Zoom - The Book

Suddenly Suddenly it’s autumn and I fall. Was there ever summer at all? My mornings green, red, brown and yellow. Nothing seems warm. Nothing seems mellow. So as the year must die, I fall in love With pumpkin pie. And it's spices keep me warm, In the cold autumn storm. Maikel Mõttus/ Melancholic Dandyman 99

Perhaps life might be a sequence of surprises? Just a way to see. JanMargen 100

The Book represents the result of the Youth Exchange “ZOOM - Dig into your Sensitivity”. Organised and implemented by Associazione Vagamondo with the support of six European partner organisations involved in youth work. The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme and the European Union. Special thanks to the Italian National Agency. 101

Vagamondo NGO from Italy Vagamondo, based in the south of Piedmont region, in Italy, is an NGO focused on European mobility and non-formal education. It provides learning and growing opportunities for young people and youth workers. The name Vagamondo comes from the concept of travel as a powerful tool of self-discovery and personal development: it is through direct contact with cultural and personal differences that identity becomes more visible to every individual; it is coming out of the comfort zone, getting involved in new activities, different from the usual ones, that people can identify room to grow and work on themselves. In that condition of clarity non-formal education becomes a playground where people can practice new ways of thinking and acting; an effective tool to make a change that can create a long-term positive impact once back home, thus to improve the quality of personal and professional life. From 2013 to 2019 Vagamondo took part in the organization and implementation of more than 100 international projects in Italy and abroad, involving more than 350 young people and youth workers. Vagamondo is now also a platform where youngsters from Italy and from other European countries can practice different roles in the organization and implementation of international projects and in this way rise competences in the field of youth work, this happens with the support and guidance of more experienced ones in a way that wants to ensure freedom of expression, learning and quality. Associazione Vagamondo ������ www.vagamondo.info 102

Partners contribution Risti-Rästi NGO from Estonia Risti-Rästi is a non-profit and non-governmental organization which has been created to supervise youngsters in different activities what are related to health promoting lifestyle, creative approaches of learning and sports. We are also aiming to provide international youth mobility and personal development opportunities to young people and youth workers. The main activity takes place in city called Keila, though there are several cases when services apply to youngsters all over the Estonia as well. More specifically we focus on developing our youth awareness and improvement of their physical and mental health. We are passionate about sharing non-formal education methods and developing creative approaches, using tools from dance and body expression, theatre, media (film-making, editing, graphic design), organizing events etc. NGO Risti-Rästi was initiated only at the beginning of October 2016, but it’s based on long time experience of work with young people. Regularly we are cooperating with many different European NGO`s. That also includes sending our Estonian young people abroad to attend partner organizations educational Erasmus+ projects Risti-Rästi ristixrasti Solidarity Mission Non Profit Company from Greece 103

Anna, programme manager of Solidarity Mission, writes about the Youth exchange ZOOM: “The people that participated to the project came back enthusiastic and with their eagerness increased in order to create a better future for their lives. Also they had the willingness to put into work what they learned in the programme.” Solidarity Mission is a non profit training organisation focusing on social economy, social entrepreneurship and sustainable development officially established in January 2016, in Athens. However, our team act as an informal group of volunteer coaches, trainers and mentors since January 2013, having helped social entrepreneurs and NGO’s members to grow their social impact. • Our Mission is to contribute to the development of social and solidarity economy, both locally and globally. • Our Vision is to create a global network of social entrepreneurship centers for those who aim to make the world a better place. The Academy offers possibilities in different fields: intercultural-dialogue, personal development, integration, youth employment, social inclusion and equality, gender and LGBTQIA+ issues, media, outdoor activities, theatre, gamification, embodied training, systemic work, self-organized learning systems, concepts from NLP, non-violent communication, coaching enhancing soft skills and non formal education to youth. Solidarity Mission solidaritymission ESN Erasmus Almería association from Spain In the past years, ESN Almería was involved in one youth exchange abroad and organized trainings about international volunteering and leadership for the volunteers involved in the organization. One of the goals of the organization for 2019 is to develop more projects in this area and to give access to youth mobilities to more young people in the province of 104

