TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Olena Glazkova
The educational programme for Young European Ambassadors encompassed four webinars and a residential training course. The first webinar served as an introduction to the course, outlining the working methodology and introducing co-organising partners. Subsequent webinars delved into specific topics, such as promoting equality and non-discrimination (webinar 2), combating hate speech (webinar 3), and exploring counter and alternative narratives (webinar 4). Those webinars were in August 2023.
The residential training course covered essential themes, including defining human rights and the right to non-discrimination, understanding the role of Young European Ambassadors (YEA’s) in promoting equality, and examining the work of both the Council of Europe and the European Union in countering discrimination and promoting equality. Participants engaged with topics such as hate speech as a human rights violation, the Council of Europe’s Recommendation on Combating Hate Speech, effective strategies to counter hate speech and discrimination, and the creation of individual human rights narratives. The primary aim of the educational activity was to enhance participants' understanding of human rights, non-discrimination, and the fight against hate speech. Moreover, it sought to develop participants' competencies in combating hate speech through the use of Counter and Alternative Narratives.
The group was consist from 54 people from Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) and Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). Also we have 18 international experts and 3 trainers from Ukraine, Georgia and Montenegro.
All program for online and offline parts was build on non-formal education methods:
- individual reflections;
- working in small groups;
- World Cafe;
- work with pictures;
- prioritising;
- quizzes;
- discussions.
Residential training experience offered participants a unique and immersive learning experience, and activities such as the “Rights Bingo!” exercise, World Cafe, and group discussions during the residential training contributed to a more profound understanding of human rights concepts.
Application of learning to real-life cases since participants applied their knowledge and skills to real-life cases of hate speech and discrimination, particularly during group sessions dedicated to developing counter and alternative narratives. Following, the focus on various target groups, including foreigners, media, human rights activists, people with disabilities, and others, provided a diverse range of contexts for application.
Participant engagement and collaboration as the training fostered a sense of community and collaboration among participants from different communities and regions.
Mixed levels of participant knowledge and understanding as evaluation results showed varied levels of participant knowledge and understanding across different topics. While a significant percentage rated their understanding as strong, some participants expressed the need for more theoretical explanations and practical tools.
Recognition of relevance and impact since a majority of participants recognised the relevance of the training content to their roles as Young European Ambassadors.
Later on participants were making different actions to combat hate speech and promote alternative narrative. Some of them were making videos, some of them were creating posters.
I was involved in developing and leading online sessions, as in developing sessions for resedential meeting and also leading them. As we have pretty big group, so we lead some sessions in a parallel groups.