This is a reference for Serhan Karatas

"We are all human!" training course

The training activity took place
in Izmir, Turkey
organised by Young Society Initiative
5-10 May 2007

Aims & objectives

Training course was designed for the training of 14 multipliers in human rights education.
Objectives were;
• To discuss the current situation of human rights in different countries and explore the possibilities to address the discrimination, influencing the young people.
• To get competences in implementing human rights education in youth projects.
• To share experience and youth work practices.
• To recognise possible solutions to address discrimination and xenophobia.
• To reflect on the notion of the human rights and be able to multiply this knowledge.
• To introduce and familiarise the participants with COMPASS- a manual on human rights education with young people- and discuss how to adapt it to participants’ realities.
• To develop intercultural competences of the participants.
• To initiate partnership between the organisations by creating a common space for joint work.

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

Target Group was 14 youth workers and young people that are actively working in youth and student organisations from YOUTH in ACTION programme countries (Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Bulgaria, Turkey).
Trainers team was composed of 3 experienced trainers on youth work, based in Turkey, Germany and Poland respectively.

Training methods used & main activities

Training methods used were intercultural participatory non-formal learning methods.
Human rights education tools that are developed by Council of Europe (CoE) and Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) were the main tool resources. Different variations of activities from T-Kit 4 "Intercultural Learning" (edt.M.Taylor; CoE-EU, 2000), Education Pack (edt.R.Gomes; CoE, 2004), COMPASS (CoE, 2001) and Popular Education for Human Rights: 24 Participatory Exercises for Facilitators and Teachers (R.P.Claude; HREA, 2000) were successfully implemented.

Outcomes of the activity

Participants were motivated to follow up the training course and multiply the knowledge gained, even if there was not enough time for future project planning during the project.
"Living Library" method that was presented during the training course was implemented as nationwide long term projects in 2 countries by participants.
"Theatre of oppressed" workshops were organised by one of the participants; the method that was presented during the training course.
An international training course was also implemented by one of the participants in Italy. A youth exchange was also organised as a follow up in Portugal.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

The trainers team divided the tasks and responsibilities equally within the team.
My tasks and responsibilities were;
• Defining objectives and constructing the and developing the methods of the training course.
• Responsible for the modules on human rights education and delivering one third of those exercises.
• Implementing and facilitating the training tools.
• Preparing and editing the final report of the training course.
• Managing the project.

I worked on this training for 5 days as a full time trainer.

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