Almeria, to the university students of Almeria and to young people with fewer opportunities in the local area. Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is the biggest student association in Europe. It was funded the 16th October 1989 and legally registered in 1990 to support and develop student exchange. ESN Almeria is a non-profit association funded in 2009 whose main aim is to support international students in their experience during the Erasmus program. ESN Almeria cooperates with the International Office of UAL and with other private and public entities in Almeria province. It has its own office inside the University and manages a youth pub where it organizes leisure activities for young people. ESN Almería Esnalmeria Non-Formal Co-Creative Wizards Non-formal group from Denmark Non-Formal Co-Creative Wizards group has a great passion for creative self-expression, non-formal learning and social and environmental activism. Our joined practice involves performance arts, visual arts, music, creative writing & circus as a tool for community building and social change. Goals of the group: ▪ Connecting Danish youth with Europe-wide projects around creativity and activism ▪ Facilitating new processes of learning and co-creating, interculturally. ▪ Providing a ‘hot spot’ for informal art networks in different Danish regions ▪ Providing ‘bridging capital’ between Danish youth non-formal groups and broader EU opportunities 105

▪ Being part of a cultural shift toward more participatory, democratic forms of learning and creative sharing The group consists of: Anne Sofie Nielsen is a visual artist, project developer and photographer. Kai Green is a dramaturg, writer, singer-songwriter and social entrepreneurship researcher. Carmen Csilla Medina is a psycho-motor therapist, circus instructor and dancer-performer (circus & spoken word). Carmen has organised and facilitated two training courses. They have co- created festivals such as Créestival (France), local Burning Man festivals (Denmark, UK, Sweden), Utopia School (Denmark), És Amor Gathering (Portugal). Embaixada da Juventude youth association from Portugal I am Paula Rocha, president of Embaixada da Juventude. I am doing my PhD on Public Policies, regarding Higher Education. Furthermore, I have this passion about the power of youth on their environments. I believe that if they know their power and improve their skills, they can really be the power of change. Zoom Project was a great experience for me and for my participants. It was my first time as a team leader and my group was really motivated to do their best. During the project they improved their skills on poetry, but more than that they learnt how to work better together, integrated in an international group. They learnt how to make their own voice listened, even without translation. It was really good for them to have that experience. I was grateful and a real joy to be there with them. I think they are more motivated to act locally and also to be active in Erasmus+ projects. Erasmus+ is a great tool for all youth workers because allow us to have the opportunity to learn with our peers, learn locally and improve our skills in 106

so many different ways. Furthermore, create many opportunities for youngsters to open their mind to Europe and to world. Learn by doing is, in my opinion, the best way to learn and Erasmus+ give us that opportunity: learn new languages, contact with different cultures and open minds to the difference, learning about tolerance, empathy and so on. So, Erasmus+ is very important for my work, helping me to make my work better and helping our youngsters to improve their competences and their vision about the world. Embaixada da Juventude, was born in 2015, to boost the involvement of youth people by social projects to give an answer to their needs and to dynamize youth people to find the opportunities in themselves. The Embaixada da Juventude considers that youth people are the driving force for any society development. So the main activity is to bet our resources to promote and to enable this population, which is capable to propagate the advantages for other people, of all ages and generations. Embaixada da Juventude Embaixadadajuventude POINT OF VYOU Association from Romania POINT OF VYOU Association is an intercultural youth center created in order to complete and balance the lifestyle of youth that are willing to develop and achieve their potential, through multilateral development, sustainability and global responsibility. POINT OF VYOU was launched in September 2016. Our organization is a combination of different experiences with different people, methods and perspectives. Erasmus+ projects are needed because of the young people from our NGO that are not satisfied with their life and environment, they don’t know themselves enough in order to self direct, self motivate, self believe and understand their life. Youth workers are role models for youngsters 107

and in order to find the best approach, first they should develop themselves and after to be leader of youngsters. This project was an opportunity for the youth workers from the NGO in order to be more involved in the community at national and international level. Diana, the key staff person of this project, has organized and been involved in more than 30 European and National projects. She shares her passion for exchanging intercultural experiences, connecting with diverse cultures, traveling around Europe and being part of many course; all these aspects are creating a very good combination in order to give the best results in the project and support to participant involved in the exchange. POINT of VYOU 108

