TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Thomas Schallhart
- Train youth workers in basics of campaigning and street actions
- Promote European values of democracy, freedom of speech, peace and non-violence
- Promote active participation and citizenship, civic engagement and a sense of ownership of/ responsibility for societal processes
- Give youth workers the tools to support youth in expressing themselves and their hopes for a peaceful future through activism and campaigning
- Increase the quality and amount of youth projects for peace and non-violence
- Bring non-formal peace education to the streets of Europe and to as a consequence increase public understanding of peace, war, militarism and non-violence
- Raise the possibilities of people within the European volunteering movement to get active in peace activism
- Come up with new and creative street actions that effectively target war and militarism in our societies
- Learn the history of peace and non-violence in street activism
- Create a collection of (non-formal education) tools and guidelines for youth workers for the preparation of campaigns and activism with young people
- Create and implement a street action in Vienna
- Networking between organisations and networks: create a common approach in promoting peace
The training brought together 28 participants from 17 countries in Europe (Austria, Estonia, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Poland, UK, Hungary, Spain, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Belgium, Turkey, France and Slovenia), two of them facilitating the training. The project focused on giving youth workers, staff from volunteering organisations and peace activists the tools and knowledge to organise campaigns and street actions around peace and non-violence.
- Silent Discussion around peace, non-violence and (anti)militarism
- Treasure Hunt of different best practices of campaigns and analysis in small groups of these campaigns
- Creation of a street action on antimilitarism and peace, moderation of the group based on a consensus model
The main outcome of the training is a toolkit on campaign strategy and action planning for peace, antimilitarism and non-violence, which you can find on SALTO: https://www.salto-youth.net/tools/toolbox/tool/peace-on-the-streets-tools-best-practices-knowledge-around-campaigns-and-street-actions-for-youth-workers-and-peace-activists.2713/
We also implemented a street action in front of the Austrian Ministry of Defense, protesting against military conscription in Austria.
I was involved in every stage of the project, from the conception and writing the application, to finding partner organisations, creating the didactic concept, communicating with participants, facilitating the training, editing the toolkit and finishing the project.