Digging for Gold Erasmus Project

Project Title

Digging for Gold

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 : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social dialogue; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Gold! Everyone carries some inside. Some people wear it around their neck, or round their wrists and fingers. With some you have to make some effort, get closer, maybe dig a bit, before you get to see it. And there are people with whom the gold is deeply hidden. They got overthrown and were unable to pick themselves up again, lost their self-esteem and became socially isolated. Sometimes the gold is buried so deep that people themselves stopped believing they ever had any…

Europe is facing a growing group of people on the verge of social isolation or already disconnected from society. Many of them think that their story doesn’t matter (anymore), that they don’t matter anymore. And they don’t have or can’t find the tools to combat these thoughts. The partners in this project truly believe that everyone’s story matters, that these people matter as much as everyone else and that they can be helped to realise this (again) if they do have the right tools and know how to use them to empower themselves.

We have experienced and witnessed many times in our work that being able to express oneself well and being heard contributes to one’s self-esteem; that telling a story, however simple, enhances a person’s capacity for self-reflection and self-awareness. Thus, if we can develop tools borrowed from storytelling techniques and carefully tailored to people who think they don’t matter anymore, we trust we can help these people to empower themselves and find their way back to society. And by making these tools transferable to professionals like social workers, coaches, community workers, etc. who work with them and to others who are interested, more people will be reached and hopefully helped. By working with the unique stories of people in these groups, we want to bring their pride and passion to the surface, encourage them to dream again and open them up to new possibilities.

We aim to develop a transferable and accessible methodology or toolkit (non-formal learning) to help people at risk of, or already in social isolation be part of society again with the aid of professionals like social workers, community workers or coaches. We plan to first develop a draft version of the methodology/toolkit (IO2), based on research and our own experiences brought together in the Foundation Bricks (IO1), which we will test and improve by organizing training courses for groups of people who are on the verge, or already in social isolation (7-10 per partner per training, thus 100 max. in total). These training courses will be delivered by trainers who are part of or affiliated with the partner organisations (1-3 trainers per partner, thus15 max in total). Upon finalising the case studies (IO3-IO7) of which these training courses form part, we will define a final version of the methodology/toolkit (IO8), which will be made available in all partners’ local languages on the Digging for Gold portal (IO9) up to at least 5 years after completion of the project. Because of the vulnerability of the people we work with, we have involved a partner who has a practice in cognitive behavioural therapy. And to further ensure the quality of our outputs also the faculty of social sciences of the Vrije Universiteit (VU/NL) forms part of the consortium. This partner will not carry out training courses itself, but will be responsible for the evaluation of all outputs and will take the lead in the set-up, research and putting together of information for the Foundation Bricks.

Target groups
– Primary target group: Trainers/community/social workers, coaches and educators working with people that belong to our secondary target group.
– Secondary target group: People that are on the verge of, or already in social isolation.

We aim for a total of 210 participants to the local multiplier events and the final international event and will develop a dissemination strategy that ensures a broad interest in the project and its results.

We think the project should be carries out transnationally, because social issues, including dealing with social isolation, are not limited to national borders. It is an European issue and we can learn from each other in order to come up with new insights and solutions to deal with them and to help building a stronger and more inclusive European society together. Furthermore, though most partners have experience in using storytelling techniques to bring about social change (so called ‘applied storytelling’) this way of non-formal learning is more developed in some countries than it is in others. In view of what we noted before about social issues that know no national boundaries, we think it best to share knowledge and experiences in the field of applied storytelling and applied psychology transnationally and bring them together in a methodology/toolkit that is then brought to the attention of professionals working with people with social issues, stakeholders and policy makers and can be used transnationally.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 251356 Eur

Project Coordinator

DW-RS PRODUCTIES & Country: NL

Project Partners

• KENTRO MELETIS KE DIADOSIS MYTHON KE PARAMYTHION
• Settle Stories Ltd
• The Village Storytelling Centre
• Képes Alapítvány – a szociális és érzelmi készségfejlesztésért
• Stichting VU