Elena Stevkovska

Current occupation

Freelance trainer, facilitator and youth worker

Work experience

I am involved in A.R.T. Fusion Association (www.artfusion.ro), since 2021, as follows:
-Youth worker, working with high-school students with Theatre of the Oppressed methods
-Volunteers’ coordinator
In different roles, I am working with the following topics and non-formal education methods:
-Theatre of the Oppressed methods; I have accumulated experience as an actress, joker and trainer for actors/facilitators to operate with these methods, specifically Forum, Image, Legislative and Newspaper theatre, as well as Rainbow of Desire techniques.
-Street Campaigning; Organizing and delivering a street campaign, as well as facilitating the learning process of this method.
-Living Library, as a book, librarian and organizer of the event. I have organized local national event, as well as an International Online Living Library, with participants from Europe and Africa.
-Creating, developing, producing and testing various Educational Board Games with young people.

As a freelancer, I have worked as a full-time trainer in the following projects:

-"Boundary Boss", Training course on course for youth workers, trainers, mentors, and facilitators aiming to develop their competencies in using assertive communication to foster authentic, honest, ethical, sustainable and healthy personal and professional relationships; Balestrand, Norway (September/October 2024)
-"Emotional Well-being, Art and Youth Work, Training course that with the aim to increase youth workers' competencies in using art methods (Ebru (Marbling), Theatre and Creative Writing) to support the emotional well-being of young people; Balestrand, Norway (September, 2024)
-"Crack the Cycle", Training for Trainers/Facilitators to develop their Facilitation skills and qualitative use of the Experiential Learning Cycle in their learning process and work with young people, Balestrand, Norway (May 2024)
-"Rainbow of Desires", Training focused on building the capacity of youth workers to use the Theatre of the Oppressed methodology, specifically Rainbow of Desires; Balestrand, Norway (May 2024)
-"Youth work- navigating challenges with critical insight"- Training course which aimed to contribute to more qualitative youth work by mainstreaming critical reflection as a regular practice in youth workers' lives; Balestrand, Norway; (June 2024)
--„Activate the Global Change”, Training course on Sustainable tourism and traveling and Street Campaigning; Madeira, Portugal (January, 2024)
-„Differences Challenge Assumptions”, training course on intercultural learning and increasing intercultural sensitivity of youth workers; Madeira, Portugal (June 2023)
-„The Future We Want”, long-term project with two residential trainings to increase the capacity of the European youth work sector to support the implementation of Agenda 2030 with a focus on sustainability, global education and responsible consumption, while using the methods of Street Campaigning and Legislative Theatre and Advocacy. (October 2022- April 2023)
-„Be Sustainable”, Long-term project with two residential training courses on increasing the capacity of the European youth work sector to support the implementation of Agenda 2030 with a focus on sustainability in all its dimensions; Norway (November 2022- March 2023)
-„Rehearsals for Life”, Long-term project with two residential training courses on Forum and Image theatre and Newspaper theatre; Norway (June/November 2022)
-„Activate the Global Change”, Training course on Street Campaigning; Norway (May 2022)
-„Act for what you believe”, Training course on Forum and Image theatre; Serbia (October 2021)

I have also worked occasionally on projects as follows:
-Digital content creator; Creating educational content, moderating and developing social media accounts for educational international youth projects.
-Interviewing and writing articles about young climate activists from marginalized groups from various countries in Europe, to highlight their work and give them the platform to showcase their perspectives.
-In Skopje, North Macedonia, Tutoring, students from Elementary to High-school education, in Mathematics.
-I was also part of a 2 years’ project , where I worked specifically with Roma kids; I was preparing and facilitating different exercises for improving learning habits, teamwork, responsibility and motivation for participating in the formal school system.