Untold Stories – Non-Verbal Communication in a Virtual Environment Erasmus Project

Project Title

Untold Stories – Non-Verbal Communication in a Virtual Environment

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Creativity

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Creativity and culture; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

Our project aims at developing creative, digital and social competencies for our main target group, which is hearing impaired children and youth.

Their education system is mainly closed, taking place in special schools, where most of them are also living in special school homes. Their contact with the society as a whole is not only narrow, but facing deep mentalities which places them at the edge of the society, making their further integration mostly difficult, if not in some cases, impossible. In the actual pandemic context the isolation of these groups is becoming more and more severe, fueling their social segregation.
Therefore, our project proposes a “ray of light” through a special approach: the universal body language harnessed into a collection of some of Europe’s legendary fairytales. This will be the “red wire” connecting all the project’s activities, because non-verbal language is a typical trademark for the hearing impaired, making it the main communication tool they posses. In the same time, fairytales contain deep ancient knowledge connected through european roots. The fact the fairytales mix up different worlds and various situations on different levels, makes them the perfect educational and cultural tool for everyone, in a very understandble language. This is even more attained when the language for telling those fairytales is non-verbal.

By using the above mentioned means, our main objective is to provide the target group such skills and competences that will make them able to find creative and flexible ways to socially integrate despite all the social and cultural obstacles.

The educational system is mostly based on theoretical knowledge, in a form which is poorly adapted to their special needs. This makes it even more difficult for the hearing impaired pupils and students to gain consistent knowledge and practical skills for an entire liftime. The COVID pandemic raised even more barriers for their integration.
What can be done to minimize at least some of the negative impact which even more affects nowdays this special target group? What can be done to promote inclusion in a society which is getting more and more closed, more individualized, where people hide behind screens and where their lifes turn more and more into digital and virtual?
These are some of the question we will address with the help of our experts. Our project will provide some practical solutions such as:
– A non-verbal theatre play which will make the universal meaning of the fairytales understandable and accessible for everyone, indifferent of their provenience, ethnicity, health status and so on. The theatre-play will be created in multi-cultural teams, based on selected fairytales from each country and it will be played by professional actors together with young actors selected from the target group.
– Non verbal theatre workshops held by professional non-verbal actors
– A study on the impact on education effectiveness and labor market integration as a response to the COVID pandemic in order to evaluate what changed and what can be done to meet those abrupt and rapid changes and how to respond to the new challenges. The study will take into consideration the characteristics of our target group.
– Personal developement courses based on the above mentioned study with the help of non-verbal language and communication skills by means of non-verbal theatre (the courses will address deaf impaired youth in special schools and also facilitators who will continue teach these courses after the project ends). Its objective is to develop flexibility, adaptive thinking, decision making and solution finding for the hearing impaired in order to help them easily integrate on the labour market indifferent of the global social/cultural condition.
– Film making courses in order to provide creative skills but also lifelong practical skills. The courses will develop complete „moviemaking” teams so that each participant will be able to make a movie together with his/her team. We will encourage all teams to continue their filmmaking activity and to share their products on the project’s platform. The films stories will also base on old European fairytales taken into today’s situations.
– The project’s online platform which will integrate:
o an open course module containing the above mentioned courses (some of them filmed and interactive, some of them „on paper”),
o a socializing module, a small scale social media application where hearing impaired youth can share their knowledge and findings
o a film posting and visualizing module for their own movies (small scale adapted youtube)

Project Website

http://povestinerostite.ro

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 50780 Eur

Project Coordinator

Asociatia Beneva & Country: RO

Project Partners

• Stranica Dooel
• MOUNTAIN PINE EUROPE LIMITED
• Liceul Tehnologic Special Bivolarie