TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Ioana Filipas
Photography has proved to have a beneficial impact on youth work, as studies and experience showed, empowering young people to express themselves and engage with decision-makers. Our project helped equip youth workers with the competences necessary for bringing photography and Photo Voice into their daily practice with young people, as well as to help them gain the know-how to engage young people in decision-making processes.
The objectives of this project were:
- by the end of the 7-day training course, our 24 participants from 8 countries would have:
● develop technical skills and knowledge about photography and visual storytelling needed to facilitate photography workshops at a basic level;
● have an extended understanding of the Photo Voice methodology and its use in youth work and youth participation;
● learn how to promote and support youth engagement, youth advocacy, and youth participation through photography methods & Photo Voice;
● come up with an action plan for implementing Photo Voice in their youth work, designing a project using Photo Voice that will be implemented in the upcoming 6 months after the TC.
24 workers from 8 countries (RO, HR, TR, DE, ES, LT, PL, MK) were part of this training course.
The profile of the youth worker in this training was:
- actively involved in the organisation (on a constant basis and not just project-based);
- working with people with fewer opportunities (which is already the case for all of us, since we all work with rural youth and otherwise marginalised youth);
- experienced in non-formal education (in case of the teachers, this is not relevant);
- proficient in English, so they can keep up with the content of this training course and not slow down the process;
- with little to no skills and knowledge in photography, so that this training course is as beneficial as possible to them;
- with no experience working with Photo Voice (this is already valid for everyone in the NGOs of our partners);
- adaptive and curious, as well as open to teamwork;
- with a good relationship with young people - youth workers in our project should have direct and good connections to young people in our target groups (this is the case for most of our volunteers and staff, except for the administrative staff);
- with a willingness to constantly develop, to engage in youth participation activities, and to improve themselves professionally (these will be assessed through the selection process);
- with a commitment to follow-up on this training course by peer sharing and by conducting local initiatives.
Photography, Photo Voice, visual storytelling, drawing, collective drawing, case studies, poetry, puzzles, treasure hunt, graphic facilitation, storyboards, debate, building blocks, World Cafe
The group collectively coordinated the creation of several Photo Voice projects in their own communities. These will soon be published online and disseminated to decision-makers at a local level, as well as on the social media channels of the NGOs.
I coordinated the project from scratch and I was also the main trainer. My responsibilities were to:
- provide technical and creative knowledge and know-how and facilitate the learning of the basics of photography for our
participants;
- introduce participants to the Photo Voice methodology, explaining its history / origins, the aim and usage of it, and how it
can be used to engage and empower youth participation;
- presenting information and encouraging dialogue regarding ethical aspects in documentary photography and Photo Voice;
- facilitating and encouraging individual and collective reflection, as well as feedback, and adapting the sessions according
to these;
- create space for knowledge-sharing, peer learning, and multicultural collaboration;
- facilitating, coaching, and empowering participants to create action plans to implement Photo Voice activities in their
communities;
- adapting the methodology, content session, and way of working to the group dynamics and the needs of the group.