FemTalks Forum – Theatre activities and Digital Storytelling to Empower Migrant Women, Foster Social Inclusion and Change narratives Erasmus Project

Project Title

FemTalks Forum – Theatre activities and Digital Storytelling to Empower Migrant Women, Foster Social Inclusion and Change narratives

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Migrants’ issues; Inclusion – equity; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Context, background
The FemTalks Forum project was designed and implemented by 7 partner organisations from 6 European countries. The partnership recognised the potential migrant women have in their host countries and they also noticed the social, economic and cultural barriers they face to reach their full potential. All migrants face these obstacles regardless of gender, however, women are more affected by these (UNFPA, 2018). In order to increase the employability of migrants, partners offered a comprehensive training package to support the development of migrants’ soft skills, namely their confidence and self-efficacy and subsequently their employability.

Objectives
Therefore, the objectives of the project were to develop a training programme that addresses the needs of migrant women and also produce materials that can be utilised to develop the target group’s digital skills to tell their stories more efficiently. More specifically the aims of the project were to:
Develop an innovative training methodology that uses the Forum Theatre training methodology to increase women’s self-confidence and employability.
Increase soft skills of female migrants including self-efficacy, confidence, communication and networking skills via the Forum Circles.
Develop digital literacy skills for migrant women in order to effectively promote themselves and use social media in a professional setting.
Showcase the stories of female migrants to improve the image of migrants and celebrate their contribution to societies across the EU.
The implementation of the above activities subsequently led to:
increasing social inclusion
increasing digital literacy, employability skills and self-efficacy
tackling stereotypes about migrants

Activities
The partnership implemented 5 outputs:
IO1 – Framework Report: partners assessed the situation of migrant women in the host countries. The report is available in English, Dutch, Italian, German, Hungarian and French.
IO2 – “What’s my story?” FemTalks Forum Theatre Training programme: the partnership developed a holistic training programme that utilises the Forum Theatre methodology to boost migrant women’s confidence and employability.
IO3 – FemTalks Forum Circles: the peer mentoring programme offered group sessions to migrant women to work on their action plans and SMART goals to progress in their career and integrate in their host countries.
IO4 – Trainers Guide: it allows future trainers and stakeholders to learn about the methodology of the FemTalks training package (IO2 and IO3) and is available in English, Italian, German, Hungarian and French.
IO5 – Online Platform: The E-Learning platform encourages migrant women to share their migration journeys with peers and other interested stakeholders and help them learn about effective digital storytelling through the resources available on the platform.

Participants, results and impact
The primary target audience of the project was migrant women. 128 women directly benefited from the IO2 training activities and they came from more than 38 countries. 62 women attended the IO3 Forum Circles. Furthermore, more than 250 people attended the 10 multiplier events organised in the project including stakeholders and support organisations. In addition, the website had a total of 6,274 visits and 756 users accessed the online training platform and more than 70 women participated in the digital storytelling workshops (IO5).
As a result of the implementation of the project the partnership raised awareness of the potential migrant women have in their host countries, built networks with support organisations and intermediaries to achieve a more comprehensive support to migrant women.
Migrant women reported increased levels of confidence and self-efficacy and expanded their personal and professional networks. They also learnt about the power of theatre techniques and how this can be used to boost confidence and subsequently employability. A participant stated that “For me the best takeaway is the feeling of building something together. We came from different countries, different languages, different cultures, and we built something together”. Another participant mentioned that “Personally, these programs strengthened and empowered me not to give up in my career, not to be afraid of trying again even when I fail, and also to believe in my abilities.”.

Project Website

https://femtalksforum.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 390432,91 Eur

Project Coordinator

INOVA CONSULTANCY LTD & Country: UK

Project Partners

• CONSORZIO MATERAHUB INDUSTRIE CULTURALI E CREATIVE
• ELAN INTERCULTUREL
• #reteteatro41
• ARTEMISSZIÓ ALAPÍTVÁNY
• InterACT-Verein für Theater und Soziokultur
• ODISEE