Camp Hope: a collaborative project with El Circo d'ell fuego financed by the supra-local culture decree

In recent years, Ell Circo D'ell Fuego (ECDF) has developed several methods to use circus as a means to achieve a number of psycho-social goals in vulnerable populations. These include the development of social competences and the promotion of individual well-being. ECDF takes up a connecting role between these specific target groups and the professional social and health care service circuit. With Camp Hope we aim to provide a forum to young people exposed to intrafamily violence, but also develop an artistically inspired performative method of storytelling that enables us to experiment with other than linguistic forms of expression to share experiences that are difficult to verbalize, for example in the context of traumas these youngsters may have suffered. We will use our creative power to study how circus can be used as a performative technique to embody these storylines, as well as what kind of methodology can be developed to get the stories of these young people in the right place and with the right stakeholders. In this project, KU Leuven focuses on an expert function that can support the reflection within the team to support sustainable forms of knowledge production in a joint effort. We further reflect on the best possible and ethically most responsible form of dissemination practices to reach out to an academic and a practice-oriented audience.