TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for vojislava tomic radivojsa
Aim
The Youth Peace Ambassadors project promotes and supports the role of young people in peace-building activities that contribute to living together in dignity and dialogue through a network of specifically trained young people who strengthen the presence and promote the values of the Council of Europe in conflict-affected areas and communities.
Objectives
The main objectives of this project are:
• To promote the presence and the role of young people as positive actors of change in peace-building processes;
• To strengthen the role of young people in identifying and speaking up against human rights violations, including discrimination, hate speech and those human rights violations affecting especially young people and children;
• To support the field presence and activities of the Council of Europe by fostering cooperation with key stakeholders, partners, non-governmental organisations working in the field of peace-building in order to promote the values of the Council of Europe;
• To develop the impact and the expertise of the Council of Europe’s youth sector in conflict affected areas through non-formal education activities with young people;
• To develop the competences 50 of youth peace ambassadors in human rights promotion and protection, conflict transformation, peace-building and intercultural dialogue, as well as other specific competences according to the participants’ needs, related to their role as future ambassadors;
• To support and give visibility to at least 50 local youth-led projects for peace-building in conflict-affected areas and communities;
• To enhance the youth ambassadors capacity to take action at a local level in environments affected by previous or ongoing conflicts;
• To advance youth policy’s role in peace-building and conflict transformation;
• To create and support a European network of youth peace ambassadors to secure the sustainability and medium-term impact of the project.
Youth Peace Ambassadors project combines residential trainings, distance learning and field initiatives.
Within this wider framework, the first training seminar was focused on deepening participants’ competences in the field of human rights and human rights protection in conflict-affected communities. The first seminar was also an opportunity for understanding more about the Council of Europe and its main actions related to the promotion of human rights.
The project consists of tree groups of twenty-five youth leaders A, B, C. I have been responsible as trainer and mentor for the group B that has 26 participants from following countries: Hungary, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Russian Federation, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, UK, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, Czech Republic.
Team Group B:
Anca Ruxandra Pandea - Council of Europe Educational Advisor [Romania/Hungary]
Diego Marin Romera - Trainer [Spain]
Tatevik Margaryan - Trainer [Armenia/Egypt]
The project is based on the training of the youth ambassadors using the experience with intercultural and non-formal education approaches of the European Youth Centres in Budapest and Strasbourg. The participants were trained during residential seminars at the European youth centres, complemented by distance learning using an e-learning platform and by youth work practice in their organisations and communities.
Three groups of twenty-five youth leaders, the future youth ambassadors, will follow a similar path of training, starting at different moments, but also meeting up to share experiences and support each other in learning, action taking and build up to act as a network.
The main result is the creation of a sustainable network of youth peace ambassadors at the end of the project. The network is built upon the increased level of competence of the participants in working with and in conflict affected communities through training, their initiatives to and projects in local communities and their organisations or institutions.
The network will support the field presence of the Council of Europe and be an active and competent partner in future peace-building activities.
Through the various activities, such as advocacy, consultancy to youth initiatives, lobby, mediation and campaigning, to be implemented by the youth ambassadors, a higher level of awareness on human rights violations, instruments and mechanisms of protection of human rights is expected at community level.
The project will result into a higher level of cooperation and communication between different actors active in peace-building activities in conflict-affected communities in Europe (i.e. non-governmental organizations, local, national and regional institutions), cooperation in which Youth Peace Ambassadors are expected to act as liaison between local communities and relevant institutions.
Finally, the project should improve the relations and conditions for dialogue among young people taking part in or being affected by conflicts, including armed conflicts and their consequences in various regions and countries across Europe.
It is expected that, after the initial residential seminar, participants in the different groups will initiate actions for peace-building in their local communities. The initiatives will constitute a learning experience and will be supported through mentoring and peer groups, but will also benefit of institutional support in varied forms depending on need and particularities.
www.e-learning4youth.coe.int
www.youthpeace.coe.int
My tasks were to develop and implement, in coordination with the other trainers in the course and under the supervision of the course coordinator, the training programme of the 1st residential Seminar of the Youth Peace Ambassadors Project and to develop and implement the “mentoring” and “e-learning” features of the course from May to December 2011.
The Trainer’s contribution includes:
- To take part in the preparatory process of the project (meetings and on-line discussions), to attend the preparatory meeting of the seminar.
- To prepare, run and evaluate plenary and working group sessions of the programme, in accordance with the other trainers and the course director(s)
- To prepare presentations and suggest further learning resources about the main concepts and educational approaches addressed in and through the course
- To draft and provide session outlines and module descriptions in accordance with the other trainers and the course director(s)
- To support the work of junior trainers in the course and to provide them relevant feed-back
- To attend daily planning and evaluation meetings
- To providing individual feedback and consultation to the participants during the seminar as necessary;
- To prepare the evaluation of the seminar;
- To assist participants in the development of their project plans for the practice phase of the Youth Peace Ambassadors project;
- To attend the evaluation and preparatory meeting of the second seminar
- To contribute to the documentation report of the training
Furthermore, the trainer undertakes to write an evaluation report about the training seminar.
E-learning, mentoring and project support
- To develop, integrate comments from other trainers, finalise, implement, monitor and evaluate the assignments in the e-learning platform for the period 1 May – 31 December 2011. This includes the pre-seminar online units, the course units and the post-seminar units. The thematic focus of the units should be developed in agreement with the course coordinator.
- To provide feedback to the other trainers on the other training units and to contribute to their implementation.
- To provide feedback to the participants, to the trainers and to the course coordinator on the performances of participants in relation to those assignments.
- To provide support/assistance to the participants concerning the usage of the platform.
- To provide mentoring and advice to a group of maximum 7 trainees (mentees) on a regular basis and to submit a written monthly report on the mentoring process.
- To support the participants in the course in carrying out their assignments and to effectively use the resources of the e-learning platform of the course.
- To participate and contribute to the preparatory and evaluation meetings of the trainers' team and to prepare any relevant preparatory and follow-up documents.
- To ensure a regular and active usage of the platform by the mentees.
- To provide support/guidance in ensuring that the defined quality criteria for the practice phase are respected by the participants.
- To accompany and guide mentees in their project development during the practice phase.