The FAMA training program for artistic mediation assistants is designed to enhance the initiatives of the people we welcome into our workshops, by providing them with guidance and in-depth training in artistic mediation practices. 
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This training amplifies an already emerging movement, which some of our professional artists and teachers have been experimenting with, particularly in the field of music, as part of their work outside our organization (public performances and presentations, school and community work). They have called on a number of participants to support them, as part of a paid working contract.

In the light of these observations, we decided to ask the people who frequent our organization to confirm - with the help of their teachers - these initial observations, and to tell us to what extent they wished to progress in their ability to carry out these actions of assistance to artistic mediation. This implies that the curriculum is not determined a priori, but is built in collaboration with the people concerned.

Jean Horvais, a professor in the Specialized Education and Training Department at UQAM and one of our main collaborators on this project, has identified 5 categories of functions assumed with varying degrees of effectiveness but nonetheless deliberately by these people:
- material and organizational support
- facilitation and pedagogical support for peers
- reception, internal and external communication
- institutional regulation
- providing relational and emotional support to peers.
We have agreed to group them together in the training course, calling them artistic mediation assistance functions.

FAMA is delivered in two complementary ways:
1. Within courses and workshops, by teachers according to the specific characteristics of their discipline
2. In the form of a course lasting a few consecutive days for more cross-disciplinary learning, requiring intensity and repetition. In this second modality, a small teaching team is brought together from among our staff to mobilize temporarily for the project.

In this way, we aim to :
> improve our service offering through the recognized contribution of participants to the common good within the organization (quality and well-being objectives)
> build a progressive qualification of participants to offer them opportunities for remunerated activities when opportunities arise for outside intervention (objectives of recognition, self-determination and social participation).
 
The FAMA pedagogical team invites you to follow its developments and news on the dedicated blog (available in french, switch back to the french version of our website.