Social and Community Theatre Centre

CareStories. Walks to Nurture Care is a local and European project between Italy, Greece and Poland that aims to create a network of “cultural walks” addressed to people -especially elderly living in internal areas – that have been living long periods of stress, isolation and fear during the Covid pandemic of 2020-2021. The idea has been to create a connection between 3 different territories of Europe, three mountain valleys in Piedmont - Italy, an island territory in the Island of Crete – Greece and Goleniow, a city of the Baltic sea territory – Poland in order to share stories and possible walks to be explored by local inhabitants and tourists. CareStories has been supported by the third round of Culture of Solidarity Fund of European Cultural Foundation in collaboration with Fondazione CRT. The proposal grounded its imaginative and cultural aspects in the potential of perception of Europe as a common country composed of lots of different territories and stories. The urgency enlightened by the project was the persisting isolation and social fear experienced by elderly people as a consequence of lockdowns during the Covid pandemic. This feeling of loneliness and fear of others (also of family members and friends) has led through a permanent state of isolation in a large group of people aged 55+. This isolation, even after the Covid emergency, could have led to a permanent social isolation of people who had already experienced loneliness, especially in small villages and marginal areas. CareStories therefore decided to encourage an active participation of small group of people aged +55 in the re-starting of social activities connected with culture, nature and storytelling.