Partnership CoE/EC Pilot Training Course European Citizenship in youth work

"Interactive Group Building"

A note on the principles of the Workshop: The process is designed to be accessible to all participants, whether or not they have experience of doing this sort of activity. It is inspired by the ideas of Forum Theatre from Augusto Boal. All exercises are optional if a participant does not feel comfortable with an exercise she/he can step out of it at any time. The moments for reflection in the process are intended as an outlet for feelings and emotions not as an opportunity for analysis of intellectual discussion. Participants are of course welcome to use these activities with their groups. It is recommended to try them out first with a group that the facilitator already feels comfortable with and to bear in mind the importance of building up to the more challenging exercises. Objectives To facilitate the group building process To explore individual and group perspectives (ways of seeing) To provide a context for co-operation which is not only dependent on oral discussion To open up creative avenues for exploring the themes of the course To introduce participants to practical activities which could be used with a variety of groups Descriptions Pushing against each other (10 minutes) Participants arrange themselves in pairs, facing each other, and hold each other by the shoulders. There is a line (imaginary or real) on the ground between them. They start pushing with all their strength. When one person feels that her adversary is weaker, she eases off so as not to win. If the other person increases his pushing, the first does the same, so that both are using all their strength building up the tension but keeping the balance. Can be tried back to back (leaning on each other) or holding arms with feet together and leaning back. The latter version can then be turned into a seesaw. Hypnosis (10 minutes) Partners stand facing each other. A holds his hand in front of Bs face. As A slowly moves his hand, B keeps her face at the same plane as the palm of the hand. Tips of fingers to forehead, bottom of hand to chin. It is important not to put the hand too close. The aim is to put your partner into unusual positions without making them do things that they cant do. Test their limits. This can be extended by linking pairs together (via hypnosis) so that there are different groups that are all co-dependent on each others movement. Share thoughts with partners then with another pair (fours) (5 minutes)

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Partnership CoE/EC Pilot Training Course European Citizenship in youth work

Important notes for all blind games Lead with the chest not with the head, do not stick arms out in front of you, make sure the room does not have any sharp, sticking out obstacles and if necessary have spotters to turn people round who are walking into danger. Stand / walk blind (5 minutes) Everyone finds a space in the room. Stand with eyes closed, hands by sides or crossed in front of chest. Find your center of gravity. Play with it by leaning from side to side and backwards and forwards and then come back to the center. People then walk as slowly as they like about the room. If a person comes into contact with another person they stop and, without talking or opening their eyes, negotiate their way round each other. Blind magnets (10 minutes) Magnets repel and attract. Everyone walks around the space with eyes closed. No talking. At first everyone repels so that it is impossible to touch. When someone feels another person approaching they sense each other and move away. Then they attract. If people touch they must remain touching and keep moving. Reverse this several times. At the end the group can be left in a bunch and then open their eyes. Who did you end up next to? Why? Discuss in fours (5 minutes) Blind cars (15 minutes) Partners. One is the car, the other is the driver. The car is blind. The driver communicates with the car by pats. Patting on the top of the head means move forward. On the left shoulder means turn left. On the right shoulder turn right. On the back means reverse. The car should turn on the spot not in a curve. The car controls the speed. The idea is to move through the traffic without crashing. Discuss with partner (5 minutes) Complete the image (20 minutes) The joker comes into the middle of the circle and takes on a shape but doesnt say what it is. She asks the group what they see. She then explains what it meant to her. She then explains about not naming images that saying what an image is before showing it narrows down the perspectives or possible interpretations. One person then comes into the circle and makes a frozen image, a second person then adds himself to complete the story he saw in the first persons image. The first person is the replaced by a third person who changes the image to fit in with the story she saw in the second persons shape. Dont discuss these at first, just see them and go. This can then be built up by adding more than two people or done on a theme. Sculpting in pairs (20 minutes) Each participant stands facing a partner. A is the sculptor, B is intelligent clay. She practises

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Partnership CoE/EC Pilot Training Course European Citizenship in youth work

manipulating her partners body to make the image she wants. B tries to feel and understand what he is which is what is meant by intelligent clay. When both A and B have had a couple of practices, working on the theme of citizens sculptors then bring their sculptures together to make one big sculpture. Look at it. Does it tell a story? Discuss images in two circles (5 minutes) Atom 5/4 (5 minutes) Everyone moves around the room, filling the room and trying to keep an equal distance between each person. The joker says a number and without stopping people form groups of that number. This is repeated several times, finishing with 5 (or a number that will make groups of around six). Collective poems (55 minutes) Each group writes one word inspired by the idea of Europe on one piece of paper. The group then passes the paper to the group on their right. In each group, each individual should now, on separate pieces of paper, write a sentence or phrase inspired by this theme without consulting each other. The group then passes all these pieces of paper to the group on the right. Each group now has to assemble a poem using the theme as a title and arranging the sentences in an order that makes sense to them. When they are happy with the order, they decide on a way of performing the poem. They should decide if one person says one line, everyone says all the poem etc They should then decide on an image using the group, which represents the poem and add one group/individual movement per line of the poem. At the end they should have a movement sequence along with a reading of their poem. Each group then performs this to the rest.

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