Mirmica Moving On Up

European cultural exchange and training of trainers in a European context on the use of active methodologies in leading groups - 2014 - 2015

In 2014 and 2015, Mirmica designed and implemented an Erasmus+ European exchange project in partnership with the Cémea PACA, an association that has been working since 1937 on popular education projects, proposing pathways for adults and young adults in the field of training, in particular professional animators, teachers and psychosocial workers. The project received the Erasmus+ Good Practice Award in the School and Adult Learning section.

As a first mobility, Mirmica followed in Nice a meeting of the Expression group organised by the Cémea, during which it was possible to experiment a first example of the practice called by the partners "Cultural Accompaniment". A short course which, through workshop moments, allows the sensitive and collective reworking of an experience of artistic enjoyment by a group, be it the viewing of a play, a film or one or more works of art, and whose objective is also to question together the meaning of art in our life and society.

Second mobility: Mirmica went to the Avignon theatre festival, during which Cémea used to organise cultural accompaniment courses for young people and adults. On that occasion, Mirmica was able to propose theatre activities, thus integrating the skills of its trainers within structured paths designed by the Cémea. This operation required from Mirmica a strong process of adaptation of practices in contexts different from its usual ones, while allowing the development of a real human and methodological encounter with its partners. And on the other hand, this is what the very nature of Mirmica would like, which builds its interventions by listening to the specificities of the contexts in which it operates. Some younger members were also involved in this mobility, with a view to sharing skills through practical experience.

This type of approach was also applied in the third mobility: in Marseilles, in a training course for young professional animators, under consideration for a patent from the Ministry of Youth and Sport. The course was followed by several Mirmica trainers: at first, they led the group in the discovery of specifically theatrical intervention practices, and at a later stage in the preparation of a performance and the final rehearsal to be presented to the ministerial commission during the examination. This experience also generated a synthesis document summarising a reflection on the theatrical tools used in the training of professional animators, and indicators to assess learning.

During these years of work, the association has built a participatory evaluation system of the actions and its impacts that can be replicated in other contexts, through the definition of questionnaires, focus groups, reading and sharing of data in itinere. The summary document of this process can be found at the bottom of the page.

The work with the Cémea confirmed the importance of this meeting for the development and growth of Mirmica and its trainers, defining even more specifically some essential elements of our practice: the importance of experience in learning processes, of collaboration, of the autonomisation of individual and group processes, of the dimension of listening and of respect for the specificities of the person and the context of intervention.