"CoRner: Connecting Roots. Near despite distance"

CoRner is an international training that will empower young actors of change, social innovators, active citizens or youth workers who live and act in geographically isolated or sub-urban marginalized areas, improving their abilities to plan, imagine and work together as members of larger groups, networks or communities both local or international.

Many internal rural areas in Europe are facing major problems of isolation that are leading to the fact that youngsters leave causing depopulation and even more isolation, neglect of the local environment and social fragmentation. Inhabitants of sub-urban marginalized areas as well face social isolation. Despite being physically close by big urban settlements, the population of those areas are often left behind. We aim to empower those active people who are not willing to leave these areas, supporting them to develop skills to work and connect with widespread networks.

CoRner is a training on facilitation of networks, communities and groups of people working together both face to face or long-distance through the internet, mediation and communication skills, conflict resolution, project designing and implementation using a participatory approach. We will use nature based methodologies such as Deep Democracy and Dragon Dreaming.

CoRner will provide tools for breaking the isolation and enlarging persectives without loosing the connection with one's own environment and territory.

OBJECTIVES
- gain competences of networks and groups facilitation
- gain competences of cultural mediation, effective communication and conflict resolution among people working together
- learn and experience how to design a project together in all its parts from the initial vision/idea through its design and implementation to the celebration and sharing of knowledge and results
- connect with other active people living in isolated areas and working for similar porpouses
- reflect on the value of environmental and social sustainability sharing good practices and ideas for future cooperation
- provide competences and reflect on models that breake isolation without leading to abandon of rural areas

TARGET ORGANIZATIONS
We are looking for active organisations based in Programme Countries that are ideally based on rural areas or marginalized sub-urban areas and work on a local, national or international field with youngsters or young adults. Organizations not based in these specific areas are also welcome if they work with a pool of youth active in those areas. The partner organisations should be able to identify 4 participants for this training course. The partners organization should also share values of environmental and social sustainability and be active or interested in these fields.

TARGET GROUPS
The 24 participants should be:
- young citizens, youth workers from private or public bodies who are active in the above mentioned areas and who are already or willing to be members of networks, groups or community projects
- motivated and ready to participate to the entire course
- interested in working for the safeguard of their territory from an environmental and/or a social perspective
- able to communicate in good English
- the course also welcome participants of the same country group who are already working together and are willing to explore ways to optimize their cooperation

STRUCTURE
The training course will take place indicatively in May 2016 in Sicily (Italy). It will have a duration of 9 days with 24 participants.

FINANCIAL CONDITIONS
Participation, food and accomodation will be free of cost. Travel will be reimboursed up to the limits indicated under the Erasmus+ scheme for mobility.

HOW TO SIGN UP
Please send a motivation letter (no longer than 1 page) explaining why your organisation wants to join this project and provide basic information about your organization, its fields of work and the general profile of participants that you expect to be able to send. Send this information to e.maran@informa-giovani.org before the 20th of September 2015.