TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Ohiane Uranga Pascual
On-Arrival Training for EVS Volunteers.
- introduce the volunteers to the host country, preparing them for the experience
- make them aware of cultural and personal challenges
- facilitate networking
- conflict prevention and crisis management advice
- to develop communication skills, intercultural learning to support the participants to reflect on their own personal goals.
ESC MidTerm Training:
- to have the opportunity to review achievements and challenges in the volunteering placement to date, to reflect on learning gained and set new goals for future
learning.
- encourage to identify practical ways to improve the value of their volunteering placement.
- to make recommendations for their Hosting
Organisation and other organisations involved in their volunteering placement.
OAT: 29 EVS Volunteers from Hungary, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Finland, Armenia, Turkey, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Czech Republic and Russia.
Team: 3 English 1 Spanish
MTT: 21 participants, 16 female and 5 male. We had a wide range of countries and backgrounds, the countries represented included: Austria, Greece, Germany, Spain , Italy, Turkey, Belarus, Egypt, and Czech Republic.
Team: 2 English and 1 Spanish
ON ARRIVAL TRAINING; Energisers and Ice-breakers/ Trainer-led discussions/ Small group discussions/ Individual reflection /Presentations/ Brain-storming and participant suggestions
MID TERM TRAINING
Evaluation of SO/HO/CO as an individual reflection first and then sharing issues. Volunteers were asked to consider what was working well (+) and what wasn’t working so well i.e. what problems did they have (-) and any unresolved problems (what problem did they still have which they wanted to talk about).
and EVS Experience – “Map of experience” from 1 to 10 place yourself in the room depending on how happy you are with : your role, your project, your accommodation, your supervisor, your mentor, your contribution in the project... The volunteers shared their feeling , concerns and the things that were going great, it gave us a fantastic visual info and evaluation about were was everyone at regarding different topics.
Activity: World Café - volunteers rotate around several tables, each with a topic for discussion: Me in the Community (tips for integration) , Solving problems (sharing success stories) and Cultural Expectations (proved correct, proved incorrect, surprises; volunteers revisited the stereotypes they had of the UK, what was true or false and what surprises they had) – for these three questions, volunteers were asked to reflect on their experience and share good practices and ideas. To make the most of the EVS experience and think on a positive
We also had two other topics: Tips for Future Volunteers and Expectations and Surprises Volunteers rotated around the six topics, followed by a plenary summing up.
Activity: Personal reflection and Improvement – Ways to achieve your goals and effect positive changes in your EVS project. We asked them to write : - 3 general goals they would like to achieve before the EVS finishes (not necessarily related with the project itself) and think on 3 steps that will have to do to achieve them. We visited SMART GOALS and ask them to do an example for themselves . - We also wrote 3 things they would like to do in their projects and again break it down into small steps. - Finally we asked them to write where they would like to be in 1 year time (so Ideally what they would like to be doing) and proposed them to sometime in the future break it down into small steps so hopefully that will help them to achieve what they want.
Personal Learning, development and Youthpass – First of all we found out what they knew about the Youthpass and what questions they had; then we went through their questions (what is it, how do we actually create it, who does it, when, what is the purpose and how useful is it). Then in small groups they study one of the eight key competence and reflect what it meant and then using post its, they wrote up a concrete example where they had develop that competence in their project/ evs experience. In the plenary sum up, each small group presented and explained each competence with their own words and share their examples . The rest of the group fed back with questions or additional examples from their own learning experiences during EVS. We provided pieces of paper and encouraged all volunteers to write concrete examples from all the competences while they were listening to the examples other groups were sharing, so they could go back home with a concrete and deep reflection and examples of their own personal learning improvement. Future Opportunities – We didi this activity as a World café writing diferent “routes” in each flip chart: volunteering, studying, working, internship, project making and “other possibilities”. We encouraged participants to write in at least 2 or 3 of them depending on their own interest for the future. This encouraged the volunteers to start thinking about their life after their EVS service and it was useful for them to know that there are a lot of opportunities and possibilities available that they might have not thought about before. Each flip-chart was presented by a different volunteer that “wanted” to take that route and the rest were asking questions and who ever wrote the information explained. The trainers some extra information that they didn't know about.
- All participants went back to their projects feeling motivated, informed and inspired.
- Participants got the time and the space to reflect on what they want to achieve and tips on how to do it.
- The group dynamic was good and we could do some conflict management group exercises (play role).
- Peer support during the training and after through a social media group.
My role was lead trainer.
- Prepare the training space and paperwork before and after the training. arrange practicalities and logistics during the training process.
- Meeting, organising, planning the activities and evaluating with the other trainers.
- Lead Training sessions.
- Support the other trainers when they lead their sessions.
- Mentoring work outside training programme.
- Writing a report.