Youth work and young refugees (Long-term TC)

Background Information The Hellenic National Agency for Erasmus+ in the field of Youth/ Youth and Lifelong Learning Foundation in cooperation with the Italian National Agency for Erasmus+ Youth in Action and SALTO Inclusion & Diversity Resource Centre, organize the 2-phase TCA activity: “Youth work and young refugees”. Italy and Greece, amongst other European countries, have been facing the challenge of intervening, hosting and integrating refugees. Accordingly, institutions along with the organized and independent civic society have responded with a diversity of approaches, each one aiming at facilitating integration processes of refugees. Consequently, the role of youth work and youth workers is becoming increasingly important as a key factor to intervene in inclusion and integration of young refugees. The relevant practices vary from independent and unstructured even spontaneous responses to methodological and structured approaches, each one aiming at facilitating bureaucratic and integrational processes. The training This two-phase activity aims to offer tools and to support competence development of youth/social workers (volunteers and professionals) working with young refugees. It comprises of two events that will be hosted in Lesvos or Chios and Athens and will address the role of youth work and the current practices in working with young refugees. It will offer the participants a holistic view on the realities and possible responses and contribute to the capacity-building of their organisations. A two-phase activity is an opportunity for a more sustainable learning process. In the first activity, you will get familiar with new tools and develop your competences. In between you are expected to put in practice, in your daily work, what you have learned. The second activity will bring the same participants to reflect together on their practice and what can be further improved. It will also be an opportunity for partnership-building for future cooperation. The first event will take place 1-8 October 2018 (including arrival & departure). The main objectives will be: - To create a common ground on key concepts and contexts relevant to youth work with young refugees (such as terminology, European youth work initiatives, international legal framework) - To get acquainted with and reflect on youth work practices on the topic (through field visits and local/national participants’ experiences) - To further develop competences and organisational capacity to work for and with young refugees (such as how to deal with trauma and mental health, intercultural dialogue, counter-narrative to tackle hate speech, networking and cross-sectorial cooperation, etc.) - To support participants to transfer their learning to their work with young refugees (through the development of a personal plan) - To initiate networking and collaboration between participants. The second event will take place in Athens, 2-7 February 2019 (including arrival & departure). It will provide the space for assessment and feedback on plans implemented by participants between activities. In addition, there will the opportunity to further network and to develop common initiatives. Target Group (25 participants maximum) - Volunteers and professional youth/social workers that are actively involved in creating solutions to inclusion and integration of young refugees - Involved in youth organisations, community/grassroots organisations, youth work service providers, humanitarian organisations and others active in the field - Available to attend both events and to dedicate time to preparatory tasks (e.g. research on national reality) - Motivated and supported by sending organisation to become a multiplier of the training in their work - International experience is not a must - Able to work in (international) English - From E+: YiA Programme countries