"The context for our project was built from the word 'SANKOFA' ,which, in the Twi language of Ghana translates as ""Go back and get it"". It is a common symbolic concept, to represent the need to reflect on the past to build a successful future. It symbolizes taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge. Since the beginning of human history, stories have been used to transfer knowledge and wisdom, a way of enabling people and societies to learn from the past and from each other. The overall aim of SANKOFA project was to develop resources that would support teachers to build new and improved competences for teaching the complex issues inherent in a globalised world. Project objectives were to:- Promote the use of storytelling by teachers in partner countries, in order to improve children's literacy and oracy skills;- Embed the use of storytelling as an approach for improving children's competences in critical thinking, and their sense of self-efficacy, related to their role as citizens in an interconnected world;- Enhance children's ICT skills through digital techniques;- Enable transnational transfer of knowledge and skills, between teachers and children;- Better equip teachers to support children to improve their intercultural competences for sustainable development.In this project we explored, elaborated, trialled and shared 'Digital Storytelling' as an innovative classroom methodology for enabling children to critically engage with some of the complex issues inherent in a globalised world. The project recognised the need for children and young people (CYP) to have:Digital literacy skills and competencesGlobal competences: developing appropriate pedagogical skills and resources to help prepare children for life and work in a complex globalized world (including increased mobility and integration of ICT). Own-language literacy: increase in reading, writing and oracy skillsThe context for our project was shaped during delivery, due to the Covid pandemic and the shift in all partner countries to online learning for all pupils at various points of the past 12 months. The growth in the use of digital technologies by teachers and pupils has further demonstrated how core these key skills are to education. The pandemic has also demonstrated how globally interdependent we are.Through the 4 project partners, we worked with 40 teachers and 831 children and young people. Teachers and pupils engaged in a series of training and focus group sessions, where the methodology and learning guide provided support for the delivery of the project in the classroom. Teachers and pupils’ experiences helped to shape and inform the toolkit of tried and tested activitiesThe CYP were supported by the teachers and project partners to develop their digital stories based on the project’s overall themes, which link to the SDGs: migration, identity and refugees; biodiversity and ecosystems; responsible consumption; water; active global citizenship; and gender equality.We achieved our goals of producing three intellectual outputs: learning guide, toolkit and website; we feel our Intellectual Outputs exceed initial expectations: both our toolkit and learning guide are high quality publications, with additional content than originally planned. Our website provides additional resources, beyond the intellectual outputs that establishes it as a sustainable resource for teachers long-term. All of our outputs are freely accessible and teachers who have used them to date have been impressed with how useful and supportive they are.All partners have developed new projects or enhanced existing work to include storytelling and digital methodologies as they raise awareness of global issues in the teachers and young people with whom they work. While Covid presented many challenges, it also offered opportunities and added value outcomes- including enhanced resources and outputs."

Context: This project is targeted at children and young people in formal and non-formal settings to retell stories of resilience during COVID 19 in four locations: London, Cumbria, Turkey and Slovenia. With young people at the helm, we will be working to uncover stories of lesser-heard people in our communities, reinterpreting them into arts performances, and touring the work in cultural institutions (theatres, galleries, libraries, heritage sites…) across the four locations. Objectives:- To amplify the voices of those from lesser-heard communities with particular focus on their experiences of COVID 19- To skill up school children in the arts and creative industries towards nurturing an interest in the arts as a viable career option- To uplift cultural organisation hard-hit by COVID 19 by reconnecting them with their communities and drawing audiences to themParticipants: Each partner will work with 20-30 school children from communities with unmet needs depending on our contexts. CDEC will work with young farmers, GLL will work with children living at the intersection of poverty and racialisation, DeM will work with child refugees and Povod will work with the Roma community. Each of our organisations will also partner with three venues where the work will be toured. Activities: The project will work with young people as community leaders through the arts by training them to -- Organise and facilitate workshops with marginalised communities- Conceive, write and produce performances (storytelling or short plays)- Collaborate with cultural organisations by project managing the performances when they go on tourMethodology: This project brings together inclusive pedagogy and experiential learning to create a cycle of knowledge exchange between project partners, cultural organisations, schools and young people. By promoting creative, arts-based education using the real world as our classroom, we envision coproducing with our young people and cultural partners a dynamic learning experience that is relevant and applicable in different contexts. In the spirit of social inclusion, we are interested in exploring what it would look like to build a performances from the bottom up through an inclusive process -- that is, by involving young people who are experts in their own lives leading the gathering and creative process involved in identifying and telling the experiences of the pandemic.Impact: The creative sector which is being heavily hit by COVID will be at the heart of the work, with children and young people drawing audiences to venues through these performances. This will deepen relationships between cultural organisations and local communities with unmet needs. Long term benefit: This project plugs the hole by enthusing a generation of children from deprived backgrounds with the skills, joy and enthusiasm for the arts as a viable career option.

