“To be a person is to have a story to tell”

Every single human being has a unique personal history based on their experience, thoughts and feelings. To share those stories with others can be a powerful tool, changing the attitudes and inspiring both sides – those who listen to the stories and those who tell them.

The art of storytelling has been an important part of social interactions since the very birth of humanity. However, as nowadays we are being exposed to constant flood of news and data, we tend to forget how important and meaningful is to share our personal experience with others. The digital storytelling is a concept that combines two crucial aspects – the power of creating personal narratives and our modern need to “go digital”.

The proposed Training Course aims at bringing European youth workers together and teach them what digital storytelling is and how they can use it as a tool for working with young people with diverse cultural and/or migration background. During the project the participants will go through an intensive set of workshops giving them a chance to learn how to create their own digitalized stories. We believe that learning by doing will provide a deeper understanding of the method and therefore serve as an inspiration for creating similar projects in participants own communities.

Developing projects that are based on new methods and approaches seems to be especially important for those youth workers who are dealing with difficult social issues, as they very often lack proper and effective tools to address their beneficiaries. Digital storytelling is a very inclusive method that can be used in various contexts and therefore we hope the skills and knowledge gained during this Training Course will help our participants to create a new quality in their everyday work with young people.

Objectives:
 To provide participants with knowledge about the digital storytelling method and its possible benefits for youth work
 To equip them with skills necessary to design digital storytelling projects in their own communities
 To enhance participants ICT skills and encourage them to use open source technologies in their daily youth work
 To establish a network of like-minded organizations and individuals, who are interested in the further exchange on the topic of using digital methods for working with youth
 To develop follow-up projects using the skills and knowledge gained during this Training Course

Participants’ profile:
 Youth workers and youth leaders interested in exploring new ways of working with people with diverse cultural and/or migration background
 Motivated to learn more about the concept of digital storytelling (prior knowledge of photo/video making and editing is not required)
 Ready to use digital storytelling as a method of working with youth in their own communities
 Interested in setting further co-operation with similar organizations from other European countries
 Being able to communicate in English fluently