"Looking around in the World we see the rising signs of intolerance, racism and discrimination in the society, and mainly in media. The need we perceive in young people we are working with is to counteract to the mainstream media which fuels the intolerance and fear and to provide them with tools how to use the power of storytelling and also help them to be able to handle all these negative effects mentioned. Our perception was confirmed by our participants. Most of them is facing with the same challenges in their work.“What A Story!"" was a 8-day training course aimed at youth workers, facilitators and educators active in the field of youth. Our aim was to explore storytelling as a transformational educational method; and as a tool of promoting democratical values, inclusion, tolerance, empowerment and critical thinking of young people. We also wanted to introduce the power of Nature as an inspiration, as a safe background, as our strongest ally in this huge work of education.It was hosted by Ökoszolgálat/Ecoservice.The idea for our course was born from the deep knowledge that storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool for education. It can address creativity, youth participation and employability, critical thinking and social responsibility. Europe at the moment is facing major problems. Among these, the dis-empowerment of young people who feel marginalised from society, can't find their place and don't know (or forget) how to realise their potential in life. On the other side, phenomena like hate speech and online violence are on the rise. From the feedback of our participants it turned out that these problems are even more present in the every day life and work in their countries.Also, racism, intolerance and ignorance can be greatly fueled by storytelling – as demonstrated by the strong use that every totalitarian government has done of it. The course took place from 12-20 September in Three Treasures Valley retreat center, Kisterenye, Hungary. We involved 28 participants from 10 countries: Italy, Czech Republic, UK, Spain, Romania, Poland, Greece, France, Hungary, Slovakia - plus 4 trainers.The main objectives we reached were:- to identify and understand key elements and skills for storytelling, and explore their potential benefits for learning, personal development and employability; - to analyze the increased impact that stories (and media) have on phenomena such as “hate speech”, intolerance and open racism. We will discuss the new needs for awareness, ethics and knowledge that come with the social and digital era; - to explore the concept of “transformational storytelling”: using storytelling as an innovative tool to address change and personal development; - to use elements of gamification to make youth work more attractive and accessible to young people (especially marginalised YP); - to create an international network of youth workers and organisations, able to use storytelling to develop skills and methods and to have an innovative impact on local levels. The activities were based on non formal and nature based experiential learning methodologies, all centered on different aspects of Storytelling. At least half of our activities were organized outside using the beautiful environment around the venue.The learning outcomes for the participants were: - to be trained on, and receive information about, innovative approaches based on Storytelling, illustrating specialistic concepts such as the Monomyth and Hero's Journey, the Way of Council, Gamification - and the work methodologies related to them - combining theory, practice and sharing reflections and good practice tips with trainers and colleagues;We introduced all three concepts in interactive presentations and also had several occasions to experience them in practice. For the majority of participants these were new and useful tools for their own practice. We also involved participant’s knowledge and experience providing them program slots in open space.- to increase awareness and learn how to better tackle in youth work their potential negative effects, as well: the risk of addiction and escapism from reality, the possible manipulation and propaganda uses that can be done by authorities, political and social actors, governments.Several workshops and presentations were provided to learn about narratives and counter narratives and work with them on different levels – cultural, historical, political.Participants came with curiosity about this phenomenon and they left with new knowledge about the importance and danger of storytelling and now they have new easy-to-use tools in their work with youth."