April – June 2022
Storytelling is a unique human experience that allows us to convey, through the language of words, aspects of ourselves and others and of the worlds, real or imagined, that we inhabit. Stories allow us to get to know these worlds and our place in them, since we are all, to some extent, made up of stories: stories about ourselves, our families, our friends and colleagues, our communities, our cultures, our place in history.
All our stories are important and together they form a greater history. What are the stories of young people during the Covid19 pandemic? What stumbling blocks have they experienced? How do they see the future after the pandemic? These and many more issues were tackled during creative workshops organized in partner countries – The Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. Young people were invited to tell their stories and talk about their experiences during the pandemic and how they dealt with it.
Various creative methods, such as physical and vocal warm-ups, theater games, card games and visual materials were used to create more encouraging and confident environment during the workshops. The participants shared various experiences on subjects like loneliness, creativity, well-being, relationships, passions, disparities, stigma and exclusion. They were given the opportunity to talk about their feelings and fears during the pandemic, re-imagine the present and become more resilient for the future.
The participants liked very much the methods used and expressed their positive impressions of the workshops. They pointed out that they felt comfortable in the created atmosphere and liked the possibility to be able to share their stories about their everyday life and exchange ideas. They appreciated very much the storytelling methods which helped them look in a new way at the time spent at home during Corona, go deeper in their feelings and longings, and get new insight on their lives. They could speak freely and were inspired by the creative methods which offered them confident environment and were useful for drawing conclusions and making plans for the future.