Reclaiming Civic Space through Youth Work and Human Rights Education

Aims & objectives

The objectives of this international activity were to:

- Explore key concepts and deepen participants’ understanding in access to human rights and shrinking space phenomenon;
- Enable participants to share information and their own experiences on their local contexts, focusing on young people at risk of social exclusion;
- Provide space for reflection on the roles of participants as youth workers, trainers and activists, and enhance their competences to act against shrinking spaces;
- Critically analyse ongoing challenges and practices in addressing shrinking spaces
- Provide a framework, and support to plan and develop a common action as well as local activities engaging young people in their local contexts.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

Training course in Turin brought together around 40 youth workers to get engaged in understanding the above mentioned issues and co-create actions to counter the shrinking space through human rights education. The countries included Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan.

The team included trainers from Italy, Georgia, Bulgaria, Armenia, Poland.

Training methods used & main activities

Through the activities we followed the Kolb cycle, i.e. experiencing – observing and reflecting – giving theoretical background – linking with reality and develop participants’ skills, attitudes, and knowledge in different areas, connected to the rural development. The workshops tailored to meet participants’ learning needs and will combine theoretical input with interactive exercises and tools for youth empowerment.

Outcomes of the activity

The participants:
-Explored key concepts and deepen participants’ understanding in access to human rights and shrinking space phenomenon;
- Have been enabled to share information and their own experiences on their local contexts, focusing on young people at risk of social exclusion;
- Have been provided a space for reflection on the roles of participants as youth workers, trainers and activists, and enhance their competences to act against shrinking spaces;
- Critically analysed ongoing challenges and practices in addressing shrinking spaces
- Have been provided a framework, and support to plan and develop a common action as well as local activities engaging young people in their local contexts.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was a co-trainer of the training course being responsibly for the preparation and implementation of the whole training programme and all the training sessions along with my colleagues.

I worked on this training for 6 days as a full time trainer.

Testimonial of the reference person

Karen's preparation and delivery was outstanding. Very trustworthy person, one can easily entrust him a group. His argumentation is founded on a solid knowledge background and rigorous pre-research in the field of democratization and civic space. Session arrangement and dramaturgy follows an air-tight logic and dynamics.