Project’s GENERAL OBJECTIVE is developing adult educators' creative skills, implicating artistic languages, to give an added value to socially dependent people’s memories in educational activities. Collecting and sharing old people's life stories is a practice of high educational value for: - students of all ages who can find there original material about historical periods or events; for reflection on contemporary social phenomena; components of traditions and cultural identities; material for playful activities that are genuine and free from the negative influence of standardisation and commercialisation - adults who will reflect on more or less distant memories, comparing them with current social problems, recovering traditions and cultural/popular forms of expression - socially dependent people themselves, who in the process can improve self-confidence, regain an active role in society, preserve/recover cognitive abilities The educational value of memories can be better understood when we think that remembering is not just re-evoking past: it is also reflection on oneself, care of one’s own life experience, to define through self-knowledge and self-awareness one’s identity. Memory doesn't preserve the memories of our past mechanically, arranging them in coherent narratives: in fact, we constantly rebuild our memories modifying them every time we tell our story, rebuilding and renovating this way our identity too. This doesn't mean that we are free to invent or build ourselves as we like: our narrative construction is subject to constraints, especially because narration is always addressed to others who are calling us to account for what we attribute to ourselves. People's life stories are therefore not only a precious part of the intangible heritage of a community, but also decisive in building the sense of identity and belonging of its members: not only as memory-chronicle of facts and events, but also as an attitude, born out of the act of remembering, that fosters mutual listening, dialogue, engagement in the construction of a collective identity that takes into account reasons and memories of others. Therefore, SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES of the project are: - improving the artistic value and appeal of activities presenting and sharing old people's memories, to reach a wider audience and enhance their educational value - fostering interaction and exchange of competencies between social workers and performers, writers, video-makers and visual artists to create different formats of sharing collected memories with the audience - promote intercultural training and multidisciplinary exchange between artists, educators, therapists and experts in autobiographical methods Overall around 100 people will be directly involved in project's activities: besides the professionals and experts mentioned above, a large number of socially dependent people will take part in the experimental projects, enjoying new ways to relate with people, be active and share their memories. Main result of the project will be a set of educational resources including guidelines on autobiographical methods, reflective practice and quality assurance, and a repository of experimental projects that could be of inspiration for other professionals interested ion working in this field. The project is likely to produce a significant impact on the quality of activities aiming at harvesting and presenting/sharing autobiographical material, on the skills and competencies of artists and social carers/workers and on quality of life of socially dependent people.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES of the project were: • to improve the artistic value and appeal of activities presenting and sharing memories and stories of people in social dependency (including elderly people and people with disabilities), to reach a wider audience and enhance their educational value • to foster interaction and exchange of competencies between social workers and performers, writers, video-makers and visual artists to create different formats of sharing collected memories and life stories with the audience. This project had added value through being transnational.: telling our stories in dialogue, addressed to people from other European countries, will have the result of defining our identity as Europeans. As mentioned above, remembering is not just recalling the past but also reflecting on oneself and defining one’s own identity in relation to others. Active relation with other Europeans will enable the communities involved to develop, besides the local, regional and national ones, also a European identity.
The project’s GENERAL OBJECTIVE was developing adult educators' creative skills in order to enable them to exploit the full potential of memories of people in situation of social dependency within educational activities. The group of people in situation of social dependency who cannot lead independent lives is made up of people with disabilities and elderly persons. In our context, collecting and sharing people's life stories is a practice of high educational value for: • students of all ages who can find original material about historical periods or events; for reflection on contemporary social phenomena; components of traditions and cultural identities ;material for playful activities that are genuine and free from the negative influence of standardisation and commercialisation; • adults who will reflect on more or less distant memories, comparing them with current social issues, recovering traditions and cultural/popular forms of expression; • people in social dependency themselves, who in the process can improve self-confidence, regain an active role in society, preserve/recover cognitive abilities and therefore promote their personal autonomy.