StoryMakers Many Voices Many Lives

Background The project was designed in the context of increasing concern about the widening gap between young people who engage in social, civic and cultural life and are confident about finding a job, and those with little hope of leading a fulfilling life, and potentially at risk of exclusion and marginalisation. Our research showed that many young people aged 14-29 are neither in employment, education or training (NEET), and are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Young people with a migrant background, low educational achievement and health issues are most likely to become NEET and are least likely to participate in social and civic activities. The project aimed to develop materials to enable youth workers to use the power of story-making to engage and work with socially excluded young people, equipping them with resilience, confidence, self-esteem, and life skills, with the objective of fostering the inclusion and employability of young people with fewer opportunities, through the promotion of quality youth work. Objectives The main achievement for the project was to equip professionals with the skills to engage socially excluded young people. To ensure young people’s creativity and initiative will be stimulated, motivating them about their future To make young people aware of services, support networks, and means of accessing qualifications for further education and/or employment Enable participating organisations to gain skills and encourage a wider European network, supporting internationalisation strategies. Longer-term benefits will be a reduction in youth social exclusion; a positive impact on the partners’ reputation, which can be expected to bring further financial support. At wider level: we expect to feed the lessons of the project into policy development at national and European levels. Future funding is expected to be acquired through mainstreaming and multiplying the project both at national and European levels. Implementation At the outset, we built and established strong relationships with key partners, across our link agencies and organisations, and in developing and establishing information and dissemination sessions, we successfully recruited and trained youth workers using these networks, such as Schools, FE and HE, creative agencies, Local Authorities, NGO's and business links. The partnership developed creative and innovative tools: A Portal, website links, training materials, workshops, follow ups, Quality Assurance, internal and external evaluations and a dissemination plan. Our pilot testing activities ensured we cascaded the Storymaking method to a wide and diverse audience, and Dissemination and communication was constant. The project was promoted to target groups via teams, face to face sessions, Multi media, websites, articles and newsletters. Achievements The project produced 2 intellectual outputs: IO1-A Guide for professionals, (long version in English with an additional 4 condensed versions translated in 4 languages) containing the following modules: Characteristics of socially excluded young people in each participating country; Using story-making to engage and motivate socially excluded young people; Where next: supporting young people to access further employment/education/support services; Building partnerships across sectors: A model for developing and strengthening links between youth organisations, schools, VET, HE and the labour market; A measurement tool that can be used by professionals to assess young people’s progress. IO3-An open access multi-lingual e-learning portal, targeting professionals Four multiplier events local dissemination activities reaching 6000 people A final External Evaluation Report An internal Evaluation report A video Showreel A framework for testing the materials with professionals and young people A dissemination report 6 national Policy Recommendations