Our effort, their future

Aims & objectives

The training activity hereafter referred is part of the long term collaboration project “Your participation = Our future” among the hosting organization and its group of partners.

With the name “Our effort, their future” the training aimed to fulfill the following learning objectives:
- To analyze youth demands in rural areas of Europe and Associated countries meanwhile finding out acting ways for the youth associations and organization.
- To increase our knowledge about the cultural diversity, citizen participation and sustainable development.
- To share experiences and ideas about promoting the citizen participation among youth, to wake up an interest in their own environment and to stimulate an active attitude.
- To discover and to create new working tools in the field of working with youth.

Moreover, the activity also allowed participants to reflect, evaluate and share experiences about the “Your Participation - Our Future" project.

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

Seven nationalities were represented in the activity, five of them from outside the European Union, adding up twelve participants. They all were youth workers active in their organizations actively involved in the “Your Participation - Our Future" project.

The trainers’ team comprised two full-time facilitators holding Spanish and Polish citizenship. They were assisted by two EVS volunteers from Lithuania and Germany.

Training methods used & main activities

All methods used were based on non-formal education. As above mentioned, sharing experiences and best practices was one of the goals of the training activity a special focus was set in tools like in structured debates, working groups, open-spaces, world cafe and similar methods in order to facilitate the exchange of information.

Outcomes of the activity

The evaluation activities set during and after the course allowed the team of trainers to measure the fulfillment of the learning objectives.

According to participant feedback, those objectives were accomplished. More concretely,
 We analyzed rural areas youngster needs in of the countries represented in the activity as well as courses of action to tackle them.
 We went in depth in topics as cultural diversity, citizen participation and sustainable development and shared experiences and best practices about them. These topics were dealt with two main ideas in mind: raising young people interest and fostering a positive attitude towards them.
 We shared experiences and best practices about working with rural area youngsters.
 We discovered and created new working tools aimed to rural area youngsters.
 We shared experiences and evaluated the project “Your Participation = Our Future”.

As of visibility, a workshop was run in cooperation with the youngsters of the local community. This contributed to increased visibility of the program as well as to encourage youngsters to take part in their different actions.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

The team of trainers comprised two people: one coordinator-facilitator and one trainer-facilitator. Some sessions were facilitated by external trainers. The team was supported by two EVS volunteers doing their service in the hosting organization.

I worked four days as full-time trainer-facilitator, either facilitating sessions or supporting and the coordinator and the external trainers in the implementation of the remaining workshops.

I worked on this training for 4 days as a full time trainer.