HOPE in US: a European virtual third place

European project

May 2021 to May 2023

Supported by Erasmus+, the HOPE in US project aims to strengthen cooperation between the cultural and adult education sectors by creating a European virtual third place.

Context and objectives

The global health crisis has caused considerable upheaval in the cultural and adult education sectors, which have found it difficult to adapt because their actors, who are often used to working collectively with the public, have found themselves isolated behind their doors or computers.

How can these two sectors and their actors be resilient in the face of the crisis and, more generally, in the face of a world in which the digital world is becoming increasingly important?

What if the crisis represented an opportunity to enter into a process of resilience and hope, by taking care of oneself and others, by building with others and for all, where the experiences of some would enrich those of others?

And what if the answer was to be found in the principle of third places where different publics meet and where one can share, work, contribute, train and exchange?

In addition to the third places that exist in many European territories, HOPE in US aims to create a virtual third place in which all European actors and citizens could be contributors and/or beneficiaries. Creating a virtual European third place means allowing the arts and culture sector to invent new methods of creation, dissemination and mediation, and the adult and youth training sector to go beyond the logic of learning to invent more interactive teaching formats.

Objectives

HOPE in US has three main objectives:

To design new modalities of creation, dissemination, mediation for European arts and culture actors;
To invent interactive pedagogical formats for adult education actors;
To make explicit the skills of learners and make their creative potential visible.

The target groups of the project are :

Cultural actors ;
Adult learners;
Trainers and staff accompanying this public.

Main steps

The project partners want to develop the capacity of the target groups to make sense of their actions, to become responsible for what they can change and to be resilient to what they cannot avoid. To achieve this, two innovative educational resources will be developed:

A toolbox that will contain emotional survival tips, practical advice on how to train and appropriate digital, testimonials on resilience... The toolkit will allow both experimenting and learning to be resilient and training and using digital. Each user will be able to use all or part of the tools proposed to meet their needs or the needs of the groups they are accompanying. It will be designed to be used in a hybrid environment, i.e. both on site and virtually.
A Web TV that will be the digital third place. At a time when video has taken on major importance on the Internet, creating a Web TV is an effective way to promote projects, innovations and experiences. Thanks to programmes broadcast live or accessible in replay, Web TV is a fun tool for communicating with its community. It will allow the various creative, cultural and social actors and the public to meet.