The workshop explored various digital storytelling methods. The team worked on an individual basis to create new photographs, including the use of stop frame animation. One film was about growing up in the communist regime and the relevance of this to his life now. Another was about wanting to work with Roma kids, wanting to capture their stories, that would otherwise disappear. There were a couple of family stories, a couple of political stories and a story about a lady determined not to leave her house despite the bombing around her during the Lebanon war 2006.

The issue of the brief was discussed, and ways in which these new facilitators could gently guide the stories without being too prescriptive eg. using specific exercises with guiding questions. The skill is to be able to spot potential stories from the answers the group comes up with, to then nurture those stories further without telling people what to say.

Imagine Your Future aims to empower and develop young leaders from minority and migrant communities across South East Europe, giving them the tools to articulate their ambitions, promote positive perceptions for their communities and contribute to social change. The DigiTales workshop covered the whole DigiTales process, from taking the participants through Story Circle exercises and games, to developing their own powerful, personal stories. What participants said:

The whole programme was a comprehensive, intelligent and thoughtful guide to facilitating DigiTales.

really inspiring facilitators!

DigiTales will be running a second workshop in Israel in September 2008, in which 12 more trainers will be trained, from Armenia, Slovenia, Israel and Macedonia.