CALM

CALM
Creative practices for adult educators who support learners for a better mental wellbeing

RJ4ALL is pleased to join the CALM project. It is a new Erasmus+ project, which wants to give a response to the changes brought by Covid-19 in everyday life. CALM aims to give to adult educators who work with adult learners specialized competencies to face daily difficulties.

🎨 The power of art and creativity as a healing tool and one of the most effective and energizing ways of learning will be widely promoted. This project will raise awareness about mental health and the emotional difficulties the COVID-19 pandemic brought, alongside ways to cope including restorative justice.

🤝 CALM will collect good practices among six different European partners, with background experience in the field of training and social innovation. In particular:

IASIS Amke Athens (Greece)
Tandem Plus (France/Italy)
ΚΣΔΕΟ ΕΔΡΑ (Greece)
Restorative Justice for All International Institute (UK)
Solidaridad Sin Fronteras (Spain)
Enaip Friuli Venezia Giulia(Italy).

The reality of the everyday practice of Adult Educators who support adult learners has been increasingly more demanding, requiring more specialized competencies, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it brought in every aspect of life. The sociopolitical and economical events due to COVID-19, in combination with the limited capacity of Educational services around Europe during this period, have profoundly changed the job profile of Adult Educators, who are trying their best to find new, creative ways, in order to support individuals. More specifically, the pandemic has negatively affected many people’s mental health and created new obstacles and fears for people already suffering from mental illness, such as difficulty sleeping (36%) or eating (32%), increases in alcohol consumption or substance use (12%), and worsening chronic conditions (12%) (WHO, 2020), as a consequence of social exclusion, loneliness, uncertainty and a generalized panic due to the security measures and the new reality. In addition, Adult Educators have struggled in finding creative and healing ways, in order to ease the psychological discomfort and pain of learners, which sometimes led even to burn-out. However, due to the crisis of COVID-19 that influences most of the European countries, people have renewed their appreciation towards expression through Art and Creativity. The healing power of creativity through artistic forms has been proven in a wide variety of studies, stating that creative activities can relieve stress, depression, and aid communication (Kyaga, S., Landén, M., et.al., 2013).

Art can work as an outlet from the stress of life and negative feelings, as it is a place where someone can be creative and happy with their own company. For the individual learners, dealing with crafts and creative activities can be really useful, since it boosts a sense of self-worth after completing an accomplishment, improves self-esteem, keeps the mind and body peaceful and busy, in a way where all negative thoughts and emotions are set aside for a moment. So, the aim of this project is to assist Educators to recognize that creativity is an essential component in training, that fosters openness and the ability to tolerate uncertainty in a changing educational and social world (Galbraith, M. & Jone, M., 2012). Since creativity is so important, this project will present strategies and Good practices for promoting creativity and explore the benefits it has for Adult Educators, Adult learners, and the Adult Education field in general. Specifically, the partners in this project will exchange knowledge regarding Good practices and Tools with an artistic and educational dimension, in order to enrich the educational "briefcases" of Adult educators and to promote positive well-being, and ease the negative psychological aspects arisen from the pandemic.