TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Alexandra Nikolova
Stories We Tell invited artists and youth workers from various corners of the world to meet, exchange and develop educational tools using writing, local legends & myths as a source of inspiration and encouragement for young people, calling them to pay attention to the potential of their rural cultures, surroundings and communities.
What we wanted was this project to engage both youth workers and European writers and researchers. They came together on the development of promotion methods for rural areas and societies as in Somme’s Bay. Our main objective was the development of pedagogical tools using local stories, creative writing and different cultures to educate young people about the beauty and potential of their territory, wishing to turn them into active actors of their society.
The trainer team had three facilitators from different countries: Anne Merlin (France) - an experienced trainer and project creator; Karolina Ufa (Poland) - facilitator interested in storytelling and gender inequalities; and me - Alexandra Nikolova (Bulgaria), trainer and communication designer.
The group: 21 artists, educators and youth workers met in Bernay en Ponthieu in Picardie, from 27 of February to 12 of March 2017. 7 partners and 21 participants from Romania, Italy, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Canada, Colombia, Latvia, Poland and Mexico shared personal and professional experiences and analysed the influence of the storytelling and creative writing in the identity of remote local communities. Together, they wrote and rewrote local legends, myths, historical tales, original stories, poems, letters, essays inspired by Picardy and their own home regions.
The training course was based on non-formal educative method and activities. During the project we designed and exchanged many workshops and educational exercises, that resulted in a rich variety of creations – poems, short stories, comics, illustrations, installations, sound and music creations, photographs and more. We are excited to share with you the creations and the results of this amazing workshop!
The results of the TC are a very rich variety. Therefore, we created several booklets so we can share the knowledge and learnings from the project - poems, short stories, comics, illustrations, installations, sound and music creations, photographs and more.
A volunteer (Leo Zbanke) also created a video from the workshops. An e-book with activities we did at the workshops was also published.
Access to all materials here: http://nomadways.eu/stories-we-tell-2017-france/
As a trainer, I co-designed the programme with the other facilitators and together we conducted a 2-week training course with daily activities from 09:30 till 18:30 h.