TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Bára Rodi
“Follow the Yellow Brick Road” was an experiential training course that aims to develop participants' skills for self-empowerment and ownership of their life, as well as foster their youth worker skills to support young people dealing with change.
IMS and OBJECTIVES of the course:
The course wants to bring the participants on a journey of the "yellow brick road" (the story of "The Wizard of Oz" creates a leading thread in our programme). We aim to provide participants with tools and inputs to help them to be more aware of themselves, their skills and their competences - and also how to empower young people they are working with to do the same. In particular, we would like to:
- To create a space for personal development, by exploring personal talents, aspirations and potential through a variety of non formal education and experiential tools;
- To explore and reflect on ‘change’ and ‘responsibility’, as ways to define and reach personal and professional objectives and live a more fulfilling life;
- To experience tools and methodologies that can be utilized to enable, empower and inspire young people through non-formal education and youth work;
-To create a social experience of community through sharing work and life spaces, domestic work and practical tasks related to the community life.
24 participants (Youth workers, Trainers, Youth leaders) from 12 EU countries: Italy, Portugal, Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Spain, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Hungary and Greece
• The team of trainers:
Bára Rodi (Czech Republic), Buzz Bury (UK), Mafalda Morganti (Italy) and Carmine Rodi Falanga (Italy).
“Follow the Yellow Brick Road” takes its name from the movie "The Wizard of Oz". We chose this name because it is perfectly related to the topic of challenge, change, journey and transformation and that's what the training course is going to be about. The programme involved theoretical inputs and practical workshops, discussions, group processes and individual work. A substantial part of the programme will take place outdoors in nature.
We used wide mix of non-formal educational methods and a combination of indoor and outdoor activities. There has been a strong focus on the model of the Hero's Journey as a method for self-development.
Blog post describing the training course by my colleague Carmine Rodi Falanga:
https://carminerodi.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/follow-the-yellow-brick-road-italy-2017/
Participants of the training gave very positive feedback already at the end of course, then again in the evaluation questionnaires and in their Youthpasses.
Dealing with change is considered a crucial competence with growing importance within European fast changing society. "Change" can be a new environment, a stay abroad or the change of living or working conditions for young people with different backgrounds. This new period of life comes with a lot of great moments as well as challenges. As a result of experiences on the training course, participants learnt to turn difficult situations into valuable opportunities for personal growth.
Full Time Trainer