TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Adrià Sonet
Our objectives are: to create a new cultural dialogue leading to a peaceful, inclusive co-existence; to share, exchange and gain new tools, knowledge and skills for work with youth and to increase quality of personal life; to explore nature as a key to good quality of life, to personal freedom, and as an innovative tool for self-development, cultural tolerance and inclusion to build a multicultural spirit in young people‘s life. Our objective is as well to increase of individual accountability for the decisions and learning, to increase the trust in oneself and people around, to strengthen the principle inside-out, to improve the communication and self-expression skills, to be able to stand for own opinion even in a confronting situations, to open heart and include unknown people – understand the wider picture, that we are all in it together. Reconnection support the international team work and creation of strong future partnerships based on trust and friendship.
“Re-connection" is a training for 24 youth workers and people interested in the topic, from 8 different countries and cultures (Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Macedonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania). Our participants and target group are youth workers and people lacking the experience, skills or knowledge, yet they are interested in gaining them in order to be able to work with youth, to empower them to re-connect with themselves through nature. Participants want to develop their youth workers’ competences and want to re-connect with their unique potential, discovering the new ways of multicultural dialogue through new forms of self-expression and communication. They have a need to connect with like-minded people to create an international network for further cooperation. They have a need to bring new quality of consciousness into their work and everyday life.
The basic method of this project is non-formal learning by doing, outdoor experiential learning, meaning unique intense personal experience with reflexion. Participants will experience all tools and methods by themselves, in order to decide which one they wish to work with once they return home, which one they want to deepen and which one they don’t find applicable to their environment. They are also responsible for they own learning process, which is an important value to engage with it their personal and working life. We will use different outdoor and mind-body-soul activities in full engagement with nature, such as: outdoor adventure days (including hiking, camping, cooking in the nature, orientation with map and compass), meaningful walks, brain-storming, role-playing, body movement activities, self-awareness activities, meditation techniques, creative art, relaxation activities, insight dialogue, energizers, presentations – public speaking, simulation games and working together. The training will take place in different formats, such as peer learning, one-to-one or group work, supported by mentoring and coaching from the trainers, in order to achieve maximum learning outcomes.
The outcome of the "Re-connection" training is increased awareness about the need for social inclusion and creation of new cultural dialogue, leading to tolerant co-living within a multicultural European environment, based on natural connection. Youth workers from 8 different countries adopted tools for self re-connection through methods engaging nature. This helped them to create more freedom and inclusion in their personal and working lives and in their communities.
Trainer.