Summer Academy Democracy in the Euro-Med Region "Violent Radicalization and Extremism in the Euro-Med Region and the Role of Civil Society in Developing Successful Countering Strategies"

Aims & objectives

The main aim of the activity was to invite participants to share own experiences coming from their realities and to reflect upon common solutions regarding the main topic of the Academy, namely how to counteract violent radicalization and extremism in the Euro-Med Region and the Role of Civil Society.
In Addition the objectives of the Academy were:
- Share relevant experiences, in line with professional, personal and institutional background
- Creating a positive and inclusive learning environment in unique intercultural group of learners and experts
- Enrich competences related to intercultural communication, leadership, cooperation
- Develop deeper competences related to decision-making strategies and models
- Reflecting upon the role of education and democracy in the context of preventing violent radicalization and extremism
- Developing a common analytical product dedicated to the main topic of the Academy

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

The group of participants was composed of people with diverse backgrounds coming from the following Euro-Med countries: Bulgaria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia. As a main organizer, the Bulgarian School of Politics has long term cooperation tradition with the other Schools of Politics, therefore the participants were coming from countries with the same family of associations were active. The total number of participants was 21.
The team of facilitators was composed by two facilitators from Bulgaria.

Training methods used & main activities

For the duration of the Academy there were used diverse training and learning methods, all of them in line with the main principles of non-formal learning. In this regard the following approaches were used:
- Leadership skills and team work competence related experiential activities
- Simulations aiming communication skills development
- Simulation of a TV debate followed by feedback and behavioral micro-analysis
- Role play on intercultural communication competences
- Group discussion on the final analytical product
- Discussion and simulation on strategic decision-making process

Outcomes of the activity

On one hand, a major outcome of the activity is the created group and team cohesion between participants coming from so many different backgrounds, in order to share their experiences.
On the other hand another outcome is a prepared stakeholder analysis dedicated to the main topic of the Academy.
The analysis was followed by a group preparation of a common analytical product, dedicated to reflection upon possible countering strategies on violent radicalization and extremism in the Euro-Med Region.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

For this Academy, together with the other facilitator in the team, I was responsible for:
- Designing all sessions learning process being in line with the principles of non-formal learning
- Coordinating session content between the team of trainers and the organizers
- Facilitating all interactive sessions for the full duration of the program
- Facilitating the process of preparation of the final analytical product
- Providing participants with feedback
- Preparing a report for the organizers

I worked on this training for 4 days as a full time trainer.