ICRE YOU – Project Implementation
The ICRE YOU training course was a vibrant, immersive, and transformative journey that brought together youth workers and young leaders from different countries to explore creativity, imagination, improvisation, and non-formal education as powerful tools for youth work. Over seven intensive days, participants engaged in a carefully designed learning process that blended experiential learning, artistic expression, reflection, collaboration, and intercultural exchange.
The implementation of the project was structured around a progressive learning flow: starting with trust-building, group dynamics, and self-awareness, and gradually moving toward advanced creative methodologies, facilitation skills, and workshop design. Through energizers, theatre techniques, visual arts, movement, storytelling, debate, and hands-on challenges, participants experienced first-hand how creativity can foster inclusion, communication, empathy, and critical thinking in youth work settings.
This page documents the full implementation of ICRE YOU through photos, videos, and daily highlights, capturing both the learning outcomes and the human connections formed throughout the project. Each activity was intentionally linked to real youth work contexts, ensuring that participants could adapt and transfer the methods to their local communities, youth centers, schools, and organizations.
Beyond skills and methodologies, ICRE YOU created a safe and inspiring space for participants to step outside their comfort zones, reflect on identity and belonging, and experiment freely without fear of failure. The strong emphasis on intercultural learning, peer exchange, and cultural nights further enriched the experience, turning diversity into a source of creativity and collective growth.
The following sections present the project day by day, offering a visual and narrative overview of how ICRE YOU came to life—from the first icebreakers to the final reflections, Youthpass recognition, and shared moments that made this project truly unforgettable.
Day 1 – January 3, 2026, Saturday
The first day of the training, beginning with introductions by Mr. Nikolas Nikolaou, the trainers Bobbie and Erma, and facilitator Marta, participants quickly jumped into name-games, icebreakers and more.
The first such activity was the name hangman, for this, participants were given tape and were asked to make underscores for the amount of letters in their names e.g _ _ _ _ _ _ for Bobbie. Being allowed to only give their letter once, as well as receive once from another person, participants mingled around and ultimately "collected" their own names.
This was followed by the secret friend portrait drawing game, where participants, drew an oval, as well as wrote their name on a piece of envelope. Being passed around to the tune of music, every time the music stopped, we filled in a different part of the body, such as one eye, an ear or the mouth. A lot of humorous portraits came out from this activity.
To finish off before coffee break, participants were split into 5 mixed groups, with given speed dating prompts, such as "burger or gyros" or "mountain vs sea". This allowed participants from mixed nationalities to swifty learn about each other.
After coffee break, we went deep into aspects into the project by introducing the ules of the project we kept throughout the entire training course, but just as importantly the "backpacks we brought with us".
Focusing on 3 distinct categories, the contributions, expectations and fears, participants drew a backpack with 3 compartments, and words, phrases and sentences filled in these slots.
Before heading to lunch break, we focused on the updated Youthpass competencies intended for youth workers based on YOCOMO (YOuth Workers COmpetence MOdel). These are of course
- Facilitating Learning
- Supporting Learning
- Designing Programs
- Managing Resources
- Communicating
- Working with Groups
- Networking
- Displaying Intercultural Sensitivity
- Developing Self / Reflective Practice
With each section having different scenarios youth workers (or otherwise) may face, a newly developed activity was used where participants went in groups to solve cases and received stamps based on each competency
After coffee break, Bobbie gave a deep dive presentation into why a project like this exists, including the what exactly creativity assists with, and how youth workers (or otherwise) can ultimately develop their improvisation and creative skills. This led to the first activity directly on the topic, focused on understanding the self.
Titled the flower of identity and values participants got a piece of paper and noted down 8 different ways they identified themselves. Now here's the hard part.
First, they had to remove 2 such statements. Then, participants within their own national team were tasked to remove another 3. This led to a debriefing session as what identify even means, and how this aspect can be used within youth work.
As for the last activity of the day, a full jump into improv and creativity.
On a piece of paper, participants were tasked to use a marker and draw lines randomly on a piece of paper without removing the marker at any point. Then, with the final product, they were tasked to fill in spaces and modify this space. As for the second aspect of the activity, the same paper was flipped around, and with closed eyes (and the light) participants were tasked to use their fingers to draw on a piece of paper.
