Wires Crossed - Level 2 was the second step of an innovative education programme to promote positive physical and mental well-being, safe risk-taking, self-control and social inclusion among young people through the art of funambulism (tightwire walking with a balancing pole). The project developed competences for youth circus educators and promoted high-quality youth work that is inclusive and reaches young people with fewer opportunities. This project was a continuation of cooperation leading to a large-scale European project led by Galway Community Circus and their partners École de Cirque de Bruxelles and CABUWAZI in 2017-2021 as part of the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture programme. The objectives of the project were to develop skills and competences of youth circus educators; help youth circus organisations increase their capacity; improve health and wellbeing and social, personal and life skills of young people; develop and share effective methods in reaching out to marginalized youth; promote social inclusion, solidarity and intercultural dialogue; help young people with fewer opportunities become more engaged and involved in society; help young refugees become more integrated in their local community and connected to young people in other parts of Europe; and to make funambulism a widely used innovative educational method in youth and social circus sector and beyond. The project was delivered through non-formal education in a youth work setting using the creative and physical methods of youth circus education based on active volunteer participation. It included three Transnational Project Meetings and four staff training events for youth circus trainers. The project set out to develop high-quality skills and competences for twelve youth circus trainers from Belgium, Germany and Ireland. This was done by providing a twelve-month training programme for tutor teams from the partner organisations. During this twelve-month period the youth circus trainers took part in three short-term staff training events in Galway, Berlin and Brussels. The training focused on technical competences in funambulism and pedagogic competences for educators, rigging and safety as well as skills to work with diverse target groups. The Wires Crossed - Level 2 project educated alumni of 'Wires Crossed - A Balancing Act for Europe Level 1' Strategic Partnership organised in 2017/18 in further pedagogical and technical funambulism skills at a more advanced level. The funambulism training used the methodology developed by the partners and an expert team during the first Wires Crossed Erasmus+ project. The LTT activities successfully tested and evaluated the methodology, allowing for improvements, revisions and further development for its use in other future funambulism pedagogy projects in Europe. The final methodology will now be disseminated to other European countries in the next phase of the wider Wires Crossed project. The funambulism training during the LTT activities was facilitated by a funambulism Expert Team from the European Centre of Funambulism, made up of funambule master Denis Josselin, funambulism technical and pedagogical expert Bruno Frenette and co-ordinated by Vincent Wauters. Denis and Bruno each led 2 LTT activities in this project. The project themes of 'mental health & wellbeing', 'social inclusion', 'engagement and participation of marginalised youth and young people with fewer opportunities' and 'innovative projects to support young people’s development' are highlighted in the EU Strategy for Youth Investing and Empowering Youth, EU 2020 – Youth on the move and the priorities of Erasmus+. The Wires Crossed project is the first of its kind in the word and the project results will be used to play a continual key role in building capacity and international and cross-sectoral cooperation for the growing youth circus sector in Ireland, Belgium, Germany and beyond. The results of the project will be shared widely through the International Youth and Social Circus Network CARAVAN and through European partnerships/organisations, such as the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.The Wires Crossed activities to date will be showcased at a major funambulism event in Galway in August 2020 as part of the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture. 400 participants from all strands of the project will be involved in a highwire crossing of the River Corrib and Claddagh Basin in Galway over a continual period of 2020 minutes. The event will provide a public display of solidarity, highlighting the importance of looking after mental health and wellbeing within our communities. Long-term benefits of the project include improvement in physical and mental wellbeing and social inclusion among young people, improved quality of youth circus education on offer across Europe, and Youth and Social Circus/education becoming a more widely recognized tool for social change.

