On September 8-9, 2024, the Figure It Out project hosted a fifth storytelling event in Bela Crkva, Serbia, titled Coping with System Failure Early in Life. This gathering marked the final stage of the project’s field research and focused on the resilience strategies young people develop to navigate life’s challenges. Set in the small town of Bela Crkva in eastern Serbia, Marcell Mars and Tomislav Medak, from the the FIO research team, joined Grupa Škart and members of Kiosk for two days of activities.
The program included a lake outing, shared meals, collective songwriting, and the evening storytelling session around a bonfire. During the storytelling, conducted in Serbo-Croatian to suit the context, participants shared a mix of personal stories and fictional horror tales, popular among the youth.
The FIO team also visited a local primary school, where they met with teachers and held brief workshops. The event concluded with a public reading of Women’s Affairs, a booklet by Kiosk focusing on survival strategies among Serbian women in the informal economy.
The Bela Crkva visit was part of an ongoing effort by Grupa Škart to bring creative programming to the area, enabling the sharing of the stories to take place in a setting marked by longstanding collaboration and mutual trust.