TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Nina Koevoets
The over-all aim is to empower youth workers by knowledge, skills, insights and experiences so they can build a culture of peace and sustain peaceful international relations in and around the EU. The objectives are:
1. To give youth workers the chance to reflect on nonviolence and their way of dealing with it in their personal and professional life, offering tools to resolve conflicts, possibly prevent them and build more peace in both their jobs and private lives.
2. To present the opportunity to practice conflict resolution and communication skills in a culturally diverse setting, so that youth workers can understand the democratic principle ‘agree to disagree’, as well as the principle ‘different but equal’.
To understand the direct expression of violence has multiple causes, is reinforced or made possible by
structural violence and justified by cultural violence and understand ‘positive peace’, focusing on building sustainable
solutions that recognise the multiple considerations involved. 4.To facilitate intercultural understanding and cooperation as
well as synergy in the field of youth work, by exchanging insights and knowledge among youth workers during (and after)
the program and develop connections among them.
Target group was youth workers (working in NGOs, schools, youth clubs e.g.).
Our partners were:
PEACE ACTION, TRAINING & RESEARCH INST
OF ROMANIA
European Intercultural Forum, Germany
Anazitites Theatrou, Greece
Goal Oriented Learners, Egypt
Nonviolent Education and Research Association, Turkey
SHOTA RUSTAVELI STATE UNIVERSITY, Georgia
Asociacion DESES-3, Spain
During the sessions we used many non-formal education methods, to actively engage the participants with theoretical concepts and theories and give them a chance to practice the skills that we wanted them to learn. Some examples: To explain different types of violence fore example, we made living statues. The next day they could change them (practise) into scenarios they preferred. We gave text with three stories about nonviolent actions and asked participants to show these in role plays. We also used role play in other instances, as well as conflict-transformation
games or practices: e.g Non-Violent Communication, a relay race about nonviolence, drawing 'Nonviolandia', having a 'silent dialogue' about quotes on nonviolence, and making an action calendar. We also held different types of discussions, such as talks-shows, presentation of texts, or debriefing exercises and we use the "world cafe" and "open space" methods. We showed videos and we made small groups to which we gave different tools to analyse social injustice and ways to address them.
Besides the Youth pass competencies we identified four 'peace skills'; self-awareness, conflict management, conflict analysis
and sensitivity to cultural and gender differences.
Participants learned about conflict styles and gained skills practicing conflict
resolution and transformation in personal and professional settings. They learned about the the three different elements of violence, the elements of a culture of Peace, different
responses to conflict and ways to respond in an active nonviolent way. They also gained
inter-cultural communication skills by exchanging insights and becoming aware of
different communication methods. In general we created a positive context and attitude to stimulate cooperation, mutual support and creativity.
After the training participants showed great enthusiasm about their newly gained insights, and had fresh energy to return home, now being part of a newly created network.
One can read more on the website towardsanonviolentworld.org where there is a report about this training, as well as one in 2015.
I am the person who put the whole program together, and I keep updating it. I was the main organizer of this training, and also a full-time trainer, together with two other trainers, taking nearly 50% of the program on me.