. The latter was for instance presented during the intercultural evening, where I had the occasion to present France with some not-too-usual (I hope) assets and questions.

We were also encouraged to build up our own workshop, which should be linked to the week’s theme, to let the rest of the group participate to some activities we would like to lead. I personally had some experience with digital generative art and GPU programming. Thus, I had a little presentation and some practical activity linked to it.

Goal and production

All of this work not only let us get introductory knowledges about art therapy, land art, body and gender, but also prepared us for our final group project. This collaborative work, conceptualized by Ani, consisted of a collection of paper silhouettes representing, well, you guessed it, our body and gender — but with the fresh look of what we learned during the week. Those silhouettes were real scale : they matched the size of our respective bodies. Thus, we had plenty of space to add all the possible materials. With one caveat : they would end up on a wall dedicated to street artist in Brno. Therefore, we had to be careful about material that would suffer from bad weather…

My own artwork. Could have been more shiny maybe…

The overall result was very satisfying to everyone. After sticking them all, we had some time to discover Brno !

What’s next

After achieving this wonderful project, my goal is to bring back those important knowledges and share them. My situation is a bit particular, as I failed the teaching exam, and I am not practicing anymore as a summer camp leader — for now. Therefore, I am not a full-time youth worker. Nonetheless, as an occasion participant and volunteer in some youth festival and movements, I had in mind to animate a small workshop reproducing our experience of land art, whenever I find the proper moment. Additionally, I will also be a part-time instructor in one of my former technical universities, which is a place where I can exert those knowledges indirectly.

I am also willing to deepen my relationship with the sending NGO, to check whether they could offer some youth exchange, for instance.

And, last but not least, I will try to keep alive those new very precious friendships. (Which is already the case somehow, as I had the occasion to visit some of my fellow participants during the summer)

Overall, that was a very positive experience. I couldn’t be more thankful to the organizers, despite some struggles I had to fully go along the requirements. I couldn’t recommend more boarding on a similar experience; especially if it’s Brnoforyou and/or Lorelei Youth Center !