We organised an Erasmus+ supported Training Course in Debrecen, Hungary. Between 28^th September and 7^th October 2025. The participating youth workers explored the techniques of Image, Forum and Newspaper Theatre and learnt how to use them in order to bring social change in their communities. During the 10 days of the training, 30 youth workers, supported by 2 trainers and 7 partner organisations got empowered to use these methods either as performers, facilitators of the process or youth workers who are eager to initiate social change and help the inclusion of vulnerable groups of youngsters. The project was funded by the EU and organised by:

@brujulaintercultural 

@eplus_rptu @sehzadelerr 

@hellasforus@nadejda.crd 

@ascointerasmus and

@hangkepe

#actitout #erasmus

Participating countries: countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Romania, Spain, Türkiye and Hungary.

Project Description:

Theatre of the Oppressed is a collective rehearsal for reality. The main idea of this methodology is to make people experience and understand how a change of an attitude, behaviour or thinking pattern can have a powerful significant effect on their life as well as lives of people around them.

Forum and Image Theatre methods are highly adaptable to the needs of different communities, with a large capacity to cover all kind of the social issues: human rights problems, power abuse and oppression in different ways, lack of activism, discrimination, exclusion, poverty, marginalization, xenophobia, etc. and through a creative approach provides a space for people to reflect, find solutions to these topics and transfer the solutions in their lives.

Theatre of the Oppressed even if is a very efficient methodology for handling social problems is not enough known and applied. This project is an answer to the needs of various youth organizations that need alternative methods for improving the situation of their target groups.

The main goal of the project was to increase the capacity of youth work sector to raise the participation and involvement of young people in social processes and change, to support the inclusion of marginalized groups in the local communities;

More specific Objectives of the project are:

• To introduce innovative methodologies in youth work field;
• To raise the capacity of partner organizations to operate at European level and in international mobility projects;
• To stimulate the exchange of best practices in youth work field;
• To increase the quality of the youth organization projects;
• To develop and improve skills in non-formal education in general, and in particular in Theatre of the Oppressed methods for youth workers from Europe;
• To develop a network of Forum Theatre multipliers in various regions of Europe;
• to improve project management, communication, team leading and motivations skills for youth workers.
• To increase the level of active participation of the local communities and different target groups of each partner

The participants got to know the methods of the Theatre of the Oppressed (mostly Image Theatre, Forum Theatre and Newspaper Theatre) and learnt how to use them in their respective communities.