Humans of SALTO – 20 Years of the SALTO Network

So what makes a network? It is all the wonderful humans that make it happen. With the ideas, aspirations, work, dedication, humour, and learning moments are all what helped SALTO learn and grow. With that learning came inspiration from the famous “Humans of New York” photography project (HONY); a mammoth task to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers in their daily lives. Somewhere along the way HONY also began to interview subjects, and so all the portraits and accompanying stories became the subject of a vibrant blog, and a source of many social media spin-offs as well as  two great books.

In that spirit, “Humans of SALTO” is a tribute to all people who have helped us to support youth work in Europe. We are grateful for the countless helping hands who have made “us” possible. There are surely more than 20, but as SALTO turned 20 in 2020, this is the number we want to embrace. The project takes a look at 20 personal stories of people who have influenced and impacted the SALTO network, and who themselves have been somehow touched by us, the SALTO network.

The project has taken us all around Europe and its neighbourhood. Our SALTO humans had plenty of work-related stories of mutual learning, reflection on youth work and European cooperation, as well as European solidarity. They also had just as many stories of friendship, inspiration, and plenty of  misunderstandings that turned into lifelong learning moments, all bound together through European youth work’s favourite instrument – the ukulele.