TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Anastasiia Shulha
- Develop the competences of youth workers to organize successful and efficient awareness
campaigns promoting tolerance;
- Enhance the capacity of NGOs to become active against Hate Speech and discrimination in their local communities and online by following the No Hate Speech Youth Campaign guidelines;
- Developing an efficient network of NGOs by creating a sharing space meant to exchange good practices, efficient tools and improve their services and internationalisation.
The project gathered 26 participants from 14 European Union countries. The training course specifically targeted youth workers (long-term volunteers, social workers, educators, social pedagogues, community development facilitators, counsellors, trainers, facilitators, and other related staff implementing non-formal activities), who are actively involved in promoting tolerance and fighting discrimination. By composing such an international group, the project created a space for intercultural dialogue and mutual learning, promoting the exchange of innovative practices, and strengthening professional networks.
To achieve its goals and objectives, the training course used non‑formal education methods. Our daily program was divided in four 1,5 hours sessions, 1 hours reflection/evaluation and inter-cultural evenings. In terms of NFE methods (indoor-outdoor), we have used it in a holistic approach, including:
- Energisers before each session;
- Plenary inputs by trainers/experts;
- Guest speakers/study visits - opportunity to listen and observe how ‘others do it’;
- Presentations of participants;
- Digital content creation sessions (videos, posters, e-guide);
- Topic-related board games;
- Team-building, ice-breaking activities;
- One-to-one, group work based on discussion, debates, brainstorming, sharing ideas;
- Learning by doing - especially when testing the tools and undertaking practical exercises;
- Role-play, world-café, forum theater;
- Study cases, problem solving scenarios;
- Cultural awareness activities;
- Open spaces sessions where participants choose their topics of interests;
- Thematic board games;
- Daily reflection/evaluations of the learning process.
Through this mobility, participants strengthened key competences promoted by Erasmus+, including collaboration, communication, intercultural sensitivity, networking, advocacy, and the ability to design impactful programs and campaigns. As a concrete outcome of the training course, they produced eight campaign videos addressing intolerance in society, which were shared on the sending organizations’ social media channels (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SuG21haw1dQZyAgz9AiQDw4cdIGi-ex_?usp=drive_link). To further document the learning process, the project also maintained its own Facebook page, capturing the experiences of the participants (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578293291264).
Within the team, my responsibilities included co‑creating the program and co‑facilitating non‑formal learning sessions addressing intolerance and discrimination. In addition to the educational components, I also contributed to the facilitation of energizers, ice‑breaking activities, team‑building exercises, and intercultural evenings. Furthermore, I was responsible for ensuring the comfort of participants by welcoming them at the venue, providing assistance, and maintaining a safe and inclusive space throughout the training.