Posted: 12th December 2024

Empowering Youth: Training the trainers in Greece

Future Narratives 2 is training youth workers across Europe in a methodology designed to activate the imagination and potential of young people. In Greece, Inter Alia’s training brought together a diverse group of educators, artists, and activists passionate about using storytelling and creativity to empower young people and inspire change. Participants explored tools of Futures Literacy, Personal Storytelling analysis and Collective Storytelling to help youth navigate, critically reflect and shape their futures.

The training began with activities that connected storytelling with Futures Literacy. Participants, first, looked into their personal stories and explored the connection between past, present, and future. The exercises helped participants analyse their stories and recognise challenges and opportunities on topics of interest. The group explored how to tap into “collective power” and leverage shared experiences to overcome societal obstacles.

Then, participants engaged with Futures Thinking through creative activities and tools like the Futures Wheel and explored preferable and probable futures. They also examined through the concept of Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) hidden narratives that influence societal perceptions about the future. Despite the complexity of the exercise, it provided invaluable insights into the underlying assumptions, narratives, and myths that shape our collective vision of the future.

The central theme of the training selected by the participants revolved around the city, the public spaces and the housing. They analysed the topic using the Futures Literacy Lab method. Participants raised concerns about Airbnb and the growing privatisation of housing. They critiqued the commodification of spaces, where homes are treated as profit-generating assets rather than places for community and belonging. The discussion also highlighted the enclosures of public spaces, where access to communal areas is increasingly restricted, and community isolation, as people become more disconnected from each other. These critiques focused on how current trends in urban planning, socio-economic and political developments, are shaping a future where social ties weaken, and public spaces are privatised, further driving societal inequality and fragmentation.

The workshop continued with a 2040 Future Scenario exercise, where participants envisioned how housing and cities would look in the future. This led to deep discussions on how technological, social, and environmental factors could influence future living spaces. Participants worked collaboratively on ideal futures, crafting collective visions and policy proposals for actionable change that would ensure inclusive, communal, and accessible living spaces for all. And finally, they put everything together in the form of a theatrical improvisation!