Express Yourself! Inclusive Grouping in Schools

The Express Yourself! Inclusive Grouping in Schools project aims to:

• Promote social inclusion in school communities.
• Improve the overall wellbeing of the students via self-expression.
• Prevent school drop-out and to further improve students’ learning results.

“The groups teamed up, performing was no longer so stressful and there was less anxiety.”

“The young people took responsibility for the grouping activities, each other and themselves.”

“Confidence improved, the sense of unity grew and openness and improvising increased.”

– Feedback from Express Yourself classes

Impact of the Project

A peer-reviewed article of the impact of the project has been published: More Trust and Cohesion for Secondary School Classes – Experiences of the Implementation of the Express Yourself! Programme in Four EU Countries.

Download the article here (pdf opens in a new tab)

Background of the Project

The Express Yourself project is a continuation of the Participatory Sporty Theatre project, which was implemented in Finland between 2016 and 2019.

The idea is to disseminate good practices and to promote social inclusion in the current Express Yourself project and to bring the idea of combining inclusive grouping and youth work to several European countries.

Express Yourself classes have been developed and tested in practice in Finland in lower and upper secondary schools in the previous Participatory Sporty Theater project.

The current Express Yourself project is a European-level project, operating simultaneously in Germany, Ireland, Lithuania and Spain. The project is administered by Diaconia University of Applied Sciences in Finland and co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.