TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Ramon Tena Pera
The objective of the activity was to train and support a group of young leaders in its participation in the 30th session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
The training helped young leaders understanding how the Congress works and how could they work -both as a group and as individuals- in participating in the Congress procedures. The main goal of the activity was to create a space for dialogue between the selected youth delegates and local and regional elected representatives and to enable young people to express their views on the issues being debated
The target group was formed by young leaders coming from all Council of Europe countries: Azerbaijan, Croatia, Romania, Georgia, Albania, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Greece, Belgium, Lithuania, Montenegro, Ireland, Denmark, Ukraine, France, Finland, Italy, Macedonia, Russian Federation, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Armenia, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Serbian, Slovenia, Hungary, Spain, Czech Republic, Portugal, Cyprus, Moldova, Bulgaria, Andorra, Estonia, Latvia and Germany
The training activity combined both training on youth participation at local and regional level, and mentoring on how to approach elected Congress members, both in the session and at home. The training made an extended use on the non-formal training manual on the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People on Local and Regional Life: Have your say!
Before the start of the Congress session, the training used on-line methodologies (Facebook group, on-line work...) to start with some team-building, knowledge of the Council of Europe and of youth participation at local level.
At this moment we are always mentoring them on-line to plan and develop their own local projects.
One of the first outcomes was that youth was able to interact with Congress members, both informally and formally (for example taking part in structured debates in the Plenary).
Also, young leaders learned about participation in international bodies, and how to better approach elected representatives to lobby to include more youth participation at local/regional level.
Participants will come again at the October session. In the meantime, they have developed projects on youth participation within its local communities.
For example, some youth leaders have been developing the project "Youth Us", consisting in organizing seminars on youth participation with local youth and local elected leaders, identifying young people willing to get comited and organising themselves to plan and implement more projects.
I was one of the two senior trainers taking part in the activity. We shared the same responsibilities.
My main tasks involved conducting a needs assessment on the needs of young leaders vis-a-vis the objectives of the Congress. I also planned, implemented and evaluated the training activities.
As part of the contract we also mentored young leaders on how to approach participation in an international and very formal body: how to draft documents, how to address elected Congress members...
Finally, I was the liaison between the Congress secretariat and the young leaders.