TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Maria Kousoula
Brief Description of the Training Course
“Learn, Do, Stay Inspired” aimed to raise awareness on the key concepts of Volunteerism and Youth participation in order to increase the capacity of the participants to act in a more effective way and to promote Volunteering and its benefits in society. Hence, the activity aimed to empower the group leaders, young activists, youth workers and volunteers of the organizations from across Europe to take an active part in their local communities’ development and to equip them with skills and tools necessary to effectively promote volunteering and its benefits among a larger number of young people back to their home countries.
The main objectives:
• To discuss values, principles, benefits/threats of volunteering and create a common understanding of the positive impact that European youth volunteering has on individuals, groups, and societies.
• To exchange experience and ‘best practices’ (successful projects on voluntary base) with other participants.
• To facilitate future cooperation between participants and their organizations and to empower participants to multiply the effects of this training course in their organizations, local communities, and surrounding youth.
• To raise awareness and strengthen understanding of key concepts of volunteering and youth participation in partner promoter countries;
• To introduce volunteering in local communities as a tool for the social inclusion of marginalized youth.
The target group of this project consisted of 32 youth workers and active members of youth organizations coming from 10 countries: Greece, Ukraine, Armenia, Sweden, Georgia, Belarus, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and Azerbaijan.
All the methods used during the project were entirely based on the principles of non-formal education, such as ice-breakers and energizers, team-building exercises, small group discussions, role-plays, individual reflection, practical skills development sessions, feedback and evaluation activities. The activity ensured that the Training Course was very practical and not 'lecture' based. The participants had the chance to "learn by doing" which is at the heart of the process of non-formal learning. Through the methods and activities used, we believe that the participants had the opportunity and space for personal growth, skills-building, sharing of good practice, and cross-cultural learning.
The project had an impact on multiple target groups including participants, partner (promoter) organizations, youth in partner countries as well as the local communities.
At the participants’ and hence the target group level we achieved the following impact:
- Developed skills, knowledge and the right attitudes towards promoting volunteering, to enable participants to use different tools during the promoting different voluntary initiatives and implement high-quality activities/projects in the future;
- After the project, the participants were more familiar with non-formal learning methods, different simulation games, role plays, techniques for an interactive presentation, which empowered project target group to act easily during working in local communities on different project and initiatives;
- Improved confidence to undertake local/regional/national and international projects;
- Greater awareness developed as to the issues that may arise when working with volunteers in different voluntary activities (e.g. Importance of being an active volunteer at a local community, importance of being a positive change maker in civil society and motivate others to take actions to become volunteers as well,
Finally, the participating organizations gained new skills in organizing international initiatives. Moreover, direct contact with representatives of organizations from different countries allowed the flow of good practices and identification of other common issues that were the main topic of further follow-up actions.
Co-trainer.