Impact Stories: Methods and lessons learned
Emotional Learning
Excursions into nature as a method to let what we have learnt sink in, to get involved in new situations, to learn from nature and the environment around us and to understand ourselves as part of it. We went snorkeling, hiking, swimming in an ice-cold lake – each of these experiences is etched in my body and in my memory and I believe that only through them can I understand and grasp the full meaning of this trip and this professional encounter.
While a different approach to education and its transfer prevails in Europe, we have experienced a complementary method in South Africa. Emotional learning takes centre stage there, naturally always paired with the transfer of cognitive knowledge. However, the transfer of knowledge does not end within the structures and formal guidelines that we know from our educational world. Rather, we are taught to allow the environment itself to be experienced and to impart collective, social knowledge – through storytelling, singing, informal speech and emotionality.
This is an aspect that I consciously want to incorporate into my work with the young target group (and beyond) because it has inspired me. Knowledge is versatile, close to nature and much more complex to grasp than we see reflected in our system. Experiencing how fruitful this form of knowledge exchange is and how it not only gives you a different perspective on yourself but also on your environment – this realisation will probably stay with me forever.
Sarah Pint, Starkmacher e.V. (Germany)
Learning from the ABCD
In European project design, we often begin with problems. We identify them, analyze their root causes, build a problem tree, and then flip it into a solution tree. From there, we construct logical frameworks, define outputs, set indicators, and plan activities. It’s a structured, methodical, and outcome-driven approach that I’ve applied many times across different contexts. And it works—it brings clarity, helps track impact, and supports targeted responses to challenges.
But what happens when we begin from a different place: not from what’s broken, but from what’s already working?
During my exchange in Muizenberg, South Africa, I encountered a methodology that challenged my mindset: Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). At its core, ABCD starts with a simple but powerful belief: every community holds assets—skills, knowledge, passions, institutions, spaces, and relationships. Rather than focusing on what’s missing, ABCD invites us to activate the strengths already present within the community. It asks: What can we build with what we already have?
This question stayed with me. It made me reflect on the starting points we choose in our work, and how profoundly different the outcomes can be when we begin from abundance rather than scarcity, from assets rather than deficits.
ABCD also reminded me that real change doesn’t begin in reports or matrices—it begins with people. It centers on what we can do with our hands, our hearts, and our minds. It calls on our practical skills and capacities, our emotional intelligence and empathy, and our creativity and critical thinking. It is as much about connection and intention as it is about delivery and design.
I saw how ABCD unfolds in contexts where people don’t expect things to be “fixed” from the outside, but instead look for ways to face challenges together. It showed me how important it is to work with perspective and in perspective, to stay rooted in context while also keeping an open, forward-looking mindset. We don’t always need to bring solutions in a suitcase. Sometimes, what’s needed is our attention, our presence, and our willingness to receive from those around us, so that we can, in return, offer our own unique interpretation of possibility. That’s how we contribute meaningfully, without overpowering.
We may not always be able to apply ABCD in its full form, but its spirit can travel with us. We can be guided by simple, yet transformative, principles:
Start with what’s strong, not what’s wrong.
Focus on relationships, not only structures.
Cultivate participation, not dependency.
From within, alongside, together.
Ivana Ristovska, Eufemia (Italy)
Silent Lab
In Mannheim, we had the opportunity to discover a particularly interesting educational and artistic technique: the Silent Lab. Normally, this technique involves working with a group of young people on a theme (democracy, the environment, etc.) and creating content around it. Some of the participants‘ texts/ideas are selected, and a creative and educational process begins. Once the texts are written, the young people and their supervisors begin recording them. The goal is to create educational audio content that can be reused at certain events.
We had the opportunity to attend a workshop to experiment with a Silent Lab on participatory democracy.
This experience was extremely enriching in terms of the possibilities offered by the tool. Indeed, beyond the educational aspect of the workshops, the Silent Lab offers a strong interest in group dynamics. It allows everyone to experience their experience individually but within the group.
Each person goes through the same experience, at the same time, but in their own bubble. For individuals who have difficulty finding their place in the group, the tool is helpful, even relaxing.
It avoids dynamics where space is occupied by only a few and provides the possibility of easily
accessible personal space while remaining within the group.
I found this method very promising for conducting activities in France. The Silent Lab can also be used with audiences experiencing certain difficulties (attention deficit disorder, social difficulties, certain psychological issues). Finally, it has the advantage of having multiple sound tracks and the ability to record different languages.
We hope to reuse it in France and test it for the first time as part of the Aniane festival. We won’t be holding the entire workshop, but we’ll be focusing on audio content to introduce the tool to our audiences. Following this, we’d like to develop Silent Lab workshops in France and potentially develop a Franco-German collaboration.
Milena Lachmanowits, L’Engrainé (France)
Blank Canvas
We met Cape Town graffiti artist Mak1One at the Humanity exhibition at Iziko Museum, where his wall-size piece stood next to Stone-Age artefacts . His talk jumped—on purpose—from family stories to city history to paint tips. The thread wasn’t linear; it was more like a mixtape. I liked how that looseness let everyone find their own entry point.
A few days later, at the closing event of Hip Hop As Healing (Heal the Hood Project’s anti-violence festival), he was coaching teenagers. Organisers had set up free-standing plywood panels so anyone could spray safely. Mak1One asked simple questions—What’s your word? Why that colour?—then stepped back while they experimented. Technique came second; reflection came first.
What tied the week together? First, a museum talk that wove centuries into minutes; later, a pop-up mural space where questions turned into colour. Both showed me a connector I hadn’t used at home: creative action can draw out community stories before any consensus meeting is called.
Lesson carried home — the blank-canvas principle
At Altes Volksbad we’re already shaping programmes, yet the strongest insight from Cape Town is to keep part of the house in “primer”—a literal or figurative blank canvas that neighbours can mark before we over-define the space. Schedules, logos and agendas can layer on later; first we show that the walls (and ideas) are truly available.
Leave room unpainted and let the community supply the colours.
In cities dense with layered histories, creation first and explanation later often opens the quickest path to shared ownership.
Thomas Woschitz, Starkmacher e.V. (Germany)
Informal learning – experience report
Every time I return from an international mobility programme, I often realise much later what I have learned. In moments when I least expect it, memories come flooding back, I make associations with experiences or remember conversations I had. In these moments, I realise once again that international exchange projects are much more than non-formal educational opportunities. The organised transfer of skills and knowledge in an international context helps me in my work, but it is only part of the impact that these international exchanges have. Another, often overlooked value is the learning processes that are triggered outside the organised formats. Learning processes that are shaped by daily experiences and influences from the environment. In an international context, these are even more intense and numerous than in everyday life. The time I spent in Turin and Cape Town as part of the SEEDS project triggered so many learning processes for me, some of them within the organised workshops and visits, many of them unplanned. Stimulating discussions about the political situation in different countries, exploring new places, gaining new impressions while strolling through cities or walking in nature, recognising similarities and differences. Informal learning accompanies us throughout our lives and is therefore a crucial factor in education. This type of learning cannot be controlled, but it can be supported. Based on my own experiences, it is therefore very important to me to create environments in which informal learning processes are initiated and positively supported. International mobility programmes are ideal for this, as Turin and Cape Town have once again impressively demonstrated to me.
Definition
Informal education refers to lifelong learning processes in which people acquire attitudes, values, skills and knowledge through influences and sources in their own environment and from their daily experiences (family, neighbours, marketplace, library, mass media, work, play, etc.).
Nicolas Bosch, Starkmacher e.V. (Germany)
