TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Heleri Alles
Training Course "Inclusive Sport in Sardinia" has
seeked to use Sports as a way of improving social inclusion of young people.
The project was designed to explore different tools and working methods in NGOs, educational centres or associations specialized to work for disadvantaged people, the project shared and promoted inclusive strategies for disadvantage target groups, to improve their capabilities and develop new skills.
The Training aimed to rise youth awareness that everybody should be given the opportunity to express themselves through Sport;
Morover, the project aimed also to foster social inclusion through sport as a tool for inclusion to solve interpersonal conflicts among youngsters, promote tolerance and assist youth to understand issues of diversity via non formal education.
The target groups of the training course were youth workers, social workers, youth leaders and local municipality workers.
International team was composed of:
Maria Grazia Pirina -organizer/trainer (Italy)
Roberto Solinas - organizer/trainer (Italy)
Heleri Alles - trainer (Estonia)
Antonio Saccone - trainer (Slovenia)
Diana Grgat - trainer (Croatia)
The total number of participants was 23.
The aim of training course was to train participants through non formal education (theory and practice). The project team used activities to increase mutual understanding of the participants, icebreaking games, simulations and other non-formal learning tools. Some examples: adaptive games that showed how to enable inclusion of people with different disabilities; games that were invented during a study session about the topic in the EYC in Budapest (http://youth-sport.net/index.php?id=9735) / project as well will actively use activities from COE manuals; local and international exsperts delivered sessions with practical examples;the team invited psychologist who lead specific sessions related to the issue; team work activities, round tables, interactive discussions; simulations games to deal with the topic;
- Facilitator leaded debates as it's the cornerstone of democracy and therefore it's an essential skill for every European citizen to be aware in any situation; excursions in social institutions to discover the current situation in Sardinina; brain-storming and assessment of training course.
There was a peer mentorship provided after the activity to assist participants in their dissemination work and encourage them to pit their ideas to practice. The workshops provided concrete tools for participants to take further action in their communities for working in the social fields and include monority groups through sport in local communities.
The training brought together Youth workers, public servants, youth leaders, teachers, trainers and coaches involved in non formal education activities and working with people with fewer opportunities.
Sport as a tool for inclusion is quite new in Italy as in formal and in non-formal settings, this approach is quite new for both as for target groups also for our Mine Vaganti Youth Group. We improved participants' civic and social skills in order to support the integration of people with fewer opportunities through sport. We trained participants to use different non-formal methods and sport to include youth with fewer opportunities in their activities in local towns/villages and youth organizations. Participants developed seven new projects they want to implement in their communities in connection to the topic and also use competences gained for their everyday work with youngsters. Strong network was developed between participants and they remain in connection with organizers and trainers, who will provide them support in their future activities. Participants are now able to use different sport methods to include youngsters with fewr opportunites, and overcome different barriers as language, dissability, social problems etc.
I was a full-time trainer for 4 days. I carried out different workshops and non-formal activities.