We bring together social pedagogy and contemporary circus methods to enhance social integration and cultural engagement of 100 at-risk youngsters. We combine intensive circus training, play activities & drama classes to empower the beneficiaries in developing core social skills and amplifying their creative potential. Inside the circus, the energy of the most unapproachable teenagers is transformed to the energy of circus drive while taking a safe and socially acceptable form.
At-risk children and teenagers (children with refugee or orphan status, those who live in dysfunctional or low-income families, study in special schools or have behavioral disorders) face painful stigmatization and social abandonment. These vulnerable youngsters lack self-esteem, core communicative skills and barely need the place to feel safe and reveal their human potential. Negative experience multiplied with stressful family or school environment substantially impair their life quality.
Upsala-Circus provides free regular circus training, ongoing and emergent social support and extracurricular activities to master core life skills and amplify creative potential of disadvantaged youth. We don't aim to re-educate the wayward teenagers, but we create accepting environment where they feel safe and may flourish. We increase beneficiaries' awareness about non-violent and socially acceptable communication patterns.
The project addresses unmet social demand for appealing cultural opportunities targeterd at at-risk children and teenagers in Russia. It will help 100 disadvantaged youngsters to master core communicative skills, increase theirs self-esteem and establish positive peer-to-peer relations. That will lower the cases of deviant and violent behavior and empower the beneficiaries with creative instruments to challenge their unfavourable life scenario and/or social status.
