The COVID-19 epidemics have among all other sectors impacted also the cultural and educational sector and opened new questions and challenges in the development of knowledge sharing and access. Specifically, the need for educational organizations to switch (or balance) from traditional to e-learning and to incorporate creative tools to stimulate and empower participants for new knowledge and new skill learning in a digital environment. The need for creative solutions goes both ways. Creative tools as well as solutions are necessary inside organizations in order to strengthen the creative competencies of staff. To be more concrete, by combining creative methods like storytelling and creative writing with language learning, we are hoping to achieve better quality in online education and open dialog between teachers, learners, and non-teaching staff. Furthermore, with this approach toward learners, we want to stimulate their motivation to be successful creative persons in their local environment who will be able to resolve challenges in their local communities. The main objective of this project is to implement creative and innovative methods in the work of the organizations involved. To do so, we will organize 3 workshops where we will share best practices on subjects of storytelling, creative writing, and the conversational Callan English learning method that will help organizations in these challenging times to come up with creative solutions for their students. People involved in this project are part of the teaching and non-teaching staff of tree organizations involved: Initiative - Centar for education, Storytelling Centre Netherlands, and EUROPASS SRL: The applicant organization of the project is Initiative - Centre for education. The project will include 9 people altogether who will learn new creative methods of teaching, that will benefit adult learners. Activities in the project are short term joint staff activities: 1. WORKSHOP: Callan method of teaching - Inicijativa for education (CRO), 2. WORKSHOP - Creative writing for better self-expression EUROPASS SRL (IT), 3. WORKSHOP: Storytelling for creative adult learning. Aside from short term joint staff meetings, there will be two transnational meetings, one in Croatia at the beginning of the project, and others in the Netherlands at the end of the project. Because of the COVID -19 situation, in the project process, we will hold 3 additional partner meetings that will take place online, as a part of blended learning, where we will talk about project objectives, results, and workshops in particular. The expected results of this project are implementing new creative methods in the work of organizations involved, broaden the professional network, enforcing the intercultural dialogue thus creating a space for developing new projects together with these organizations in the future.
The main objective of this project was to implement creative and innovative methods in the work of the involved organizations. Our goal was also to improve the competencies of teachers and nonteaching staff in creative solutions when dealing with new challenges at work. One of the goals was also to improve methodology and skills for working with refugees and other vulnerable groups. The value of this project was seen in the program of education that is adjusted to different target groups. For example, the knowledge gained through activities was implemented in work with vulnerable groups such as refugees, other adult learners, professionals, and the general public.
This project was created as an answer to the COVID-19 crisis that has, among other sectors hit the educational and creative sectors the most. The idea was for the educational sector to collaborate with creative ones, as to find a better solution for future challenges within our local community and our organizations. As educational organizations, in COVID-19 we had to make a switch and balance traditional and e-learning. There was a need to incorporate more creative tools to stimulate and empower participants for new knowledge and new skill learning in a digital environment. The need for creative solutions was also detected inside organizations in order to strengthen the competencies of staff to adapt and create new solutions. On the other hand, our partner from the creative sector had a need in improving English teaching competencies, as they were developing their manual Alternative Ways, a way of learning a second language for refugees. With the Callan Method, we have helped them to gain more knowledge and tools to incorporate into their teaching.