TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Peri Kourakli
The training activity (hybrid workshop-forum) aimed to initiate political discussions and actions on the field of youth policy in Europe among young people from around Europe. It was considered as a political manifesto on youth. The activity took place just before the European Elections of 2014 since it was consider that this period will also influence positively the European identity and challenges for young people.
The partnership of this activity was rather interesting since it connected organizations that didn’t cooperate in the past, although each one had a clear youth agenda and priorities. This is why the agenda and the targets of the activity were broad and ambitious.
The target group was young people from all around Europe and youth NGOs or bodies that work on youth policy. These organizations were: Heinrich-Böll-Foundation with its European offices, Green European Foundation (GEF), Green Institute of Greece, Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG), Young European Federalists (JEF), Thessaloniki-European Youth Capital 2014, Thess Diktio- the NGO Network of Thessaloniki, and the Erasmus Student Network (ESN).
The 110 participants were active in NGOs, trade unions, protest movements, social networks and youth organizations. Their countries of origin were: Brussels (international bodies), Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Malta, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, UK
The activity included opened and closed sessions. The closed sessions were only for the participants. The priorities and the agenda of this closed session were decided by the partnership (parallel discussions and workshops which started online before the activity and continue afterwards and a huge city game which aimed to present the civil society of Thessaloniki with its good practices), while the open session (three panel discussions among the city and the participants) was organized and decided by the core organizing team.
The preparation period for the core organizing team had a duration of one year, while the preparation period for the participants lasted three months.
The activity was successful to tackle almost all, if not all the youth priorities of Europe. For each one priority a conclusion was reached and for some of them, it was decided to explore the possibility to continue after the training.
The activity was consider successful during the evaluation from all the key players: participants, core team, partnership, volunteers. Also, the city of Thessaloniki acknowledge its importance and more than 90 people attended the open session.
For more information: www.european-youthdialogue.eu
I was a member of the core team. Together we decided the priorities and the agenda of all the activity. We selected the training methods for each priority and the experts for each session of the activity. We also communicated with the partnership and the participants.
Regarding the topics that was my own responsibility in the core team: I coordinated a thematic workshop (promotion and training on citizens’ science method) and I also coordinated (preparation and facilitation) the panel discussion on youth social & labor inclusion.
I also represented Thessaloniki- European Youth Capital 2014, which was a partner in the partnership with high obligations and responsibilities. This means that I had to coordinate the volunteer team and the communications, while dealing or supporting with practical- organization issues (eg. venue, infrastructures, etc.).