BOOKLET
D E E P
TRAINING COURSE
Adventureship
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects 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.
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Training course AdventureShip for youth workers looking for challenging learning experience and new working
8.4. to 17.4. 2011 in Macedonia by Volunteers Centre Skopje. methods was organized from
The training course provided participants coming from more 20 countries (Sweeden, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Lithuania, Latvia, Armenia, Ukraina, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Greece, Albania, Italy and...) chance to experience approach called adventure education. Adventure edcuation focuses on participating in activities with perceived risks and includes cooperative games, trustbuilding activities, problem solving initiatives, and wilderness expeditions as a part of an educational pursuit. Adventure training allows reexamining preconceptions and test limitations and abilities of individuals and teams. Main aim of the project was to provide
extraordinary learning process, which would promote professional and personal development of youth workers and give knowledge about adven-
ture education and implementing its principles in the activities with aims of social inclusion and combating youth unemployment.
Objectives of the training course: to learn about creating and elaborating adventure training initiatives. To elaborate new learning tools and approaches that implies participation in adventurous activities and development of transferable skills and attitudes that can be applied in professional work. To developing participants’ civic skills such as communication skills, team building skills, planning skills, creative thinking and encouraging the participants to take more active role in addressing problems actual to young people in their communities. To reflect on issues linked to sense of belonging to Europe and European citizenship. To explore links among cultural diversity, creativity, innovations and efficient leadership. To intensify personal contacts and organizational cooperation among Neighboring partner countries from South East Europe, Eastern Europe and Caucasus and Programme countries. To facilitate elaboration of new European cooperation projects among the promoters that would address the youth unemployment issue.
By this brochure we would like to share some of the moments of the training course as some of the project activities. Also we would like to use this opportunity to thank you all partners and participants for their support and active participation. Regards to all of you, Volunteers Centre Skopje
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D E E P I N A D V E N T U R E S H I P
D E E P I N A D V E N T U R E S H I P
Adventure is ... Unknown, which surprises, full of energy, inspiring, unique. It could be a lesson or lifestyle.
For me adventure is a great and colorful event with happy ending, adventure is when you can not be 100% sure about what will happen next so everything depends on quick choices you make, adventure is getting fulfilled with a lot of new experience.
Adventure is trying to reach something to get for a stuff what u really insist on or what u really want. When u are trying to reach it,u are also going into a circle which is making u feel hard.
Everything from calm walking in the woods to adrenalinefilled kiteboarding on the ocean.
It´s…challenge. Life. Emotion. Courage. Inspiration. It´s something new and bring changes. It´s a trip, in all your senses. Your body, your mind, your ability to evolution, your trust and truth with yourself, the others and the circumstances. Life is an adventure. I’m suspect, but when i think in adventure, i think in nature. Because in the civilization, all are prepare to us, every facilities, every ways, every informations, everything… But in the nature, anything are prepare to us, we have to are prepare. Prepared to live something new, something unexpect, and couriously, something simple, and natural, like our realy nature. Adventure is our nature.
answers from application forms of the participants which they were filling before coming to Macedonia
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and what is adventure for you?
write it down
D E E P I N
and
go for it 3
A D V E N T U R E S H I P
D E E P
adventure is looking for way in unknown city and solving tasks with other “strangers� At second day of the project the participants took part in challenge during which they needed to find several stops all around Skopje for them unknow city. At each stop were waiting for the participants local and EVS volunteers with several tasks - to take bling walk, to draw the view, to solve logical tasks that you can also try below....right answers you can find at last page. And also put together puzzle tha was made from this postcard of Skopje that is showing old Skopje before earthquake.
I N A D V E N T U R E S H I P
If you put a coin in an empty bottle and insert a cork into the neck of the bottle, how could you remove the coin without taking the cork out or breaking the bottle?
I have a tail, and I have a head, but i have no body. I am NOT a snake. What am I?
I never was, am always to be, No one ever saw me, nor ever will. And yet I am the confidence of all. To live and breathe on this terrestrial ball. What am I?
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adventure is facing prejudices and stereotypes inside us You were living in nice house. One day you just lost your job and now you cannot offer live alone anymore, so you decided to split the house in 4 flats,
one of flats is your. And you are looking for neighbours. The question is with whom would you like to live? Please, find yourself three neighbours.
