TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Panayiotis Theodorou
The main project theme was activism in its multiple forms, seen as a force for change and development of young people, on one hand, and thought young people the change and development of communities, on the other hand. Activism was explored from its most obvious forms, like philanthropy and voluntarism, to less visible or less used forms, such as the responsibility towards the environment, sustainable development, online activism, stimulating participation in the decision-making process, etc. We emphasize so many options for involvement because we wanted to offer our participants the opportunity to chose the most adequate method of involvement for their own context, to put into practice their initiatives, but also to offer them further to the young people they work with. In fact, this was an important aspects throughout the project, as the participants were intensely encouraged to actively choose from the program what fits them best, but also to influence the program according to their needs.
We hosted participants and trainers from the following countries Italy, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Portugal, The Netherlands, Romania, Georgia, Moldova Ukraine, Cyprus
Implemented activities and working methods:
We approached the topics from particular to general, trying through specific non-formal education methods to identify what exactly stimulated each participant to actively participate in the life of his or her community and to give them the opportunity to influence the programme according to their needs.
All activities were completed with reflection moments about the experiences created and felt, the learning moments experienced by the participants, so that they were able to become aware of the accumulation and learning process during the experience itself. Reflection was the main method used. The entire learning process was based on the learning objectives priorly established and agreed with the participants. Related to the working methods used, we tried to keep a balance between indoor and outdoor methods, which were all chosen from the non-formal education area.
Besides this, we turned to different get-to-know-each-other games, trust-building and team-building activities, debates and brainstorming sessions, team-work, plenaries and small-groups work, presentations and offering reference materials, role-plays, creation activities (creating a shortmovie about EVS, presentations and expressing themselves through drawing, collages, heather plays), energizers, evaluation activities, direct community involvement by implementing small projects and others as well.
We also gave participants the opportunity to suggest different methods themselves, that we were able to use to reach the purpose of a particular session, in this way sharing their own work experience and stimulating everyone’s creativity. These activities based on experimental learning had a great impact on the participants. Besides the project learning objectives, a crucial aspect was the direct involvement of each participant in the training course and the wish to offer all of them the framework in which they were able to explore and formulate their own learning and personal and professional learning needs. We stimulated the participants to be creative and to think outside the box.
The non-formal education methods were the main ingredient in the course design, and among them we gave special attention to creative games.
Also, the participants were encouraged to identify the opportunities to involve youth with fewer opportunities and to understand how to adapt all the learned methods to their needs.
Concerning objectives and the priorities of the Life Long Learning Programme and the Youth in Action Programme the project has contribute to make participants more aware about cultural differences and about the great potential offered by intercultural learning in youth work. At the same time the training by asking participant to be active in designing projects motivated them to be active in their organisation and local community by showing several ways to contribute to a more open society.
Concerning training course objectives and learning aims we consider that those objectives have been fulfilled because participants gain:
During the project the participants were able:
to describe the multiple forms activism: volunteering, philanthropy, responsible behaviour towards the environment, involvement in the local authorities decision-making process , etc.
• reach their commonly established goals, by creating and implementing their local projects in the neighbourhoods’ local community during the
training
• analyze and emphasize the common European values identified, o as to concretely apply them in future youth projects of the partner organizations
• discover, test and practice new alternative methods to stimulate and involve youth in their communities, using some of them in the projects implemented during the training course.
As a trainer and part of a team i had a full time responsibility of the flow of the training. Sessions were equally divided and shared amongst the three trainers. The planning was reviewed every day and adjusted according to the needs of participants. Implementation and evaluation of the activities were in the everyday agenda. Being part of the host organization i also had the overall responsibility of the logistics of the training.