The debriefing session focused ultimately on how this steps out of the comfort zone, teaches youth workers and youth in general that there is no wrong way to "draw" a form of art and the idea of interpretation. For many participants they felt how the choice of colors isn't what they expected (as their eyes were closed), yet this didn't necessary ruin the art, an aspect that students in formal education struggle in.
Day 2 – January 4, 2026, Sunday
The second day of the project, and with that, a super deep dive into the methods of imagination, creativity but mostly creative improvisation.
As energizers are a core part of this project, we also introduced what's referred to as the "blanket name game energizer". For this, Erma and Bobbie held a blanket in the middle of the activity room, and, with teams on either side, upon dropping the blanket, the participants were tasked to quickly say the other participants' name. The one who said the name first wins.
Check out also a short video with a selection of some of the energizers during this project here
Afterwards we swiftly continued to collaboration and pair-based improv activities. The first one was the shadow game using the concepts of mockery. This had two phases.
The first phase, inside the activity room involved pairs following each other and being their shadow. Tasked with mimicking every single move the other made, this eased us into the basics as also taught in drama school.
Phase two, taking place outside (in the snow!) dove into mockery, where with exaggerated movements, a participants followed another, mocking them. Participants were then tasked to look back, while the "mocker" was supposed to quickly hide what they were doing.
As for the last mini activities inside before the coffee break –
The first involved a noisy little box, where, with zero verbal communication, participants were supposed to move a box around behind their backs, while the player, in this case a lone participant was tasked to figure out where the box is.
The second, involved concepts of "reading between the lines". While basic at first, the facilitator took a marker and made a shape of the moon and gave the marker to the next participant. However, each participant would repeat this movement. The facilitator points out if the shape was made correctly. Here was the twist. The correct movement was the one where the participant would say "thank you" when giving it to the next person.
After coffee break, communication was the key! Sat back-to-back with a partner. One person described a picture while the other had to draw it solely based on the verbal instructions. This exercise highlighted the importance of effective communication and listening.
This led to the central activity, image theatre. In 2 groups, and 10 seconds to go, participants were tasked to create a still image of a prompt. This involved both prompts that were physical such as "dinosaur" as well as conceptual, such as "oppression"
After coffee break, we started with the basic concepts of the "yes and" method, where upon receiving a prompt, we were to follow up sentences. For example, a participant would say "Would you like to go out later?" with an appropriate and swift response being "Yes, and lets have a snowfight!" With our improv juices flowing this led to the main activity.
This was where 5 different mixed groups received an item, such as a tennis ball, or a scarf, but more importantly a prompt, such as "this item united the characters". With nonverbal communication, participants were tasked to create a storyline using the item. Most importantly however, the literal item used was NOT actually the item being held.
As for the last activity of the day, participants present their homework, with youth leaders and how youth centers actually use innovative, creative and imagination-based concepts in each country and how this benefits youth.
Armenia for example focused on STEM based activities that exists within the country, while Lithuania covered how non-formal based concepts are already integrated directly into schools
For those groups who had prepared the homework in a presentation format, check them out below
To top it off, we had the cultural nights of Armenia, Portugal and Cyprus. Armenia presented innovations Armenians had come up with throughout history, Portugal did their entire presentation theatrically with how, through its conquest ultimately the country got its name, and Cyprus used satire and mockery. It was a fruitful day!
Day 3 – January 5, 2026, Monday
Day 3 of the project, focusing on both external and marketable uses of creativity, art improvisation and more!
After playing the Hi Ha Ho energizer, we started the focus of the day on modification of basic concepts for better results. This was done with a swift activity where each participant received a very simple piece of paper, with 12 circles on them. Participants were given 5 minutes to use these circles to turn them into something else. Some used the circle as a clock, while others a cherry, and one was even turned into a camera. With this idea of modifying what's already there and giving it different context already there embedded in participants head's, the main activity began.
This activity is called "Bad product / Good advertising!" For the first phase of the activity participants are given a very simple task. Come up with an idea of a product (or service) that is horrible, something no sane person would buy and them merely present it to other participants. The results were as follows
- Team 1 - "Puke o'dent" - toothpaste with numerous health code violations.
- Team 2 - Brinter. Printer that you fill in with butter and seemingly prints it on toast
- Team 3 - Alarmby - a device that sings a lullaby alarm, in Lithuanian. Unlikely to wake you up.
