Teach Peace - Training of Trainers on Peace Education

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.” (Preamble of the UNESCO Constitution, 1945)

Teach Peace training course was designed by the group of international youth workers and activists — members of Youth Peace Ambassadors Network— working in the peacebuilding field.

Peace education is a multi-disciplinary approach to teaching about peace, and for peace. It aims to help participants to acquire a critical awareness of nonviolent conflict resolution, and the skills and commitment to be actively engaged in the pursuit of peace. Following such a definition of peace education, during the training for trainers on peace education we will work on the knowledge, skills, behaviours and attitude of the participants.

UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security recognizes that young people play an important role in promotion of
peace. Article 12 emphasises the need to support quality education for peace that equips youth with the ability to engage constructively in civic structures and inclusive political processes.

Youth Peace Ambassadors Network in cooperation with AEQUITAS, having the experience in running the international activities with and for young people, sees the need to develop and build upon competences of young people in peace education, both in running educational activities as well as being able to mainstream
peace education.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN AT THIS TRAINING?

During the Teach Peace — ToTPE training course, you will have the chance to develop your competences as a trainer and facilitator. You will work on the following competences that are essential in the peace education and human rights education:

- CREATING educational spaces for young people: you will learn where to look for possibilities to enable learning in the peacebuilding field;

- DESIGNING educational programmes;

- IMPLEMENTING educational activities;

- FACILITATING individual and group learning processes;

- EVALUATING training courses and workshops;

- LEARNING TO LEARN for your own;

- EXPLORING intercultural competences;

- CO-OPERATE with others;

- BEING INVOLVED as a peacebuilder;

OBJECTIVES

- to develop participants’ competence to design, run and evaluate non-formal education and training activities in the field of peace education at European and local levels;

- to develop participants` understanding of concepts of peace and peace education at personal, interpersonal and institutional level;

- to gain awareneess on the importance of nonviolent conflict resolution by getting familiar with a concept of nonviolence and ways to incorporate it into the peace education (with special focus on non-violent communication);

- to understand challenges for mainstreaming peace education within European context as a base of finding relevant ways to advocate for change in that field;

- to create participants a space to excercise their gained in facilitation skills and implement them during workshops in local school;

- to support participants to learn how to guide and facilitate intercultural processes in peace education settings;

- to explore the links between peace education and contribution to the development of a human rights and peace culture;

- to develop the self-reflection skills or participants on directing one`s own learning, meanigful cooperation with others and cooperating in teams and to be further able to transfer the gained skills into educational process of the others;

- to empower and mentor participants to act as trainers and multipliers of the peaceful values in their educational youth work by designing and implementing at least one concrete follow-up activity.

PARTICIPANTS ARE EXPECTED TO:

- act as activists, peace-builders or youth workers in the field of peace and human rights;

- be willing to work as a trainer at non-formal peace education activities;

- have experience in the youth work field with a function of responsibility (not only as a participant) — organising (international) youth projects, leading a youth exchange, leading an informal group of people, etc.

- be active or interested in the field of peace, human rights and youth work;

- be prepared to reflect upon and question their own beliefs and approaches as trainers;

- e ready to act as multipliers of gained competences after the training;

- be available to take part in the whole duration of the project;

- be residents of above mentioned partner countries;

- be able to communicate in English;

- be aged 18+;

METHODOLOGY

The training course will be based on the principles of non-formal education: it will have a planned programme of personal and social education for young people designed to improve a range of skills and competencies, outside the formal educational curriculum.

We will implement the basic element of the non-formal education, such as the education being voluntary, organised with educational objectives, participatory and learner-centred, about learning life skills and preparing for active citizenship, based on involving both individual and group learning with a collective approach, holistic and process-oriented, as well as based on experience and action (we will plan the follow up activities) and starts from the needs of the participants.

ORGANISERS

Youth Peace Ambassadors Network

The Youth Peace Ambassadors Network (YPAN) is an informal network of 70 young peacebuilders from across Europe who work with and in conflict affected communities.

Majority of the members of the network are trained on human rights, non-formal education and conflict transformation by the Council of Europe in the long term project (2011–2014).

Our Mission: The YPA Network wants to develop a culture of peace by empowering young people, promoting human rights, dignity, equality and respect of diversity through education, advocacy and other non-violent actions through projects at local and international level.

As YPA Network we promote local and international peace building activities by young people around Europe. Since 2012 we have organised more than 20 international activities (including long term projects) in the field of peacebuilding and trained people from around 30 Council of Europe countries.

AEQUITAS

AEQUITAS seeks to create a culture where human rights are respected, protected and promoted through human rights education, peace education, citizenship education and intercultural education. It predominantly uses Council of Europe handbooks (such as Compass, Companion, All Different All Equal and Bookmarks) and Toolkits to work with young people.

A milestone in the AEQUITAS history is the partnership with the European Commission and IT Companies (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Microsoft) in the monitoring exercise of hate speech following the adoption of the Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online.

HOW TO APPLY

The deadline for applying is 16th of December 2018.

You can access the application form here: https://goo.gl/56hKWG

CONTACT

Alper Gurlek — Project coordinator

YPAN: youthpeaceambassadors@gmail.com