The International Training Course “Storytelling for Youth Workers: The Power of Words” took place in Petrohan, Bulgaria, in November 24-30, 2019. The training was a part of the project “It’s All about Solidarity” (2019-1-BG01-KA205-062198) – Strategic Partnerships for Youth – Key Action 2 funded by the Human Resources Development Center under the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission. The project is coordinated by the International Foundation for Y-PEER Development, Bulgaria, with partner organizations from Italy (CET Platform), Greece (Kinoniki Sinetairistiki Epicherisielliniki Picherisielliniki Symmetochi Neon), Austria (GEMMA) and Turkey (Youth Approaches to Health). The project focuses on the social inclusion, integration and empowerment of young refugees and migrants.

The main topic of the training focuses on good practices and methodologies related to non-formal education, storytelling, creating powerful messages and audiovisual products for empowering young refugees and migrants through showcasing positive examples of integration. The training also includes methodologies for involving celebrities (decision-makers, artists, journalists, influential people in each country) for advocacy, as well as techniques for storytelling online (through videos) and live (Living Library methodology).

25 youth workers based in the partner countries participated in this course and they were from Bulgaria, Italy, Greece, Austria, Turkey, Palestine, Argentina, Uruguay, India, China, Romania and Iraq.