International Training Course for youth workers „RutAlternativa“

Volunteers’ Centre of Vojvodina (SCI Serbia) is opening a call for participants from/ living in: Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey in the frame of the Erasmus + (Mobility of youth workers) project RutAlternativa.

This international training course aims at enabling youth workers to train their peers, colleagues and young people in their cities to become creators and organizers of educational walking tours which aim to explore the different realities of a place and to tell alternative stories about it.

Educational walking tours are (mainly volunteers-based) organized guided walks through a city or a neighborhood, with the purpose of presenting individuals and groups the experiences of those living in a certain place, through their unique perspective: these walks take place in many cities around the world, and they have different purposes, such as bringing locals close to the cultures and traditions of migrants in their cities, raising awareness on the life conditions of urban homeless persons, and so on.

Any topic can be involved in educational walking tours: climate change, social movements, youth cultures, biodiversity, urban gardens, cultural diversity, gentrification are just some of the areas that can be covered!
Target groups of these tours can be locals, visitors, persons belonging to a specific group, ie. certain professionals who are interested in getting to know more about a certain issue, or even members of local authorities and decision-makers.

The phases of the project are:
● the international training course (6 working days) in Novi Sad, Serbia, where participants will learn about the methodology of educational walking tours;
● a follow-up one-day training which participants to the international training will organize for their peers in their organizations/cities -so that they will learn the basics of this methodology and be able to create their own educational walking tours;
● pilot walking tours in each city (preparation, promotion, implementation, evaluation) organized by the international training course participants with the support of the partner organizations;
● a final e-publication on educational walking tours, created using inputs and tools from the TC as well as from the participants’ direct experiences and the routes they created in their cities.

The main aims of the project, and specifically this training course, are:
● Support the involved organizations in creating educational walking tours that can introduce resident and visitors to relevant places and issues through first-hand contact and experience, in order to increase their knowledge and understanding of a certain places’ history, culture and current issues;
● train participants in becoming multipliers (training others in their communities and organizations) of educational walking tours methodology;
● create at least one itinerary of an educational walking route per partner organization.

The participants may be youth workers, social workers, youth mentors, coaches of youth initiatives and other youth projects, volunteer coordinators, trainers, facilitators, activists.
All potential participants applying for this project should meet the following criteria:

● be 18 years old or older
● be able to work in English
● be interested in the Training course topics and have a strong motivation to act as a multiplier
● be able to attend for the full duration (October 4th-11th)
● when feasible, be committed to come to the seminar without flying, and to travel instead by overland route (bus, train..).
We explicitly encourage participants of all social backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, abilities and ethnic backgrounds to apply.

How to apply:

Before applying, read the  attached Call for participants carefully, and fill in the Application form by August 31st.

All applicants will receive a confirmation that their application was received and about our final decision after August 31st, as soon as we receive a feedback from your sending organization.

All those accepted will later receive a detailed infosheet (incl. info on how to get to the venue, how to book your travels, more info about the agenda of the project).

These are the project partners, and all participants are required to come through these sending organizations:

● Volonterski centar Vojvodine (Serbia)
● GAIA Kosovo (Kosovo)
● Nešto više (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
● Volonterski Centar Zagreb (Croatia)
● Zavod voluntariat (Slovenia)
● ADP Zip (Montenegro)
● PVN (Albania)

● Sci Switzerland
● Sci Austria
● SCI Germany

● Youth and Change (Turkey)