Lignin Stories

H𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚘𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 “𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚒𝚝”.

Here's to cultivating a community ready to listen and empathise.

'Where To?' has been an important, reflective journey for us at Lignin Stories and our collaborators Centro Italiano Storytelling, where we explored, together with locals and migrant youths, what home means when we are on the move and how shared public space plays a part in bringing us together. It's less about stories of the past, and more about asking the question, 'Where to?'

Thank you, Times of Malta, for the feature!

🤝 This Lignin Stories 🇲🇹 project is in collaboration with Centro Italiano Storytelling 🇮🇹 and funded by Erasmus+ 🇪🇺.

Sharing stories of migration and home in a culturally diverse Malta An EU project helps local and migrant youths in Malta and families in Italy explore what helps them to belong to society

Yesterday our Malta team celebrated a big accomplishment!

Together with the participants of the mentoring programme, the Spark15 community and dedicated mentors (thank you, Maria Pisani, Paul Galea, Giuliana Fenech, Marcela Fratescu) we launched 'Spark15: A Story of Community, Hope and Belonging'.

The storybook comes as a reminder of the rich and precious community Spark15 has created throughout the years, and how important recording the organisation's history is to validating the contribution of its members.

'Spark15: A Story of Community, Hope and Belonging' shares the values and vision of the organisation, its core pillars of work as well as the people who contributed to making Spark15 the organisation it is today. The storybook also acts as an educational tool which reminds us of our Universal Human Rights, a guiding principle in Spark15's work.

Thank you to all who have contributed to this beautiful legacy piece, as well as Mr Kevin Apap and the team at EUPA Malta - Erasmus+ & European Solidarity Corps and to Spark15 for hosting us at the community celebration, SparkFest24 :)

🤝 This Lignin Stories 🇲🇹 project is in collaboration with Centro Italiano Storytelling 🇮🇹 and funded by Erasmus+ 🇪🇺.

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, 'Where To?' now?

Well, together with our friends at Spark15 and Centro Italiano Storytelling, we have been asking ourselves this question for almost a year now 😀

It is both a personal question and a shared one at the same time. For us, in this project, it quickly began to centre around human rights - my decisions about my life are deeply affected by the rights that I am allowed to access and those that are denied to me.

Sometimes the societies that we live in feel unjust and exclusionary - they push us to the side-lines because they perceive us to be different. The thing is, deep down, we all feel like we are different.

Claiming our life story and learning how to share it in a safe way produces a richer life full of connection and community.

On June 23rd, the project communities in Italy and Malta will be celebrating the story artefacts that they co-created to share our life stories as we have discussed and developed them over the past year through two separate but parallel mentoring programmes.

Stay tuned for more updates! Meanwhile, a sneak peak 😉

🤝 This Lignin Stories 🇲🇹 project is in collaboration with Centro Italiano Storytelling 🇮🇹 and funded by Erasmus+ 🇪🇺.

Last month, with our participants, we explored ways of communicating more effectively. We did speech and breathing exercises together, worked on confidence-building - all in all, a well-spent morning that hopefully is one of many occasions towards more important, meaningful and effective speeches that will change the world, our communities and how we belong.

Led by Giuliana Fenech, the Lignin Stories public speaking workshop was held at the Valletta Design Cluster, where we are community members, and forms part of Where To?, a project in collaboration with Centro Italiano Storytelling 🇮🇹 and funded by Erasmus+ 🇪🇺.

Understanding alongsideness 🙌

What does it mean to be an islander in an age of mass migration? An important question when discussing the story of the Maltese community nowadays. The participants of our Where To? mentoring programme are exploring storytelling strategies through text and image, particularly photography, to tell precisely this story - a story of alongsideness, where different cultures live alongside one another. This comes with its own set of challenges: sometimes people are so resistant to ideas and ways of living that they do not know or understand creating shared spaces and shared stories is so important to make sure that everyone in Malta is made to feel like they belong and is able to contribute to society. Other times, though, we may be lucky enough to be welcomed by a warmth and openness that is so innately human that it makes us feel like we always did belong, all of us.

It's all about striking a balance. For equity!

🤝 This Lignin Stories 🇲🇹 project is in collaboration with Centro Italiano Storytelling 🇮🇹 and funded by Erasmus+ 🇪🇺.

