TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Nebojsa Nick Djeric
The International Youth Forum “Greater Europe Meetings: Paris 2014” has implemented in period of 27th July – 3rd August 2014 in Limay, Paris, France and gathered around 40 participants (students and young graduates) from European Union, Russian Federation and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, in order to trigger dialog on cultural understanding and cooperation between youth from various countries within the Greater Europe.
During the one-week program, participants took part in workshops and panel discussions on education, geopolitics, economics, business adaptation and diplomatic and cross-cultural dialogue between countries.
They also attended a number of high-level lectures, in the presence of important figures such as Mr. Philippe Quéau, Assistant Director General for Social and Human Sciences to the UNESCO, His Excellency Alexander Orlov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to France, Mr. Alexandre Boldyrev, Deputy Permanent Delegate of Russian Federation to UNESCO, Mr. Christian Poncelet, Former President of the French Senate
This international youth forum "Greater Europe Meetings: Paris 2014" was organized in order to empower young people to actively participate in shaping the future societies of the European countries with a better understanding of other cultures.
Aim of the forum was:
Promote mutual, constructive, intercultural understanding (dialogue) between participants
Objectives on this forum were:
- to inspire, empower and open new possibilities for youth in Europe;
- to promote common human values (respect ideas, constructive dialogue, solidarity/responsibility, fairness/sincerity);
- to give knowledge and skills to youth to think critically;
- to promote cultural understanding through education, exchange programs and lifelong learning;
- to provide young people tools for realizing ideas and transform them into the real projects;
- to increase participation in common projects between young people and youth organizations of the European countries;
- to create network between participants for future cooperation;
This project gathered 40 students and young graduates from European Union, Russian Federation and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (Armenia, Russian Federation, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Austria, Spain, Belgium, Belarus, Tajikistan) to participate in 7 - day long international event.
The trainers team composed of 6 trainers from Russian Federation, Germany, Serbia, Ukraine and Hungary prepared and developed the program of the Forum.
Practical preparation, implementation and evaluation of activities have took period of time from 23 July - 3 August 2014.
The working methods used on this project were non-formal education and informal way of learning. This included: games, energizers, ice-breakers, team building exercises, individual and group activities, work on practical examples in small groups, thematic workshops, discussions, debates, lectures, presentations...
Forum itself was conducted using an interactive and participative approach. Team of 6 experienced trainers was carried out the program of the forum which was based on the experiences, needs and knowledge of the participants.
The training program at the Forum consisted of workshops in team building, generating ideas, project planning, communication of ideas, project evaluation.
Around 40 participants were divided into three groups. They worked in separate directions to find solutions on different issues and generate own ideas and create project proposals.
Participants had an opportunity to participate in a 7-day long forum with the aim to get necessary knowledge and skills related how to write project proposals and to open new possibilities for youth in Europe. They got concrete tools for realizing ideas and transform them into the real projects.
Through this project participants were in position to make connection and to promote inclusion and cultural exchange among youth in Europe according to the modern European values.
Project activities promoted cross-border cooperation and partnership-building in the field of youth initiatives development that will foster networking between participating organizations/institutions and other interested actors.
Participants visited the UNESCO and Ecole des Mines and had a panel-discussions there.
Lectures on international, intercultural, economic relations and on educational matters were presented by outstanding speakers from across the greater Europe. The lectures were followed by workshops where participants got the opportunity to write project proposals of their own choice based on what they learned during the lectures or what tangential ideas to the topics they came up with.
Participants transformed their project ideas into the projects within Greater Europe concept .
As an outcome, several project proposals (in total 13) were created in each project group participants that were presented in front of experts and later in front of all participants and guests of the Forum during the project market.
The trainers’ team composed of 6 trainers from Russian Federation, Germany, Serbia, Ukraine and Hungary have prepared and developed the program of the Forum.
Practical preparation, implementation and evaluation of activities have took period of time from 23 July - 3 August 2014.
In my group, I have worked with my colleague trainer Kateryna Zeziulina from Ukraine.
The program of the Forum consisted of workshops in team building, generating ideas, project planning, communication of ideas, project evaluation.
An additional responsibility for this couple of trainers was monitoring of project implementation (Model of Democracy simulations), as well as moderating, advising and supporting young facilitators of the activities that happened during this Forum.
The Forum is organized by the Youth Association for a Greater Europe (www.greater-europe.com) with the support of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int/youth) and the Federal Agency on Youth Affairs of the Russian Federation (http://archive.government.ru/eng/power/241/)