Words by the organisers Along with me sounds very similar. Alone with me is the feeling I have. I look at every face there’s around here looking for the reflection of my eyes. Eyes that look into different other’s eyes, mirrors of glass, only glass, without soul. Along with me sounds very similar. Alone with me is the feeling I have. But when I hear the rhythm of the lights in every body that colours my way, I touch what may be the meaning for me of your skin, of your doing, of your sleeping. Along with me sounds very similar. Alone with me is the feeling I have. So the meaning of the colours are clear in the eyes that look all around and here, the dark shadows too, that want loneliness. And I want a warming touch to be seen. Along with me sounds very similar. Alone with me is the feeling I had. 109

The Zoom project is a poetical idea of poetical return to evolution for people. Sound fantastic told in this way and it’s exactly what it is! The Zoom project was born in a cloudy day in the Dutch countryside during a training course in which participants wish to discover their own body language. Between a dancing session and a collective movement reflection the three project writers started to discuss upon the meaning of language in itself and how the humanity will be able to evolve through a common poetics, a common sense of being artistic in words. This was the beginning of the Zoom idea that allow people to reflect on the language, the common sense, the ideas for the future and go deep into details and concepts like a Camera Zoom mechanism that will destroy all the convincing possibilities that we meet along our path and re-build a new frame in which all the bricks go in a poetical, amazing, powerful way, set together into a brand new welcoming way to build. The idea to end the project with a book that collects all the steps of the common walk into poetry is also the reaching of the aim to propose to others the opportunity of being part, in different moments, of the same path idea. So starting from the complex through the context and reaching the detail is our proposal, that should come back through different contexts into new complexities of the human being and try out how to comprehend all of us into a shared poetical world. 110

How we started: “Collective Poem”. The night is still, stars shine silently. I don’t have words to describe this heaven Suddenly I saw two huge eyes staring at me I could feel the connection between me and the two eyes. Oh, this melodic sound I was hearing. It must be an owl, I thought. Fear made me want to flee Also I want to be here But I’m stuck within my thoughts So I free them all in a journey of wisdom Heart to heart On the beat on the earth, Beat to the rhythm Take my hand let’s create a better world As two worlds meet, hand in hand Something unforeseen, yet unknown can come to be. The time is everything we need, to realise it is good to be or not to be. Beyond the time, only the heart is good in realise How to see without see Whenever you want, it allows you to meet the people you love Beyond space and time, cause the dimensions of love In the imaginary stay alive. 111

At the same time I am walking down the street, seeing your shiny eyes, I think we should meet But when I cross the road to hold you close, You disappear as the wind blows For when is you I love the Most, it was your spirit I suppose A clover light, a sense of pitch: those losses in my words of wit And then I asked: what a sense of pitch? I am just full of feelings But so empty, like a ship without any seagulls to follow Drowning in time Suffocated by chains that only sounds inside our head It’s a beautiful feeling Nobody can sense Poetry is within me It feels so intense Outside is nothing No one is out there The only person talking From within me wants to share A strong and cold wind is blowing Rose petals are flying away, and so are my hopes The day is becoming twilight and then becoming night But at there, a bird is singing, leading me to a promised land. But I know too much of statistics and Too little of happiness to act 112

Maybe we could make a play out of the rise of the usage Of vehicles and the fall of the pirates at the same time? Don’t hate, meditate! I have come to a conclusion, I should start meditating! In the distance there’s music playing And two people dancing alone under the same rhythm With each motion they sink deeper into the sand Still wet of rainy days, but still holding hands All we are sitting alone, curious like the cats. 113

Ella Cincan

2019 Find more at: https://zoompoetryproject.wixsite.com/zoom