"Share Your Story!", an 8-day Youth Exchange, brought together youth from the Netherlands, Ukraine, Latvia, France, and Egypt to share their stories, experiences, and cultures. The Youth Exchange contributed to the improvement of the cultural awareness and expression competence of the participants. Throughout the project, they used various storytelling methods to share their personal stories and those of their communities. With this project, we created an environment that respects and celebrates cultural differences. The main activity (Youth Exchange) took place at the venue of the eco-community Catfarm in Poussan, France, between 8 and 17 June (including travel days). 25 youngsters met in Poussan to share stories about their cultures, traditions, lives, families, etc.
The project created a sharing environment in which the stories behind every culture, person, and object were revealed day by day. Each day of the exchange, we introduced artistic tools and methods for storytelling, theatre, art, drama, and story weaving, helping participants express diverse stories. They learned not only to express themselves but also how the stories shape them as storytellers. During the project, the stories transformed both the participants and the outcome. Their ideas and learning gradually took shape and became a mosaic celebrating diversity. The group of participants created a piece of art that stays at the Catfarm community. The mosaic they left is like a story itself, which shares the vibrant colors of the messages they liked to deliver: All of us are different, but together we make so much more; we are a beautiful mosaic. During workshops, various methods of informal education were used, for example, live library, improvisation theatre, storytelling, world cafe, and pecha kucha, as well as innovative teaching techniques, which take into account the specifics of various kinds of learners.
The project reached the following specific objectives in the group of participants: Improvement of cultural awareness and expression competence; Increase of social and civic engagement of youth; Raised awareness of youngsters of their cultural heritage, foster confidence, and encourage commitment in their communities; Youth exchanged existing perspectives and gained new ones through sharing cultures. They formed a base for fostering tolerance and appreciation of differences in their communities; Fostered communication and cooperation among youth and various stakeholders; Strengthened cooperation among youth from participating countries.
The project environment led to other longer-term benefits: participants were inspired to implement their own projects locally and internationally. Many of them explored Erasmus+ for the first time, which laid the foundation for further organising exchanges and other initiatives with the program's support.
Coordinator: Stichting Adventures of the Valparaiso
• Start date 01-05-2018 • End date 30-09-2018
• Organisation Française de la Coopération Internationale 🇫🇷 France • SOLIS TUVAK 🇱🇻 Latvia • The Savior NGO 🇪🇬 Egypt • Youth Euroclub Learning Creativity Innovation 🇺🇦 Ukraine
2018-1-NL02-KA105-002081