TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Margaux Richet
European societies have changed and are constantly changing– nearly all EU28 countries
and as well as our neighbours from SEE and EECA are becoming so-called immigration so-
cieties (“Einwanderungsgesellschaften”). These are difficult processes - in nearly all European
societies we are facing an ever-growing ground for racism, hate and nationalism – that’s why
we see these immigration societies as a “project” which cannot be “finalized”.
These new societies are not only characterized by the diversity and side-by-side of existing
cultures but are always producing new forms of living together, overcoming the binary thin-
king of e.g. “German/migrant”, “native/foreigner”, or “normal/not normal” etc. But these socie-
ties produce tensions and demand a high level of competence from educators and youth
workers – regardless of age, gender, origin etc., in dealing with these old and new differences.
In this regard, the main aim of the project is imparting knowledge on claims and causes of
diversity and non-formal education within European Youth Work. The main subject for all
planned elements is therefore the concept of diversity.
What is diversity? Where does the concept come from? What's behind it?
What are our own attitudes and values?
What are our own experiences and challenges with inclusion and diversity?
Which role does (European) Youth work play? What are the strengths and
weaknesses of our daily work with children & youth?
What are the challenges, gaps, opportunities and possible solutions of
social change?
The aims of the CME were:
-gathering all participating partner promoters and their responsible staff members in
order to get to know each other better
-provide a platform for gaining knowledge on the theme “diversity”
-exchange experiences in the field
-share expectations towards the project implementation
-discuss all project elements including the detailed planning of all following events and
taking decisions on further implementation
The participants were partner promoters and their responsible staff members. They were from Albania, BiH, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Sweden.
The team was composed of:
- for the coordination: Markus Rebitschek, Lohe Christian and Dorina Weißbach from EJBW (Germany) and Milica Milinkovic from EDIT Centre (Serbia)
- for the team: Kerem Atasever (Germany) and Margaux Richet (France/Germany)
Inclusive participation methods and non-formal education methods such as role plays, simulations energizers, positioning exercise with reflections and statements about "Diversity" , teamwork to reflect about group building processes and language games to overcome language barriers.
The participants of the CME in Novi Sad reflected on their own understanding of the concept of "Diversity" in their work and decided which topics shoud be deepened in the Training Course that will take place from the 28th of October to the 4th of November in Weimar, Germany.
As a full-time trainer I was responsible with my colleague Kerem Atasever of the implementation of the activities.