TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Maria Kopelyan
Objectives: 1. to establish good connections between the young people from participating countries; 2. to transfer the good practices in the field of youth work, cultural diversity and social inclusion; 3. to promote volunteering activities and for this to establish a network of organisations involved in volunteering of the young people in different NGOs around Eastern and Western Europe, Balkans, Caucasus and Mediterranean countries.
The participants needs are: tools and skills for the better addressed youth work, motivational skills, project management, fundraising, networking. These needs will be addressed by the project objectives: to establish good connections between the young people from participating countries; to transfer the good practices in the field of youth work, cultural diversity and social inclusion; to promote volunteering activities and for this to establish a network of organisations involved in volunteering.
The partners selected for this project are involved in different types of youth work with different target audiences. With all their diverse experience and the eagerness to share, they will bring to the project different competences and components of youth work. The only partner not directly involved into youth work is CRRC Armenia. They are doing important research work conducting cross-country survey – the Caucasus Barometer that is the single largest coordinated annual data gathering effort in the South Caucasus. It includes a wide range of questions on political, social and economic issues. The data is largely used while delivering methodological trainings, Research Methods conferences, round table discussions, interdisciplinary research fellowships and many other events that bring together social scientists and policy experts from all the SC countries and elsewhere. YIP Austria focuses their activities on young people with fewer opportunities, especially disabled people with the aim to promote “mainstream inclusion” in youth field and society in general. ELEMENT Bosnia promotes youth mobility, non-formal education, human rights, democratic active citizenship and European values, citizens’ activism and volunteerism, supports multi-ethical and multi-religious relations, LGBT activism. DRONI Georgia promotes modern, healthy, educated and perfect society implementing educational and youth development programs. The main topics of their work are: Human Rights Education and Gender Issues; Civil Education; Conflict Prevention and Peace-building; Active Citizenship; Youth Participation. SYSTEM&G Greece was formed to educate young people giving priority to youngsters with fewer opportunities. Skorpion FYROM has a main goal to raise awareness in the community about social protection for all citizens. Their target is young population and especially risk groups. SEF Israel is a social-educational enterprise designed to produce a generation of social leaders, motivated with sense of purpose when it comes to taking responsibility and social leadership. QAWAFFL Jordan aims to increase youth's participation in society. They support activities that help youth to develop and enhance their own potential. United for Knowledge Romania has a purpose to develop initiatives and projects dedicated to non-formal education of young people, supporting social inclusion and integration of adults or disadvantaged groups in the labour market. CIC Russia has a goal to provide ethnic minorities with informational, technical and organizational support and to help ethnic minority associations to protect their rights. The main topics they work with are: ethnic minorities, youth and tolerance, gender equality, democratic changes, opposing extremism among youth. USKAD Turkey works in the fields of human rights, democracy, minority rights, children rights, gender equality, economic and socio-cultural disadvantageous segments, environmental sustainability, fighting against obstacles faced by people with disabilities. Xchange Scotland UK has a main aim is to send volunteers on international volunteer projects around the world and to host volunteers from overseas on projects in Scotland. Globe Ukraine has an aim in developing youth initiatives, involvement of local youth, motivation to self-development, self-improvement. They work in the fields of democracy, tolerance, respect for human values, inter-cultural dialogue, support of youth of different risk groups, youth mobility for education.
The participants will come from different social, cultural and religious background. We will have representatives of Western Europe (Austria, Netherlands, UK), Eastern Europe (Romania, Russia, Ukraine), Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, FYROM), Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia), Mediterranean countries (Israel, Jordan, Turkey). Their target audiences vary from standard EVS volunteers, young leaders to disadvantaged youth, disabled youth, LGBT youngsters.
All the participants represent organisations that work with youth, so tools and skills for the better addressed youth work, motivational skills, project management, fundraising, networking definitely respond to their interests and needs. The working methods will be discussions, work in pairs, trios, small and big groups, interactive role-playing games, icebreakers, team-building, simulations etc. The participants will be given a chance to act as trainers/facilitators. The participants will learn a lot from each other, will absorb new methods of work with youth. Interactive games on team-building and leadership qualities together with sessions on project management, fundraising and presentation skills, will contribute to their process of non-formal learning and future activities. An opportunity to facilitate some of the sessions and to participate in the sessions facilitated by other participants will allow them to compare the work they do and the methods they use, learn new approaches, and will contribute to their self-esteem. Informal communications, cultural night and development of future joint projects will contribute to the participants' respect towards each other and help them to get rid of ethnic, cultural and social prejudice. The needs also addressed will include intercultural learning, cultural awareness, democracy and EU values, new tools and methods of non-formal education, new methods of social activism.
