TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Ilia Toshkin
As a part of a training course dedicated to the ecological empowerment of young people, the activity we proposed was aimed at outlining the collective attitude of contemporary society towards the environment. It addressed the needs of young people to assess their own inner perception of the environment as a main factor of their life-world and it was in line with the objectives of the organization to support and promote European practices in the field of sustainable development and ecology.
The target group were young people aged 16 - 29 from the following countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.
The activity was based on archetypal psychology, role-play and intuitive clay modelling: It started with the identification of 3 different archetypal attitudes of humans towards the nature - the explorer, the exploiter and the ecophile. We discussed upon them and created a mindmap about them on the blackboard, then the participants divided themselves in small groups of three people and modelled intuitively gestalts of clay. The gestalts were personified by them and were gathered in a common systemic space to discuss the levels of interaction between them.
The participants learned a lot about their own attitude towards the nature and were able to experience themselves in a role they don't advocate for (the exploiter). They were able to put their understanding in a broader philosophical and theoretical framework and gained a more in-depth understanding about the topics and problems discussed in other activities during the training.
I was assigned the role of Group Dynamics Facilitation - I discussed with other team members their feedback and experience as trainers during the course of the training.
We do recommmend the trainer for the future work in Salto as highly motivated and productive youth leader and facilitator!