TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Stéphanie Fritz
The main targets of the event were: 1) to give hands-on information about the ESC and Erasmus+ programmes and 2) to create possibilities for organizations to find new networks and cooperating partners for future international projects within the EU programmes Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps.
The activity was dedicated for two types of organizations. Firstly, for the organisations opening up to participants with disabilities and working to take further concrete steps. And second, for the organisations that are self-representing, working for and with young persons with disabilities or working with diverse groups of youth and are interested in creating inclusive projects with partners across borders. In total 29 participants from 17 different countries participated. Fortunately there were many self-representing organisations present (e.g. persons with hearing impairement, person with bi-polar disorder, wheelchair users)
National Agency Officers from Denmark, Hungary and Germany were present throughout the event. They were part of the organising team. I was part of the facilitating team together with 3 trainer-colleagues from Slovenia, Lithuania and Finnland.
We used a mix of different methods.
- Energizers/ activating methods to create a space where participants get to know each other
- Working groups of different size with group questions; presenting results in plenum
- Open Space (mocktail evening with contact making tasks)
- World Café (with questions to discuss and creative tasks)
- expert talking sessions (starting with moderated interview and open discussion afterwards)
- excursion with expert talks and reflecting tasks
- guided individual learning reflection
Important note: The event was planned as an inclusive and diversity-sensitive one from the beginning on, an accessible venue was booked, there was an option for international sign language interpretation (at the end there were two kinds of speech-to-text translations used), break areas were adapted wheelchair-friendly etc. There was a safe space for participants and two trust persons (male and female) were assigned. Apart from that, asking for the participants’ needs in advance was very helpful to set up an inclusive event regarding the structure of the programme and methods, the venue, the transport for excursion, breaks, interpretation, as well as creating a safe, diversity friendly atmosphere.
Self-representing and self-advocating organisations, as well as welfare organisations offering activities to youth with disabilities, were able to connect and create projects together. In total 8 projects were concretized in the field of youth exchange and youth workers mobility as well as small scale strategic partnerships (Erasmus + KA1 and KA2). Two of the projects aim at organising inclusive ESC volunteering projects as a middle-term perspective. Participants committed themselves and agreed on concrete further steps for cooperating after the event. Furthermore some contacts were established for possible future cooperation in the ESC - program.
Official Evaluation has been done through SPI Survey. Additionally, the Mentimeter evaluation showed a high satisfaction of the participants: 19 (out of 22 Mentimeter participants) were sure to have found new cooperation partners and were highly motivated to continue with making their project ideas ready for application.
A final report was created for the organisers.
I was an equal member of a 4 headed facilitating trainers team. Our tasks were:
*Designing the event, its sessions and implementing them in cooperation with the organisers/prep team and guest organisations;
*Keeping contact with other team members till the end of the project concerning the content;
*Taking part in online preparatory meetings and at the conference venue itself in June and the whole preparatory process;
*Especially taking into consideration the needs of participants (in an inclusive/ diversity-orientated manner);
* Developing the daily programme and finalizing the call for the participants;
* Providing the detailed outline of the event in a written format to the organisers;
* Facilitating the activity in November;
* Working on the evaluation;
* Creating the final report of the project
Stéphanie was a perfect trainer for this event. In the preparation phase she was always easy to get in contact with and she and the other trainers had so many great insights and ideas for the event. Her performance at the event was very professional and her personal appearance towards all participants was enthusiastic, empathic, loving and warm. She is very easy to work with, a likeable person and a professional and engaged trainer who I will gladly recommend for other trainers' jobs - especially within the inclusion and diversity field.