22. blog post ENG

good news is that you can stop an APPROACHING crowd

A report from a workshop with theatre forum on how to create a social innovation

Imagine that two rows of people approach you, in a robotic manner, and you need to stop them.There are no boundaries for your creativity, yet it is not easy – those two rows have an instruction to behave as a robotic crowd. Till the moment one of them stops – then all have to stop as well. So, hope is always there – if you can make one person stop. And that´s a challenge worth facing. Don´t you want to try? 

The game about an individual and the crowd

This game introduced our theatre forum workshop. What was our goal? To show the young participants that they can change things for the better. Once you find this idea attracting, it is important to be ready for the following: be brave enough to express himself/ herself, trust himself/ herself and withstand reservations of the others, belief that you are always able to find a right solution to a situation which doesn´t meet your expectations or which represents a burden, and last but not least, not to get discouraged.

Physical barrier is also an option, why not?

In our game brave individuals used the following techniques to stop the crowd: manipulation, mysification, emotional blackmail, cry, authoritative approach (a military senior who is shouting commands). Now we have an idea how polititions, manipulators, leaders and celebrities rule us – all those who see me and you, him and her, when we are together, as a crowd.

Our project deals with social innovation. You change the routine and the innovation is born. But what does „social“ mean? It means that your solution can be applied by different people in different places and it makes life easier for them. So how the game mentioned above relates with social innovation? For example, the rows may represent an issue and the individual with an idea the brave one who solves it.

OR

The issue may be represented by the brave individual (believe me, the determination of the student who wanted to stop the crowd by her shout represented a serious problem for my ears) and the problem solver is the individual in the crowd who first decides to stop and by doing so he/ she stops the rest.

Stern looks

You probably know the situation when you wanted to present your genious idea but what you only got was reserved looks. Or you have never tried to do so because you were afraid of getting a laugh. But every successful innovator has to be able to face that. 

WHY to be a social innovator at all? This is a cardinal question. How do I want to manifest myself in my life? Do I want to give shape to what I feel? Do I want to get interconnected with other people or I prefer staying alone with my ideas while the community doesn´t matter?

At the beginning of a social innovation there is a brave person. Brave because he/she is not afraid of looking for new solutions. Also, he/she is not afraid of finding people with whom it is possible to share the innovative idea, to develop it and to put it in practice. The bravest because he/she is willing to think of the community – the solution will help many others no matter if they come from Brno, Orlová or Tallinn. This is how we see a social innovator in our project. 

The students got to work in groups on their ideas

Here are the situations which, in the eyes of the ninth grade pupils of the Studánka Grammar School in Orlová, need innovation:

• Shorten time spent at school - go to school only two days a week („I will be stupid but will maintain good mental health“)
• Replace keys by codes („I will get rid of a bunch of keys, there will be no risk of loosing one or get it broken in the lock“ etc..)
• The feeling that you cannot find the other sock → A lost sock detector
• The feeling when the toilet paper in your cubicle runs out → A toilet paper pipe
• The feeling when you have lost the money → A hand implant replacing a bank card
• I am angry when someone eats the food I spared for myself and am looking for all day → Marks or personal compartents in the fridge
• I am angry when the school canteen throws away the not eaten food
• I am angry that I have to get up early to attend school classes starting too early, e.g. at 8 am

Presenting their ideas

To develop an idea into a social innovation, theatre forum is a great tool. WHY? Because you can get a unique feedback from the audince. It goes like that – you are sitting in the audience, watching a scene and then you get an idea that you would do it differently. By clapping you can stop the scene, go to the stage, replace the main character and act his/her part as you wish. And why is it only the main character you can replace? It is because the main character is the one who wants to find a solution to a problem. Also, it is only yourself you can change, not the others. 

Students trying problem solving through theatre forum

There is great power in that. Feedback in action. It is immediately clear if your action works or not. Businesses pay thousands for such an evidence. For community development we get it free of charge this way.

The experts

The theatre forum workshop we held in Brno on 23rd February, was about communication which doesn´t work: two friends meet each other after a long time but when they sit in a cafe to have a chat, one of them barely speaks paying major attention to his mobile – Facebook posts, Twitter tweets and texts seem to be more important than a face to face conversation, though rare. 

