TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Kamran Mammadov
The primary objective of the project is to give vulnerable young people an opportunity to overcome certain cultural and social barriers through active participation, social and cultural interaction, education and training. The activities will serve a platform on which the participants will be offered an opportunity to develop new skills in self-discovery and discovery of new things about generally familiar subjects, skills of personal interaction and ability to be tolerant in multinational environment.
The objectives of the project are:
- to stimulate reflection on essential characteristics of European society, its values (rights and obligations of its citizens) and compare them with those existing in neighboring partner countries;
- to come to understanding of the notion of the European citizenship and active role of the citizens in their local communities as one of the main features of a citizen via sharing their own experiences and knowledge.
The specific aims of the project are:
- creating an environment for inter-action of the participants;
- providing a safe and supportive environment for self-expression of each and every participant and their sharing of ideas, skills, and information in the course of non-formal in-door and out-door activities;
- creating an environment of respect to cultural diversity;
The specific objectives, aims and content of the project have been defined considering the age of the participants and the urgency and practical interest to these issues among young people engaged in partner youth organizations from Azerbaijan, Denmark, Georgia, Great Britain, Ukraine, with the interest being expresses by the young people in preliminary discussion in these organizations. The topic has become of special importance as the European Union builds up and develops. The non-formal methods included methods aimed at fostering the participants’ personal and social development.
The project was extensive discussed during the seminar with the main idea and ouline of the project being presented at one of the workshops of the seminar.
Activities held in the form of ice-breakers, energizers, workshops, games (role playing, simulation), sports (out-door and in-door games), entertainment and tours.
METHODS
- general concept and target outcome (final summarizing activity);
- detailed day-by-day activities (including cultural programme);
- methods to be used;
- responsibilities of the participants;
- certain rules for the participants (considering local traditions);
- security measures; medical issues;
- various logistics issues (travel, etc.);
- accommodation;
- communication arrangements before the start of the project.
WORKING METHODS
During the entire project there will be diverse modern non-formal methods and techniques used to achieve the main objectives. Although resources of group leaders will be used to provide for the project activities, some activities of the project will require facilitation of an expert.
The proposed activities and workshops will be aimed at: creating an atmosphere of openness and trust among the participants, build teams, overcome certain psychological barriers, eliminate youth bulling creating equal opportunities for everyone to express oneself in direct or in creative way, release artistic and creative potential of the participants, provide the discussion of European values and notion of European citizenship.
The workshops offered had been used some techniques of games, arts and theater that helped in creating a platform for discussing the topic of the project.
The participants of each group given assignment to get prepared for discussion of the topic announced, read about the counties participating in the project, and prepare creative presentation of their country for intercultural evening, which is always one of the activities at the youth exchanges.
The outcomes of the project on young participants as expected effect:
- their personal and social skills;
- their awareness about themselves, their own strengths and weaknesses;
- their understanding of the European values and citizenship and their won countries prospective in international/European context;
- their awareness of themselves as active agents in the life of their communities;
- their circle of friends;
- their knowledge about other cultures; and their intercultural communication skills;
- their level of English,
- their attitude to non-formal education;
- their understanding of issues and challenges common to them as well to the young people form other countries.
The measures foreseen to attain this impact:
Non-formal education activities, interactive and youth-centered session involving the young people in reflection, discussion, decision-making, methods based on exchange of experience, competence, skills and knowledge, plan developing processes, and on-site visit tours.
The non-formal activities are organized by group leaders, and during the training activities requiring special education was leaded by me as a trainer.
We leaders of the groups discussed the course of the project at their regular meetings to be able to respond to the critical situations (if any) or resolve issues that might have arisen