Stories to connect

Share your story and create community

outside your 'bubble'

In the Stories to connect project, people with a local background and people with a migrant background write short autobiographical stories and create visual collages, photographs and podcasts. They share with each other how it looks, feels, smells or tastes to feel at home or not. In co-creation with writers and artists they initiate storytelling meetings and exhibitions for the community. 


By connecting with each other in this way, this project promotes a collective sense of belonging. Because, as Elif Shafak stated, 'Stories bring us together. Untold stories keep us separated' We believe that ‘bridging’ between the local community and migrant newcomers is the only way to a successful coexistence, in which respect and acceptance ensures a harmonious society. 

That feeling of being at home or 'belonging' should be possible for all of us, despite our origins, whether we were able to grow up on our native soil in peace and health or not. 


As in many countries there is a political shift to the right, where dehumanising narratives are spread, we feel it’s time to work towards a path of solidarity and shared humanity. We implement the Stories to connect-project in Holland and in Spain. And we organise 'train-the-trainer' workshops offline and online in different languages for people who want to initiate this project in their own country or town.



A record number of people are on the run worldwide as a result of war, conflict and persecution. The annual UNHCR Global Trends report shows that more than 110 million people are currently forcibly displaced. In many major Western European cities today, it is already the case that the majority of residents have a migration background. On the other hand more and more people live in a social bubble. Research shows that segregation in Europe continues to grow.

This social trend increases polarization and compromises democratic values. But unlike the classical idea of integration, as was the paradigm when people with a migration background were the minority, the aim is not adaptation to the local 'norm' group , but adaptation to a life in diversity.


For a successful practice of living together in super-diverse cities, it is not necessary that people look alike or have the same opinions. It is precisely about the ability to live happily together with people who are different from you. Martha Nussbaum (American philosopher and professor of legal philosophy and ethics) emphasizes

the important role of interethnic friendships in this life in diversity and preventing conflict and discrimination. But friendships between people with and without a migration background do not appear to be created automatically. People have to meet each other for that. Not only at the greengrocer, but also in places and through activities that enable meaningful interethnic contact.


The Stories to connect project enables meaningful interethnic contact. We create and rebuild places in the public space where we can meet, share and build connection.


Figueres, Spain

Haarlem, The Netherlands

'We have got to know each other on a deep level and exchanged our stories without shyness. At the end of the meetings, through making personal collages, we have brought out who we are and how we see ourselves. An exciting closure.’

Dolors Roig, born and living in Figueres, Spain. 82 years old.

'Because I am new in the Netherlands, life is not always easy. Sometimes I prefer to stay indoors. Stories to connect gave me a goal. Despite the bad times, I mobilized myself and met fantastic women. I learned from their strength and enjoyed being together. That kept me from becoming isolated and depressed.'

Krystyna Szakiewicz, born in Polen, living in Ijmuiden since 2023

‘I have always thought that I am not very creative. I was worried about making collage but it worked out and I’m proud of it! Afterwards, I realized the strength of the creative process because it expanded my sense of self and how I express myself.’

Mercè Masó, born in Barcelona, living near Figueres, Spain. 62 years old.

‘By participating in Stories to Connect, I now dare to make my voice heard much more, because it is a safe place where women connect with each other and really hear each other without judgement. All emotions are allowed. And everyone's wonderful stories too!’

Sas Schrofer, living in Haarlem The Netherlands. 45 years old.

Autobiographic story and review from participant Elena - Spain


My name is Elena Sokolova, I was born in the USSR in Novgorod. I live in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, since September 2023.

These are the works of art that I made during the project ’Stories to connect’ in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. 

The one on the right is my portrait partly filled with a collage made of elements that I identify with and that make me feel at home. 


The one on the left is a collage of me looking out of the window, now seeing “light in perspective, after the wind of change took us away from Russia". In my story that the collage accompanies I explain: "Now we are in Spain, we live in Figueres, foreigners, strangers, light and fragile like plants without roots.” If you want to know more: listen to my whole story about my life changing moment here:  

And if you’d like to hear how joining ‘Stories to connect’ impacted my life, listen to me here:

Workshops

We offer Stories to connect  in The Netherlands and Spain.

During the project we meet weekly for three months with the participants, of whom half are local and half are migrant. The participants discover their artistic skills and talents that encourages connection between them. From the photos, collages, writings and podcasts, we prepare an exhibition together that gives voice and puts a face to the experiences of the participants.


About us

Stories to connect is an international collaboration between the Netherlands and Spain. Mirna Ligthart, Susanne Gijsbers, Dawlat Derbas and Petra Vlasman have been carrying out this same project since 2022, each with three groups per year.

 

The projects that Ligthart, Gijsbers, Derbas and Vlasman do have a lot of overlap in terms of objectives. However, they all work from their own discipline, background and expertise.


More about Mirna Ligthart (NL) More about Susanne Gijsbers (NL) More about Petra Vlasman (ES/CAT)