Here are the ideas audience suggested (and played):

• I´ll grab my friend´s mobile and smash it against the floor
• I´ll sneak my friend´s mobile in exchange for a magic pill (expensive and with fatal side effects) which, allegedly, cures the mobile addiction
• I´ll bring my friend´s Mom to the cafe and ask her to seize his son´s mobile; this situation turned into a comic improvisation worthy to be developed further in a school theatre
• I´ll attract my friend´s attention by emotion blackmailing or intimidation
• I´ll stick a smart sticker on his mobile which discharges the battery
• I have a gadget which transmits electric shocks on my friend whenever he tries to touch his mobile; each transmission is accompanied by a robotic voice saying: „leave the mobile alone“

There is a social innovation solution suggested by the project participant, Poli. Interested to know more? OK, it will be presented in our next post dealing with the projct outcomes. Till then – think and innovate!

Text Anna

Photo Polina

This blog is a part of the project Empowering Youth To Become Social Innovators, realised under the Erasmus+ partnership programme. The project is coordinated by a Czech NGO DYNAMA, z.s., seated in Brno and an Estonian NGO Youth Club Active, seated in Tallinn. This project contributes to the development of non formal learning of the youth.

21. blog post ENG

Forest-part of life!

Lack of bins = thrown garbage 

Hi everyone!

New year started and we are trying to reach new aims. Northern European countries are full of snow and there is frosty weather outside, however it does not influence us. At our last meeting we have achieved lots of productive work. First things first, we discussed our trip to the Pirita forest and as we have expected, the forest was full of rubbish. Garbage was thrown all over the place, despite the fact that this is a track of health, where sportsmen regularly do exercises and jogging.

Secondly, we thought of visiting the northern part of the forest. The decision was achieved quickly: the Internet and Google maps street view helped us to find new tracks and entrances, where most of the bins should have been located. Unfortunately, there we found only one small bin.

Besides that, we had made up a plan for our future activities. We added new meetings and divided responsibilities among participants. Special attention was given for the design of the ECO SIGNS. Furthermore, we have thought of Web design and how it would look like.Finally, I can share with you that this week we are planning to go to the Pirita forest again pin point the places, where our signs will be located.That's all for now! Have a great day everybody!

This blog is a part of the project Empowering Youth To Become Social Innovators, realised under the Erasmus+ partnership programme. The project is coordinated by a Czech NGO DYNAMA, z.s., seated in Brno and an Estonian NGO Youth Club Active, seated in Tallinn. This project contributes to the development of non formal learning of the youth.

20. blog post ENG

SOCIAL INNOVATION AROUND US

Beauty of re-used rice bags and worn out Coke bottles

Dia is a young woman who is aware of cosequences of human activities on the environment and wellbeing. She lives a life of a student of History of arts in Brno. She came to our recent workshop on social innovation with three original backpacks handmade from rice bags, the outcome of her personal project, and with a question: How to make people more aware of the consequences of their actions and how to raise their interest in undertaking beneficial change? 

She has been making her personal contribution which has a potential to inspire people and stirr other contextual thinking. In her project she has given a life into her idea which has a great potential to be developed further into a social innovation: linking communities, giving them a purpose of reducing the hardship on the environment, even bringing them back to long forgotten practices of reasonable intake and waste management. It matters a lot to people. I got impressed by the evidence of that last week at a coffee chat: my friend was talking about her trip to Phillippines and with deep respect, she described how the locals living in the countryside treat empty Coke bottles. Imagine!, she said with eyes shining with admiration, every a week a poor man from a distant mountain village takes an old motorbike to transport a pile of empty Coke bottles to a collecting point. There he waits for even hours for a collector to hand away his burden and then travels back on gravel trails in the heats. It takes him almost half a day! Without probably knowing, these simple tiny always smiling Phillippines add a great value to the reused coke bottles – when drinking Coke, you can enjoy the beauty of worn out glass as ell as the warm feeling of being among true community carers.

1) What had to happen so that you made your first back pack?

First of all there was a present given to me by my parents. It appeared to be 10 kg of jasmine rice in such a cool package that the idea of its reuse came on its own. Its load capacity was sufficient and its size just the backpack-like. So I sat at a sewing machine at home and in a short while, a prototype was on.

2) What was the most difficult part of the realisation?

The toughest part was the initial period before I bought my own sewing machine. Till then I had to use my parent´s old one which wasn´t very reliable. All operations took me twice as long which was quite frustrating. Also the technical solution for the cut as well as sewing itself gave me hard time at the beginning. Making a backpack is considered simple, yet I had to learn not to get too upset while working out the ways to sew the material which is not fabric.

