Story Seeds 2023/24: A Fighting Words and Fighting Words NI Collaboration
The Past…
The Story Seeds project started in 2021 with 20 primary schools in Dublin’s north inner city. Its aim is to support children and young people to write their own stories, together and individually, enabling them to begin to understand their own life story. The Story Seeds project not only introduces children and young people to creative writing, it also strengthens their positive sense of themselves and their communities.
A songwriting workshop in Belfast, September 2023
Story Seeds has expanded hugely over the past few years. You can learn more about the history of the project here.
But we’re here to talk about the most recent chapter in the Story Seeds journey!
The Present…
In 2023 and 2024, Fighting Words and Fighting Words NI carried out a major cross-border initiative: the Story Seeds Cross Border Project. This initiative is all about bringing young people together to create connections and create stories about communities. The project spanned six counties, in dozens of cities across many different schools and groups, eventually reaching over 10,000 participants!
The project culminated in the production of our primary school zine Story Seeds: Adventures Across the Border, our post-primary and community group zine Gothic Tales: Stories of the Mysterious and Macabre as well as two podcast episodes!
You can read/listen to them at the links below.
Zine
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| Story Seeds: Adventures Across the Border | Gothic Tales: Stories of the Mysterious and Macabre |
Podcasts
| Episode One | Episode Two | ||
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Peely and Shelbob’s Curse, Zak, Bucket List Granny, Special Discount, The Adventures of Rosie, Tik Tok Terminate, Two Friends Two Sides, Twist, Lost and Found |
Newry Shamrocks Youth Club Wheel Chair Association Woodlands Juvenille Detention Centre Mulroy College, Milford Concorde Community Centre An Grianan Theatre Woodlands Juvenille Detention Centre Red Door/Addiction Centre Letterkenny Community Development Project CLG |
The Cactus and the Cracken, The Chocolate Quest, Abandoned, Bell’s Island, The Prisoner, Dundalk to Drogheda, Kick the Can |
Donegall Pass Community Centre An Grianan Theatre Woodlands Juvenille Detention Centre Abbey Vocational School Woodlands Juvenille Detention Centre St. John of Gods & AbleVision group The National Learning Network, Letterkenny |
Find the full podcast series here
Video
There was also a video made by Vivienne Byrne based on the stories and illsutrations from the project:
Fighting Words and Fighting Words NI brought together eighty young people at the Íontas Centre in Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan on Friday, 19th January.
The initiative was split into three regions in Ireland and three regions in Northern Ireland. You can learn more about the project and what we achieved in each region at the links below.
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Fighting Words |
Fighting Words NI |
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| Region One | County Louth | County Down |
| Region Two | County Monaghan | County Armagh |
| Region Three | County Donegal | County Derry~Londonderry |
The feedback we have received from participants and educators has been uniformly and enthusiastically positive - just one measure of its impact and success! Here are some quotes from teachers whose students have participated in the Story Seeds Cross-Border Project:
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If you want to know more about the impact of the project you can read the
Independent Evaluation of the Project by Paula Phelan
Cross Border Project 2023-2024 Final Report
The Future?
The success of the Story Seeds Cross Border Project has demonstrated the effectiveness of bringing communities together through creativity. The methodologies used to deliver the workshops have been rolled out across other Fighting Words projects across the island of Ireland.
Stay tuned for the next chapter - the Story Seeds will continue to grow!
