TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Simona Muršec
The Danish EU Presidency Youth Conference with the title: “Creativity, Innovation and Talent – Young People’s Participation in Democratic Life in Europe” had the following general aim:
In the Council Resolution on a new framework for European cooperation in the youth field adopted in November 2009, the ministers responsible for youth agreed that “the structured dialogue with young people and youth organisations, which serves as a forum for continuous joint reflection on the priorities, implementation and follow-up of European cooperation in the youth field, should be pursued and developed”. According to the Council Resolution, the structured dialogue ’’should involve consultations with young people and youth organisations at all levels in the Member States, and at EU Youth Conferences organised by Presidency countries and during the European Youth Week’’.
The specific objectives for the Youth Conference are described as follows:
"the Team Presidency Poland-Denmark-Cyprus is now implementing the second cycle of structured dialogue. The overall thematic priority of the second cycle is youth participation. The first phase of consultations during the Polish Presidency resulted in a set of joint recommendations adopted at the EU Youth Conference in Warsaw. The main join recommendations were integrated in the Council Conclusions on the Eastern Dimension of Youth Mobility. We are now in the second phase of consultations of the second cycle of structured dialogue that focuses on young people’s creativity and innovation as a tool to increased youth participation and employability. The Danish EU Youth Conference in Sorø is expected to result in joint recommendations that will be integrated in the May Council Conclusions. The EU Youth Conference in Sorø is also the moment when the guiding questions for the third phase of consultations will be announced."
The EU Presidency Youth Conferences are facilitated by 9 facilitators, which constitute the European Support Structure of Facilitators, recruited at the beginning of every Trio-Presidency Cycle. I am one of these 9 facilitators already for the second cycle. My colleagues come from Serbia, Portugal, Lithuania, Sweden, Czech Republic, Romania and Turkey. We are all equal in the team and we coordinate ourselves and prepare the whole structure of the conference workshops and programme for youth delegates together with the Presidency team.
The participants are about 120 Youth Delegates coming from all over Europe and Representatives of national ministries responsible for Youth.
We use participatory methods based on non-formal education methodology. Each of the programme elements require different methodology and facilitator support. In some cases of the programme, like the opening sessions and sessions with youth delegates, we planned and implemented getting to know each other activities for about 120 youth delegates as well as introductory input sessions with youth delegates active participation (question-led discussions in smaller groups facilitated by facilitators).
The main work are the thematic workshops, where each one of the facilitators gets a group of appx. 30 participants (youth delegates as well as representatives of national ministries) and conducts a thematic workshop, with the help of participatory and interactive methods, in order to reach a consensus on few political recommendations. In the thematic workshops we use methods like World Cafe discussions, short expert inputs on the topic, QandA sessions, small group work, consensus building activities, sharing of best practice examples and intercultural dialogue as a principle of communication.
Each Workshop produces a set of recommendations which are later incorporated into the EU Council of Ministers Conclusions and/or The Presidency Communication at the Council of Ministers meeting (one such meeting takes place every 6 months and the Youth Ministers take decisions at the highest level on Youth Policy across EU). So the outcomes are a tool for young people to get their voices heard in Youth Policy processes at the highest level. There is a video presentation of the Conference as well as policy outcome document.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_ts0H8Q14E
Recommendations:
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/news/20120323_outcome_soroe_en.htm
I was facilitating one of 7 parallel thematic workshops, the topic of my workshop was Motivation for Participation - Motivating Participation in Organisations
The content and objectives of the workshop were described as following:
"It is of the utmost importance that young people show interest in and take an active part in civil society through youth organisations as they are a good starting point to gain influence and make decisions. When young people enter youth organisations they learn not only to think independently, but they also get motivated to take action." The questions addressed through the workshop were: "Which initiatives could foster youth participation in organisations and hence in civil society? Which concrete actions are needed to engage non-organised youth in organisations? How can we increase young people’s awareness of the advantages of being active in volunteer work? Which relevant stakeholders can help encourage young people to participate in youth organisations?"
I prepared the whole methodology of the workshop and facilitated it.