TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Mila Lukić
The Youth Peace Camp engages young people and youth organisations from conflict affected regions in dialogue and peacebuilding activities based on human rights education and intercultural learning during and after the camp.
Objectives:
1. To develop awareness and basic competences (knowledge, skills and attitude) of participants in human rights education, peacebuilding and intercultural learning to enable them to engage in dialogue and confidence-building initiatives with other young people affected by conflict;
2. To support mutual learning from experiences of conflict and coping strategies;
3. To foster relationship building as a foundation for peacebuilding and dialogue;
4. To introduce and share existing youth work practices and experiences of young people working on dialogue and conflict transformation in their home communities;
5. To motivate and support participants in their role as multipliers and peer leaders in peacebuilding activities with young people encouraging them to implement follow-up initiatives;
6. To strengthen the role of the Council of Europe, in particular through its Youth for Democracy programme, in peacebuilding and intercultural dialogue with young people and to support the approaches of the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The international group was composed of 66 young people aged 18-28 coming from conflict affected regions: Cyprus (Greek speaking Cypriots and Turkish speaking Cypriots), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo* (with a focus on Albanian and Serbian communities), South Caucasus (in particular from border regions and ethnic minorities), both banks of the river Nistru/Dniestr.
The team was international and it composed of 1 educational advisor, 1 senior trainer and 11 facilitators from affected communities.
Non-formal education: interactive and participatory approach, open-ended learning methods, energizers, ice-breakers and team-building activities, experiential learning activities, daily reflections with different methods (Blob tree, Dixit cards, other), debriefing activities, formative evaluation of training;
Human rights education: learning about, through and for human rights, via discussions, critical reflections on prejudices, biases and stereotypes, and experiential learning;
Intercultural learning principles: prioritising respect for diversity and zero tolerance for discrimination and racism, to ensure safe space for everyone;
Peace education: understanding and analysing conflict, conflict transformation, non-violent communication, dialogue and cooperation;
Throughout the training, I used Council of Europe's COMPASS - Manual on human rights education with young people, the Education pack - All Different All Equal, Training Kit 12 on Youth Transforming Conflict, and Training Kit 4 on Intercultural Learning.
- Participants developed competences in addressing conflict and peacebuilding through dialogue and intercultural learning.
- Participants explored the concepts of identity, prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination to better understand the pyramid of violence.
- Participants learned about the difference between debate and dialogue, as well as conflict analysis tools.
- Participants engaged in bi-communal dialogues with the 'other side' to encourage empathy and promote mutual trust and understanding.
- Participants developed a sense of togetherness and unity despite their background or past experiences.
- Participants developed joint follow up initiaitves that focus on disseminating knowledge and skills about intercultural learning and peace education.
To coordinate and support the team of 12 people with different levels of experience in non-formal education and youth peacebuilding activities.
To develop specific session outlines for the programme focused on human rights education, conflict transformation, youth and peacebuilding, evaluation, reflection and debriefing.
To perform quality check of developed session outlines for the whole activity and propose modifications to better fit and translate set aims and objectives into the programme.
To conduct formative evaluation at the end of the activity through interactive exercises and an evaluation form.
To follow up on developed initiatives of participants by analysing and evaluating them.
As a co-trainer it was a pleasure working with Mila. It was easy to find ways to communicate and support each other during the challenging moments that this activity creates.
As a trainer, besides her ability to design activities highly adapted to participants, I value her organisation capacities and her competences to work authonomously under a lot of stress.