TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Sian Bagshaw
The aim of this study session is to increase the quality of non-formal education and human rights education in participating organizations, by raising awareness, sharing practices and increasing competencies of trainers, educators and youth workers for safe space development.
To gather trainers, educators, youth workers and other practitioners in non-formal learning and human rights education to discuss and have a shared understanding of safe space and related concepts in education;
To map existing practices to create and hold safe spaces in educational settings, sharing and valuing different experiences;
To challenge and improve the existing non-formal methods and examine their ability to ensure safe spaces;
To identify key indicators for safe, respectful, and equal space in the group learning settings and create guidelines and recommendations for practitioners and organizations;
To plan future actions and collaborations to further enhance safe spaces in participants' contexts.
The study session gathered 31 participants (including team members), who are
individuals coming from HREYN or WOSM, or outside our networks. This group was a mix
of youth workers, educators, facilitators, study session coordinators, organisational
decision makers, and others involved in educational activities in their organisations.
Therefore, most participants already had experience with non-formal education and
faced a challenge of creating safe learning environments. It should be noted that the
group had diverse backgrounds, as they came from 17 different countries and they also
had different levels of experience in this field.
Dialogue Circles
Where do you Stand?
Flower Power
Setting ground rules together
Explore personal and practitioner competencies matrix
Digital collaboration tools - Padlet etc.
Published Reader - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/664a66082b21fa42c6ad0682/t/664b5d063c3f6f31144d788f/1716215049439/READER.pdf
Published Glossary -https://static1.squarespace.com/static/664a66082b21fa42c6ad0682/t/664b5cdaca97bd635c716a22/1716215005842/GLOSSARY.pdf
The main outcomes of the study session are the increased levels of knowledge, skills and
attitutes when it comes to constructing a safe learning environment in non-formal
educational activities, especially in human rights education. As the participants of the
activity were mostly active practitioners, educators, youth workers and NGO workers, they
will pay particular attention to the phenomenon of “safe space” in their future practice
and, therefore, will enhance the quality of their work in HRE. This will also benefit the
organisations they work with, as they will act as multipliers and share their experience
with their colleagues.
As the co-designer of the entire study session, from conception all the way through to final delivery, i was involved in the content, participants selection, recruitment of the trainers teams and delivering content. Together with the team we designed the comprehensive agenda and proactively address changing needs or new topics as the participant journey unfolded.