Disadvantaged groups like refugees or people with migration background have fewer opportunities to articulate themselves and have only little chance in being heard or listened in the new society where they live. Nowadays, integration of this group in the hosting communities is a continuous growing issue whichis receiving the specific attention for involving refugees in every aspect.The general aim of LISTEN is to use the storytelling approach in a radio environment as a mean of communication and a way of integrating refugees in the community. Storytelling will help refugees by empowering them, facilitating communication and inspiring their personal growth. Telling their own story in a secure environment will reassure them the values as a person, widden the chances of meeting new people and being offered work opportunities. This approach will affect also the audience, the hosting society. In this way the listener will be active in the equal level as the storyteller, will be involved in their personal life story and raise the comprehensive behaviour.The project will start with a research in order to get a clear picture of the storytelling methods mostly applied and main actors involved. This will serve to the further development of each step of the project and its respective IO-s.The core of the project are the training modules and the validation system. In this context of activities, the first step will be the development of the storytelling training curricula and modules which will be further developed by each partner due to their expertise. Then a validation system will be designed, to recognize and certificate the storytelling competences developed by the trainers and multipliers. For this purpose, the LEVEL5 validation system will have to be further developed and customised to the specific needs of the project. LISTEN seeks to apply LEVEL5 at two levels for a better coverage and competences cvalidation: first with the participants in the European training course that will then carry out learning projects with refugees and second with the refuges that will take part in the storytelling projects. Once the first draft products (training modules and validation system) have been developed, they will be tested during a well structured piloting phase. The piloting phase will be preceded by a five-day European training course (C1) for trainers and multipliers, to get to know the LISTEN concept and to learn how to apply it in real training contexts with refugees. At least 2-3 educational professionals will be trained per partner along the LISTEN concept.After the course, the LISTEN training modules will be piloted by the participants of the European course in learning projects with refugees. This learning projects will involve 15-20 refugees per country. At the end of this process, an experience report and guidelines will be developed and published in the project website. The experience report will be based on the national experience reports that will be provided by each partner. National reports will be based on at least 2-3 learning projects that are carried out by the course participants locally in their working environment. An award will be given to all refugees who showed best the storytelling skills gained through the learning projects. In this framework, a Collection of Refugees Life Stories will be created and will contain the stories of the award winners. The Collection will be in audio book and will be available in the LISTEN web portal. Finally, the LISTEN label will be developed, as a tangible sign to recognize and reward the efforts made by the radios in empowering refugees through embedding the LISTEN concept into their programms.
Storytelling can build bridges and is a wonderful way to learn a language, to be in touch with others and to express oneself. The aim of LISTEN is to use “applied storytelling” in its many forms as educational method in the work with refugees. LISTEN explored different approaches to storytelling and how radio and other forms of audio broadcasting can be used as medium to share these stories. It intended to offer a common approach to personal development and learning that had the potential to create a sense of community and togetherness. The primary target groups were trainers, language teachers and multipliers working with refugees as well as training providers, NGOs, social services or similar institutions that offer learning activities for refugees. The final beneficiaries were refugees involved in these activities. To achieve the objective the LISTEN team implemented the following activities: - Research: All partners explored the current state of art in terms of using storytelling as an educational method with refugees, and to define the training needs of the target group in terms of competences needed to use storytelling methods and involving radio with refugees, and the competences their final beneficiaries may develop through storytelling. - Validation system: It is the centrepiece of the validation approach and is based on the LEVEL5 system. LEVEL5 is specifically designed to facilitate a profound assessment and evidencing of personal and social skills and competences related to intercultural storytelling. - Training modules: The partners developed a curriculum and training materials based on transferable didactic concepts and methods for storytelling with refugees and the integration of radio (especially internet radio). The four training modules are designed as independent units covering all aspects necessary for the implementation of radio storytelling and validation. From this extensive material, specific elements were selected to be taught during a training session in January 2018. - Training course in Austria: The 5-day course was attended by 19 participants – trainers, volunteers, multipliers working with refugees – who were enabled to plan and implement learning projects according to the LISTEN approach. - Practical phase: During the piloting phase all in all 15 learning projects were carried out involving >200 refugees. At the end of the piloting phase, the competences acquired during the training and piloting were validated by means of LEVEL5. - Experience report: The findings, achievements and challenges of the practical phase are described in the Experience Report. It draws conclusions and recommendations of interest to potential future users based on training and learning experiences and feedback received during the pilot phase. - Collection of refugees’ stories: The collection is based on stories collected during the piloting phase and through the LISTEN Award. It currently consists of 34 stories – fictional and real ones. The collection celebrates refugees’ and migrants’ stories – about themselves, their experience, their culture and their ideas – thus helping to build bridges between them and their host communities. - The LISTEN label: It is a tangible label and is awarded to organisations that show they comply with the LISTEN philosophy: Use storytelling in training and provide a validation path for recognition of learning outcomes. It is awarded through a self-assessment process in which organisations present a clear case for how they meet these criteria. Based on their individual experiences and participants’ feedback, all partners reported a number of achievements and success stories: - The pilot projects have shown how strong the exchange between cultures is and how rich in diversity. All participants were reminded that they live in multicultural societies. - The storytelling projects created relationship between refugees and local residents without discrimination or prejudices. Local people's awareness of refugees has increased through new contacts and stories. - Learners have improved their language skills. They could speak spontaneously and freely, present themselves or their stories and reflect on themselves. - Learners appreciated the opportunity to receive certificates documenting their personal development. - The involved trainers have new tools and exercises for their work with refugees, migrants and even native speakers. They are able to implement storytelling, recording and editing stories in their activities. - All project partners have intensified their existing network or created new networking contact with radio stations, refugees associations and language trainers. Having reviewed the project outcomes there was general agreement amongst partners that the LISTEN training and resources and the individual learning projects met the primary aims and objectives of the intellectual output and contributed significantly to the overall success of the project.