Folklore has played an important role in identity formation, both on an individual and national level and we wished to highlight this and make folklore and mythology accessible to to the LGBTQAI+ community. We believed that seeing LGBTQAI+ characters represented in these stories could also provide sympathetic role models and give a sense of ownership over our collective shared heritage. Storytelling is a very valuable skill, one that can improve communication and understanding between individuals, as well as allowing people to express themselves creatively and giving them a voice. We specifically wished to target members of the LGBTQAI+ community as, like many marginalized groups, their voice has often been silenced with control over their own narrative and their representation in elite, popular, and informal culture taken from them and often used to vilify them. We wished to teach storytelling to young individuals in the community to allow them to express themselves creatively and to empower them to take control of their own narrative and representation, and find their own voice. The skills and knowledge they would acquire help in fostering a sense of inclusion and empowerment to a group that is often outcast and disempowered
The impetus behind our application was a desire to spread awareness of traditional, non-tangible culture (I.E. folklore, mythology, etc.) and the role it still plays in modern culture as as well as passing on the ability to tell/perform oral stories. The National Leprechaun Museum has been attempting to make folklore and mythology fun and accessible to all by sharing the stories of the Irish people and we saw this as an opportunity to bring this knowledge to people who we had not previously reached. We also wished to share the skills in traditional oral storytelling that we had acquired over the years, as storytelling could serve as a valuable tool to teach communication and interpersonal skills, as well as allowing people to express themselves creatively. The ability to tell a story and the sharing of stories helps foster this skills and brings a sense of community and belonging, which we wished to share with a marginalized community who may not have have been aware of have had access to traditional storytelling and folklore in the past. The LGBTQAI+ community has always had a special place in the museum, with many of our staff identifying as part of the community, and we wished to share what we know to empower LGBTQAI+ youth.