“Qualify for Quality”, TC for dealing with conflicts in youth work and educational settings

Aims & objectives

The main goal of the project was to increase the quality of youth work in general and in educational settings in particular, by increasing competences of those working with young people to handle conflicts on different levels.
More specific objectives:
- to improve skills in using various non-formal education methods
- to develop skills in using Social Theatre method in youth work and educational settings;
- to increase the abilities of Conflict Analysis
- to develop skills of Conflict Transformation
- to increase the awareness of non-violent approach in conflict transformation
- to improve the facilitation and mediation skills of the participants
- to improve the communication skills
- to empower the participants to use and adapt conflict transformation methods in youth work (with specific emphasis on educational settings)
- to stimulate the participants to act as multipliers in their own organization and regions

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

The target audience were youth workers that are active in educational settings with young people: leading workshops, trainings, youth camps, etc. Therefore, the profile of the participants included: Facilitators, Youth leaders, Trainers, Project coordinators from the following countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey.
The team of the TC was composed of 3 trainers: Andreea Loredana Tudorache from Romania, Fadi Shbita from Israel and Snezana Baclija Knoch from Serbia.

Training methods used & main activities

The training had three integrated learning phases:
1. Introductory phase (preparation for the course) through distance e-learning, lasting one month
2. Residential training course
3. Follow-up phase through distance e-learning, lasting one month
Training course was based on two main methods: Conflict transformation and Social theatre.
During the training course, participants went through a process that includes nonformal education methods and principles, youth work and youth characteristics, conflicts in educational settings and methods and strategies of handling this type of conflicts : social theatre, mediation, conflict transformation, non-violent approach, etc. The training had a high level of practical approach, based on experiential learning, aimed at empowering the participants of using these methods in their own realities.

Outcomes of the activity

The outcomes of the TC were:
- Improved social and training skills of the participants, necessary for their work as multipliers;
- Improved/developed abilities of using non-formal education in youth work;
- Created and developed plays (scenarios, characters) of Social Theatre methods, benefiting participants’ organisations
- Developed skills of conflict analysis and conflict transformation;
- Developed facilitation skills;
- Created strategies for dealing with team members, and all the processes that are related with conflicts in youth contexts
- Increased knowledge about conflicts in the participants’ countries/communities as well as in their own country/community through non-formal discussions and presentations;
- Developed personal learning plans.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was the co-author of the TC and full-time trainer, co-responsible for the online learning sessions, programme design for the residential, training delivery, evaluation and reporting.

I worked on this training for 8 days as a full time trainer.