Guides on the Road to Social Inclusion - Training for Youth Workers working with marginalized groups

Guides on the Road to Social Inclusion is a 9-day training program in Galyatető, Hungary, for 32 youth workers battling social exclusion. Our goal is to expand the toolkit of the youth workers by training and the exchange of best practices, so they can become more effective in stepping up against social exclusion in their communities at home. In order to achieve this, we plan a practice oriented program for youth workers of 16 countries from the European Union and the Mediterranean Region. By the end of the program the participants will create a Methodological Handbook full of activities, tricks and ideas they can use in their work against social exclusion. The training reaches its goal through a mixture of experiential activities, presentations conveying new concepts, discussions sharing best practices and views, practical presentations of methods, active practice and writing the Methodological Handbook. Towards the end of the program the participants get a chance to practice what they learned „live”, as it will be their task to lead a half-day community building program for a youth group facing exclusion (inhabitants of an orphanage of Székesfehérvár). So the program is not a one-and-only occasion, but part of a longer process, they will be assisted by a Youth Association that has been working with the group for a long period of time. Countries sendig participants to the training will be: Egypt, France, Hungary, Italy, Izrael, Jordan, Latvia, Libanon, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Tunesia, Turkey. Topics of the training: - understanding exclusion of different origins - awareness of stereotypes and prejudice - how to create non-formal educational situations in the topic of exlusion for both excluded and non-excluded youth - debriefing techniques, or how to draw learning from real-life or created situations - community building techniques – inclusive communities - mediation and conflict resolution techniques - techniques for building trust and self esteem Methods of the training: - Adventure education and learning through experience - Small group discussions and interactive presentations - Sharing of best practices brought from participants’ organizations through practical demonstration - a chance to try out the new techniques learned in a small community building project with a local youth group still during the training - documenting the learnings in a „Practical Handbook for Guides on the Road to Social Inclusion” – all participants get a copy