INTRODUCTION

Storytelling has been proven to be one of the most effective and most common forms of communication people use in different areas of their lives, ranging from day-to-day communication and entertainment to education and language learning. Storytelling, and methods revolving around it, support the development of language skills, enables people to create their own narratives about themselves, their lives and relationships.

Storybooks illustrate the stories of inspiring women who participated in the WINGS social and labor inclusion programme implemented in Belgium, Italy, Greece, Spain. The programme was structured around 3 main areas, namely the language course, individual job counselling sessions and internship periods in selected companies to gain new practical work experience and apply newly acquired language skills. During the language course sessions, women happily shared their personal reflections about learning experiences and/or created new stories focusing on their future life with the support of artistic expression.

Advancing the method of storytelling and guided by experts, participants vividly portrayed their unique stories through collages of photos, images and drawings, which accompany their narrations. The WINGS social and labour inclusion programme was implemented in the framework of the project WINGS – New Gender Strategies for Women’s inclusion, a multi-layered action aiming to facilitate the social-economic inclusion of women in vulnerable situations. WINGS provides them with language courses, psychological support, tailored employment counselling and labour integration opportunities.