training for youth workers and educators
In Our Own Words
24–27 March 2026 | Azores Islands, Portugal
In Our Own Words is an experiential Erasmus+ training course for youth workers, educators, facilitators, and community practitioners who want to explore the power of storytelling, spoken word, and narrative practices in youth work.
The aim was to strengthen the capacity of youth workers and educators to use storytelling, spoken word poetry, and reflective narrative practices as tools for empowerment, inclusion, and identity development in youth work.
This was not a traditional training based on lectures and fixed expertise. It was designed as a collaborative and co-created learning space where participants shaped the journey together through shared experience, creative exploration, and reflective dialogue.
The training welcomed participants who wanted to explore and exchange practices around:
🖋️ Reflective writing and narrative identity
🎤 Spoken word poetry as empowerment
🌿 Storytelling as a tool for inclusion and belonging
🧭 Re-authoring personal and professional narratives
🔥 Language, power, and youth participation
There was space to write, perform, listen, question, and co-create. Participants were invited to bring their own methods, cultural perspectives, and stories into the space.
Objectives
Through this 4-day training, participants:
• Explored storytelling and narrative practices as transformative tools in non-formal education.
• Developed practical skills in reflective writing, spoken word, and story facilitation.
• Strengthened their ability to create safer and more inclusive spaces where young people could express themselves authentically.
• Experienced co-creative and participatory methodologies that could be transferred to their own youth work contexts.
• Fostered intercultural dialogue and empathy through shared storytelling processes.
This was not a traditional training based on lectures and fixed expertise. It was designed as a collaborative and co-created learning space where participants shaped the journey together through shared experience, creative exploration, and reflective dialogue.
The training welcomed participants who wanted to explore and exchange practices around:
🖋️ Reflective writing and narrative identity
🎤 Spoken word poetry as empowerment
🌿 Storytelling as a tool for inclusion and belonging
🧭 Re-authoring personal and professional narratives
🔥 Language, power, and youth participation
There was space to write, perform, listen, question, and co-create. Participants were invited to bring their own methods, cultural perspectives, and stories into the space.
Objectives
Through this 4-day training, participants:
• Explored storytelling and narrative practices as transformative tools in non-formal education.
• Developed practical skills in reflective writing, spoken word, and story facilitation.
• Strengthened their ability to create safer and more inclusive spaces where young people could express themselves authentically.
• Experienced co-creative and participatory methodologies that could be transferred to their own youth work contexts.
• Fostered intercultural dialogue and empathy through shared storytelling processes.
Methods used
This section presents the set of methods used within the activity
- Tree of Life – Narrative PracticeAs part of the project, we used the Tree of Life method from narrative practice as a creative and reflective tool for exploring identity, belonging, resilience, and personal stories.
The method invited participants to represent their life as a tree, using different parts of the tree as metaphors for different aspects of their personal and professional journey. Through this process, participants reflected on their roots, values, skills, relationships, hopes, and sources of support.
The roots represented participants’ origins, cultures, important places, family histories, traditions, and experiences that had shaped them. The ground represented their current context and everyday life. The trunk symbolised their strengths, skills, values, and abilities. The branches represented hopes, dreams, and future directions. The leaves represented important people in their lives, while the fruits symbolised gifts, lessons, or support they had received from others.
This method created a safer and more creative space for participants to speak about themselves without focusing only on problems or difficult experiences. Instead, it helped them recognise their resources, strengths, connections, and preferred stories about who they were and who they wanted to become.
In the project, the Tree of Life was used to support storytelling, reflective writing, intercultural dialogue, and group sharing. Participants first worked individually on their own trees and then had the opportunity to share parts of their reflections with others. When the individual trees were brought together, they formed a collective “forest,” symbolising connection, diversity, mutual support, and shared learning within the group.
The method supported participants in re-authoring personal and professional narratives, strengthening self-awareness, and exploring how narrative practices could be transferred into youth work and educational contexts. - Spoken Word PoetryAs part of the project, we used Spoken Word Poetry as a creative and reflective method for exploring social problems through metaphor, personification, and poetic voice. The method invited participants to choose a social issue that felt close to them and transform it into a character. This helped participants better understand the problem’s nature, influence, emotions, language, and relationship with individuals and communities.
The exercise supported participants in moving from analysis to creative expression. By imagining the problem as a living being, participants explored its appearance, personality, voice, atmosphere, and message to the world. The process encouraged emotional reflection, critical thinking, empathy, and personal positioning. It also created a bridge toward spoken word poetry, where participants could transform their reflections into a poetic text, dialogue, or performance.
