The Center Educatiu Til·lers, in Mollet del Vallès, is one of the three juvenile justice centers in Catalonia that these days gives way, for a while, to juggling and acrobatics to bring the circus closer to the young inmates of the center.
It is a project that the Department of Justice is running, in collaboration with the Ateneo Popular de Nou Barris, to work with young people on self-esteem and effort through the circus. This is how Joan López, a circus artist and one of the trainers of the activity, explains it. "It's a personal challenge when it comes to achieving things based on failure," he summarizes, commenting on how difficult it can be, for example, to juggle. Èric (fictitious name to preserve his anonymity), one of the young inmates at the Til·lers center, knows him well: "You have to try until he comes out."
The initiative began years ago at the Can Llupià center in Barcelona, and has subsequently also spread to the l'Alzina center, in Palau-solità i Plegamans, and to the Til·lers center thanks to an agreement between the Department of Justice and the Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris. In total, the workshop is divided into twelve sessions of an hour and a half each, led by at least two people.
This last Saturday morning, the Til·lers center hosted the last scheduled session, in which around fifteen boys and girls participated.
The director of the Til·lers, Elisenda Camps, appreciates that there is an agreement with these three centers -Can Llupià, L'Alzina and Til·lers- and trusts that it can be extrapolated to the rest "so that young people with judicial measures can participate and get the benefit it brings them". The will, as she underlines, is that they continue this type of project every year.
The initiative seeks to take advantage of circus art techniques to improve personal aspects of young people so that they obtain tools that help them in their rehabilitation and reintegration in the future. Through games and balances, for example, they test values such as effort, teamwork, perseverance and self-esteem.
During the sessions, the young people are accompanied by the trainers and work on aspects ranging from safety to caring for their companions and the use of the utensils used, including diabolos, unicycles, Chinese plates or the taut rope, also called 'slackline'. '.
The trainer Joan López explains that in the activities and workshops they carry out they combine acrobatics with juggling and various balances with the aim that young people work on, among other things, self-esteem and personal effort. He assures that the boys and girls are "very grateful" and says that the circus activity motivates them "quite a lot".
Alba, a member of the center's therapeutic unit, also shares the benefits of the activity. As she points out, she allows "work on frustration and self-improvement". In addition, she stresses the importance of leaving the module and that it be done "in a relaxed atmosphere." "They come quite happy," she admits.
Èric knows well the effort and overcoming that the activity entails. He stresses that in a circus workshop one must "try and try again and persist." "I try to juggle but it doesn't come out the first time and you have to keep trying until it finally comes out and you take the practice and you do it, just like in the process of each person", he comments, assimilating the challenges that the circus presents with him. personal process carried out by young people like him.
All in all, Èric remarks that the circus workshop "is like breathing fresh air" and allows them to try new things while helping them coordinate with their classmates in the modules. A vision shared by Lucía and Sara, also interns at Til·lers and workshop participants (their names are also fictitious to preserve their identity).
"It helps us improve our social skills, we work more as a team and do group activities," says Sara, who affirms that with the activity they have a good time and burn energy. "Let's do different things, you escape and have fun," says Lucía, who remembers that when she was little she did artistic gymnastics. In addition, Lucía also thinks like Sara that when they do group activities they have a better time and are "more comfortable".
