Youth work is a field which demands constant improvement and innovation, in order to support the dynamic and vibrant needs of target groups - young people. The Covid-19 crisis has significantly negatively affected young people, leading to an increased need for youth workers to successfully connect and intervene, and has shown us how gaps in the connection and preparedness in communities lead to disastrous outcomes in health - both physical and mental. Storytelling has a powerful and very positive influence on young people’s lives as it becomes a valuable tool towards building relationships, making young people laugh and ultimately helping all grow together. Through the project Storytelling for Youth, our consortium will be addressing the needs of youth and supporting their well-being, their development and their growth; empowering them to connect to each other and whoever they need, lead healthy and conscious lives and have good interpersonal relationships even when more effort is needed, all through work with youth workers and tools to support them. This will be achieved through the creation of 3 Intellectual Outputs, aimed at youth workers, and created to increase their capacity, support their work and encourage deep, active and effective communication with their target groups, as well as through 4 Multiplier events and countless informal meetings with young people, youth workers, educators and policy makers. SY unites the efforts of 5 active and driven organizations in a 20-month project, which aims to contribute to the communities they work directly with, as well as to Europe as a whole, promoting the value and joy of connectivity, the merits of active listening and sharing, and the importance of interpersonal understanding in youth work. Storytelling for Youth will provide youth and youth workers with tools for understanding and utilizing storytelling in their personal and professional lives, with which to improve how they relate to others (especially their target groups) and how they support them. Through the SY outputs, youth workers will have new practical skills, improved competences and specific strategies for implementing storytelling both in their work with young people, and in their work of engaging target groups and disseminating the results of their initiatives. The Storytelling board game will provide not only a tool for learning, but a bridge for communication between the youth workers and the young people. Our main activities in reaching SY’s overall aim are: - Create the Multimedia Guide on Storytelling, which will contain information, tasks, instructions, strategies, etc. on how to include storytelling in youth workers’ work seamlessly and effectively; the guide will be comprised of texts, videos, podcasts, infographics, etc. in order to be engaging, interactive and helpful; Create the SY board game to be a playable and replayable guide on working with storytelling and using it for establishing meaningful and supportive relationships with young people; Create the Dissemination Course, which will also be multimedia and will support youth workers and youth organizations in their engagement and dissemination activities; - Design and develop an online multilingual website, which will host all project results; - Organize a 3-day Joint Staff Training to improve the board game and prepare 10 youth workers for promoting the game with youth and youth workers in their communities and countries; - Promote the topic and the project results across youth and youth workers’ communities across Europe (via 4 Multiplier events and many informal meetings). The impact of SY will span across the following target groups: - Youth, who will in the short and long-term feel more and more significant support from youth workers, especially in crucial times of need; - Youth workers and educators - who will increase their capacities in providing high-quality services to young people; - Policy makers on a local, national and international level - who will be involved in Multiplier events and will receive knowledge and an increased awareness of the importance of well-being and mental health in youth; - Other stakeholders - youth training providers, youth platforms, youth communities, who will benefit from the outputs of the project and will be able to benefit from the outputs of the project and connect with each other via the SY website in order to create joint initiatives and exchange good practices. The project partners will work during the project implementation and after, dedicated to the topic and its impact, in order to deliver the best possible products and experience for youth workers and young people; the best assistance possible to youth workers and educators.
The project aimed to promote and enhance quality youth work and to develop high-quality educational and practical materials for youth workers. Storytelling for Youth Work aimed to strengthen the connection of youth workers with young people via the positive effects of storytelling, by adapting the storytelling methodology to suit the field of youth work. The project aimed to address the needs of youth and support their well-being, their development and their growth; empowering them to connect to each other and whoever they need, lead healthy and conscious lives and have good interpersonal relationships even when more effort is needed. Times of uncertainty and crisis demonstrated for us how important it is to be connected and how security is oftentimes reliant on the well-being of the whole community. The project Storytelling for youth work aimed to contribute to the priorities of Erasmus+ related to promoting engaging, connecting and empowering young people. The goal of the project was to do that through the adaptation and implementation of the storytelling methodology for the field of youth work; specifically through the capacity-building of youth workers by providing relevant and usable techniques and strategies.
We applied for the project, because we perceived the need to enhance youth workers capacity and methodological possibilities to reach out to young people and create meaningful connections. The project consortium was aware of the powerful effects of storytelling, that we wanted to adapt to the field of youth work. Central to business, politics, science and arts, storytelling plays a distinct role in the non-profit sector, where stories are used to introduce important causes to funders, beneficiaries, employees and volunteers; create awareness; change hearts and minds; and lead to meaningful action. Most importantly, for the purposes of our project, storytelling can be used to attract, engage, inform, support, inspire, connect with and empower young people in the context of youth work. The COVID-19 crisis impacted young people and ther wellbeing very negatively. In times of distancing and more solitude in the society, we perceived the need to create meaningful and value driven connections, especially for and with young people.