TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Gabriel Brezoiu
This project has been designed to address one of the challenges that Europe is facing today: the COVID-19 global pandemic has affected individuals worldwide, on many different levels. As this crisis expands, youth workers need to be empowered to shape new forms of solidarity in their communities. In the post-COVID-19 context, youth organizations are lacking activities their members could work on to get actively involved in the society, to have a say in the community decisions and to interact with the policymakers. Young people and youth workers believe that youth-led initiatives and volunteering in youth structures are essential ways in which young people in their country can contribute actively to the ongoing policy discussions about how to “build back better” and influence decisions about health, learning, jobs, mobility, etc. in the post-COVID recovery. This would, on one hand, give them the opportunity to get first-hand experience and on the other make things happen in their community, showing they are ready and capable to contribute (consultation made by GEYC and UNICEF).
As both the digital field and sustainability have been great areas of interest and with plenty of room for improvement in the past years all over Europe and beyond, especially now in this post-pandemic period, the project aims to tackle parts of both of these aspects in order to create a symbiotic relationship meant to benefit each of them.
According to the Sustainable development in the European Union — Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context — 2021 edition publication, “The COVID-19 crisis has not only underlined the interconnectedness of the social, economic and environmental spheres but has also highlighted the importance of achieving the SDGs. The COVID-19 crisis demonstrated once again the importance of building a sustainable, resilient and fair Europe, and the SDGs can be regarded as a means to achieving this.”
The commitment to promoting digital initiatives for sustainability has been significantly remarked after conducting an extensive needs assessment among our community members and partners. Following the assessment, the main areas of interest of the involved parties proved to be related to four of the 17 SDG’s, respectively no.5 Gender Equality, no 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, no 13: Climate action and no 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions.
This initiative has four general objectives which will be accomplished by the end of the project:
O1: Raising awareness and know-how among youth workers on using digital tools to create more sustainable youth projects
O2: Exchanging of digital good practices in the field of sustainability in youth work
O3: Networking to foster cooperation between partners
O4: Acquiring know-how and exploring possibilities of using digital tools to enhance the achievement of the SDGs along
The seminar was designed for youth workers, youth leaders, volunteers with interests in digital tools and sustainability. In total, the project involved 50 experienced youth workers from 18 countries (France, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Armenia, North Macedonia, Polonia, Greece, Slovenia, Albania, Egypt,Tunisia, Estonia ,Lithuania, Portugal, Jordan). We wanted to impact as many organisations, youth workers and young people as possible, this is why 25 organizations took part in the Seminar. Each partner had a valuable role in developing the activity programme, as well as an important role in the dissemination of the activity. Each organization sent 2 youth workers who are working with digital tools to promote sustainability among young people and ensure it in youth projects.
The training course was based on the nonformal education including methods such as intercultural groups, ice-breakers, group exercises, intercultural nights, local visits, simulation games, case studies etc.
- A common Sustainability Policy for Youth NGOs
- A digital collection of good practices
- Putting into practice digital tools to enhance the achievement of the SDGs along by getting the participants to facilitate workshops connected to the SDGs.
My role was the one of a leading trainer, coordinating the pedagogical process and involving the other contributors, experts and facilitating the learning process during the activities led by the participants.