TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Gvantsa Mezvrishvili
The project aims to strengthen the capacity of youth workers to support young people's wellbeing, emotional resilience, and self-awareness. It seeks to provide practical, wellbeing-oriented tools and conscious facilitation approaches that enable youth workers to guide personal growth while managing their own energy and emotional balance effectively.
The training addresses the increasing challenges young people face today, including stress, pressure, and emotional disconnection. It also tackles the need for youth workers themselves to improve their own self-awareness, emotional management, and reflection practices so they can create safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environments.
The activity equips partner organizations with practical methodologies—such as embodiment, mindfulness, coaching, and body awareness—that can be directly integrated into daily youth work, youth exchanges, youth centers, schools, and community initiatives. Additionally, it supports partner organizations and community members in fostering civic engagement and social cohesion.
Target Group
Participant Profile: The activity targeted youth workers (responsible for youth programs), NGO administrative staff and volunteers, young people aged 18–30 who directly benefit from NGO initiatives, as well as educators, trainers, facilitators, and community members looking to foster civic engagement and social cohesion.
Group Characteristics: Participants needed to be willing to stretch their comfort zone, spend 9 days with 25 other participants, actively engage in all activities, and share ideas.
International Composition
The training course involved a total of 8 partner countries across Europe and the Partnership/Neighboring regions:
Latvia (Applicant country), Germany, Georgia, Spain, Albania, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania
The "Behind the Wheel" project relied entirely on non-formal learning methodologies designed to foster experiential learning, self-discovery, and active group participation.
- Mindfulness & Embodiment Practices: Guided body awareness, movement exercises, and mindfulness techniques used to help youth workers connect with their physical state, improve emotional regulation, and manage energy levels.
- Coaching & Self-Reflection: Interactive coaching frameworks, targeted journaling, and daily reflection sessions (both individual and small-group) to deepen self-awareness and process daily learnings.
- Simulations & Practice Exercises: Practical, hands-on simulation activities where participants tested conscious facilitation approaches and applied new tools in a safe peer-learning environment.
- Interactive Communication & Group Work: Non-formal communication exercises and group facilitation challenges focused on building safe, inclusive environments, strengthening active listening, and supporting group dynamics.
Achievements of the Activity
- Enhanced Professional Competencies: Youth workers acquired practical non-formal education tools—including mindfulness, embodiment, coaching, and reflective journaling—to manage group dynamics and foster safe learning environments.
- Personal Growth & Resilience: Participants developed self-awareness, emotional management skills, and stress-reduction techniques to maintain personal energy while leading youth initiatives.
- Transferable Toolkits: Participants built action-oriented methods to integrate directly into local youth centers, schools, community programs, and future international youth exchanges.
- Cross-Border Networks: Stronger collaborative ties and future project partnerships were established among the 8 participating partner organizations.
Evaluating Success
- Active Participation & Engagement: High levels of peer interaction, active participation in daily simulations, and sustained engagement throughout the full 9-day program.
- Reflective Feedback & Evaluation: Quantitative and qualitative feedback gathered during daily reflection groups and final evaluation sessions, demonstrating increased self-awareness and confidence in facilitation skills.
- Practical Tool Application: Successful design and execution of practical facilitation exercises by participants during the practice components of the training.
- Youthpass Self-Assessment: Participants' successful identification and articulation of key competence developments through the Erasmus+ Youthpass process.
As one of the main full-time trainers for the entire 7-day program, you were responsible for the conceptual design, facilitation, and educational quality of the training course:
- Curriculum & Session Design: Co-developed and structured the 7-day non-formal learning program, integrating methodologies such as embodiment, mindfulness, coaching frameworks, journaling, and group reflections.
- Full-Time Facilitation: Led daily interactive workshops, simulations, and practice sessions to strengthen youth workers' capacities in emotional resilience, facilitation, and youth wellbeing.
- Group Process & Dynamics Management: Fostered a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment for 26 participants from 8 countries, actively guiding group dynamics and managing intercultural dialogue.
- Mentorship & Practicum Supervision: Facilitated daily reflection groups, provided one-on-one coaching, and supported participants during their hands-on practice components.
- Evaluation & Impact Assessment: Co-directed daily debriefings with the team, monitored learning outcomes, and supported participants through the Youthpass self-assessment process.