Narratives for Social Action

Narratives for Social Action is a training course targeting primarily youth and social workers, educators, youth leaders, and all those who have a professional interest in the field of storytelling, global education and its new trends, active citizenship education, media literacy and promotion of positive values.

It will take place in Sermugnano, Italy, from 25th June - 2nd July 2022, travel days included. It will involved 20 participants coming from 7 different European countries (Italy, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Turkey).

The course wants to equip youth workers, social workers and trainers with tools to be more effective in their work, and build a stronger and more resilient idea of society in their communities, in particular working with skills related to narratives / counter narratives, digital and social media, storytelling tools. For that a diverse mix of activities will be provided that will create learning opportunities while keeping the group engaged, and different learning styles stimulated. The mix of methods will be based on the principles and theories of non formal education, experiential learning and reflective practice.

The learning processes in this course will develop around three main areas, which will be storytelling, social cohesion and solidarity, global education. 

AIMS and OBJECTIVES

The aim of the project is to explore and develop storytelling as a transformational educational method and as tool of promoting democratical values, inclusion, tolerance, empowerment and critical thinking of young people. The main objectives of the training course are:

• to identify and deconstruct toxic narratives work, understanding their effects on society, and how they are spreading hate, intolerance and open racism;
• to practice building effective counter narratives and launching positive communication campaigns;
• to understand the root causes that bring social fragmentation and isolation, and develop methods to build social cohesion and solidarity;
• to practice storytelling tools and methods to become more effective in communication at the personal level, on media and on digital platforms;
• to create an international network of youth workers and organisations, able to have a positive impact on local levels, make it sustainable and multiply it.

THE TRAINING TEAM

The training team comes from rich and diverse backgrounds and, beside a practical and extensive experience in the field of youth work, training and storytelling:

• Carmine Rodi Falanga (Italy/ Czech Republic)
• Mafalda Morganti (Italy)