3) Which part of this experience do you value most?

I managed to make a functional product in a process which is actually the opposite to conventional production. It means a lot to me and I enjoy seeing my friends wearing my backpacks quite often and being satisfied with them. Thanks to this project I got the opportunity to hold my first public workshop on backpack making. I received plenty of wonderful feedback and found out that there were a lot of people out there who would love to learn making backpack from rice bags. I have also realised that I am capable to share my know-how with them in a few hours. A skillful workshop participant can after two hours leave with her own hand made back pack.

4) Who participates on the realisation?

My great friend Anička who is by far my most reliable supplier of rice bags. She always … some at the Asian market. I am the only backpack maker so far as I only offer the backpacks in the circle of my friends or to a number of individuls who spot my backpack on someone´s back and wish to have one as well.

5) In which way this product is innovative?

In the narrowest sense, innovation is in reusing a package, i.e. rice bag, which would either be thrown away or, in the best of cases, would be used for a little bit longer as a durable bag for whatever. If a more complex product is made of such a package, i.e. backpack, the life of the thing-to-be dumped is prolonged substantially. What is more – it is not necessary that a similarly functional product is produced on the other side of the planet and transported all way long to a distant place. We can simply use resources around us in an anti-consuming way.

6) In what way is you project beneficial?

I firmly believe that most of the key challenes humans have created on the Earth and which we are now facing, are rooted in vast overproduction and consumming. My initiative my just be a small part of the whole mosaic but I believe in synergy of all similar projects which exist – humans will gradually revise their actions and start behave more sustainably towards themselves as well as the environment.

7) How do you plan to develop this innovation?

In the near future, I am going to launch a simple web site displaying the actual backpacks for sale. Anyone interested will be able contact me. I would like to develop the workshops more which looks promising – in the spring there are going to be some more.

8) What would be your message to the people who would like to realise a beneficial idea?

It is quite difficult not to repeat a cliche. In simple words – just go for it! See ideas in contexts and inspire people!

Text Anna

Photo Polina

This blog is a part of the project Empowering Youth To Become Social Innovators, realised under the Erasmus+ partnership programme. The project is coordinated by a Czech NGO DYNAMA, z.s., seated in Brno and an Estonian NGO Youth Club Active, seated in Tallinn. This project contributes to the development of non formal learning of the youth.

20. blog post CZ

SOCIALNÍ INOVACE MEZI NÁS

Krása použitých rýžových pytlů a poškrábaných lahví od koly

Dia je mladá žena, která si je vědoma důsledků lidské činnosti na životní prostředí a kvalitu života. Žije životem studentky dějin umění v Brně a nedávno přišla na naši dílnu na téma sociální inovace a přinesla výsledek svého osobního projektu – tři ručně vyrobené originální baťohy z rýžových pytlů. 

Také přinesla otázku: Jak to udělat, aby si lidé víc uvědomovali dopad svých činů na životní prostředí a na život? Její projekt je osobním příkladem hledání odpovědi, je inspirativní a může podpořit naše přemýšlení o souvislostech. Svůj nápad, kterému projektem dala život, má velký potenciál se dále vyvinout do podoby sociální inovace v oblasti propojování komunit, zacílení pozornosti na redukci dopadů lidské činnosti na životní prostředí, či dokonce navrácení do života již zapomenuté praktiky, které ctily rozumnou spotřebu a redukci odpadů. Lidem to není jedno. Důkaz toho mě zaujal zcela nedávno při obyčejném povídání u kafe, kdy kamarádka popisovala své zážitky z cesty na Filipíny. Představ si, říkala s hlubokým oceněním v hlase a očima zářícíma nadšením: každý týden vezme chudý chlapík z horské vesničky motorku a trmácí se s nákladem prázdných lahví od Coca Coly na vzdálené sběrné místo. Tam čeká na auto, které je vyzvedne a pak se v horku vrací po hrbolaté cestě zpátky. Celá štrapáce mu trvá dobrý půlden! Aniž si to uvědomují, tito jednoduší, drobní a vždycky se usmívající Filipínci tímto dávají použitým lahvím od Coly úžasnou hodnotu – při pití tohoto nápoje můžeš obdivovat krásu poškrábaného skla a zároveň mít hřejivý pocit, že jsi mezi těmi, kdo se opravdu starají o místo, kde žijí. 

1) Co se muselo stát, abys ušila svůj první baťoh?