Confidence is key - there's an opportunity in every moment, and with the right public speaking skills, it edges closer!

Throughout our Where To? project, we are investing in capacity-building opportunities as ways of bringing people together through equitable means - our latest public speaking workshop is one of these initiatives.

Date: 3rd April 2024 (during Easter break!)
Time: 09:30-14:30

We're hosting this workshop at the Valletta Design Cluster, after we've recently become members of the community 🥰 (shout out to the great team there!) We look forward to contributing through this project as Lignin Stories!

Apply on: https://forms.gle/Rm8VcKrVxNW8GNm6A

🤝 This Lignin Stories 🇲🇹 project is in collaboration with Centro Italiano Storytelling 🇮🇹 and funded by Erasmus+ 🇪🇺.

After this first round of workshops, we can honestly say that our recruits are amazing. They are what makes this project whole 🤩

Thank you, Jaz, Showgar, Ellie, Gaia, Illia, Leandros, Katrina, Lisa, Lejla and Achuil, for dreaming along with us.

🤝 This Lignin Stories 🇲🇹 project is in collaboration with Centro Italiano Storytelling 🇮🇹 and funded by Erasmus+ 🇪🇺.

Our partners, Centro Italiano Storytelling, are on a roll! ⚡

Where To - Verso dove? Atlante esperienziale sul mutamento. Con domenica 11 febbraio si apre il secondo ciclo di laboratori, per l’Italia, di “Where To?” il progetto Europeo di Lignin Stories & Centro Italiano Storytelling presso i locali della Scuola di comunità di Portico e San Benedetto (FC).

Il progetto finanziato da Erasmus+ programme KA210-YOU - Small-scale partnerships in youth di Lignin Stories (Malta) & Centro Italiano Storytelling (Italia) sta lavorando sull’idea di comunità contemporanea e con i nuovi tre workshop del percorso italiano a Portico presso la Scuola elementare Ambrogio Traversari, Via Tosco Romagnola 6 (Portico di Romagna), dell’Istituto Comprensivo Valle del Montone, gli storyteller Giovanna Conforto, Stefania Ganzini e Flavio Milandri si cimenteranno con storie di materia, sì perché anche gli oggetti raccontano storie.

Per una narrativa della sostenibilità. A partire domenica, in un clima speciale, il secondo ciclo di attività approfondirà la linea del “cambiamento sociale attraverso un progetto comunitario basato sullo storytelling, sull'economia circolare e sulla trash art” come appare indicato anche nelle missive di sostegno al Progetto del Municipio di Portico e San Benedetto e dell’Istituto Comprensivo scolastico Val Montone.

Andare oltre il dato numerico per capirlo e interpretarlo. Il percorso tra storytelling applicato e ludo pedagogia che coinvolge in prima battuta alcuni gruppi familiari proseguirà per tutte le domeniche del mese di febbraio e successivamente, con cadenza diversa, arriverà a conclusione, festeggiando anche la Giornata dell’Europa, con la parte operativa in loco nel mese di maggio 2024. Per contatti e informazioni email [email protected].

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Lignin Stories, Erasmus plus, Mediterranean Institute - University of Malta, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Comune di Portico e San Benedetto, sei di Portico di Romagna se, Pro-Loco Portico Di Romagna, Romagna Toscana Turismo, Erasmus plus - Smart Tools In Schools, Regione Emilia-Romagna Bruxelles, Italianiamalta.com, Italiani a Malta, Comune di Portico e San Benedetto, Demetra Formazione - Area Cultura e Innovazione, Alta Formazione Emilia Romagna,

When we invited Maria Pisani, Chiara Maroino and Giuliana Fenech to talk about the organisational priorities of Spark15, we reflected on its past, present and future, and how we can sustainably contribute to their journey and to a more equitable society.

With our stellar recruits, we identified these three priorities:

1.⁠ Community
2.⁠ ⁠Communication
3.⁠ Capacity building

Onwards and upwards!

🤝 This Lignin Stories 🇲🇹 project is in collaboration with Centro Italiano Storytelling 🇮🇹 and funded by Erasmus+ 🇪🇺.