Youth Power

Hayk Sekoyan is a cultural manager and edutainment professional with over 12-year experience in interactive theatre. As a passionate social advocate who believes in the power of theatre to change lives and the world for the better, Hayk has founded Theatre for Changes NGO (T4C) in 2007, which became the leading theatre-based edutainment provider in Armenia. Through active and uninhibited engagement between the actors and the whole audience, T4C’s programs have motivated thousands of young Armenians throughout the country to access their own creative resources to positively affect their communities and lives. 

As principal agents for change for a more democratic country, young people in Armenia lack practical civic skills and empowerment as active citizens due to the country’s authoritarian school system. T4C's theatre-based edutainment activities engage young Armenians in a creative and motivational learning process developing their practical civic skills and a sense of civic/social responsibility. While traditional understanding is that youngsters aged 9-15 are ‘non-citizens’ in a society, it is vital to promote a culture of democracy, rule of law and human rights among them, as attitudes and behaviours are shaped at an early stage and can be decisive in determining their future involvement in public affairs. 

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Armenia has made some advances in relation to some hallmarks of democracy, including reforms in education system aimed at adopting civic education practices. A favourable environment for democracy education, however, requires a revision of traditional approaches to teaching and learning. The educators are still attached to ‘mandatory materials’ such as outdated textbooks that limit possibilities for creative and critical thinking. Young people are required to rotely memorise the information as passive learners. They are not included in real-life exercises and/or educational game-like activities to get a taste of democracy. As an enabler of political, social and economic participation, civic education requires a combination of knowledge, practical skill sets, attitudes and actions motivating and empowering young people as they undergo the transition to adulthood. 

Young people learn best by having first-hand experience. Thus, our creative team of young theatre professionals provides/excites the project beneficiaries with practical/theatrical opportunities to experience skill-oriented active civic participation in a creative and supportive environment. We develop their social and interactive skills, such as teamwork, public speaking, critical thinking, active listening, communication and self-confidence, promoting values and attitudes leading to active engagement in community life. The project enhances also the collaboration between the schools and non-formal education experts, civil society representatives and NGOs, thus raising awareness about the benefits of youth participation in a democratic society. 

Being legally citizens by birth and naturalisation, young people in Armenia are either ignored or regarded in an adult-centric fashion as citizens of the future rather than of the present. However, when given opportunities for civic engagement, young people bring energy, enthusiasm and new ideas for the development of their communities. As an organisation, which speaks on behalf of young people, we remain in constant contact with a broad range of youth and youth oriented organisations (our partners from our previous projects) from all regions of Armenia to ensure that our activities and advocacy efforts remain pertinent. We believe that learning is inevitably “fun.” Therefore, the interactive educational theatre method has been chosen as a tool for edutainment. It enables a sustained experience and long-term impact on young people, allowing them to freely express themselves, interact with the characters and find that their solutions are respected. 

While the democratic development of any country is largely conditioned by the civic competences of the members of the upcoming generation, young people in Armenia suffer discrimination just because of their age. The authoritarian school environments do not give the students an opportunity to put lessons into practice. Thus, the Government fails to prepare active citizens ready to assume responsibility for the democratic development of their country. 

We believe it is important that all the layers of the society involve in the formation process of a civil society, including youth. Being empowered as component social actors, young people can make important contribution to civil society in Armenia. T4C’s creative team started to develop the proposed project in 2012. In 2017, the project was funded by the Democracy Commission Small Grants program of the U.S. Embassy in Armenia. 

Experience with Forum Theatre method in many parts of the world suggests that interactive theatre programs focused on civic education are likely to become increasingly concerned with advocacy issues and as a result, will mobilise political and cultural forces that can campaign for the improvement of civic education system. 

T4C is the leading interactive theatre company in Armenia. We have over 12-year experience in implementing high quality edutainment programs focused on using theatre as a tool for problem solving, raising awareness and highlighting crucial social and human rights issues. 

