TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for SARA MANDOZZI
The project aimed at promoting young people's commitment towards a more inclusive growth. Under this perspective the urban gardens are a powerful tool to stimulate the youth participation, the youth awareness toward the global environmental challenges, the climate change and the active development of "green" skills and behaviours to requalify peripheric and degraded areas.
The group was composed by 21 youth workers, peer educators, social workers and volunteers active at local and international level, with past experience in social inclusion and active citizenship. Participants came from Italy, Hungary, Germany, Romania, Greece, France, Spain and Italy.
During the training an interactive methodology, based on the principles of non formal education, was proposed (techniques like ice breakers, team building activities, energisers, role play games, will be used). The aim was to stimulate the active involvement of participants, to generate a permanent sharing and to facilitate the mutual exchange of experiences and knowledge.
In each activity, the peer to peer approach has been actively encouraged: trainers and participants shared tools in an horizontal manner in order to guarantee the different learning approaches.
These are the following outcomes achieved through the training:
1. analysis of the local needs faced by youth at risk of social exclusion;
2. promotion, through urban gardening, of the active participation of youth workers and young people to the community life and of the different intercultural values;
3. development of new forms of interaction, based on environment and sustainability, among youth and adults;
4. development of the participants’ green skills: specifically the urban gardens can be considered an active tool to involve new young beneficiaries and to transmit them new knowledge and skills on that field;
5. sharing of good practices on urban requalification in the different countries and promotion of concrete actions in suburbs aimed at facilitating urban requalification measures;
6. realization of an urban garden in the Youth Information Centre in San Giorgio a Cremano.
Member of trainers team, developing and evaluating the contents of the training agenda as well as implementing it;
Trainer on peer education, non formal education through environmental activities and on social inclusion and youth policies workshops.