TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Paul Smyth
The purpose of the visit was to train community activists (Tripoli) and teachers (Baalbek) to use informal education pedagogy to address issues of conflict with young people, and to build civic action projects.
I was the only trainer, and the participants were all Lebanese from a variety of religious and political traditions. There were around 15 participants in the training in Tripoli, and 30 in Baalbek.
I used a variety of methods based on the manual created by Public Achievement, Northern Ireland, called "Building Democracy with Young People in Contested Spaces". I used a variety of participative method to help participants to understand: themselves as educators in a divided society; the nature of the contested space in which they live and how it affects their role as educators; better understanding young people in a contested space - including the conflicts they experience; and creative models of evaluation practice. Much of this was in small groups, using creative methodologies (including creating and discussing maps of communities) and feeding back to the larger group.
Outcomes included:
Building skills of participants to use informal education and youth work methodologies with young people in their communities
Building a better understanding of the impact of conflict on young people, communities and themselves as educators
Helping participants to co-design local action projects with young people and to implement and evaluate these projects.
I designed and led the training which was organised by the British Council Lebanon with local partners. The trip was co-sponsored by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.