„Quality, Support & Preparation - youth worker becomes group leader!”
"Our main aim is to organize a training to raise the quality of youth exchanges by providing group leader's with competences required to support participants in each phase of the project"
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We have seen a lack of experience in group leaders (from hosting and sending organization side) to support good quality youth exchanges. With this project we want to create a chance to cooperate and raise the competences of group leaders that participating organizations select to their youth exchanges to better support and prepare their participants. Better prepared group leaders are also better at supporting youngsters at taking initiatives during the project and leading some activities which will achieve one of the aims of youth exchanges - young people carrying out activities with the help of their group leader instead of project being carried out for them. This will also result in better feeling in youngsters as the project being "ours" not “theirs” - and their contribution to the project enhances even more. From feedback forms participants have mentioned that there is no task division, group leader's take the role of organizers instead of supporting young people in carryout of project (and their ideas). These problems could be avoided in case the group leaders would have a clear understanding of good quality youth exchange and their role in it. One of the keys is preparation and understanding, how big part of youth exchange is actually preparation, not just the activities. Additionally, group leaders play a major role in the follow-up and evaluation phase, too, where young people need motivation and support. We also see one of the problems with inexperienced group leader's who don't know how to act in stress situations, such as conflicts in the group, emergency situations and dealing with participants with fewer opportunities. There have been situations in projects which put participants in danger, and the group leader has no experience to solve them in a safe way. Even bigger is the responsibility in case the project involves minor participants. These are the main issues we want to address together with our partners.
Main objectives:
- To create a common understanding about good quality youth exchange and the role of group leader among partners
- To train youth workers to be able to be group leaders in youth exchanges and support their group in preparation, implementation, follow-up and evaluation of youth exchange
- To exchange good practices how to deal with conflicts and danger situations during youth exchanges and how to mediate them
- To support group leaders to facilitate the learning process of participants
- To create an action plan how to support active participation of young people in youth exchanges with focus on inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities
- To create supportive materials for organizations to use for group leader trainings and quality preparation of youth exchange participants.
Main objectives:
- To create a common understanding about good quality youth exchange and the role of group leader among partners
- To train youth workers to be able to be group leaders in youth exchanges and support their group in preparation, implementation, follow-up and evaluation of youth exchange
- To exchange good practices how to deal with conflicts and danger situations during youth exchanges and how to mediate them
- To support group leaders to facilitate the learning process of participants
- To create an action plan how to support active participation of young people in youth exchanges with focus on inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities
- To create supportive materials for organizations to use for group leader trainings and quality preparation of youth exchange participants.
OUTCOMES
After the project 28 participants will carry out follow up activities in their organizations and train their group leaders based on competences they have improved during the training course and materials created. As the result of the project 28 participants and group leaders they train locally will have the set of competences to be successful group leaders. They know how to prepare participants and support them in various phases of the project. They know how to act in emergency situations and how to mediate conflicts. They know how to support participants and include participants with various activity levels in the team and support their activities without taking the lead. All project partners have a more clear understanding what is a good quality youth exchange and what is the role of group leader. They have learned from each other's experience and are now ready to handle youth exchanges better by supporting their young people. Participants will be more conscious about their own learning process and are able to support the learning process of youngsters in youth exchanges. There are tools prepared: quizzes, methods, documents - to support partner organizations and their group leaders in preparation and support of youngsters for youth exchange and give partners with various methods and competences to train their future group leaders.
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MATERIALS
„This project has been funded with support from the European Commission Erasmus+ programme. These materials reflect the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”