No, tak především museli mí rodičové jednoho dne koupit 10 kg jasmínové rýže v tak hezkém pytli, že myšlenka na jeho další využití se vynořila v podstatě sama od sebe. Pytel měl samozřejmě potřebnou nosnost a velikost byla taková - baťohová, takže jsem doma sedla za šicí stroj a za chvíli byl na světě prototyp.

2) Co bylo na realizaci Tvého nápadu nejtěžší?

Nejobtížnější bylo rozhodně období před tím, než jsem si pořídila vlastní šicí stroj. Do té doby jsem používala postarší kus, který jsme měli doma, a bohužel to nebyl ten typický případ starého spolehlivého stroje - právě naopak. Veškeré operace s ním zabraly mnohem víc času, než by samy o sobě musely, a to bylo dost demotivující. Taky jsem se ze začátku pochopitelně trošku potrápila s technickým řešením “střihu” batohu a se samotným šitím. Na jednu stranu na tom vlastně nic není, na druhou stranu si člověk musí najít cestičky, jak pracovat s materiálem, který k šití není primárně určený, a moc se u toho nenavztekat.

3) Co si na této zkušenosti nejvíc ceníš?

Ověřila jsem si, že můžu vytvořit velice funkční a produkt pomocí procesu, který je v podstatě opakem klasické produkce, což je pro mě hodně důležité a těší mě, když vidím kamarády, jak mé baťohy často nosí a jsou s nimi spokojení. Taky mě baťohy dovedly k realizaci mého prvního workshopu pro veřejnost, díky kterému jsem získala skvělou zpětnou vazbu na svou práci a zároveň zjistila, že je spousta lidí, kteří by se rádi naučili baťohy z pytlů od rýže vyrábět, a že je v mých možnostech jim během pár hodin know-how předat, takže zručný účastník workshopu může za dvě hodinky odejít s vlastnoručně vyrobeným baťohem.

4) Kdo se s Tebou podílí na realizaci?

Moje skvělá kamarádka Anička je doteď můj nejspolehlivější zásobitel, když přijde na shánění pytlů, vždycky mi nějaké vyprosí na asijské tržnici. Šití prozatím zvládám sama, zásobuju baťohama hlavně kamarády a příležitostné zájemce, kteří baťoh zahlídnou na něčích zádech a zjistí, že po takovém taky touží.

5) Co je na tomto výrobku inovativní?

No, v tom nejužším smyslu je samozřejmě inovativní v tom, že jde o baťoh vyrobený z pytle od rýže, který by buď skončil v koši nebo v lepším případě dál sloužil jako pevný pytel na cokoliv. Pokud z něj však vyrobíme komplexnější produkt, třeba batoh, jednak značně prodloužíme aktivní život takového pytle, ale zároveň není třeba, aby se obdobně funkční produkt vyrobil na druhém konci světa a putoval až k nám. Jednoduše využijeme zdroje, které jsou kolem nás a k dispozici v podstatě v anti-spotřebním duchu.

6) V čem je tato iniciativa užitečná?

Jsem přesvědčená, že velká část klíčových problémů, které jsme si pro sebe jako lidstvo vytvořili, a se kterými se v současnosti potýkáme, má kořeny v poněkud neurvalé produkci a spotřebě. Moje iniciativa je jenom maličký kousek velké mozaiky, ale věřím, že díky působení všech ostatních projektů s podobnou myšlenkou, by postupně mohlo docházet k obecné normalizaci uvědomělejšího způsobu nakládaní s lidskými i přírodními zdroji.

7) Jak plánuješ tuto inovaci dál rozvíjet? 

V brzkém budoucnu se rýsuje rozjetí jednoduchého webu, na kterém budou k omrknutí aktuální baťohy na prodej a možnost mě v případě zájmu kontaktovat. Zároveň bych se ráda víc věnovala workshopům, což vypadá nadějně, na jaře by pár dalších mohlo proběhnout.

8) Co bys vzkázala lidem, kteří by rádi realizovali užitečný nápad?

Těžko vzkázat něco, co nebude znít jako klišé. Zkrátka do toho! Přemýšlejte v souvislostech a inspirujte lidi kolem sebe!

Text Anna

Foto Polina

This blog is a part of the project Empowering Youth To Become Social Innovators, realised under the Erasmus+ partnership programme. The project is coordinated by a Czech NGO DYNAMA, z.s., seated in Brno and an Estonian NGO Youth Club Active, seated in Tallinn. This project contributes to the development of non formal learning of the youth.