Wires Crossed - Balancing Act for Europe project came about from the desire to provide an inclusive, safe and engaging outlet for young people to take part in physical and creative activities which enhance their sense of well-being. The project partners were Galway Community Circus from Ireland, École de Cirque de Bruxelles from Belgium and CABUWAZI from Germany - all youth circus schools which use circus arts education as a tool for social, personal and community development and for promoting social inclusion and positive physical and mental wellbeing. The project reacted to the hidden crisis on youth mental health in Europe by preparing a training for youth circus trainers in funambulism (tightwire walking with a balancing pole) - an activity that combines physical activity, mental well-being techniques and circus arts. All three areas help young people by providing opportunities for self-expression, building self-confidence, social interaction and integration as well as improving their control over symptoms of anxiety and depression. They also increase positive risk taking both physically and emotionally, they promote physical health and body awareness, increase self-confidence and self-efficacy, improves social connectedness, teamwork, and leadership skills within the group and enables participants to acquire a broadened skill base relating to circus as well as more generic 'life skills'. This project was the first European project of a multi-annual programme, 'Wires Crossed', delivered by Galway Community Circus as one of the anchor projects of Galway European Capital of Culture 2020. Wires Crossed are leading to a large-scale Galway 2020 project culminating in big community gathering in Galway in June 2020 where 400 people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds from all around Europe cross the River Corrib on tightwires to celebrate diversity and highlight the importance of physical and mental well-being.There were two groups of participants in the project - 12 youth circus tutors learning how to teach funambulism to young people and 12 youth participants with fewer opportunities (including young refugees) taking a part in a youth exchange.The project activities comprised of:- Two transnational meetings of project coordinators in Galway and Brussels.- Three professional trainings in Galway and Brussels led by French funambulism experts Denis Josselin and Bruno Frenette for the group of 12 youth circus tutors that enabled them to teach funambulism in heights up to 2 meters and gave them basic rigging and health and safety training necessary for delivering funambulism activities. Two of the trainings also included the crossing of a waterway on the tightwire - over a canal in Brussels and the Claddagh Pool in Galway City. [To see a video of crossing in Galway please go to: http://bit.ly/2o8bzan]- A youth exchange in Berlin for young people from the three partner countries which brought together youth participants from disadvantaged backgrounds and young refugees. All of the initial project objectives were met: - To develop the skills & competences of youth circus trainers- To improve the health & wellbeing and social, personal & life skills of participants- To develop and share effective methods of reaching out to marginalized youth- To promote social inclusion, solidarity & intercultural dialogue- To help young people with fewer opportunities to become more engaged & involved in society- To help young refugees become more integrated in their local community & connected to youth in other parts of Europe- To help youth circus organisations increase their capacity- To make funambulism a widely used innovative educational method in the youth & social circus sector and beyondThis project has helped establish a methodology for teaching funambulism to young people in the participating schools and their local partner organisations (please see a best practice document attached). Thanks to the thorough training that the 12 youth circus tutors received there can be first funambulism workshops for young people bringing all the mentioned benefits to young people in Ireland, Belgium and Germany.This methodology will be disseminated to partner youth circus schools which are members of International Youth and Social Circus Network CARAVAN. funding for Level 2 training for the first twelve tutors to provide them with further training in funambulism and teaching in heights over four meters along with health and safety training and rigging. this was approved in April 2018 through the Irish national agency. And we are awaiting a funding decision to being 5 new partner countries into the project.

‘Wires Crossed – Mind Your Balance’ is the 3rd phase in the development of an innovative educational programme designed to promote positive physical and mental well-being and social inclusion through the art of funambulism (tightwire walking with a balancing pole). This inclusive programme aims to empower young people from all walks of life to improve their wellbeing; support them to build social, personal and life skills; increase empathy for themselves and others; become active members of society; feel more connected to their peers both locally and across Europe; and promote inter-cultural dialogue, tolerance and diversity.‘Wires Crossed – Mind Your Balance’ is a training-for-trainers programme in using funambulism to reach, engage and support young people with mental health difficulties. The project came from the need to address the youth mental health crisis across Europe by providing an inclusive, safe and engaging outlet for young people to take part in physical and creative activities that enhance their wellbeing. Research shows that taking part in physical activities has psychological benefits for young people by improving their control over symptoms of anxiety and depression (World Health Organization report “Preventing suicide: A global imperative (2014) Circus is a form of physical activity provided in a non-competitive and supportive setting, making it an ideal vehicle to reach vulnerable youth. Balancing activities such as tightwire can be used as powerful mindfulness tools to develop focus, courage and confidence, and teach us how to take back control of our body and mind. The project aims to:•address the need to increase the number of youth educators equipped to work with vulnerable young people•develop skills and competences of youth circus educators in the field of youth mental health•promote funambulism and circus arts as innovative educational tools to support the personal and social development of vulnerable young people•develop high-quality methodologies for using funambulism as a way to support and increase wellbeing in young people, and for these to be widely-used across the European youth and social circus sector and beyond There participants groups for the project will be:- 12 Youth Circus Educators (3 each from Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Romania) who will take part in a Training for Trainers programme in teaching funambulism within the context of youth mental health. This will include 4 training activities (1 in each country) working with experts in funambulism, pedagogy and mental health, and the development and delivery of funambulism and wellbeing workshops for local young people.- 24 young people (12 from Ireland and 12 from Romania) who will take part in the funamulism and wellbeing workshops. These young people will come through local organisations that support young people experiencing mental health difficulties. - Non-circus based youth workers from the local organisations who have an interest in how creative activities can be used to work with vulnerable youth. They will work with the partners and be invovled in the workshops as an introduction to this conceptThe project will provide long-term positive impacts on each of the participant groups, the project partners and the European Youth and Social Circus sector:YOUTH PARTICIPANTS will be offered new ways of improving their physical and mental health and wellbeing in an informal and creative setting, which will support their personal and social developmentYOUTH CIRCUS EDUCATORS will develop high-quality skills and competences (particularly in working with vulnerable young people) which will increase their employability YOUTH CIRCUS ORGANISATIONS will improve their youth work through the sharing of best practice, knowledge and innovative ideas, and develop their international and cross-sectoral co-operationTHE EUROPEAN YOUTH CIRCUS SECTOR will receive a well developed and tested methodology for funambulism training and how to deliver this in the context of youth mental health. They will benefit from trained and experienced teachers with international experience.‘Wires Crossed – Mind Your Balance’ is the 3rd phase of bigger international funambulism project called ‘Wires Crossed,’ which is being produced by Galway Community Circus and their partners as one of the flagship projects of the European Capital of Culture Galway 2020 (ECOC).

