“InclusiOFF – Turn it ON!”, mainstreaming social inclusion in youth work

Aims & objectives

The aim of the project was to increase the capacity of 26 youth workers to mainstream social inclusion in their work.

The project was based on an intensive experiential learning process to reach following objectives:
- To increase the level of knowledge in social exclusion and , mechanism of inclusion in youth field;
- To develop deep understanding and practical skills in alternative methods for mainstreaming inclusion and participation of young people;
- To increase the level of solidarity, tolerance and empathy among youth workers;
- To develop pro-active attitudes towards inclusion;
- To equip a new generation of youth workers to act as “social exclusion fighters” in their communities.
- To facilitate the building of an informal network for promoting and mainstreaming inclusion growth in local and international youth work environment.

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

Target group for the training were youth workers, facilitators, trainers and active volunteers that are already working with social inclusion issues or are interested to be active in the field and need more practical competencies in various methods for mainstreaming social inclusion in their communities.
The participants were coming from the following countries: Serbia, Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Estonia.
The team of the training was Andreea Loredana Tudorache from Romania and Snezana Baclija Knoch from Serbia.

Training methods used & main activities

The vision of the project was to enable the participants to be independent practitioners of various methods with their beneficiaries. The methods that were approached in the training were: Social Theatre, Living Library, Street Work Techniques, Experiential learning; together with an in-depth understanding of social inclusion layers and complexity. The approach of the training made use of the richness of experiential learning and non-formal education in general.

Outcomes of the activity

The main outcomes of the training were:
- Understanding of the mechanisms of social exclusion and inclusion, with a particular emphasis on youth work context;
- Learning from examples of best practice of social inclusion in different communities and with diverse target groups;
- Gaining skills in different "alternative" social inclusion tools (in particular, Social Theatre, Living Library, Street Animation);
- Developing personal strategies for mainstreaming social inclusion in participants' work (together with the inclusion indicators and long-term inclusion plan).

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was one of the co-trainers, responsible for the programme design, training delivery, mentoring of the training units, evaluation and reporting.

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