TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Makbule Temel
The January Joint Meeting (JJM) is a regular, fixed event that happens twice a year in the Alliance network. The main goal of this 6-day meeting was to create a big working and networking space for the international network. It answered the practical need for international staff and active members from different partner organizations to have a physical place to work together on their ongoing projects, share the latest updates from the network, and discuss current topics. At the same time, it served as a networking space to bring new people, volunteers, and staff closer to the network, making the whole international cooperation stronger.
The target group consisted of around 30 participants, forming an international mix of people from different partner organizations within the Alliance network. It included experienced international youth workers and coordinators who are already active in existing teams and groups, but also young volunteers and new staff members who were completely new to the network. The participants came from various European and international partner countries worldwide. This mixture was ideal to let experienced workers push their projects forward while new people could easily connect, network, and find out how to get active in the international voluntary movement.
As the trainer and facilitator of this event, I designed and delivered the whole 6-day program using only non-formal education methods to keep it active and participant-centered. To balance the different experience levels within the group of 30 people, I used a simple "buddy system" and many connecting games that focused on storytelling to strengthen the common identity and sense of belonging. A main part of the methodology was highly visual work to make the complex Alliance structures visible. We used active group work where the participants did their own research to break down the existing structures, mapping out exactly who does what, which person from which organization holds which role, and what these roles actually mean. I also designed structured workspace sessions where the international teams could focus practically on their specific projects and event planning based on peer-to-peer exchange
The meeting brought great practical results for the international network. The different teams and working groups successfully used the space to heavily advance or finish their project tasks and materials, allowing them to share these updates within the network before the workcamp season started in March. For the newcomers and staff members, the event was a big success because the visual mapping and active research workshops made the complex international structures genuinely clear to them. Many of the 30 participants were motivated by the end of the meeting, felt a strong connection to the network's identity, and decided to actively join the Alliance teams for the future. The event and its schedule are documented in the official materials of the Alliance network platform (alliance-network.eu).
I worked full-time as the only trainer and facilitator responsible for the educational program during the 6 days of the event. The coordinator from the hosting organization ELIX took care of all the logistics and organizational support on site. My responsibility was entirely focused on the content, the flow of the topics, and the methodology. I designed the daily program from scratch and led all the plenary and working sessions alone on the floor. My tasks included guiding the group dynamics of the 30 participants, managing the buddy system, and supporting both the newcomers and the international teams during their practical working slots to make sure the meeting was a productive and helpful experience for everyone.