Johanna Cutajar and Prudence Young
A collAborAtive Action for SociAl incluSion Social Inclusion at its Best! A training course regarding social inclusion organized by Erasmus+
by JohAnnA cutAJAr This was the first time that I had ever attended a training course and I do not even regret a second of it. As a trainee counsellor, working in a school environment, learning about social inclusion, which was the topics of this training course, was really useful for me. This is especially true since, in every school that I work in, I encounter children and adolescents who are diverse in many ways. Some of these diversities include children who have some kind of disability, who are from diverse cultural backgrounds and who have different abilities. Therefore, such training did not only increase my awareness regarding certain aspects of social inclusion but it was also an opportunity for me to learn more about this topic. Being one of the participants of such a diverse team of participants was in itself a clear example of social inclusion. The training was well organized and planned, allowing participants to learn about social inclusion through hands on and group activities. Such activities were not only really engaging and fun to carry out but they also gave each participant the
equal
opportunity to take part and thus feel
included. In fact,
no one activity was carried out
individually and
most
required
participants
to
of
individuals
or
be
of divided
the into
activities groups
two
more. The variety and duration of each
activity and the
energizers that were used were really
useful as they
served to keep participants focused, especially since each training day was quite intensive, starting early in the morning and finishing late in the afternoon. 1
Johanna Cutajar and Prudence Young I highly recommend such a training course and other training courses organized by Erasmus+ as they provide a very creative way of learning about several different useful topics. Following this training, I valued more the importance of social inclusion and I felt grateful that I am in favour of it as I realized how indispensable it is in life. I intend to share my knowledge regarding this topic and suggest practices of social inclusion and equity to further increase awareness, especially in my workplace.
My thoughtS, whAt i leArnt – Prudence young
When a saw the topic of the training course a was drawn to it since it was a topic that really touched my heart and I was interested in . Since it was my first training course abroad I was very scared and also I was the youngest out of all the participants so I was also a bit scared that nobody would care of what I head to say . First day on arrival I was very welcomed and I got to know the participants a bit more . The next day we started with the training which I loved it was coordinated perfectly and the activities where interesting . Mostly I liked the role plays that I gained a lot of knowledge from and also put my self in other people’s roles and position which sometimes it was hard to do . From the whole training I think I gain more knowledge on how to include people with different abilities in the society of today , or how we as a youth worker can help at least one person be a appreciated and welcomed in today’s life . We also can put an impact on people to have a more open mentality and not to judge or not give someone a chance because they have different abilities.
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Johanna Cutajar and Prudence Young
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