STORYLINE: STORYtelling for (Language) Learning in an Interactive and Non-formal Environment

Background We applied for this specific project as we identified a series of needs regarding youth, youth workers and the communities of the partner organizations. These needs refer to the fact that youth aged 16-29 needed to be exposed to real stories of elders and people that went through hardship, as available life lessons; to improve their employability potential by gaining new skills related to writing, language, ICT and cultural heritage; to create a bridge between youth, elders and people with fewer opportunities and to create a united and inclusive society (which was highly needed especially since the pandemic started); to make intercultural and european cooperation more accessible through the promotion of language learning; to promote authentic cultural heritage through storytelling (for e.g. people who experienced World War Two and have worth discovering stories). We identified further needs that referred to the lack of content and learning material on these topics, that is free, youth-friendly (created by youth for youth), interactive, innovative and which contains social inclusion aspects as well. Moreover most youth workers in these fields needed more networking opportunities for the development of their work. Objectives Aim: To foster a cohesive and inclusive society through storytelling, digitalization and through an intergenerational and intercultural approach among youth. Specific Objectives: 1. To provide quality youth work and innovative tools and practices in storytelling, language-learning, ICT and non-formal education at European level. 2. To foster social inclusion among youth from Spain, Portugal and Romania by an increase in the number of youth learning each other’s language and by having more people encouraged to share culture and heritage through storytelling and ICT. Implementation 3 LTTs took place successfully. *6 workshops for local young volunteers took place in online format: 2 workshops/ country (1 in storytelling and creative writing and 1 in adaptation, editing and translation). 30 language learning events in the 3 countries (aimed at creating a local community of people with similar interests: inclusion, diversity, interculturality, language and culture exchange and promoting the project and at disseminating good practices among the local community). 3 TPMs took place successfully and made the consortium of partners stronger, the partners' staff also exchanged good practices and learned from each other more about project management. 4 Multiplier Events that promoted the project and found more stakeholders that would like to incorporate the project results into their activity (1 event per country with the exception of Spain, where 2 smaller multipliers took place, as the 2 partners are from different regions - Madrid and Granada). 8 online partner meetings. 2 Knowledge sharing sessions online at project level. 9 local knowledge sharing sessions after LTTs (1/ country). Achievements Outputs: IO1.1: The Storytelling HUB containing 63 stories with visual support in Romanian, English, Spanish, and Portuguese., written by young volunteers (aged 16-29), based on interviews that the youngsters conducted with people that went through hardship or elders with interesting stories to tell. IO1.2: Stories for Young Learners book, containing the same 63 stories (for easy download/ print possibilities) accompanied by reading comprehension exercises for each story and 6 non-formal activities that can be used with any of the 63 stories. HUB link (IO1,IO2): https://hub.storylineproject.eu/ Website link: https://storylineproject.eu/ Other results: 100 youth workers trained. 87 young volunteers trained from all 3 countries. 750 participants in language events at least 30 people at project level improved their cooperation and management skills: 100 participants at project level in Multiplier events 63 elders or people that went through hardship that were interviewed by the young volunteers were involved in the project and contributed with their stories and experience. 3000 people informed about the project from the three countries. Therefore, at least 4130 people were impacted in some way by the project at European level.