Place based learning (PBL) is 'about a deep connection with people and place through emotions and knowledge... It is concerned with the interconnecting systems of environmental protection, community development and social justice- the very essence of sustainability.' (Cooper 2016)PLACE: Paths to Learning: Active Community Exploration is an innovative, transnational project that brings together 4 Place Based Learning (PBL) strands into a collaborative project whose super-ordinate goal is to improve the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people (CYP).PLACE will involve project partners and participants working collaboratively to develop a series of resources (learning guide, toolkit and online community hub) that weave the strands together into a coherent, holistic approach; We will deliver training in our PLACE approach and methodologies- face to face and through webinars; support teachers to develop and embed practice through focus groups and practical support; conduct evaluation and research to evidence impact. Our inter-connected themes include emotional health and wellbeing, environmental and community sustainability. We will focus on the ‘5 ways to wellbeing’ (New Economics Foundation report (2008)) of connect, be active, keep learning, give to others and pay attention. Children and young people will be empowered and through increased agency, will be local community change agents, able to think and act on global, inter-connected issues. This project has been developed to reflect current and ongoing global issues of local relevance, including – social effects of the covid-19 pandemic on people and communities, climate change and biodiversity loss, all of which have added more stress on the emotional health in young people. The project has also been prompted by a growing body of evidence on the importance of PBL and its impact on health and wellbeing, social action and community cohesion. “These practices [curiosity, multiple perspectives, focusing on micro-geographies of place] suggest ways in which ordinary places may be a catalyst for curiosity in ways that may benefit individual and collective forms of wellbeing.” Phillips, Evans, Muirhead. (2015) http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/94007/3/WRRO_94007.pdfOur overall aim is to develop a menu of tools and resources that will support teachers in utilising PLACE effectively as an approach to equipping and empowering children and young people as local and global change agents and becoming resilient and healthy global citizens. These will include:- Philosophy 4 Children (P4C) and Global Learning- Interpretation of Local Heritage and Questing -Therapeutic Approaches to Place - Community Activism / Service LearningTo achieve the project aim the following objectives have been developed:1. Promote knowledge of and skills in place based learning across all partner countries/ settings- including project partners and teachers2. Embed PBL methodologies and approaches to increase children and young people's Emotional Health and Wellbeing (EHWB) and skills in critical thinking and creativity, leadership, collaboration, communication, empathy and their understanding of community3. Engage teachers, children and young people in a range of activities and SDG linked themes that enable them to 'think global, act local'.4. Enable transnational transfer of knowledge and skills, between teachers and children.Our target participants will be teachers (24) in a wide selection of school settings, and their pupils (600) in 3 different countries. Wider dissemination will be to at least 600 more practitioners. The longer-term benefits of the project will be that schools are far better prepared - through deepened teacher competence and confidence - to equip their learners with the learning dispositions, capabilities and personal skills to navigate the complex issues which are inherent in a globalised world. These benefits will extend to wider school communities, building connections and social capital. This is especially important given the current and ongoing challenges to societal and inter-societal cohesion which is posed by dominant narratives around the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, migration and an uncertain economic future.