One voice, many stories: Storytelling as a vehicle for Social Inclusion and Active Citizenship Erasmus Project

Project Title

One voice, many stories: Storytelling as a vehicle for Social Inclusion and Active Citizenship

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: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Access for disadvantaged; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

“One voice, many stories- storytelling as a vehicle for social Inclusion and active citizenship” project idea is a direct result of close working relationships forged between 5 partners from Irish, Spanish, Latvian, Slovakian and Swedish Adult Education organisations actively engaging and supporting marginalized learners.

We believe different social and cultural contexts of our organisations and our teaching and training activities will complement the work of this project. The Social and Health Education Project CLG in Cork, Ireland will take on the role of a Lead/Applicant organisation alongside project partners from The Suiti Cultural Heritage Foundation in Latvia, PROACADEMY in Slovakia, Centro de Educación de Personas Adultas ‘García Alix’ in Spain, and Sagobygden Museum of Legends in Sweden.

We chose as a central objective for this project the topic of “Social Inclusion”, additional focus will be placed on extending and developing the competences of educators and other personnel who support adult learners, as well as the social and educational value of European cultural heritage.

The aim of this cross-sectoral project is to exchange ideas and best practice methods in relation to storytelling strategies, and methodologies used in the field of adult education in the context of social inclusion, and active citizenship.

Among the more specific objectives of this project are the following:
● To organise 5 successful transnational short-term joint staff training events (80 mobilities in total) to boost knowledge sharing between partner organisations, their staff, and indirectly among adult learners coming from disadvantaged backgrounds within our organisations.
● Identify and share innovative integrated methods/approaches/storytelling techniques from each country used in the field of adult education (internationalisation of best practices), development of opportunities for empowerment of adult learners such as social inclusion and active citizenship, when using storytelling as the “vehicle” for that process.
● Promote a greater sense of European identity and belonging, cultural heritage within partnering organisations, our target groups and wider public while using the context of storytelling.
● Disseminate developed tools and practices within and across partner organisations to institutionalize learning (partner websites, newsletters, plus other social media platforms).

Issues pertaining to project implementation and achievement of expected project results are planned to be discussed with partners during 4 transnational project meetings, 2 of which will be combined with short-term joint staff training events.

The target group of this project is three-fold: partnering organisations, their staff and adult learners. The adult learner group includes but is not limited to those in various disadvantaged backgrounds.

Main outputs of this project are the following:
● Partners’ staff attending 80 mobilities in total will learn new methods in the context of storytelling (new competencies) in the areas of social inclusion and active citizenship and will pass the new knowledge to the colleagues at home and to other partnering (indirectly) organisations via means of dissemination of the impact of the project.
● Partners will produce a shared storytelling resource in English/other languages of best practice approaches and tools (methods, techniques, etc.); this material will be available online for public in project partner’s websites.
● The staff will apply new methods in their work and will monitor direct impact on their organisations and adult learners via specifically designed questionnaires (i.e. impact before and after storytelling tools were applied).
● The knowledge shared will enable each partner/organisation to self-reflect, learn, implement different storytelling strategies in their respective organisations.
● The exchange of best practice will be beneficial to gaining a different perspective of staff to tackling challenges such as class, racial, economic prejudices among adult learners using storytelling methods and tools, as well as promoting social cohesion, civic engagement in the European context.

Various dissemination activities are also planned: EPALE-Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe will be used on a regular basis to exchange and disseminate project activities and outcomes; European data bases such as ENTER- European network for transfer and exploitation of EU projects and ENECA portal will also be used for dissemination. It is also planned to make use of social media and partners’ websites to inform about achievements in the project and to promote the developed materials.

We hope the recent developments of COVID 19 situation will not impact on the official start of the project and its activities (October 2020). We will be monitoring the ongoing situation and current health measures closely and adjust our project activities or timetables accordingly.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 113620 Eur

Project Coordinator

The Social and Health Education Project Ltd & Country: IE

Project Partners

• PROACADEMY
• Centro de Educación de Adultos García Alix
• Storytelling Network of Kronoberg
• Suiti Cultural Heritage Foundation