“I want to tell the stories of these heroes I work with”

The winter cold and a heavy fog had covered the beautiful face of Cluj-Napoca, as a group of a 26 youth workers, from nine countries, arrived in the workshop venue. The meeting point was a hotel with a grayish lake view which used to be a youth center during the communist regime of Ceaușescu. The event that brought the youth workers from Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain and Turkey together was a storytelling workshop that was coordinated by Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway) and Fundatia Danis (Romania), in cooperation with the partners from those countries.

The catalyst for offering this workshop was to explore storytelling as a way of organizational and personal development.

“In a time of chaos of information, we need good story-tellers in civil society for reaching the heart of the people and sustainable organizational development. Well curated stories have a key role here. We witness many disturbing stories that are shaping our life and worldviews and there is a big need to tell new stories on youth workers’ side. This workshop idea has been initiated with these thoughts”, said one of the main trainers of the workshop, Vedat Sevincer (Norsensus Mediaforum, Norway).

He also noted an African proverb that has become a spark for the workshop: Until the lion has its own storyteller, the hunter will always have the best part of the story.

The first day of the workshop started with this quote on a crystal clear sunny day. The first part of the workshop was dedicated to story thinking and structuring our stories, where the participants got familiar with the storytelling techniques and essence of story. The following part featured hands-on instruction for composition of personal and organizational stories with some engaging exercises.

“I want to write again. My life is a hero’s journey with a petal structure and a fight between hope and reality. And I am still here. I’m alive and I want to share with the world what I think or what I feel”, Rosa, one of the youth workers, sharing her thoughts on what the training week meant to her.

After a presentation about the photographic storytelling and online storytelling tool Adobe Spark, the participants had an outside mission for creating their first research based stories. They went in pair on the streets of Cluj to hunt some personal stories about random people, by interviewing them and taking moving photographic compositions.

In the following parts, the workshops covered visual storytelling including animation making, storytelling for advocacy and fundraising, with practical examples and simulations in which the participants got the chance to apply what they learned.

“I am working with thousands of teachers and children, and each one of them is a story meant to be heard. It is a story about how education can change Romania in a country you want to live in, it is a story about how each citizen should fight for the common good. This training helped me a lot in how to tell the stories of these amazing heroes that I work with every day”, Lidia, one of the participants, sharing what the training will help her at work.

Beside the hard work, the participants shared their cultures in an intercultural night and had a tour in the historical city center. After 6-day intensive training, the participants returned with a lot of stories and skills to tell new stories in their communities.

Rounding up support from Norwegian National Agency, Aktiv Ungdom, the Story-down walls! Sustainable and Innovative Storytelling Strategies Training Course was carried out in the frame of Erasmus+ KA1 program. The training aimed at professionalizing youth workers in developing long-term storytelling strategies for their organizations, in order to reach community and financial sustainability.

The coordinating organization of the workshop was Norsensus Mediaforum from Norway and the partner organizations as following:

  • Fundatia Danis pentru Dezvoltare Manageriala (Romania)
  • Volunteer Development Foundation (Poland)
  • Fundacion Universitaria San Antonio (Spain)
  • Youth Art Research and Training Association (Turkey)
  • Programma Integra (Italy)
  • Asociacija Apkabink Europa (Lithuania)
  • The Change Is in You (Bulgaria)
  • Center for Education and Development (Macedonia)

The main trainers of the workshop were Vedat Sevincer from Norsensus Mediaforum, Norway, and Paula Beudean from Fundatia Danis, Romania. The co-trainers were: Urszula Puchalska (Volunteer Development Foundation, Poland) and Abdurrahim Gunaydin (Norsensus Mediaforum, Norway).