Common roots for a common ground phase one for TC

Aims & objectives

The aim was to :
• increase the knowledge of participants about
the sports and traditional games in 4 areas
of the 3 continents
• facilitate the sharing of experiences and
realities about sports and traditional games
• develop competences and pass on new
methods to help participants to develop
projects in the Youth in Action Program
focused on the topic of sports and traditional
games.
• present the perspective of traditional sports
and games as an intercultural learning tool
for international youth exchanges/youth
programs.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

youth workers residents in a Program country - EU (Belgium
- FL, France, Hungary, Malta, Spain, Poland,
Lithuania, Estonia), Mediterranean Countries
(Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Authority),
South Eastern Europe (Albania, Macedonia,
Serbia) and Eastern Europe and Caucasus
(Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine).

Training methods used & main activities

Cultural Diversity and Cultural Identity
Culture can be defined as “a series of values,
attitudes, beliefs and ways of behaviour that
a group of people hold in common.” Clearly the
concepts of cultural diversity and identity play
an important part in the discussion of the survival
possibilities of ancient games. It is striking
that the chances for a game to survive increase
in areas where the population is struggling to
keep their culture alive. This could be in an island
community or a community in a peripheral
area of rugged nature where the population
is dependent on a single industry for its existence.
In such areas, the drama of life is still
man's fight to rise above the forces of nature
through customs and traditions.
The struggle in other areas is the struggle
between different cultures, with one trying
to advance to the detriment of the other. This
could be, for example, between minorities
who feel their regional or sub-national identity
is being threatened by the larger nation state
of which they are part.
In such areas traditions are more than just museum
pieces of folklore, taken out and dusted
for the benefit of tourists or for the state
to show off on official visits. Here, the folklore
is strongly political and closely connected to
the struggle for survival as a whole people. Without
doubt, the number of regions where this
type of cultural struggle exists is growing. It is
in connection with such endeavours that traditional
sports and games are seen as objects
of identification in the sub-national creation of
an identity.
This undoubtedly plays an important role in
the survival of ancient games, as can be seen
in Scotland, Brittany, the Basque Country and
the Val d’Aoste. Presumably the reawakened
interest in ancient games present everywhere
is a symptom of the fact that Western Europe
increasingly

Outcomes of the activity

there were two very interesting
specificities to this LTTC that can facilitate
understanding of the outcomes. The first
was the topic “Traditional Sports and Games
- a tool for intercultural learning” that was
tackled for the first time in a SALTO TC and
that focused on the words traditional, sports,
games and learning; the second was the presence
of people from the four different regions
involved in the Youth in Action “EuroMed” Programme:
EU, MEDA, EEC, SEE, which greatly
enriched the experience.
The combination of these two factors, in addition
to the venue and a programme of activities
focused on involving participants in the
whole process, was very significant in creating
and developing partnerships on common
projects. One of the most “visible” outcomes
of this LTTC was the projects planned and/or
implemented by participants between the two
phases and those planned for the near future.
The list of projects is as follows: 6 youth projects
implemented: 4 youth exchanges, 1
networking activity (training course), 1 short
term European Voluntary Service, 3 youth projects
postponed to 2011, 1 youth project that
was refused for technical reasons, 2 others
that were cancelled and the creation of the international
organization NISE Aquitaine.
The second phase of the LTTC focused on
evaluating and producing. The evaluation process
represents a learning reference for the
future and showed the importance of educational
tools in our work and how we can
create, adapt and transfer them in our daily
work with youngsters.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

* Full time trainer for 7 days .
* Implement the assigned sessions , ice breaking and energizers.
* Arrange the needed preparations for all the sessions.
* Daily debrief and introduction.
* Reflecting groups with participants.
* Preparing the needed templates for the sessions.
* others.

I worked on this training for 7 days days as a full time trainer.