- Team 4 - A pool table with swords as the cue, and the balls are instead cubes
- Team 5 - The seat with the hole. "No more back pain, just the ass pain!" only €69.99
- Team 6 - Eco-friendly Umbrella. Upside down, but has a hole running through the handle of the umbrella.
Now, here was the twist. Groups where changed, where teams would receive another teams product with the goal of selling it. The rule was simple. You cannot change how the product functions physically, but you can change what its used for.
OG Team 1 advertised Team 3's product
OG Team 2 advertised Team 1's product
OG Team 3 advertised Team 2's product
OG Team 4 advertised Team 6's product
OG Team 5 advertised Team 4's product
OG Team 6 advertised Team 5's product.
Tbe advertisement was of course presented in a theatrical way. Some examples included that the Upside down umbrella was used as a party trick, in bars, where alcohol could be filled at the top and couples could share a drink, or pool table was turned reversed, and a fruit ninja-based family game was created. The activity focused on twisting how things are presented for a better effect.
The afternoon began with an energizer by Marta, a participant from the Polish team. Serving also as methods used in drama studies, this short energizer was simple. Participants in a circle give the following statement to the one next to them. "I went to the bazaar yesterday", with a response being "oh? What did you buy?", "A fan!" and one by one each participant makes a fan motion. This is repeated with scissors, mimicked by the other hand and finally a cuckoo clock, with participants standing up saying the term "cooco!"
As for the main activity, this was a photo contest with a twist. In mixed groups participants were tasked to spend some time to take photos of the following terms, and turn them into a collage
- Belonging
- Exclusion
- Identity
- Connection
Here's the twist. While the photos have to go alongside with the term, there is a voting period of the activity. The 4 photos are turned into a collage, and the other teams have to vote on which photo they believe is which. With 6 teams, and 20 beginning points, teams lose points IF the other teams guess correctly. This is specifically why certain terms, such as belonging and connection can be presented similarly, there is a thin line of difference, while at the same time staying true to the statement.
Below you can also see the selection of photos the participants took
As for the last activity of the game, the spaghetti challenge. In mixed groups of 5, participants receive the following distinct items.
- 20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti
- 1 marshmallow
- String (1 meter)
- Scissors (optional, can pre-cut string to avoid waiting)
With using appropriate teamwork, communication and good use of time and resources, the tallest standing tower after 20 minutes wins.
To finish of the day, cultural nights of Belarus, Georgia and Poland took place, with Belarus starting with movement with a song, Georgia with a quiz about the country's heritage, and Poland with yet another quiz with humorous questions.
Day 4 – January 6, 2026, Tuesday
Human bingo energizer
A new day, and an introduction to yet another name game-based energizer. This time around it was human bingo, an energizer based on learning even more fun facts about each other. Each participant received a small paper, with 16 different specific facts, such as "has been outside of Europe" or "speaks 3 languages or more". With the simple rule of not being to add yourself, or anybody from your own national team, the first person who shouts out "BINGO" with all the correct answers wins!
As for the first activity of the day, this one was a two phased one. Participants are tasked with coming up with a role and imagine that character, what would their job be, how do they carry themselves, perhaps what are they dressed like? After imagining this, there's the second step. Each participants received a separate role regardless, in the form of text written on a sticky note at their back. With the activity room turning into a sort of opening ceremony for a museum, participants interact with each other pretending to be the role they created, while simultaneously, being treated as their given role. The interaction was the process, and the activity represented concepts of "Cognitive Dissonance".
The definition of this is "A state of mental discomfort that occurs when a person holds beliefs or opinions that are inconsistent, or that conflict with an aspect of their behavior.
In the case of the activity, there was ultimately a mismatched with how the perceived themselves and ultimately how they were treated.
The next activity of the day was named "prose to choreography". With yet another simple beginning of receiving a piece of paper, and writing prose, poetry or any form of text based of the word "freedom" participants were then in mixed groups and were tasked to combing all different definitions and ways they understood such a simple word and turn it into a choreographic dance with a story.
The afternoon focused on calmer aspects of creativity, improvisation and art, and this began with clay. Based on Open Soul's previous work on a KA2 project, CREATIYOK, participants received a piece of clay with two phases. The first, to simply feel the clay, to play with it, maybe punch it, throw it and mold it.