Prompt for the workshop: “The Problem as a Character”Task:
Choose a social problem that feels close to you — one you work with, or one that sparks your interest and emotions.
Now we will turn it into a character to better understand its nature, influence, and voice.
1️⃣ The problemWhich social problem do you choose?
For example: discrimination, unemployment, loneliness, cyberbullying, poverty, bias/prejudice, migration, violence, etc.
Write it on top of the paper.
2️⃣ The character imageImagine that this problem is a living being.
Who is it? A human, an animal, a magical creature, an object, a phenomenon?
What is its age, gender, and origin?
Where does it live?
3️⃣ AppearanceWhat does it look like? What does it wear?
Does it have any distinctive details — scars, eye color, an object in its hands, a smell, the way it walks?
What first impression does it make on people?
4️⃣ PersonalityWhat is it like? Is it angry, confused, cunning, sad, suffering, cheerful, sarcastic?
How does it feel inside? Is it confident or afraid?
What makes it angry, happy, or scared?
Does it want to change — or is it satisfied with itself?
5️⃣ RelationshipWhat is your relationship with it?
Are you enemies, friends, colleagues, neighbours?
What do you feel when you meet?
Do you have anything in common?
6️⃣ CommunicationHow does it speak? A lot or a little?
What is its voice like — loud, whispering, trembling, irritating?
What does it like to talk about?
Does it listen to others, or only to itself?
7️⃣ AtmosphereWhat feeling does it bring with it?
Cold, anxiety, anger, fatigue, warmth, chaos?
If it were a place — what would it look like?
What color, smell, or sound does this problem have?
8️⃣ DialogueWhat would you like to say to this character?
What would it say back to you?
Is there conflict between you, or understanding?
9️⃣ Message to the worldIf this character could say one sentence to the whole world, what would it say?
Or, the other way around — what would you like to say to the world about it? - Writing with PlaceAs part of the project, we used travel writing prompts as a reflective and creative method for connecting participants with place, memory, identity, and movement. The method invited participants to observe their surroundings carefully and use the landscape as a starting point for writing, self-reflection, and storytelling.
The prompts were designed to be used anywhere on the island: during walks, short stops, moments of silence, or while travelling between places. Participants were encouraged to write from their senses, emotions, memories, and associations. This supported a deeper connection with the environment and helped participants explore how places can hold personal, cultural, and symbolic meaning.
The method combined observation, imagination, and reflective writing. Participants were invited to notice small details, imagine the voice of the landscape, reflect on transitions, and connect external journeys with internal processes. Through this practice, travel became more than movement from one location to another; it became a space for awareness, storytelling, and meaning-making.
Travel Writing PromptsUse anywhere on the island
🌿 1. “I Notice / I Feel / I Remember”Use this at any stop.
• I notice…
Describe the place with your senses.
• I feel…
Notice the emotion in your body.
• I remember…
Write about a memory or association this place triggers.
👉 Then write:
“This place reminds me that I am…”
🌊 2. “The Landscape Speaks”Imagine the place has a voice.
• If this place could speak, it would say…
• What does it know that I don’t?
• What would it ask me?
👉 Finish with:
“Today, I choose to listen by…”
3. “Small Details, Big Meaning”Great during short stops.
• List 5 small details you see.
• Pick one and describe it deeply.
• Why does this detail matter?
👉 Finish with:
“This small thing tells a bigger story about…”
4. “Between Places”Write in the car
While driving between stops.
• Right now I am between…
Places, but also life stages.
• Something I am leaving behind…
• Something I am moving toward…
👉 Close with:
“This journey is teaching me…” - Creative DramaAs part of the project, we used creative drama as an experiential and participatory method for exploring stories, emotions, roles, relationships, and social themes through the body, imagination, and group interaction.
Creative drama invited participants to move beyond verbal reflection and engage with narratives physically and collectively. Through movement, improvisation, role-play, image theatre, and embodied storytelling, participants explored different perspectives and experimented with ways of expressing personal and social experiences.
This method supported participants in developing empathy, confidence, active listening, cooperation, and self-expression. It also helped create a safer space where participants could explore sensitive topics indirectly, by working through characters, scenes, symbols, and fictional situations rather than speaking only from personal experience.
Creative drama was used to strengthen group connection and encourage participants to reflect on identity, power, inclusion, conflict, and belonging. The process allowed participants to test different responses, re-author situations, and imagine alternative outcomes in a playful and creative way.
Project supported