The strategic partnership project “On the Wire - Balancing our fear”, has been organised within the partnership of Circus CABUWAZI, Ecole de Cirque de Bruxelles in Belgium, Cirkus Cirkor from Sweden and Zahrada, o.p.s. CIRQUEON from Czech Republic. It aim was to create innovative pedagogical methods in the field of trauma release, using the the circus pedagogical tool of high-wire walking. . Our project was aiming to train youth workers combining circus pedagogy and modern therapy methods towards trauma release. We are now convinced that circus pedagogy has huge potential to support the trauma release process with children and youngsters based on their physical activities, which we had explored with the support of professionals. “Funambulisme”, the high wire walking with a balancing pole, had been the main tool in our project to develop the competences of the youth workers. It has been a very effective way to work with different target groups, as it is surprisingly easy to learn for beginners, yet pedagogically intense, as the wire can be set up on different heights ranging from 20 cm to several meters (with a safety leash). As Outputs of the project we have created the curriculum and pedagogical framework for the youth workers to develop their competences, and in the research report we reflected and described the potential in working with traumatised kids and youngsters utilizing “Funambulisme” as a medium. The main objectives of our project was to bring together knowledge from psychosocial empowerment and circus pedagogy to develop a new approach on use Funabulism as a tool for youth work, with the specific focus on trauma release. To show its potential for integration and empowerment of young people with the special needs, in particular young refugees. By combining these two fields, our goal was to develop a accebile and clear pedagogical method, which can be applied in the work with young people with refugee backgroud by training youth workers. We have discovered that the application of these method had improve the well-being of the young refugee community and contribute towards their integration within our society. The circus space is a social place which allows people to overcome their blockades and fears indirectly through building trust and a feeling of belonging with the circus. We had contribute to the empwoerment of young people involved in our local circus activities those issues, allowing them to fully take part in our local community. The project has proven that Circus pedagogy is a very effective field of social work which is creating strong experiences for children and youth where they can overcome blockades and inner tensions through positive, empowering experiences of success and social acceptance. We want to continueto work on the development of the necessary competences for the pedagogues working in the circus field to work especielly with excluded youth groups, like traumatised refugee children and present this outcomes to the wider field circus community field as an effective method to deal with integration and empowerment.

Youth and social circus organisations do not regard circus solely as an art form, but also as a medium for the education of people and the social integration of people with fewer opportunities, with special needs or marginalised (prisoners, old people, immigrants, minority groups,...). It is a universal tool presenting many pedagogical assets. The development of this rapidly growing sector as led to a new profession: youth and social circus instructor. Several short-term non formal vocational trainings are already offered in this fields and the time has come for a professionalization of the sector.Consequently, this Strategic Partnership project gathered employers and pedagogical experts of youth and social circus organisations along with universities and higher school academic experts in order to:- Analyse the educational offer in youth and social circus pedagogy in each partner country and address the needs of this sector- Create European frameworks of competences laying the foundations for a European long-term training programme that is better aligned to the needs and opportunities offered by the labour market- Develop the basis of short-term post secondary school qualifications in accordance with European Qualifications Framework in order to recognise and validate the knowledge, skills and competences acquired through formal, non-formal and informal learning- Create pathways between non-formal and formal education through a cross sectoral partnership linking circus organisations, higher schools and universities- Encourage European active citizenship and intercultural exchanges- Improve the pedagogical quality of youth and social circus work for the benefit of the end-users, i.e. young people with fewer opportunities, people with special needs, old people, immigrants,...This process will enable the sector to create more job opportunities and to validate the qualifications of professionals active in the field, and hence work towards an official recognition of their qualifications.