TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Simona Muršec
The University on Youth and Development is since 2000 an annual activity jointly organised by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, the Spanish Government (INJUVE), the European Youth Forum (YFJ), the Spanish Youth Council (CJE) and other international youth organisations.
It brings together representatives of youth organisations and youth movements from all over
the world to discuss, train and be trained as well as to take political action around the main issues on the global agenda. In the Framework of the European Year of Volunteering 2011, the 12th Edition of the University was held around the promotion of volunteerism and under the theme Youth Volunteering for Global Development, exchange of practices and discussions around the values of volunteering and its connection with active and global citizenship, human rights and fundamental freedoms, progress, solidarity, peace and security, the fulfillment of which are essential in order to achieve the MDG's. The key role that young people and youth organizations play in this process was emphasized.
The Main Goals:
- To create a political space where youth can act upon and acknowledge the role they play in Global Development.
- To initiate and encourage debate aimed at defining the role youth play in elaborating development policies and in co-operation for development initiatives.
- To facilitate a process aimed at defining and implementing projects within the field of youth.
The target group were representatives of youth organisations and youth movements from all over
the world, they were participating in 13 parallel trainings and/or meetings with an overarching joint programme.
The Joint Programme facilitation team, where I was working as one of the facilitators/trainers, was composed of the general facilitator coming from Uruguay, myself as general co-facilitator from Slovenia, and two trainers specialised in the methodology of the Theatre of the Oppressed, one from Portugal and another from Italy.
We were faciliating all the joint programme moments which varied from the type of skills required. We organised an intercultural getting to know each other evening taking in consideration the global natire of our participants and we executed all the programme in 3 languages (English, Spanish and French), we organised a creative bazaar where the participants could learn from each others organisational experiences, we facilitated and moderated several plenary round tables and presentations, we also organised content/training sessions on global solidarity and volunteering and we were coordinating support groups such as the band of the university and the media team.
Everything was planned and executed in a non-formal education setting always making sure that we tried to cover the needs of the participants. We used Theatre of the Oppressed methodologies (Image Theatre), we used creative expression activities and many other.
All the outcomes are captured in detail on the Universities community website:
http://www.uyd.me/
Each of the 13 individual activities of the University has its own specific outcomes, but for the Joint Programme, the main task is to be the bridge between and among all the activities and all the participants and to create a sense of community and I believe we managed to achieve this.
Role of the Joint Programme Co-Facilitator:
· The Facilitation team was supported by the organisers, in particular by the Programme Manager for Youth Cooperation of the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, to ensure that the Programme is run according to the UYD objectives and the proposed content. So one needed to be open for constant coordination and collaboration. In particular that meant that I went to a meeting of all the partners of the University to coordinate their needs and present the proposals for the Joint Programme.
· The Joint facilitation team was responsible for the preparation and implementation of the Joint Programme of the UYD facilitating the inputs by partners and participants. I took over the task to coordinate every day with all the partners all their inputs into the Joint Programme.
· Plan and facilitate the smooth implementation of the activities for the participants in the UYD. I was leading several session and contributed extensively in the planning process and preparation phase of all the Joint Programme.
· Assist in leading the team of facilitators of the Joint Programme. I was supporting the main facilitator by helping with the organisation of the preparatory process and coordination of the teams work.
· Coordinate all the logistics with the logistics team for the Joint Programme activities. I assisted in the communication and coordination with the partner's activities.
· Work with the organising partners of the UYD and other staff supporting the Joint Programme.