The aim of ‘’Rewrite your story" is to create an innovative curriculum accompanied by tools and methodologies about storytelling practices to be applied by care-givers for seniors. The purpose is to arm the care givers with skills that will help elderly people regain an active role in society. During piloting, 140 care givers will take part in the program and improve their skills. Objectives: • To arm the care-givers with a handy tool which improves, updates and boosts the quality of their services, broadens their knowledge and skills, and helps them be more confident for project making in their future career. • To develop an educational material for the care-givers in order to give to the elderly people they work with the opportunity to overcome the barrier of age and the difficulty of feeling unnecessary and handling responsibilities. A methodology which has the story telling as its base, and uses the stories as the core material which will be transduced into a variety of artistic forms, such as performing arts (dance / video dance, theater / documentary theater) visual arts (digital narration, stop motion video) and creative writing (e-book). • To provide seniors with the opportunity to take over high-responsibility positions by being part of a working team, that will help them regain the feeling of being part of social activities. ‘’Rewrite your story" will contain intellectual outputs, as mentioned below: • IO1 Focus Groups' methodology guide for identifying needs, artistic potential and preferences • IO2 Curriculum for care givers working with Storytelling Techniques • IO3 Toolbox that will contain the educational exercises • IO4 Handbook that will contain the methodology of the techniques • IO5 IT open platform with the methodology, the toolbox and all the IT & cultural products • IO6 Recommendations for policy makers and training providers The expected impact of the project refers to: • Participants: After the training based in project’s curriculum, care givers will have the opportunity to use a handy tool that will help them assist their beneficiaries – end users of the project to create their own stories and recreate them by working together through the techniques of artistic means. Elderly people will feel themselves useful for the society, will enhance their emotional and social skills and therefore will give them the opportunity to overcome the barrier of age and the difficulty of feeling unnecessary and handling responsibilities. This will lead the elderly people improve their self-esteem and sense of community. • Participating Organizations: Organizations working with the training of care givers and organizations with elderly people will benefit from the procedure and results of the project. They will have the chance to develop an alternative, non-formal and effective method in order to approach in terms of age diverse population. They will be a part of a creative procedure and they can apply what they will learn on their beneficiaries in their countries. They can also have the opportunity to share their experience and new findings both with new colleagues and the newly created network. Also VET and counseling organizations will benefit because of this new curriculum in the field of assisting elderly people. • Target group: The direct target group (care-givers) will benefit in a strong way. The tool and methodology that will be developed, would be available to everyone who’s interested in working efficiently with seniors. The final product of the project will facilitate the work of professionals and counselors and contribute to the smooth function of such structures and services. Professionals will have in their hands a methodology which will help them assist seniors to overcome the frequent barrier of exclusion as elder members of the society. Mutual understanding will be boosted within the work field. • Entire Community: The proposed project and its results will provide benefits for the entire community as well as the persons directly involved in it. The multidisciplinary cooperation will build a new network of institutions and professionals and will suggest an alternative approach in working with elderly people and care givers. The nature of the final product foreshadows its sustainability and the ability to be extended through future projects. The most important benefits are the optimization of providing services in structures working with the elderly people, the support that professionals will receive through a method which provides the feeling of social necessity and finally achieving a successful interaction between care givers and elderly people in community.
The fundamental objective of ReStory has been to arm the caregivers working with elderly people, with a handy tool which improves and updates the quality of their services, broadens their knowledge and skills, and helps them be more confident in project making. Through this objective the project aims to provide seniors with the opportunity to take over high-responsibility positions by being part of a working team, that will help them regain the feeling of partaking in social activities. The activities are addressed to caregivers, are educational and based on storytelling techniques and artistic practices with digital orientation. Seniors often experience a disempowering loss of control over their lives and daily routines, which leads to anxiety and depression. The reconstruction of their personal narratives through storytelling can be particularly rousing, as they can reclaim a sense of authority. ReStory supports seniors in overcoming the barriers of ageing by situating them anew in a key position of responsibility and expectations. It became crucial that this project was carried out transnationally, as the exchange of acquired knowledge between the partners aimed to enhance its original vision, enriching its scope and outcome.
The aim of ReStory has been the creation of an innovative curriculum accompanied by tools and methodologies about storytelling practices and artistic techniques to be applied by caregivers for seniors. Concerning the major mental-health related issue of depression, according to Hellenic Statistical Authority (2014) , the percentage of the elderly people in Greece suffering by depression was increasing as the age of individuals increase (44 - 54 years old: 3.7%, 55 - 64 years old: 5%, 65 - 74 years old: 7.6% and 75+ years old: 10%). According to Eurostat's reporting about the share of the population suffering from chronic depression, the numbers for EU28 are equivalent: 65 - 74 years old: 7,7% and 75+ years old: 10% (2014). These numbers suggest a need for expertly trained caregivers, with targeted skills, while it also reveals their need for extra motivation in their workplace, such as the opportunity to get involved in creative and innovative processes. While ReStory was proposed amidst the COVID19 global pandemic, it also aimed at the post-traumatic recovery and re-activation of both caregivers working with elderly people and their beneficiaries – two population groups that were particularly affected by the current crisis.