Founded in 2019, COMBO is a non-profit association based in Marseille.
Its multidisciplinary team of artists, researchers and peer workers implements interventions at the intersection of the educational, artistic and social sectors with and for young audiences.
Since 2021 the association has been involved in participatory transnational projects to develop best practices in the field of non-formal education with unaccompanied minors and young adults in situations of errant mobility.
Engaging in participatory action research to be actors of real change alongside the target audience
As part of the European research-action project NewABC – Networking the educational world. Against Boundaries for Community-Building, funded by a Horizon 2020 grant, COMBO has set up a pilot action aimed at developing good practice in the non-formal education sector with and for unaccompanied minors in situation of errant mobility. Multi-modal workshops were co-created by the team in Melilla, Marseille and Barcelona with the target audience. The pilot was replicated by the Union of Refugees in Portugal (UREP) in collaboration with the University of Porto to test its adaptability to different contexts.
Other projects have been launched in Marseille. As part of the “Eté marseillais” program, street micro-workshops with a harm reduction approach were set up in 2022 in the Gare Saint-Charles / Porte d’Aix area with minors and young adults out of protection who take psychoactive drugs. A workshop in video and silk-screen printing has been set up with the participation of young girls out of care (2023-2024).
For the future, two international projects are in the pipeline.
VOLTIGE
a collaborative, long-term study with 11 European partners, which will use rigorous, participatory methods to assess the impact of art-based practices in formal and informal education on the development of learners’ key skills.
CHARMM
a project to develop a edutainment methodology for implementing harm reduction adapted to the target group of errant unaccompanied minors who use drugs, in collaboration with an Italian partner with expertise in harm reduction.
Contact us
93 La Canebière
13001 Marseille FRANCE