TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Viktoria Grivina
During this project a group of young internationals were taught how to research hidden histories of peace in Wales, UK and analyze how attitude to peace has changed since 1930s when the "peace messages" of the local youth were first published and how different they are from the way people understand peace nowadays. The project addressed the need of local community to decipher archives of personal responses to peace messages from all around the world and create a systematic research of these responses. It was a part of the larger Wales for Peace Project (http://www.walesforpeace.org/wfp/index.html) which aims to inspire a new generation of internationalists through learning from Wales' peace heritage. This conformed to organization's need to understand the contents of the archives (which were written in native languages of the participants) and formed a clear framework of the training. It included researching peace through studying archive materials at the National Library in Aberystwyth, digitalising stories and creating videos, presentations and timelines of Peace and Goodwill Messages. Participants also discussed and captured the views of the local people on peace by taking interviews and conducting community surveys.
The group consisted of 8 international volunteers (from France, Spain, Germany, Japan) and 5 Welsh Volunteers, as well as one coordinator from Wales
In this training I used such methods as brainstorming and open space (for creating a questionnaire "How Do You Understand Peace Nowadays"), human library, theater and role-play (for training on how to conduct interviews on the streets); SWOT analysis for recognizing individual strengths and weaknesses; photo-quiz for improving digital competences; discussion and dialogue building techniques for learning to communicate in the group; reflection and art therapy. I also used a number of energizers and conducted a workshop on mindfullness to unite the group.
During the project participants learnt the basics of archival research, community and data journalism. They learnt to create digital surveys and presentations to analyze them, using open-source equipment. They learnt teamwork, sharing rasks and responsibilities, cultural diversity, interculturality, tolerance and dialogue-building techniques. Results of the work can be viewed in a Facebook group of the project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/101345300557497/
Presentation of the questionnaire:
https://www.facebook.com/174206662592389/videos/1662791147067259/
Video diary: https://www.facebook.com/unaexchange/videos/1822184184475804/
In the team I provided training in research, basics of community and data journalism, interviewing, building a dialogue, mindfullness and cultural awareness. I also provided participants with assistance on digitalization and using open-source software and data resources to complete the project.