Visual storytelling from A to Z

We would like to invite you to participate in the "Visual Storytelling from A to Z" training course that will take place in Lozen village, near Sofia, Bulgaria in the period 6th till 15th April 2020 and will gather 34 representatives of organizations from 10 countries - Portugal, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Ukraine, Armenia, Poland, North Macedonia and Bulgaria.

About the project 
The training aims at bringing self-awareness at the participants, on their own identity and perception as human beings, not as objects of stereotypes based on their gender. This issue is very common in young people, raised in environments filled with thoughts like masculinity is for boys and emotions are for girls. The youth needs to raise their gender literacy to achieve better self-understanding and confidence. Now in the era of technology, young people spend more time online, where many issues are projected in the web showing the need of raising the media literacy in young people. The world of media and social networks is becoming more and more visual, so the need to distinguish between the good and bad examples of media provocations is pretty urgent too.
By this project we are willing to promote gender diversity and by transferring understanding on common fundamental values of our society to reach young people and to contribute to the prevention of violent radicalization based on gender.
The program of the training activity is organized in building up thematic modules to provide new information, enhance knowledge and develop the skills of participants, and enable participants to share in a safe and creative environment. The program also includes meetings with experts on visual arts as well as visiting several associations who will share their own practises and who are experts in the field of gender equality and will further contribute to the learning and development process.

The specific objectives of the Visual storytelling from A to Z training course are as
follows:
● Introducing the visual storytelling as a method for raising awareness campaigns and create an emotional bonding with any topic;
● Raising awareness on main concepts about gender equality and deconstruct stereotypes on gender roles and appearances created by society back in the years and repeated by the modern society;
● Introducing knowledge for gender equality education, based on meeting with experts, peer learning and self-assessment techniques and connecting them with visual storytelling methodologies;
● Developing a sensibility and critical thinking on the topic of gender based inequalities, to be able to recognize the vulnerability of gender (in)equalities and showcase real stories through visual arts;
● Developing tools to work on prevention or to react in cases of gender inequalities, hate speech, exclusions or violence (online and offline);- Developing the competences of the participants to plan, organize and implement educational activities on gender equality;
● Create a bond and ground for international cooperation and networking.

Profile of the participants
The training is for:

• Young people, activists and youth workers who want to learn more about visual arts, how to use creative techniques on raising awareness on gender related topics and how to adapt them for an everyday work within their local realities;
• Willing to share experiences and stories from their local environment, family, friends and school (university) circles;
• Willing to bring and deconstruct stereotypes based on sex, gender, sexuality;
• Willing or have experience on work with creative visuals (photography, design, arts, etc.);
• Willing to look for examples for (in)equalities, gender based violence (online and offline) or gender related situations from their personal life;
• Willing to be open-minded and eager to learn from the workshops in this activity and from their peers, as well as maintain a positive attitude and a critical approach to the problematics and topics that will be reviewed;
• Age 18+
• Able to understand and express themselves in English;
• Are committed to attend for the full duration of the event;
• Are committed to assist or take the lead role in planning and implementing local initiatives in order to disseminate the learning outcomes.