ASSITEJ International is an association made up of 83 National Centres and Professional Networks across 6 continents and in over 100 countries. With such diversity in membership, our work is cut out for us to be relevant in all these contexts but it is vital to know how we can best serve members and how members can contribute to the global picture.

The big issues in our TYA community are often shared: the constant struggle for funding; the perceptions of value for artists and young audiences; the lack of space and recognition; the lack of access to theatre and performance for children and young people. There is a real sense of isolation for so many in the sector. Our sector seeks professional development, networking, touring opportunities, funding and support. Connection can make all the difference, but how to reach each other and why?  Can connection shift us into different ways of thinking and acting?

ASSITEJ International makes strong sense in these terms. Our international gatherings, whether face to face or online, focus on humans in this sector meeting each other. Through professional exchange, curiosity and conversation we share a sense of urgency in what we do and how we create access to performance. We aim for strength in unity that recognises difference. We share theatre and performance that expresses the breadth of our contexts.

Context is the key. How vast and complicated this world is when seen through the myriad experiences of our colleagues. As members of ASSITEJ, and those experiencing the association for the first time, we have the chance to offer our experience and history, our practice and why it has developed the way is has, and our unique qualities as theatre and performance makers. What we bring, and freely offer, expands the collective knowledge of the global sector and listening to others’ situations helps us with our own. 

Being part of the global association brings together workers in theatre and performance for, with and by children and young people, to make a full picture in all its diversity, and to open to each other about what is at stake wherever we are.  Our membership is made up of people who believe, and prove, that theatre and performance is a potential catalyst for changes personal and profound. That the work created for, with and by children and young people should be the best it can be, and that it should be everywhere.

Our work is to promote and unify – making the cultural rights of children and young people a central pillar of engagement across the world.

Advocacy is never easy and is often dispiriting – we know this in all our work to gain recognition and value for ourselves as artists and for the young audiences and participants. So through ASSITEJ, we draw on the achievements of others to strengthen the larger fight.

By being part of this larger organisation, we are part of a huge body of passionate workers in the arts who together, in diversity and with generosity, with optimism and action, are constantly chipping away at the barriers that children and young people experience in every part of this huge world.