This year, our theme is ‘Body Image & Mental Wellness ' and we will be addressing issue of increasing concern to youths, parents, social workers and medical professionals. With the number of eating disorders on the rise and constant portrayal of the ‘thin’ ideal in the media and amongst peer groups, we hope to bring this ‘taboo’ topic to the forefront of contemporary social debate and engage youth in an open discussion about how to address it.

About Video Filming competition:

• Video should consist of a body image and mental wellness issue as well as a suggested solution to the issue. (eg: Person A is suffering from depression and want to commit suicide, and how Friends B, C, D, E, F can help)
• Application Deadline: 20th July 2007
• Max Number per group: 6
• Max length of video: 15 mins
• All videos submitted will be rightfully owned by YOUthVibes Organizing Committee and selected videos will be shown during the conference.

Forum Theatre is an interactive theatre form invented in the early 1970s by Augusto Boal. An audience is shown a short-ish play in which a central character (protagonist) encounters an oppression or obstacle which s/he is unable to overcome; the subject-matter will usually be something of immediate importance to the audience, often based on a shared life experience.

After this first showing, there may be a brief discussion amongst the audience, mediated by a figure known as 'the Joker' (as in a pack of cards, belonging to no particular suit, on no-one's side). Then the play is restarted, usually from the beginning, and runs as before - but this time, whenever a 'spect-actor' (active audience member) feels the protagonist might usefully have tried a different strategy, s/he can stop the action, take the protagonist's place, and try his or her idea. The other characters in the piece will react as they feel their characters would react, on a bad day i..e. they will not make it easy for any new tactic to succeed; but if an idea works, the intervening spect-actor can win, the game is not rigged.

Through a session of Forum Theatre, many people will take the stage and show many different possibilities. In this way, the event becomes a kind of theatrical debate, in which experiences and ideas are rehearsed and shared, generating both solidarity and a sense of empowerment. (http://www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk/textpopups/techniques_forum.html)

** World Café is an innovative yet simple methodology for hosting conversations about questions that matter. These conversations link and build on each other as people move between groups, cross-pollinate ideas, and discover new insights into the questions or issues that are most important in their life, work, or community. As a process, the World Café can evoke and make visible the collective intelligence of any group, thus increasing people’s capacity for effective action in pursuit of common aims. For information, please visit: http://www.theworldcafe.com/principles.htm