On 2011 (June – December 2011) EAVN organized and implemented Support Groups for Children of Imprisoned Parents, in the framework of the Project “Raising a Child through Prison Bars”, with financial support from the DAPHNE III Programme of the European Union.
The aim of the Support Groups was to empower Children of Imprisoned Parents (CHIP) to explore difficulties that they may encounter in their daily life, to “discuss” sensitive issues like imprisonment through theater games and, possibly, to discover methods on how to deal with any conflicts (both internal and external) that they may encounter in their everyday lives.
Support Groups were implemented via using drama techniques in collaboration with Georgina Kakoudaki (Theater Educator/ Director/ Actress).
A total of four groups were conducted (one in the Unit of Care Camps “Agia Varvara”, two groups in the Support Center for Children and Family and one in EAVN) witht the participation of 43 children.
Objectives of the activities conducted were:
- Getting to know each other and develop conditions of mutual trust through drama games and creative actions
- To create a code of trust and solidarity in the group
- Enhance their group cooperation skills
- To identify different ways of conflict resolution and to practice them
- Development of participants’ inventiveness by using the principles of fiction (myth-making) – transition from the personal to the collective goal – search for incentives for action
- Encourage participants to observe themselves as well as how others see them and to enable them to easily adopt roles and behaviors which will allow them to understand other people’s presence in their lives and what it means to them
- To realize how personal experiences can be converted to beliefs and vice versa, namely how general beliefs can be falsely considered as personal beliefs and/or as theorems
- To understand that “myself” and “the other” –as core concepts- determine our course in life; that nothing should be taken for granted and that the world can be changed but, in order for this to happen, first we have to manage to know ourselves.
In general, the drama workshop seemed to be beneficial to the children as it achieved to entertain the participants creatively, enabled them to identify and describe at the end a “cycle” of experiences both cognitively and emotionally, and enhanced their sense of trust and solidarity among each other. The workshop offered the opportunity for cooperation among children that had the same experiences, communication via drama techniques which allowed the smoothing out of any intensity or constraints and offered a safe environment for self-expression. During the implementation of this series of sessions the children learned, via an experiential learning process, how they can communicate with each other via art and explored different cultural backgrounds which facilitate their social relationships with relatives, friends and other people. Theater, as a process of self-expression and personal development, helped the different individuals to form groups and express personal information. According to G. Kakoudaki who was the main facilitator of the groups “the theater was the best option as a method of work with these groups at cognitive, cultural and psychological levels”.
Children that participated in the 1st group but also other children that were hosted in “Agia Varvara” were invited at the end of the group to attend -along with representatives of EAVN- a theater play, entitled: “Aristophanes’ Birds (Ornithes): A Rock Performance for Teenagers”, that was Directed by Ms G. Kakoudaki who invited the children to watch the performance for free.
