Paul Schober

Attunement through the Experience of Joy

Ode to Joy, is named after one of the positive emotions joy, pride, contentment, esteem which are catalysts for increasing people’s satisfaction generally in their personal lives and professionally in their work. Joyful people are more motivated to act and participate, are much less likely to experience burn out, and have a better mental and physical health and are more resilient towards uncomfortable emotions. We want to achieve this through fusing experience-based methods together, such as drama, bodywork, dance, music, symbolwork, storytelling, nature work, validation of competencies, CH-Q procedure, with more formal VPL methods, that help NEETs reconnect with their body and mind, increasing their ability to experience joy and to connect and through this experience develop a greater sense of attunement and joy.

Ode to Joy aims to realize the following objectives:

• To equip adult educators/ guidance councellors (or people working in similar fields) with tools to support their target group in personal growth through increased awareness, motivation and positive emotions.
• To foster virtuous connection between NEET young adults (18-29 years old), the employment sector and the formal and informal learning environments.
• To provide Common Guidelines to implementing the project’s model and approach of focusing on the fostering attunement and connection to one’s emotion through experience-based methods.
• To provide recommendations for policy makers to embed the model and the process in the active labour market policies and guidelines for career counsellors.

Main results are:

• Based on outcomes of a cross-national research, a shared model and process for the use of socio-creative instruments in combination with VPL and other recognition of competences and transversal skills and guidelines to implement the model and approach will be developed.
• Educators’ resources, a Toolbox and a Handbook, and pedagogical guidelines will be created based on methods used by partners. The Toolbox includes a number of methods, games and exercises adult educators can use in their daily work, complimented with the theoretical backgrounds of the methods in the Handbook.
• The Toolbox will be used to create a training curriculum, tested in an international pilot-training of trainers. Based on this, five organisational curricula will be developed by the partners, in a way that is the most relevant to the local settings partners are working in, to enhance the usability and the impact.
• Finally, a summary report with the following contents is prepared: Applied methods, the adaptation of the handbook and the tools, based on the evaluation of the training; a policy recommendation paper, including procedures and instruments linked to the informal recognition of competences; guidelines and tips for adult educators, career guides and VPL practitioners and a Position Paper with the summary of our recommendations.

Project duration

November 2021 – May 2024

Web

https://joy-experience.eu

Project Partners

• Rogers Foundation, HU                       
• Gesellschaft für Sozialforschung und Bildung, AT                           
• CENTRO PER LO SVILUPPO CREATIVO DANILO DOLCI, IT         
• UWEZO GmbH, DE
• Astoria Színházi KözművelődésiEgyesület, HU    

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.