TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Mahmoud ElSayed
The training “Cultivating Change: Powering Youth Work for Inclusion and Respect” aimed to strengthen the professional capacity of youth workers to design, facilitate, and sustain inclusive youth work practices in increasingly diverse and polarised social contexts.
At its core, the training sought to:
Equip participants with practical, transferable non-formal education tools for inclusion, empathy-building, and conflict management.
Deepen participants’ understanding of discrimination, marginalisation, and power dynamics, particularly affecting migrants, refugees, NEET youth, and young people with fewer opportunities.
Foster attitudinal change by challenging stereotypes, unconscious bias, and exclusionary practices through experiential learning.
Strengthen facilitation competences to create safe spaces, manage sensitive topics, and handle group conflict constructively.
Encourage youth workers to translate learning into action, by designing inclusive projects and follow-up initiatives within their organisations and local communities.
The activity flow intentionally combined self-awareness, critical reflection, skill-building, and action-oriented design, ensuring that learning outcomes moved beyond theory into professional practice.
This approach reflects established definitions of quality youth work, which emphasise empowerment, participation, and social inclusion rather than information transfer alone.
The training addressed several interconnected needs identified at both individual and organisational levels:
1. Professional needs of youth workers
Many participants work directly with young people facing:
- Cultural and religious discrimination
- Social exclusion and marginalisation
- Limited access to opportunities and civic participation
However, youth workers often report insufficient training in:
- Managing sensitive or polarising discussions
- Addressing prejudice and conflict constructively
- Facilitating inclusive group dynamics
The training responded by providing tested non-formal methods (e.g. Take a Step Forward, Utopia Rules, Janine’s Dilemma, Island of Umtiti, Sleepyville) that can be immediately reused and adapted in real youth work settings.
This aligns with the Council of Europe’s emphasis on strengthening educators’ competences to address diversity and discrimination through experiential learning.
2. Societal and community needs
Across Europe, youth workers operate in environments shaped by:
- Rising intolerance, polarisation, and misinformation
- Increasing cultural and religious diversity
- Reduced trust in democratic institutions and social cohesion
- The training directly addressed these realities by:
- Strengthening human rights literacy and democratic awareness
- Promoting intercultural dialogue and empathy
- Supporting youth workers in becoming multipliers of inclusion and European values
These needs are clearly identified in Erasmus+ priorities on Inclusion and Diversity, which call for capacity-building among those working closest to young people.
3. Learning recognition and professional development needs
Youth workers often lack formal recognition for competences gained through practice. The strong focus on:
1. Youthpass
2. Reflection
3. Learning-to-learn
4. Personal and professional growth
5. responded to the need for structured recognition of non-formal learning, in line with the Youthpass framework.
6. Contribution to organisational development
By focusing on:
- Tool creation (campaigns, guides, simulations)
- Peer learning and exchange of practices
- Network-building across six countries
the training reinforced organisations’ ability to:
- Develop future Erasmus+ projects
- Implement local follow-up actions
- Sustain international cooperation
Such outcomes correspond with Erasmus+ objectives related to capacity building, innovation, and sustainability in youth organisations.
The activity targeted youth workers, youth leaders, educators, and NGO staff who are actively involved in youth work and educational practices at local, national, or international levels.
Target group profile
Participants were:
- Aged between 23 and 45 years
- Actively working in youth work, education, mentoring, or community-based organisations
- Engaged with young people from diverse and often marginalised backgrounds, including migrants, refugees, NEET youth, and young people with fewer opportunities
- Motivated to improve their competences in inclusive youth work, intercultural dialogue, conflict management, and anti-discrimination practices
A key requirement was not a formal title, but a values-based attitude: participants were expected to demonstrate openness, respect for diversity, willingness to reflect on personal attitudes, and readiness to share experiences in a safe learning environment. Gender balance was not a selection criterion, while English at intermediate level or higher was required to ensure meaningful participation in all sessions.
Participants also committed to transferring the learning outcomes into their daily professional practice, applying the acquired tools and methods within their organisations and local communities after the training.
International scope and countries involved
The training brought together 30 participants from six European countries:
- Portugal
- Poland
- Sweden
- Latvia
- Ukraine
- Lithuania
Each partner country was represented by five participants, ensuring balanced geographical and cultural representation. This diversity created a rich learning environment where participants could:
1. Exchange national and local practices in youth work
2. Compare challenges related to inclusion, discrimination, and marginalisation across different contexts
3. Develop intercultural competences through daily cooperation, reflection, and non-formal learning activities
The international composition of the group was not incidental but central to the learning process, reinforcing intercultural dialogue, European cooperation, and mutual understanding — core principles of Erasmus+ youth work.
The training was designed and delivered entirely using non-formal education (NFE) methodologies, grounded in experiential learning, participation, reflection, and peer exchange. The methods aimed to engage participants cognitively, emotionally, and socially, while directly linking learning to their professional practice as youth workers.