In an increasingly complex environment of arts management in Armenia (a country where cultural managers need to develop a large range of skills to be able to address the demands placed on non-for-profit arts organisations), under my leadership T4C has gained a respectable reputation for its prolific cutting-edge interactive theatre project. 

As the majority of arts organisations in Armenia, T4C is a small organisation with 10 members, from which only two have managerial responsibilities. Therefore, I often take on all main management and administrative tasks in addition to my artistic responsibilities as the Artistic Director of the company. I believe that most successful arts administrators are those people who are passionate about the art form in which they work, are committed to learning and implementing best practices. Theatre has been always a big part of my life and being a cultural manager is a very challenging role for me as every day brings new tasks and responsibilities. Arts management is a comparably new profession in Armenia and it coincides with post-Soviet situation, where the borders between being an arts manager, theatre director or artist have been blurred. 

Unlike traditional approaches to civic education, edutainment through interactive theatre involves audience participation, encouraging emotional connection to the topic. Theatre reaches the hearts and the minds of young people in a way that reading a pamphlet or listening to a speech likely will not. By practicing their participatory and civil rights, young people find, together, best ways of implementing them outside the narrow borders of their family and neighbourhood. 

One of the main challenges that faces T4C is to continually evaluate and judge its relevance and potential impact on its target group. Thus, we periodically analyse the context within which it exists and develop mechanisms to understand its role in meeting the need that flows from this analysis. For the upcoming years, we plan to continually develop the professional skills of our staff members to better understand our creative and managerial strengths and weaknesses, in order to investigate, identify and respond to key interests of at least 50,000 young Armenians throughout the country. 

The countries of South Caucasus, including Armenia are continually facing instability, political turmoil and socio-economic downturn. Unsustainable funding and insufficient access to international networks challenge the cultural sector and the local NGOs, limiting their possibilities to strengthen their role both at the national and international levels. Thus, social/cultural change-makers in Armenia, as well as the organisations they represent should be empowered to tackle the challenges in their socio-economic environment and acquire new skills for a more efficient use of the existing opportunities for development, cooperation and networking. 

T4C partners with a broad range of partners (donors and supporters) on international, national and local levels, including foundations, public funders, foreign authorities, individual contributors, international agencies, cultural institutions and trusts. 

Financial sustainability is the main challenge that independent arts organisations face in Armenia. It is this challenge that limits their capacity for impact and distorts the image of a cultural NGO as a financially dependent sector. The majority of social-cultural initiatives in Armenia, including T4C, are over-reliant on external sources. Thus, the ability to create long-term relations with a broad range of partners is crucial to ensure a sustainable presence for an arts organisation. It is important that cultural managers identify and discuss key challenges of financial sustainability, including demonstrating value and accountability to funders, promoting community engagement, as well as promising practices for meeting these challenges and achieving financial sustainability. 

Most of T4C's projects are donor-supported. 

T4C is always in search of new partners and supporters. 

Committed to learning, developing and implementing best practices in social-educational theatre, we aim to improve our role as a unique pro-democracy cultural organisation in Armenia, increase the impact and visibility of our activities and gain better recognition in Armenia and beyond. We also aim to create new opportunities for more young Armenians throughout the country to develop practical civic skills as active and informed citizens of their country. As part of the change we desire through The Elevate Prize support is our expanded network of international partners, stakeholders, donors, volunteers, as well as formal and informal youth groups in Armenia acting as our regional structures and multipliers/promoters of our mission. 

Most of the donor organisations are supporting initiatives that are in line with their own mission. They are more likely to fund a specific project that serves their mission, rather than provide support for the institutional development for the organisation, which continually develops the tool they benefit from. Unfortunately, capacity-building grants are extremely limited and usually provided to well-funded organisations. With our ability to create great empowering theatre, we believe The Elevate Prize is a perfect opportunity for us to strengthen T4C as independent cultural organisation, thus elevating thousands of young spirits throughout Armenia.