As part of the project “CARE: Ceramic works to increase esteem and employability“, the first international training took place from 23 to 27 October 2023 in Łódź (Poland), involving more than 20 ceramists and educators interested in discovering how to implement ceramic workshops with V.I young people.
In Łódź, the participants carried out several ceramic workshops and exchange with other professionals from the arts & crafts. Through their participation in the workshops, the participants increased their manual skills and their socio-emotional skills too (related to the development of emotions and how the latter can be transmitted to others through the creation of ceramic products). All this, to help visually impaired young people to use ceramics as a tool to express themselves and their feelings, as well as an opportunity to socialise and exchange with their peers, be more included in the society and find new job opportunities in the field of arts & crafts.
In addition, the participants had the opportunity to visit a youth centre, interacting with visually impaired young people and supporting them in specific ceramic workshops. It was a great challenge to better understand the different types of low vision (and possible pathologies) and to empathise more with visually impaired young people.
During the training, the different intellectual outputs developed by CARE (to be downloaded here) were also illustrated and used by the participants. Among those, you can find a specific Handbook on how to create ceramic workshops for V.I young people, containing a series of step-by-step instructions and practical activities that can be easily used by educators and ceramists. On the website, you can also find a wider collection of non-formal activities, to be used within the ceramics workshops to increase the interpersonal skills of visually impaired young people and let them be actively involved in the activities.
Ceramics workshops for visually impaired young people (from 15 years old) will start soon in Italy, Irland, Poland, Greece, and Cyprus (lasting around 100h). Are you interested in learning more about how to participate? For workshops in Palermo (Italy), please contact: Laura La Scala, l.lascala@prismonline.eu
For more information about CARE, please visit: care-platform.eu
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Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. The European Union cannot be held responsible for them.