EUtopia – Cultural Diversity in a Changing Europe

Aims & objectives

AIM:
To support youth work practitioners to better understand the realities of young people in a changing Europe and to be more equipped to react upon them.

OBJECTIVES:
• To identify the relevant socio-political and cultural conditions that influence the lives of young people on local and European international level;
• to explore the contexts in which young people grow up today, and critically evaluate the current youth work responses to them;
• to understand reasoning and motivation behind young people’s views and attitudes, discover how opinions are formed and encourage critical thinking;
• to challenge/ radicalize the concept of diversity, exploring it based on a values-based, rather than from a normative policy perspective;
• to re-define the role of youth work practitioners in responding to socio-political and cultural conditions by applying values-based perspective of diversity;
• to discover opportunities to incorporate values- based approach to diversity within Erasmus+ activities and to support international cooperation among participants.

The training course consisted of a preparatory phase, 2 training courses, a personal project phase in between the two training courses.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

The training course was for 20 participants from the EU and Western Balkan countries.
The core team consisted of 2 international trainers, and two representatives from the NA and the SALTO SEE RC.

Training methods used & main activities

We used non-formal learning methods throughout both training courses and during the practice phase. We used mostly various types of knowledge pooling and discussion methods, to engage the participants in a common group learning process.

Outcomes of the activity

Participants explored the concept of diversity. They critically evaluated youth work practices that respond to current socio-political challenges, and explored ways to engage in a more diversity-related work in the future.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was one of the 2 trainers, responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating the training courses, as well as supporting participants in between the trainings.

I worked on this training for 8 days as a full time trainer.