Utopia-Summary of the Pilot Implementations

• Muratpaşa Volunteer Center:

The first pilot implementation under the scope of the Project Step Up project took place in Antalya, in the Meltem Sports and Activity Complex with collaboration of Muratpaşa Volunteer Center, a branch of Youth and Sports Ministry. The Volunteer Center aims to serve youth and young adults who are mostly from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds and the workshop drew attention by participants whose ages are between 20-25. We highly expect that this workshop would have an ongoing impact because the participants who completed the process are very willing to disseminate and use this new method in their own future professional life and social work.

• Antalya Active Seniors’ Social Center

Utopia has implemented the second pilot in Antalya Active Seniors’ Social Center with the collaboration of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality. The Center aims to support seniors to keep being active in life and be aware of both physical and mental risks of aging. Moreover, the workshop was implemented during the “Seniors’ Week” with participants whose ages are between 65-73. The seniors reported back that they’ve felt as if they were children again while playing games and creating their own puppets. Moreover, they’ve also found out that puppets would be a great way to strengthen their bonds with their grandchildren.

For both pilots we shared the joy with the participants by witnessing how art is a very powerful tool to support the emotional well-being of individuals in a life-long learning process.