On 21 October 2021 the Story project partners held an inspirational meeting in Dublin getting ready for the workshops that they were going to organize for young people in the partner countries - The Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Ireland. After a long period of pandemic and online meetings it was good to meet face-to-face and work on the methods for attracting young people to tell their stories how they survived the pandemic. Partners thought of slogans for the workshops:
Design your future!
Each story matters!
During their stay in Dublin the partners were delighted to see a performance organized by the Irish partner Smashing Times during Dublin Arts & Human Rights Festival. The name of the play was River of Thorns, written by Féilim James, directed by Eric Weitz, performed by Michelle Costello, designed by Áine O’ Hara and produced by Mary Moynihan and Freda Manweiler. A real storytelling project!
The Story project partners met on 20th of June 2022 to present the work done for far and talk about future activities. They shared their experiences from the Storytellers’ Leage workshops held in their countries, discussed the results, made an overview of the stories that were already filmed and talked about the films that still have to be carried out.
They also held an evaluation workshop to monitor the work and the impact of the project activities so far and to consider improvements where necessary.
During their visit in Tenerife the partners had the opportunity to explore the hidden treasures of the island of Tenerife under the guidance of _tivity, a company for active tourism, sustainable tourism and environmental projects
and listen to the interesting stories of Javier Gonzales, a social entrepreneur who the partners had already met during a previous ErasmusPlus project where he was filmed as a role model.
On the 3 May 2023 the project partners met in Italy to review the project results and discuss the organisation of multiplier events in partner countries. They also held a workshop to evaluate the management and communication during the project and the impact on the participants and to plan the further dissemination of the project outcomes. During the discussions questions arose on how young people are coping now with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and how ‘a second chapter’ of the project could be designed to meet young people’s needs to tell their stories.
In the afternoon the partners joined the multiplier event organized by the Italian partner UNISTRASI to present the project and screen the movies with young people’s stories to stakeholders and policy makers.
In May and June 2023 all partners organized national seminars in their countries to present the attractive products about young people sharing their stories about the Covid19 pandemic. During these events the audience was invited to talk about the positive and the negative experiences during and after the pandemic and what we have learnt from them. The events aimed to bring policy makers and stakeholders closer to local youth communities providing this way active civic engagement to The Story project experiences. The evaluation of the events was extremely positive.
