TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Michael Scheuchenegger
Cooking Contacts objective is the creation of a strong network of European youth organizations working on inclusion, the creation of follow up projects coming from this event and the reinforcement of the concept of Europe as an added value for youth work.
Cooking Contacts was a contact making seminar organized by Haus der offenen Tür, German Open Youth Centre and partners from Austria, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Turkey and United Kingdom.
Team was
In this seminar we experienced that cooking can be a basic element in training courses and youthexchanges to generate good groupe and individual identity.
We generated several different methods within cooking as the main link between persons, nationalities, kultures and personal identity.
We have confirmed with youth in the local school, in vocational education and with ourselves the positive elements of food, cooking and a kitchen.
Remembering a dish, a cooking process, a dinner with friends brings all the emotions linked to it.
Partners came back to their organizations and shared the results of the project. Implementation of those results is already happening both in local and international level and people are aware of the concept Cooking Challenge.
The following was used in the event as the first summary of results that was shared:
Together as a team, during cooking contacts we have agreed on the different added values of cooking as a tool for youth work.
It’s also a very powerful intergenerational tool and links family, culture and values, opening the field for further work.
How the kitchen becomes a magic place where feedback is not only often given in a positive way, but accepted also when aiming for improvement, where experimentation and creativity are normal tools and teamwork, trust, planning and responsibility happen automatically.
On top of all those elements, we have seen how we can apply the cooking process as a starting point to tackle other important themes in youth work, as gender, inclusion, conflict, history and mathematics.
And the results of a cooking process also support the group in their time management, health and economy.
Plus eating is a basic need everybody needs to fulfill ☺
My role in this contact making seminar was to coordinate the team and impliment methods focused on the needs of young people with viewer opportunities.
Furthermore i was responsible to run a youthexchange in summer 2914 in Keskemet, Hungary!