The second was simple, to use whatever tools available to them based on the term "identity". IT was fascinating to see different ways to represent this. Some represented items from their own culture, while others an animal. With discussions between participants guessing why they felt they were represented in the form of the object they created.
Following up on the clay-based activity, a similar activity was used using a set of old magazines participants brought themselves. For this, participants receive an A3 paper, and simply pick a single image to stick in the middle. Then, the surrounding takes center stage, they add more images, draw or even write text to represent a concept. This concept could be themselves, how they want to be in the future and more. Conversations surrounded on the fact that perhaps for some the images chosen were subconscious, or chosen first and then made sense from later.
As for one last optional activity of the day, facilitator Marta Bzdula hosted a movie-based pantomime game. Split into two teams, participants had to guess what movie title was being showed up on the screen behind them using no words, and only pantomime. For this, no image would truly ever do the chaos of the activity any justice, so check out the video below for a great look at the activity!
Day 5 - January 7, 2026, Wednesday
A simple day, a cultural trip to Wrocław, but that doesn't mean we didn't do an activity!
Continuing to learn on different ways of creative activities, participants were split into 4 groups within the city of Wrocław, and tasked to take creative group photos in the urban space. Take a look at this activity in its special section of this website here!
https://icreyou.webnode.page/wroclaw/
Day 6 – January 8, 2026, Thursday
The ultimate day, and the culmination of all the hand work in trying out all these different types of activities in the previous days based on creativity.
To begin, participants learned the basics in workshop creation and implementation based on chosen target groups and goals. As such Erma covered the following aspects
Goals and Objectives – separated into two, in our case the goal was defined as to what literally the participants will do during a workshop, while objective focused on what the participants will learn based on their chosen target group. Speak of –
Target group – focuses on what set of people will be the participants of the workshops. Meaning, are they underage youngsters? A mix of ages? Participants from rural areas? This changes what time of workshop one does, as well as how its modified.
Time frame – What takes place in the day, an energizer? What kind? How does it gel with the main activity? What kind of debriefing and reflection questions take place?
Upon developing these activities. These were as follows. Each description is followed by a document developed by the same set of participants of this workshop that hosted it to the rest of the participants
Group 1 – "Once Upon a twist!"
An activity where participants receive the Little Red Riding hood story. Then, in 4 different groups, participants receive prompts, to make a theatre based on a changed version. Prompts include a sci-fi version, or even one where the wolf is the good character.
Group 2 – "Baba Drama"
A similar activity to the above, where participants receive the 3 little piggies story, but this time around a new character is added to the story. Characters included Harry Potter, Bobbie himself, Spider man and more.
Group 3 – "Speed dating debates"
An activity, where participants sit on opposite chairs facing each other. Upon receiving a simple prompt, in our case "non formal education is more important than formal one" participants had to debate each other. Twist is, according to the side of the table, participants had to defend a position they may not necessarily agree with
Group 4 – "Story Making"
Participants in a group must write down one word each. Then upon finishing, participants then, and only then are introduced to the next phase. To write a story based on this one words. Focuses on teamwork and avoiding dominance of a one participant over the rest.
Group 5 – The organism
Participants in mixed groups, receive a paper note denoting one body part, such as hand, head, torso or leg. Then, in perfect synchronicity, they are tasked to act it out.
Upon completing all 5 workshops, participants received feedback and ways to improve and how to conduct their workshops even better based on their local communities, target groups and more.
The night ended with our final cultural night, Moldova, Romania and Lithuania. Moldova started out explaining their cultural heritage, while Romania focused on humorous memes, while Lithuania went all out in teaching us a classic Lithuanian song.
Day 7, January 9, 2026, Friday
The final day of the project, and therefore the most reflective one.
The day began with an Erasmus+ masterclass, where Bobbie went over every single type of opportunity offers, useful especially for those participants who haven't been to a lot of projects as well as newcomers.
This included Youth Exchanges, Training Courses, KA2 projects, the youth card, DiscoveryEU and more.
With an open space, where participants wrote messages to other, including the use of the portrait envelope, after much rest, in the afternoon, we returned for more.
The afternoon focused on follow-ups, meaning we learned exactly in what way each of us will disseminate this information further, as well as the workshops we will conduct in our local communities with local youth workers to spread these newly gained activities further.
We then received the youth passes in a guessing-type game, as well as received them!
To top it all off, we enjoyed some nice BBQ right outside the accommodation!
