Across Europe, young people are increasingly confronted with fragmented memories, collective traumas, and the need to redefine their sense of belonging. NARRADRAMA — The Power of Storytelling for Youth, funded under the Erasmus+ Programme (KA210-YOU), responds to this challenge by placing narrative, embodiment, and creative expression at the centre of a transformative learning journey.
Running from September 2025 to September 2026, the project brings together youth from Italy, and Spain to explore how personal and collective trauma can be reinterpreted through writing, dramatization, and community-based artistic practices. Over twelve months, participants will move across three regions, each carrying its own form of collective memory: spontaneous trauma linked to natural disasters in Valencia, trauma associated with violence and suicidal behaviour in Basilicata.
A Beginning in Valencia: Memory, Territory, Transformation
The project opens in Valencia from 1 to 4 December 2025 at Ca Revolta, a symbolic cultural hub in the historic Velluters neighbourhood. Here, participants will engage in the first thematic chapter of the initiative: Triune of Trauma; Transformation and Memory.
The four-day programme combines:
- Writing workshops, designed to activate personal storytelling and narrative agency.
- Body-based practices, emphasising the body as an archive capable of holding and releasing memory.
- Dramatization sessions, where fiction becomes a space of resonance and collective meaning-making.
- Territorial explorations, with afternoon walks through areas affected by the DANA storm, connecting landscape and narrative.
This intersection of artistic expression and community engagement aims to support young people in recognising trauma not only as an individual burden but as shared material that can be transformed.
Three Countries, Three Collective Memories
NARRADRAMA takes an innovative cross-country approach, engaging with local forms of trauma that continue to shape social identities and intergenerational memory:
- Valencia (Spain) — spontaneous trauma arising from flooding and DANA storms.
- Basilicata (Italy) — trauma related to violence, marginalisation, and suicidal behaviour.
By weaving these contexts into a single narrative process, the project creates a European space where youth can explore similarities, differences, and shared pathways towards resilience.
Next Steps: Basilicata and Turin
The journey will continue in Basilicata in February 2026, where participants will deepen the work initiated in Valencia, focusing on rewriting and reimagining lived experiences. The final phase will take place in Turin in May 2026, culminating in the presentation of the collective book—produced in paper, digital, and audiobook formats and published in five languages.
The book will be unveiled during the Turin International Book Fair, hosted by MTS Edizioni, offering a platform for young authors to present their work to a broader cultural community.
A European Collaboration for Creative Empowerment
The project brings together three organisations with a shared commitment to youth empowerment, socio-cultural transformation, and artistic methodologies:
- MTS Edizioni (Italy) — Coordinator
- European Social Art (ESA) (Spain) — Partner
Through this partnership, NARRADRAMA promotes artistic experimentation as a tool for civic engagement and encourages young people to recognise storytelling as a practice that reinforces agency, belonging, and emotional literacy.
Marguerite Duras once wrote that “telling stories is a way of continuing to exist.”
NARRADRAMA takes this intuition and transforms it into a transnational learning experience: one where youth reclaim memory, reshape trauma, and reconnect with their communities through the simple but powerful act of narrating.
