TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Areg Tadevosyan
The objectives of the training course were:
- To bring youth workers/leaders interested in interfaith dialogue together to explore together the concepts of "Diversity" and "Culture of Dialogue" in the context of interfaith dialogue in Europe
- To raise interfaith qualifications and competences of participants and to encourage them to use the acquired skills for working with youth belonging to various religious backgrounds in future
- To raise the participant's intercultural sensitivity through exploring various faiths (their historical development, values and spiritual interconnectedness) as well as the principles of constructive dialogue among religions.
- To bring youth organisations dealing with or interested in interfaith dialogue together in order to develop follow-up projects for young people in this field
he group consisted of 30 youth workers and leaders coming from Armenia, Germany, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Estonia, Portugal, France, Denmark and Turkey.
The team of trainers consisted of
Natalia Seriakova-Germany
Areg Tadevosyan-Armenia
Oliver Wiechmann-Armenia/Germany
This TC had a high-quality non-formal learning dimension. There were created various learning environments facilitated by the trainers for the participant to act, contribute and learn.
Participatory approaches were applied throughout the project. Most activities were of inclusive nature ( individual reflection and working in teams, confrontation exercise, open space, word cloud, etc) where all the participants interacted and were encouraged to express themselves and contribute to the project’s learning process. Team-building activities and energizers were used to keep group dynamics. There were also theoretical inputs on the development of different faiths, principles of interfaith dialogue, etc
Outcomes of the
When we take into consideration the results of the participant' reports, we can say that all of them have imroved their personal and professional skills, knowledge and competences. The project made them rethink or change their attitude or
behaviour towards several Europen issues. According to the overall evaluation the participants have improved:
1) Practical skills (project management, planning and organising)
2) Analytical skills
3) Sence of initiative and entrepreneurship
4) Learning to learn. We
devoted a lot of time for reflection activities, youth pass and competences activities.
5) Interpersonal and social competences
6) Selfconfidence and emotional skills
7) Cultural awareness and expression.
Intercultural learning and environment during the whole activity. The group itself helped a lot with more than 10 present countries and even more ethnicities and backgrounds.
One of the most important competences addressed during this TC was the “Cultural awareness and expression“, where more specifically the interreligious aspect was emphasized. Participants of the Training Course had an opportunity to critically assess their level of knowledge and possible stereotypical views, which they had on different spiritual traditions.
Several program elements gave a possibility to raise their level of awareness about different spiritual traditions, aspects of interreligious dialogue, current state of art of interreligious dialogue in wider Europe and internationally, as well as ways to address inter-faith dialogue issues on international youth
project level, in their communities and daily life.
One of the main objectives of the project was also to serve as a platform for future similar project development amongst partners from different countries, and to do so Open Space technology session was organized preceded with Erasmus Plus programme presentation. Project development session was facilitated by project organziers, which had a great experience in Erasmus+ Programme. This work gave participants a possibility to improve their project management skills and sence of initiative and entrepreneurship.
Another key competence, which participants were able to develop through their participation in the Training was “Social and civic competence“. Intercultural sensitivity and awareness are essential aspects of interpersonal and intercultural communication and the training gave a possibility to gain theoretical knowledge on the basis of intercultural dialogue and learning, to experience multi-cultural working environment in the framework of the project and to practice their skills and attitudes during the field visits to religious communities in Armenia.
The project included theoretical inputs on these topics, simulation and other exercises, as well as various types of social activities (intercultural evenings, non-formal communication, country situation presentation etc.) that gave participants possibilities to develop the intercultural aspects of their social
and civic competences.
Fulltime trainer, responsible for the program design and implementation together with the 2 other trainers