TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Robbie Stakelum
The 3rd European Youth Work Convention brought together over a thousand professionals from across Europe to co-develop a European Youth Work Agenda. The convention provided spaces, workshops & exchanges for participants to share their expertise and perspectives on youth work with a view to strengthening youth work in Europe in the coming years.
Spread over four days and hosted in an online environment participants joined thematic workshops, plenary, workshops based on their stakeholder group and the countries they represented.
They outcome for the week was a political agenda that comprised the key exchanges from the workshops.
The participants came from across Europe. Total participants numbered over 1000. The workshops I was responsible for running had up to 30 participants, online.
Participants ranged from working for youth councils, youth centres, the European Commission, Council of Europe and national agencies and came from countries across the Council of Europe's jurisdiction.
I was in a team with one other person, who was assigned as the Rapporteur, who based in Greece.
My training was all online, these methods are tailored to the virtual space.
Starting off each workshop, I asked participants to write into the chat box and tell us what city and country the were joining us from.
Then I used Mentimeter as a way to introduce the topic. With a range of slides depending on the specific workshop I used Mentimeter to:
- create a word cloud based on the professions the participants represented or their organisations, to give everyone a feel of who was on the call
- prioritise and select topics for breakout groups
- share key words & lessons learned from the session
BlueJeans:
Using Bluejeans software I broke participants into breakout sessions. Having used Mentimeter to select priority tasks and actions, I broke out the group tailored on the topic they wished to deep dive into.
Google Docs:
In workshops I used Google Docs to share a participant version of the outline of the workshop. Particularly for those who don't regularly work in English this was important to make sure everyone had clear understanding of the workshop process. This document also included questions and prompts for breakout groups.
Padlet:
Using padlet participants from each of the breakout groups could share their notes with other participants, the rapporteur and I. This was a helpful tool to build to capture the key learning.
As I was leading on a series of workshops throughout the week the outcomes for each varied.
However for each workshop my participants:
- Understood the European Convention and the Bonn Process
- Shared their perspectives on the the Youth Works Agenda and how to improve their work
- Learned from colleagues from across Europe
- Depending on the workshop, there was 2-3 key takeaways the rapporteur would bring back to the organisers to be fed into the Youth Work Agenda.
I was the facilitator for my assigned workshops. Which included:
- Hosting an informal virtual drinks reception aimed at getting some of the participants to know one another.
- Workshop devoted to the Thematic Strand 1 of the Youth Work Agenda
- Workshop specifically for the National Agencies to share their perspectives on the entire Youth Work Agenda
- 2 Workshops with experts from the German Government and European Commission to focus specifically on the intersection of the Youth Work Agenda and the European Youth Strategy.
For each workshop I developed a session outline, detailing key outcomes, learning and objectives. I shared this with other facilitators who I worked with to brainstorm interesting ways of creating dynamic and engaging participation online. These outlines also included a detailed breakdown of the technical needs and timing, to ensure the sessions flowed smoothly.
I liaised with my rapporteur to ensure that the session's followed the structure she would require for reporting, particularly noting any conclusions she needed and making sure that the session allowed participants time to reach and agree a set of conclusions by consent.
I worked with the organisers of the event to ensure that the workshops I was responsible for met their quality expectations and followed their vision for the conference.
I was also responsible for running and facilitating all the workshops which included opening the call, creating small talk as we waiting for participants to join the call, explain the technical capacity, share my previously prepared links for padlet or mentimeter, share the google docs with questions and prompts for breakout rooms, create the breakout rooms, move between the breakout rooms and capture they key learning from the participants before I wrapped up each workshop.
As part of the preparation and evaluation, I also participated in a series of calls with the organisers in the lead up to the training, during the convention and after to evaluate how the week went.
Robbie is a friendly, supportive, well prepared and organized team player. He has an eye for details and keeps a flexible mindset. It was a pleasure working with him in the 3rd European Youth Work Convention!