Project title
Description of initiative
A trip to Autistan is a musical and theatrical show performed by young people with psychological or autistic disorders within the frame of the care home, the Therapeutic Farm of Escala. They welcome young people aged 12 to 18 who suffer from more or less important psychological disorders. In the performance, the youngsters point out the difficulties of their health problems, but also the universal character of these difficulties in adolescence: communication, sharing, meeting, speaking, love, etc. The young people who participate in this project have various backgrounds, some of them were beneficiaries of social services, they lived in care homes, in order to promote the mix and the true integration of young people in difficulty. They are all supervised by artistic professionals and by professionals of Care, Education and Social Work.
Themes: Culture and...
Keywords
Target group
Cultural field
Timeframe
Sources of funding
Results, benefits, impact and lessons learnt
The project is based on the encounters with musicians from outside the structure who have been coming for several years to lead workshops with the young patients. The group Boulevard des airs came to the the project and this resulted in two public performances. This successful experience showed that the artistic path was perfectly compatible with the overall care project. For the past two years, this show has been at the center of the Escala Farm's educational project. This led to the making of two films: one presents the show itself, recorded during the first performance, the other emphasizes the evolution of the project. Entitled "La passerelle", it will be used as a support for transmission to the public and to other health teams in activity or in training, and it was presented for the first time in public in Séméac, during the Reg Art festival, about 40 km from Escala. These two films were made by the École supérieure d'audiovisuel de Toulouse (ESAV). An association, Les chiens jaunes d'Escala, was created to finance the operation.
The results of this project on daily life are very positive. The music favors the expression of emotions and allows to calm down relationships. As a result, the young people are less agitated and more willing to collaborate. They are valued by their performance, and their families look at them differently.