International Training course: "FWD: Train your leader!"

The idea of the project is based on the principle of FWD – forwarded message, skills and knowledge which will be passed to the new volunteers and activists by the more experienced ones. The program will be built on cases – real stories from different workcamps and international youth exchanges organized by SCI and partners, which would promote sharing best practices and allow to learn from mistakes and avoid them while organizing and running an international youth and volunteer project – exchange or workcamp. During this course, participants will engage in a number of activities where they will gain an increased awareness of their leadership style and their privileged role when working with young people. They will develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes that leaders require to impact positively on the lives of young people. The methods that we will use are those of non- formal education, so learning will be through discussions, group work, interactive workshops, exchange of experience, creative process and experimentation and reflection times. This training will be a great imput for participants, as they will increase their awareness of their own leadership styles and how to integrate this gained knowledge into the work in their community. Aims of the Training Course: 1. To assist participants in the personal self- development of their leadership competencies. 2. To enable participants to understand and trust their own ability to inspire young people. 3. To provide participants with good communication and group dynamics skills. 4. To explore the participants’ organisational skills and how these can be used to support young people in becoming more involved in extra- curricular activities in their community. 5. To discover the value of the Youth in Action programme as a tool for the development of young people. The program will include such traditional topics as : - leadership; - group dynamics; - intercultural learning; - role of leader; - conflicts and non-violent communication as tool to prevent them; - contact and interaction with local community; - practicalities of life of an international youth/volunteer group; - tolerance and peace-building; - promotion of European solidarity and cooperation. The program will be finalized with open space, where participants can present their ideas for study part and elaborate them together, try out new team building games and activities, develop ideas for the future. Apart from that, we want to create a small handbook only with cases/situations from participants and leaders perspective, which will be collated into an electronic material which will summarize workcamp practices, a material which will be spreaded to SCI members, partners and camp leaders. Recruitment of participants We expect to meet around 24 young people who already have or would like to have an experience of work camp, youth exchange or other international project leading. All participants selected for this project must meet the following criteria: • be minimum 18 years; • be able to communicate well in English language; • be strongly motivated to act as a multiplier in the field of promoting voluntary work; • commit to implement the learned knowledge and skills in practice back home; • commit to actively participate from the beginning to the end of the training; A group of 24 participants (youth leaders or youth workers) from 8 different countries will be selected on the basis of the profile outlined above by the international prep-team. The team will seek to ensure a geographical balance, gender balance, different types of experiences and motivation, cultural backgrounds, organisations. Participants will be chosen mainly on the basis of their motivation!