TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Leilani van Rheenen
The goal of this training course was to encourage youth to participate in volunteering in the way that best fits their situation, needs, interests, and talents. It was also to raise awareness of the opportunities that are available for volunteering through the Youth in Action program and to provide the space, tools, and ideas needed to create their own projects and to exercise their sense of initiative and entrepreneurship for the benefit of their community as well as for their own personal and professional development. During the training course young people were encouraged to reflect on what opportunities are available to them and create a plan (on their own or in collaboration with others) as to what kind of project they would like to begin or participate in after the training course is over. The training course will also covered topics essential to successful volunteering, such as teamwork, communication, project planning and implementation, crisis management, dealing with ambiguity, motivation, initiative and entrepreneurship, volunteering as an educational and personally enriching experience, and other such topics. They were also be given the opportunity during the training course to visit successful volunteer organizations in İstanbul to further develop their ideas and observe best practices.
The team was composed of 3 trainers (Holland/Brazil, Turkey, and Bulgaria) and 3 support people (USA and Turkey). The target group was young people who have the potential to become project managers and youth leaders and there were 27 participants from 7 countries (Bulgaria, France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Turkey and Romania).
Input from trainers and participants, simulations, role play, small and big group discussions, individual, as well as peer learning, cross-fertilisation of knowledge and reflection.
The success of the training course was apparent by the reactions of the participants documented in their evaluation forms (please contact me if you wish to receive the final report for this TC). We are looking forward to see what projects will be created as a result of this training course. They also created a platform on facebook to support each other in their ideas and initiatives and already one new EVS project has been a result of this training course.
http://www.aileegitimdernegi.org/aed_trk/media/video/viewvideo/5/projects/move.html
http://www.synergy-net.info/default.cfm?fuseaction=dettaglio&obj=25803
http://www.salto-youth.net/tools/european-training-calendar/training/move-motivational-volunteer-empowerment.2236/
The inspiration for this training course was to create a way for young people to become active in their communities so that they and their communities could gain from these experiences as well as to use volunteering to discover and develop their talents, interests and passions. It was an action 4.3 project funded by Youth in Action and I was responsible for submitting the application. For the implementation of the training course we divided the sessions amongst ourselves as trainers according to talents, interest and experience. I delivered/facilitated the sessions on benefits of volunteering, entrepreneurship, communication, leadership and empowerment and project inspiration and ideas. I was also responsible for the logistical and practical aspects of the training course and representing the host organization.