At Dublin Youth Theatre (DYT), we have been helping young people build important life skills through drama for almost 50 years. Through our work, they learn collaboration, problem solving, empathy, leadership, responsibility, and so much more. Youth theatre is a place of self-directed informal learning that gives young people a sense of ownership and independence. Young people sit on our board and our committees, gaining further valuable skills and directing our organisation.
Introducing a global focus
After our managing director Sarah Bragg Bolger took part in the NUI Certificate in Global Youth Work and Development Education, she was inspired to bring a more global focus to DYT’s work.
Youth theatre uses a variety of different methodologies. It presents diverse opportunities for knowledge and skills development and is the ideal vehicle through which to explore global issues. Through physical performance, critique writing, script writing, and community engagement, we can connect the local with the global.
After we received training from the Youth 2030 team, we delivered three workshops to 15 of our young members. Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we enabled our young participants to see themselves in the context of globalisation. We used the PLiNGs (personal, local, national and global) approach to frame our efforts, which was a useful tool. In Sarah’s words, it “helps to make us feel less powerless when we can see the personal in what might initially look like a global issue.”
Exploring complex issues
Through drama, we were able to delve into complex, sensitive, and global topics. The knowledge our young participants gained on the SDGs wasn’t abstract, but connected to their own experiences. This work broadened their possibilities for artistic expression while giving them a template for real-world action through rehearsed interventions.
Inspiring young changemakers
Thanks to the Youth 2030 Innovation Fund grant, we were able to properly resource the development and documentation of these pilot workshops. Documenting the success of introducing a global youth work approach into youth drama means we can spread this work further. We plan to use the workshop content in our schools programme in the future and to share it with other youth theatres.
Using global youth work in the youth theatre context provided young people with a safe and familiar space to learn about cultural diversity and human rights. One of our young people noted that “talking about oppression is an important discussion and we don’t get much of a chance elsewhere.” After the project, our members began to consider concrete actions to fight oppression. Each participant did independent research after the project to explore SDGs they chose to represent what it means to be global citizens.
Evaluating and continuation
In spite of COVID impacting both participants and facilitators, we were able to gather feedback and document the impact of the work. Through personal reflections, we recorded the origin of participant perceptions on global topics and demonstrated positive behavioural and mental shifts. Bringing a global youth work approach into DYT didn’t radically change anything we had done historically, but added structured context and an explicit call to action. Our strategic goals include better serving our young people and their communities in the personal and social development. Incorporating global youth is helping us to further these goals and work towards outcomes that are reflected within the SDGs.
Since the project, we have been working with a playwright and with the European Youth Engagement Festival. Our goal is to expand the workshops to include more of the SDGs and bring in more intercultural cooperation. Moving forward, we want to use social justice and human rights issues to further develop critical thinking and advocacy skills.