TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Javier Milán López
Youth Express Network works to promote an inclusive society where young people, their needs and participation are recognized, valued and appreciated.
The "Localise it!" Study Visit wanted to inspire youths from different countries who work in Youth Work as well as to develop initiatives that will be implemented at local level. The objectives were:
- To promote and recognize youth initiatives/activities/actions on social rights aready implemented at local level;
- To get inspired by peers who participated in the "Inclusion Express" campaign, developed actions at local level and learn from their exprerience by sharing innovative, new ideas and new perspectives on youth participation;
- To create space for young people to reflect on their own life story;
- To support young people to develop their own initiatives (action plan to be implemented within 6 months);
- To discuss how social media and modern technology can be used to involve young people in local youth policies;
- To learn from each other's experiences and discuss the obstacles, difficulties and drawbacks of internet-based activities for youth;
- To show the potential of youth by making visible example of good practices developed by young people.
The target group was a group of 21 youth volunteers and workers who develop their activities in social/youth field. Participants were from: Spain, Italy, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Romania, The Netherlands, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Talking about the team, we were 3 facilitators from The Netherlands, Belarus and Spain. In addition, there were 2 organization members from France who worked on visits/logistic coordination.
We mixed sessions indoor with visits. We started doing activities to create good atmosphere (e.g. name games, clock-dating) as well as teambuilding (e.g. to build towers with spaghetti and marshmallows in teams, to symoblize objects and concetps in teams). Then, we analysed the situation of each country concerning vulnerable collectives in small groups; so after we could go to the problems they wanted to address at their local realities (e.g. trees of problems and botanical gardens).
After that, we visited local orgnizations in Dordretch and Rotterdam and we discussed about them. Finally, they explored the Wheel of Life and Lifetime tools as well as Storytelling method.
Finally, they developed their own action plans to be implemented within 6 months and they create follow-up systems in groups of 4-5 people.
In the end, we evaluated the Study Visit (e.g. target and level of expectations fulfillment, and suitcase-bin-grinder to reflect about what they learnt) and motivated them to develop their action plans once they come back to their communities.
In the end, participants pointed out that the atmosphere was great and they learnt about youth initiatives in Dordretch and Rotterdam as well as about other's and their communities through sharing experiences. Moreover, they were interested in storytelling method.
They also developed their Action Plans and they committed to implement their Action Plans due to the creation of their own follow-up system.
My task was the sessions design and facilitation of the Study Visit-Learning along with other team members. Before the Study Visit, we worked online so I was taking notes during meetings to facilitate the team work (comments, feedbacks, ideas, etc.).