Experiential and participatory methods
A strong emphasis was placed on learning by doing. Participants were regularly involved in simulations, games, and role-play activities that allowed them to experience social dynamics such as exclusion, power imbalance, discrimination, and cooperation.
Examples include:
“Take a Step Forward” (Privilege Walk), where participants physically experienced inequality and reflected on structural advantages and barriers.
“The Island of Umtiti”, a cooperative simulation addressing inclusion, communication barriers, and accessibility.
Parliament and community simulations, such as Utopia Rules and Campaign & Guide – All Different, All Equal, where participants negotiated values, laws, and social norms.
Role-play, case studies, and moral dilemmas
To deepen understanding of inclusion, human rights, and ethical decision-making, the training used scenario-based learning and moral dilemma exercises.
Examples include:
Janine’s Dilemmas and Sonia’s Choice, which challenged participants to analyse real-life ethical conflicts related to discrimination, work, and social responsibility.
“A Mosque in Sleepyville”, exploring freedom of religion, cultural diversity, and democratic decision-making.
“Can I Come In?”, focusing on migration, belonging, and access to rights.
These activities encouraged critical thinking, empathy, and perspective-taking.
Reflection and learning circles
Structured reflection was integrated throughout the programme to support learning awareness and self-assessment, in line with Youthpass principles.
Examples include:
Daily reflection circles at the end of each day.
Line of Truth and Corners of Truth, allowing participants to position themselves physically according to their opinions and revise them through dialogue.
Guided reflection sessions linked to Youthpass key competences, helping participants articulate learning outcomes.
Cooperative and creative methods
Creative expression and collective intelligence were used to foster engagement and ownership of learning.
Examples include:
Image Theatre, where participants created freeze-frame scenes representing social problems and solutions related to democracy and inclusion.
World Café on Active Citizenship, enabling large-group dialogue through rotating thematic discussions.
Creative campaign design, where participants developed awareness campaigns promoting equality and inclusion.
Intercultural and peer-learning approaches
The training strongly relied on peer learning and intercultural exchange as core NFE methods.
Examples include:
Intercultural evenings, led by participants, combining storytelling, quizzes, food, and cultural narratives.
Secret Friend, encouraging daily informal interaction, observation, and empathy-building.
Peer group education workshops, where participants shared tools from their own professional contexts.
Gamification and energisers
Short games and energisers were used to maintain energy, inclusion, and group cohesion.
Examples include:
TOP 10 non-formal game, used as daily warm-ups to stimulate discussion and teamwork.
Team challenges and cooperative games such as Catch Me If You Can and Social Detectives, combining movement, strategy, and reflection.
Trainer’s facilitation approach
The trainer acted as a facilitator rather than lecturer, ensuring:
Safe spaces for sharing
Voluntary participation
Respect for different learning styles
Continuous adaptation to group dynamics
Learning emerged through interaction, experience, reflection, and transfer, fulfilling the core criteria of non-formal education.
The training successfully strengthened the competences of youth workers in inclusive youth work, intercultural dialogue, and social engagement. Participants gained practical tools, strategies, and methods to work with marginalised and underrepresented groups, including migrants, refugees, NEET youth, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Specifically, the training achieved the following:
Enhanced practical skills: Participants developed, tested, and shared non-formal activities, games, and simulations for inclusion, conflict resolution, and empathy building.
Increased intercultural awareness: Through intercultural evenings, discussions, and simulations, participants reflected on stereotypes, cultural norms, and European values.
Empowerment for civic engagement: Participants practiced activism, campaign design, and advocacy skills, linking learning directly to active citizenship.
Peer learning and network building: Youth workers from six countries shared experiences, creating a sustainable European network for future collaboration.
Application to practice: Participants committed to integrating learned methods into their local youth work, ensuring long-term impact.
Evidence of Success
The success of the training can be observed through:
Participant engagement and feedback: Daily reflections, evaluation exercises, and Youthpass assessments indicated high levels of learning, satisfaction, and personal growth.
Creative outputs: Participants co-created campaigns, Utopia rules, Image Theatre scenarios, and videos that demonstrate the acquisition of practical skills.
Peer recognition: Participants actively facilitated activities, collaborated effectively, and gave constructive feedback to peers, showing confidence in applying new methods.
Sustained follow-up intentions: Many participants planned local workshops and initiatives in their countries, demonstrating transfer of learning to real-life youth work.
I was the sole trainer for the training course and the main responsible for the design, preparation, and delivery of all content and activities. I facilitated every session, guided non-formal learning exercises, led reflection and debriefing moments, and ensured that learning outcomes were achieved for all participants. I also managed the flow of the programme, adapted activities to participants’ needs, and provided ongoing support for applying the methods in their daily youth work.