TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Anuschka Ruge
The main aim of the project was to increase the engagement of young people in the policy debate on issues relevant to them, their influence on the outcomes of the decisionmaking and their active part in the democratic process.
The objects were:
- Organise a debate and learning program for young people and youth organisations to explore the reach of democratic participation and, in particular, their role in society. Discuss and outline the issues of particular concern to young people and their response and proposals for solutions
- Provide an opportunity for young people and youth organisations to cooperate and combine their efforts to be able to support each other in the struggle for their rights
- Explore the tools and mechanisms for young people and youth organisations to increase their presence in society and their influence on the democratic process.
The project involved 25 participants from member countries of Council of Europe (Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom).
The five people team came from Armenia, Georgia, Germany, Italy and New Zealand.
The training was developed with a strict non-formal approach combined with Visual Facilitation. We based many activities on the T-Kit 7: European Citizenship in Youth Work by the Youth Partnership of the Council of Europe and the European Union. For a full list of the methods and session outline, please check the respective educational publication under https://iusy.org/category/home/toolkit-promoting-active-citizenship/ .
The following outcomes were archived:
- Democracy in action - what is the democracy, how does a democratic society function, how do we assure representation and input from all social groups, how do we ensure fair policy- and decision-making processes
- Ways for increasing the role of young people in the democratic process - identifying the issues of utmost importance to influence, defining the obstacles and challenges, formulating the responses, exploring tools for communicating the contributions of young people and their representatives to the public debate
- Ways for youth organizations to assist each others in the struggle for their rights - lessons learned throughout the process, ways to identify obstacles and challenges and avoid the ones our partner organizations have already faced, ways for young people and youth organizations working as recognized stakeholders in their society to assist their peers still struggling for their rights
- Our work field - a global cooperation platform between youth organisations and youth movements, its functioning and coordination, ways to expand it by encouraging more young people to get actively involved
- Communication tools - the use of e-communication in our advocacy, the use of "traditional" advocacy tools and the combination of various tools and mechanisms
Beyond that, some participants implemented some of the projects that were developed during the training.
I was the senior trainer and as such was responsible for:
- Planning the educational approach and content of the activity starting from April 2017
- Organising the timeline and the methods
- Delivering the four full-day training with everyday evaluations
- Dealing with conflict management and mediation
- Communicating with the coordination team of IUSY
- Reporting and follow up
I also facilitate the follow-up workshop in the framework of IUSY World Festival 2017 in Yale, Albania, and co-authored the educational publication ( http://iusy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/YPiA-Toolkit-EN.pdf ).