TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Charis Charalambous
The "(re)Imagining Community" course explored themes of community building and community engagement, diversity and inclusion, and change-making. The course aimed to instill the young participants with the confidence and competencies to initiate and contribute to positive change in their community.
The international team of facilitators consisted of 12 members, from Cyprus, the Netherlands, India, Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Five of the roles were reserved for senior facilitators with a focus on curriculum and learning experience (2), pastoral care and wellbeing (2), and logistics (1).
The course brought together 36 participants, aged 14 to 17, with 12 participants from the Greek
Cypriot community, 12 participants from the Turkish Cypriot community, and 10 international participants.
Two spots were also reserved for the migrant community in Cyprus. The total number of countries represented among participants was 16; among overseas participants: Italy, the Netherlands, Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom; and among Cyprus residents: Australia, Cyprus, Germany, India, the Philippines, Poland, Romania and Russia.
The course methodology consisted of ice-breaking, energizing and getting to know each other activities, drafting of a working agreement by participants, teambuilding, trust-building resource-mapping activities, personal self-assessment, daily reflection in small groups, practicing dialogue and communication skills, identification of personal values, analysis of community needs, a Human Library experience, and work in groups to create and present a potential social impact project. Indoor and outdoor spaces of the training site were used to implement the activities, including three field trips to the nearby village, the beach and a mountain village.
The young participants of the course were overwhelmingly satisfied with their experience (72% stated they were "extremely satisfied" and all of them said they were “extremely likely” or “likely” to recommend such a residential course to their friends).
The course helped the participants (a) explore key personal/social concepts (e.g. identity, community, empathy, dialogue, openness, biases, values, social impact examples), (b) come together with each other in dialogue and create strong and lasting bonds, (c) work in teams to brainstorm, work together and propose social impact projects, (d) meet social/community stakeholders.
The participants rated themselves on 12 different competencies (e.g. emotional and social intelligence, problem-solving, empathy, creativity & innovation, leadership, perseverance, critical thinking), both at the start and at the end of the course, indicating how confident they felt in their ability on a scale of 1 to 5. The average score of each competence increased
from the beginning to the end of the course.
I was involved full-time in the course as one of the two Senior Curriculum Leads, responsible for designing the session themes and flow of the daily program, and as a seasoned trainer, co-facilitating sessions with other members of the facilitators' team. For the online and on-site preparation, the on-site delivery of the program and the delivery of feedback and recommendations, I worked for 30 work days.
In her position as curriculum lead, Charis played a key role in providing an interactive and
meaningful learning experience by developing the overall schedule and learning outcomes.
With her vast experience in both education and counseling, she has been a great mentor to
some of the junior team members and never hesitated to share her expertise with the rest of
the team. During the course, her critical and student-centric approach to pedagogy was
instrumental in building a safe and engaging learning environment for our participants. Charis is an outstandingly dedicated trainer.