TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Robbie Stakelum
This 5 day residential training aimed to integrate human rights frameworks into the design and delivery of housing solutions.
Often housing is viewed as a stand alone government policy area and the stakeholders responsible at local, regional and national level do not have a background in human rights. This training particularly focussed on the right to housing and how to translate human rights into practices such as Housing First for Youth which specifically vindicate young people's right to housing.
A specific aim of this training was to bring about a mindset shift from using emergency shelters as a short-term solution, which often acts as a barrier to vindicating rights to housing, employment, education and healthcare, in favour of housing led solutions.
This international team was comprised of trainers from Ireland, Belgium, Serbia, Canada and Andorra.
The training was delivered to a group of 40 participants across EU and CoE member states from Finland to Greece and Ireland to Serbia.
The participants comprised policy makers at local and national level, researches, human rights activists, youth workers and homeless services.
This training was delivered using non-formal education & human rights education tools.
For examples role plays were used to get participants to re-think how human rights intersect with their daily lives and in particular their work context. Walking debates provided space to explore the nuances of human rights and bring them from an academic conversation into their real lives.
Lots of exercise from COMPAS were also used including designing newspaper front pages to explain the right to housing and why it is important in the fight to combat youth homelessness and the 'Take A Step Forward' exercises where different participants took on debates which highlighted inequity in our society and challenges people face in vindicating their human rights by nature of their personal circumstances.
In order to foster a positive atmosphere during this residential training we organised i) treasure hunts in teams where participants could discover the building hosting our training, ii) participant bingo where everyone had to ask questions to other participants to win bingo on their sheet to get to know others on the training and iii) an intercultural night with food and drinks from across the countries represented at the training in order to discover different cultures.
This training led to the transformation of homeless youth services across Europe. As a result of this training Housing First for Youth was piloted in Ireland, Finland, Denmark Netherlands and Scotland. The broader principles of the right to housing were incorporated into approaches by participants in Belgium and Greece. Those who have set up Housing First for Youth projects regularly share data and results and have undergone to shared evaluations to continue to contribute to the effectiveness of this human rights based intervention.
The Housing First Europe Hub also established a specific stream on Housing First for Youth as a vehicle to continue this work.
I was the Course Director and lead trainer for this session and I was responsible for ensuring participants completed this 5 day training activity with a clear understanding of how human rights can be integrated into homeless and housing services.
As lead trainer I facilitated three days of preparatory meetings with my co-trainers. These meetings were used to brainstorm different pedagogical approaches to transforming a topic like human rights into an accessible training. This was also a time to build a positive working relationship among the team ahead of the training. During this meeting we divided responsibility for different sessions throughout the training equally amongst the team.
During the training itself I delivered training modules throughout the 5 days. These sessions I designed were in non-formal education and human rights education methodologies, and are cited in the above question.
During the training I was also set up the room every morning to meet the needs of the training sessions. For example seating arrangement, and preparing flip charts or other accessories trainers or participants would require.
I was also the Chair of the Day for one of the days during the training. Here I re-capped the learning from the previous day and outlined the sequence for the day ahead. I was also responsible for managing the timing of the day, to ensure modules didn't overrun and participants had adequate time for coffee breaks, lunches and down time.
At the end of each day I facilitated feedback session with both participants, and then with the trainers, to capture what was going well and what challenges existed. Every evening I facilitated a session with my co-trainers to re-design the programme as needed to ensure the training was tailored to the level of participants.
When needed I supported my team of trainers deliver their sessions when additional assistance was required.
Following the study session I led the evaluation and submitted the training report for the Council of Europe's Youth Department.
As lead trainer additional responsibilities included responsible for selecting the preparatory team, chairing prep meetings, setting timelines, dividing up responsibilities within the team, drafting call for proposals and coordinating the administrative logistics for participants.