Each partner organisation will select two participants. The participants selected by the partner organisation will be most socially active representatives involved in youth work or team members responsible for volunteering projects. A special questionnaire will be prepared and send to all the partners for their participants to fill in. If there will be more applications from one organisation than needed, we will do the selection together with the partner organisation.
During this TC we plan to use such methods of non-formal education as discussions, work in small and big groups, interactive role-playing games, icebreakers, team-building, simulations, intercultural and other parties, energizers, daily evaluations etc. One day of the activity will give the participants a chance to act as trainers/facilitators. Informal communications and meetings with local NGOs, youth and student associations and authorities responsible for work with youth, meetings with local Mass-Media and a press-confernce will be included. We also plan a visit to two places of world culture heritage - Garni and Geghard. These monuments to different religions will help the participants to understand the Armenian culture better and to see the cultural and religious diversity.
According to the TC's Program, we have number of different activities planned that meet the objectives of the project. For establishing good connections between the young people from participating countries we plan team-building activities, getting to know each other, presentation of organisations, "Non-discrimination and understanding of diversity" session, sessions led by the participants, meetings with local NGOs, youth and student associations and representatives of authorities responsible for work with youth, intercultural evening, evening organized by the participants, Armenian evening in town. For transferring the good practices in the field of youth work, cultural diversity and social inclusion we plan introduction of organisations, discussion on different methods of youth work and volunteering, "Non-discrimination and understanding of diversity" session, intercultural night, sessions led by the participants, evening organized by the participants, movie night, "Studying cultural heritage", meetings with representatives of local NGOs, youth and student associations and local authorities responsible for work with youth, Armenian nigh. For promotion of volunteering activities and for the establishing a network of organisations involved in volunteering of the young people in different NGOs around Eastern and Western Europe, Balkans, Caucasus and Mediterranean countries we plan introduction of organisations, discussion on different methods of youth work and volunteering, "Promoting volunteering", intercultural night, sessions led by the participants, evening organized by the participants, project management session, "Presentation skills" session, simulations "Fundraising" and "Elevator Pitch", meetings with representatives of local NGOs, youth and student associations and local authorities responsible for work with youth, Erasmus Plus session, "EVS, short-term volunteering, internships. FAQ" session, "Joint projects for establishing of network for short-term volunteering", work on joint projects and press-conference.
to establish good connections between the young people from participating countries to raise participants' awareness and understanding of other cultures and countries; to transfer the good practices in the field of youth work, cultural diversity and social inclusion supporting the professional development of those who work in education, training and youth with a view to innovating and improving the quality of teaching, training and youth work across Europe and increasing the capacities, attractiveness and international dimension of organisations active in the education, training and youth fields so that they are able to offer activities and programmes that better respond to the needs of individuals, within and outside Europe; to promote volunteering activities and for this to establish a network of organisations involved in volunteering of the young people in different NGOs around Eastern and Western Europe, Balkans, Caucasus and Mediterranean countries offering them the opportunity to build networks of international contacts, to actively participate in society and develop a sense of European citizenship and identity and reinforcing synergies and transitions between formal, non-formal education, vocational training, employment and entrepreneurship.
We hope that this project will help the participants to better understand other cultures and overcome cultural differences, to achieve new working methods to strengthen their NGOs to improve their work with target audience and to enlarge their audience, to create new project ideas, to find partners for new work on international level. As we plan the group to consist mostly of people responsible for volunteering projects in their organisations, the participants will gain an experience of working together in a group of international experts; they will acquire experience, expertise, non-formal education tools, skills and competences in the fields of intercultural dialogue, volunteering, motivation of volunteers, project management, fundraising, presentation, rising awareness. Meetings with local NGOs, youth and student associations and representatives of authorities responsible for work with youth will also contribute to best practices exchange.
The new partnerships would be created so the participants would have new project ideas and new opportunities. A Network for volunteering opportunities will be created, giving the participating organisations new possibilities to send and receive volunteers and participate in different EVS and non-EVS exchanges of volunteers.The article will appear on www.west-east-fund.com website soon.
Writing the project application; Collecting the partners; Communicating with partners and participants; Solving logistical issues; facilitating the training process; Conducting the training every working day alongside two co-trainers; Evaluating the training process; Writing a report.