Presentation of good practice project - Youth Exchange "Bath Academy" implemented in 2004 in Lithuania by Centre for Creative Expression in partnership with 6 other partners.

1. Project example through
essential quality criteria of the
youth exchange
Active Non-formal
participation learning Laimonas Ragauskas
Contact Making Seminar
“European Rural Youth”
Intercultural European 10-15 04 2012, Finland
learning Dimension

3. Bath Academy or
Young Europeans in a Bath

4. Near Kuršėnai, N.W. Lithuania

5. It started with “Feasibility visit”
• Meeting of partners
• Agreement on
aims, objectives, prelimin
ary programme of the
exchange
• Introduction to
environment, where
exchange will be held

6. The aim of the project
• To learn about each
other cultures through
exploration of bathing
cultures in 7 European
countries

7. Day I (09/15) Day II (09/16) Day III (09/17) Day IV (09/18) Day V (09/19) Day VI (09/20)
Arrival day Rub along day National day of National day of Wild, Wild West of National day of
Austria Estonia Lithuania… Germany
Arrival to the Palace Getting to know to Bath (sauna) culture. Street exercises in Excursion to National Preparation for
each other Kuršėnai market. park of Ţemaitija building a Sauna.
Presentation of the Lecture about history Ass benches Orvydai farmstead
program of Baths workshop
Arrival to the Palace Team building Continuation of Presentation of street Folk dances & songs Building a Sauna.
exercises lecture exercises Traditional Lithuanian Procedures in self
Renovating works in Bath Assembly bath built Sauna.
the Palace
Ice breaking “First time” – first National Austrian National Estonian Open evening National German
Opening evening Bath evening evening evening
Day VII (09/21) Day VIII (09/22) Day IX (09/23) Day X (09/24) Day XI (09/25) Day XII (09/26)
Vilnius + National National day of Italy National day of Presentation day Farewell day
day of Poland Spain
Departure to Vilnius Free time Spanish intro. Preparation for Final Bath Departure of
Free time in Vilnius Monica show presentation of the Assembly – participants
Flamenco project Evaluation of the
workshop entire project
Free time in Vilnius Italian games Bowling in Šiauliai Presentation of the Preparation for
Departure to the Bath Academy cafe Hill of Crosses/Free project farewell party
Palace time
National Polish Bath in the Palace. National Spanish The presentation Farewell party
evening National Italian evening and food party
evening

8. Active participation of young people
(preparation phase)
Participants were implementers of the project
– Keeping contacts with partners
– Organising programme
– Solving technical questions
– Exiling ghosts from the Palace

9. Active participation of young people
(during youth exchange)
• Leading workshops
• Organising cultural evenings
• Active participation in the
programme (e.g. building a
temporary bath, creating
spaces for workshops)
• Adjustment of programme
according to needs
• Evaluation and writing final
report

10. Learning and Personal achievements
• Skills of working in
international teams
• Communication and
cooperation skills
• Foreign language(s)
skills

11. Learning and Personal achievements
• Bathing skills (using different procedures)
• Learning to do a massage and to prepare tools
for using in bath (e.g. ass-benches)

12. Learning and Personal achievements
• Tolerance and respect to others (getting to know
to at least 7 different cultures)

13. Intercultural Learning
• Street exercises in the
market
• Discussions about Baths
in the world
• Intercultural evenings
• Language learning
• Interactive excursions

14. European dimension
• Participants from 7 European
countries
• Bath culture exists in various
European countries in various forms
and takes different role in societies
• Support from the European
programme
• Project was based on European
values: tolerance for diversity, equal
opportunities for participation in the
project, decisions taken by common
agreement.

15. Involvement of local community
• Direct contacts (e.g.
market)
• Local participants
• Presentation of the
project
• Media (national and
regional
TVs, newspapers and
etc.)

16. Strongest parts of the project
• Original and attractive idea
• Feasibility visit
• A lot of responsibility for national groups and participants
• Flexible, active and responsible team of group leaders
• Many countries and little groups (balanced according to
geography and sex)

17. Challenges
• Rejection of application
• Change of time and partners
• Not enough resources to try different types of baths
• Poor premises (toilets, cold)
• A lot of bureaucracy
• Weather :)

18. Host organisation of
Bath Academy
Kūrybinės Raiškos Centras
(Centre for Creative Expression)
V.Kudirkos 33
LT-81147 Kuršėnai
Lithuania
Email: info@krc.lt website: www.krc.lt