1. Introduction

1. Introduction

Why focusoncultural and physical activities to supplement educational and reintegration services?Because those activities move us and make us think anddiscover new worlds. At the same time, they ensure cohesion between the various groups, encourage meetings, provide solidarity, and make issues or problems visible and debatable. We are used to training our brains and learning skills by using classical schooling and reintegration methods. Art and sport are more flexible, have many different training methods and practices, and rely on 21st-century skills. Participation in cultural or physical activities contributes to social involvementand personal growth. It has a personal element, affects you emotionally,and increasescreativity, self-development, resilience and endurance.

Art and Sport are brilliant ‘schools’ for 21st-century skills

This handbook forms the theoretical basis on which the cultural and physical guidelines are builtin the project MOVE Beyond. The starting point isthe findings from the final report of the previous ESF project MOVE. This report describes various best European practices in which young people are guided, trained and coached through cultural and physical activities. These activities from the field of Sport support and motivate youngsters in a playful, safe and informal way. Activities in the field of Art increase curiosity, critical

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thinking,and new ways to see the world –not for their recreational or sporting function but for their social and educational function in the broadest sense of the word. The findings distilled from the project MOVE, namely the triangle guidance, location and organisation, the Agora model,and Social Cognition, have prompted us to elaboratethese activities in the project MOVE Beyond as building blocks in developing practical cultural and physical training courses/workshops to complement existing educational and reintegration training. The handbook also comprehends six applied theories on which we base the training courses/workshops,and best practices in the cultural and physical guidelines for trainers, distilling the most essential and applicable elements into practice. Despite the fact that there are many theories about education and learning, we have selected these theories on the belief that learning is an active experientialprocess in which the learner is central and an active participant in the creation and development of their own knowledge. In this project, we focus on eight 21st-century skills: creativity, critical thinking (and problem solving), communication, collaboration –the four Cs,flexibility, leadership, initiative,and socialskills. You will also findan analysis based on the interviews made with each project partner toinvestigate some aspects emerging from the MOVEBeyond project. Despite the different characteristics of the partner organisations, they have multiple similarities concerning goals, main objective and mission.

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