TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Stéphanie Fritz
The training aims at giving opportunities to European volunteers to reflect their first months in Germany and at the volunteering place. The exchange with peers is very important and the training is a safe space for discussing problems and finding solutions e.g. concerning the working place, living conditions, questions about personal future.
Besides this the training brings in impulses to reflect power imbalance and discrimination in Europe and worldwide and the volunteers' role and position in all this.
These objectives are part of the pedagocical curriculum and competence concept of European Solidarity Corps.
Target Group: 20 volunteers within European Solidarity Corps
Countries of origin: Belorussia, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Italy, Cameroon, Great Britain, Poland, Tunisia, North Macedonia
My co-trainer was from Germany.
The training was held in English and German, with punctual translation into Russian.
- Group strengthening exercises (also for reflecting power of language, diversity and inclusion)
- (small) group discussions and plenary discussions
- creative activities on the topic of utopia/ visions for the future
- excursion and expert consultation
- theater pedagogical methods (topic: conflict solving strategies)
The training activity was evaluated with a standardized questionnaire and an open discussion at the end of the workshop. The personal as well as the formalized feedback was overall very positive, the participants pointed out the good group atmosphere, the well-balanced mix of methods as well as the open, welcoming attitude of the trainers.
The questionnaire showed that the participants have learned about solidarity in Europe and how stereotypes / discrimination work, they also got answers to their questions and problems in the ESK programme.
I was part of a 2 headed trainers team. We both worked full-time giving input and bringing in methods as well as translating consecutively.