This creative exchange aspires to be experimental, meaning both methodologies are creatively combined and applied in each micro-management process. Micro-projects will be managed by primary and secondary school pupils, as well as high school students or youngsters or young adults learning French outside the school walls. After the training for trainers in Belgrade, organized from 23rd to 30th August 2022, 29 educators – 14 from Belgium and 15 from Serbia – became the first programme trainers to implement their training to numerous youngsters creating more than 100 inspirational stories that matter. We wanted to create, to test and to share the Stories That Matter methodology using a blended version of Digital Storytelling and Design For Change. It has been done and a toolkit has been created and shared. Workshop privileges self-expression and self-awareness over concerns of the audience (as free actors of change and content producer). The Digital Storytelling methodology leaves room for each participant’s individual experiences. More, even. It uses their individuality to differentiate and empower.
“Stories That Matter” Erasmus + project is a small-scale partnership between social-profit organization Maks vzw from Brussels and Vega Youth Center from Belgrade. It aims to develop an innovative methodological approach to active citizenship in vulnerable youth through the exchange of best practices concerning Digital Storytelling (DST) and Design for Change (DFC) methodologies that Maks (in case of DST) and Vega YC (in case of DFC) successfully used in their youth work in the past. We are trying to offer a methodological tool that leaves room for the emotional side of young people's intelligence. We find that expressing their experiences in a safe group allows the intimate stories of their lives to be expressed in a story that opens up possibilities for personal or social change. Digital Storytelling is a way of learning how to use digital technology, but also a tool for expressing emotions. Sarada Kharel tries to verify ‘the effectiveness of Digital Storytelling in expressing emotions.’ (Kharel, 2012, p. 5) She concludes that the combination of art and narrative makes it an effective tool to express emotions. (Kharel, S. (2012). Digital Storytelling: a tool for expressing emotions; Bachelor’s theses, degree programme)