TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Stefano Dal Farra
"Empower Yourself!" aimed to empower 18 young people from two different European countries
in order to discover their full potential in terms of entrepreneurship by exchanging ideas, clarifying
information and learning how they can become more active and productive members of their
communities, conveying a clear message of empowerment and self-entrepreneurship, and giving
some useful instruments and tools that could be used by these young people to establish
their own business.
The objectives of our project are:
- To raise awareness among young people from two different European countries about the importance
of young entrepreneurs and their role in the shaping the future of European society;
- To give youngsters coming from rural areas proper motivation, information and space in order
to exchange ideas, thoughts and strategies that may lead them to become more responsible
citizens, driving changes in their local communities;
- To highlight the fact that there is not enough action in this field at both national and European
level and therefore encourage youngsters to think about suggestions for positive change;
- To create concrete business start-up plans through team work of the young participants, in a
multicultural environment, through the use of non-formal education methods;
- To give young people concrete and practical tools and instruments to be used in order to establish
their own activity and business in their own area, teaching them how to exploit the resources
that their territory offers to them, and make the most of out of them.
The project had in total 18 participants coming from 2 different countries: Italy and Slovenia.
Each delegation was composed by 9 people: 8 participants and 1 group leader.
All the project was based on non formal education and was conducted using an interactive
and participative approach. Active group/team work, role-plays, study visits, discussions, as well
as theoretical inputs characterized the program of the youth exchange in order to cover all
aspects of the project themes. Special attention was paid to the fact that the competences
and the knowledge gained and transmitted during the project remained sustainable and transferable.
The results of the project were three different project of youth entrepreneurship about some local sites of Feltre, based on how to attract young people. At the end of the project
participants, thanks to the new skills and competencies acquired in a non-formal education context, had knowledge on current challenges of self empowerment and had strong motivation
and confidence to take actions to address these challenges. Moreover they were more conscious
of their role as social changer, playing an important role at local levels.
I was the main trainer of the entire course. My tasks were that of organizing and designing the entire course, from the activities to the outcomes.