CREATIVE PATHS

During the training course, you will have the opportunity to learn by doing, exchange experiences with other youth workers, experiment with creative facilitation tools, and work together to develop methods that respond to real needs in youth work.

You will leave the training with new skills, practical tools, draft facilitation methods, and an action plan for testing your learning in your local context.  Most importantly, you will become part of a collaborative learning process that connects individual development with the wider goal of creating more inclusive, creative, and participatory learning opportunities for young people.

The aim of the training course is to equip youth workers and educators from partner countries with practical skills, creative tools, and inclusive facilitation approaches that they can use to design and deliver engaging, participatory, and intercultural learning experiences in their local communities.

Key Objectives:

• to strengthen facilitation skills by understanding the principles of facilitation and intercultural communication;
• to explore and apply LEGO® Serious Play® as a creative, hands-on approach to encourage participation, support reflection, explore different perspectives, and facilitate group discussions and problem-solving;
• to develop basic graphic facilitation skills by using basic visual elements and techniques;
• to learn the basics of the Design Thinking;
• to apply Design Thinking principles to identify needs, frame challenges, generate ideas, evaluate solutions, and design structured workshops and learning activities;
• to promote inclusion and intercultural learning by exploring facilitation approaches that value diversity, encourage equal participation, respect different perspectives, and support meaningful dialogue;
• to co-create new creative facilitation methods in small international teams, connecting the acquired tools and approaches to the thematic areas of Culture, Intercultural Learning, Social Inclusion, Human Rights, Training, Diversity, Non-formal Learning, and Design Thinking;
• to strengthen international cooperation and peer learning by sharing experiences, exchanging good practices, and learning from the different professional and cultural backgrounds of fellow participants.

Participants' profile:

The training is designed for youth workers, educators, trainers, and facilitators who are interested in improving the quality of their work with young people through creative, inclusive, and participatory learning methods.

We welcome both volunteers and professionals working in local organisations, NGOs, educational institutions, youth centres, or other initiatives that support young people at local, regional, national, or international levels.

Selection criteria:

• 18+ years old;
• have a communicative level of English;
• are actively involved in youth work or education, either as volunteers or professionals, and have opportunities to apply the learning in their work with young people;
• are motivated to develop their facilitation skills and explore creative methods such as LEGO® Serious Play®, graphic facilitation, and Design Thinking;
• have experience working with young people from diverse backgrounds, particularly in intercultural settings or with young people with fewer opportunities, including minorities and groups at risk of social exclusion;
• are willing to share their experiences and learn from others in an international environment, contributing to peer learning and intercultural exchange;
• are ready to engage actively in non-formal learning, including practical exercises, teamwork, experimentation, self-reflection, and collaborative method development;
• are willing to contribute to the project's follow-up activities by testing or adapting the newly developed methods and organising or supporting pilot workshops in their local, national, or international contexts;
• can commit to the full duration of the 8-day training and actively participate in the programme and its learning activities.

Selected participants are in charge of organising a local event (seminar, workshop etc) for own community within 2 months after the training course comes to an end. Selected participants are in charge of dissemination and visibility activities of the project.

More info: https://canva.link/f4a9kpzgyqii1p4