A single mother with a 3 year old child whose father is Tunisian. He visits his son occasionally and sometimes bring along a few friends. A migrant workers family from one of the Balkan countries with 4 children between 5 and 18. Father works in steel industry, mother would like also find a job, but currently is unemployed. A family with a 17 year old daughter attending 11th grade at a secondary school. Father is an accountant in a bank, mother is a teacher. A single 70 year old lady living on minimal retirement payment A group of Polish workers, all working in the kitchen of a large restaurant. A group of 4 young people living an alternative life-style rejecting the materialistic ideology of consumption. A Roma family of 5 persons. Father works occasionally and is unemployed in between times. They are a part of a larger family which has strong ties and likes to hold festivities. An American couple without children. Husband is working at the International Atomic Energy Authority, wife is taking care of the household and 3 dogs. Two artists, approx. 40 years old who live rather a bohemian and unconventional lifestyle and have many artist friends. A girl studying piano and singing at the conservatorium, who has to practise regularly in the afternoons. A political immigrant from Africa with his Austrian girlfriend. He is trying to get work permit as an engineer. A religious Muslim family which lives strictly according to the Koran, the mother leaving the house only veiled. A gay men who’s single, but invites a lot of man during the week in his apartment. A young men, he’s wheelchair user and live with his 76 years old mother.
Y? H W Can you please explain why did you choose these neighbours? Any prejudices and stereotypes behind your choice? And if yes, which one? Can you please list them and as last step please just take a moment and let’s thing how these prejudices and
stereotypes were created - are they based on your life experiences or on story of somebody else or because you read something in newspapers, watching something in TV? Prejudices and stereotypes are around us and the most important thing is to be aware of them.
During the project the participants took part in several intercultural learning exercises. Some of the were also focused on prejudices and steryotypes. You can find one of these exercises on this page.
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adventure is working in team even if you are not team player AN INTERVIEW – ABOUT THE FIRST TIME SEEN OR DONE ACTIVITY! Choose one person from your team, who will be the inventor/ discoverer of something what was never done, seen or experienced in the world before! Send him out of the room and together with the rest of the teams – decide, what is that thing the “Inventor” did/experienced? Choose another team member who will be interviewing the “Inventor”! Call back the “Inven-
tor” and start the interview! The person, who is interviewing the person, can’t use any direct words – connected to the activity. He must ask questions to the “Inventor” – until the “Inventor” guesses right, what he have done. The “Inventor” – should make like a story – of his adventure, even though he doesn’t know what he/she did.
DANCE CLASS! As your team is representing diversity of different cultures, please perform a national dance [at least part
of it] from one of your team member’s culture. And teach some dance steps to the rest of the participants. If there’s a Macedonian in your team, you can’t perform a Macedonian dance as the main dance, but it can be additional to your performance.
Write a LOVE postcard to an imaginative [or real] stranger! Additionally write some short love words on the postcard in 7 different languages, which means the same! You can ask help from other participants
and you and team? Let’s try. Write down how you see yourself in a team - are you team player or a leader, are you brining new ideas or taking care about details, are finisher or full of creative ideas... When work in team I am ...........
Building a team, trust and cooperation in a team, phases of group building as roles in a team were topics of several sessions that gave the participants a chance to identify his/ her position in a team and to improve team work skills. Example of several short tasks from the sessions about team please find above.
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adventure is hiking, carring others when lying down in park
D E E P I N A D V E N T U R E S H I P
adventure is to become somebody else
During one role play each participant receive new identity - new passport and were ask to put himself/herself to new roles. Below you can find several roles and tyou canry to become somebody else. Do not forget also to think about non-verbal communication, voice and all the details that make others believe that you are somebody else. Chris, 23. You work in an advertising agency. You are a very humorous and easy-going person. Aday without a good laugh is a lost day for you. You don’t take yourself too seriously, and you like to break up formal settings with a spicy comment. You are playful, creative, come up with new ideas all the time and you just say immediately what comes to your
mind. You are very talkative, you frequently interrupt others in the middle of the sentence, but you don’t mind when others interrupt you. You were just brainstorming, so what? What you cannot stand is when somebody is bossy towards you, especially when they tell you what to do although they don’t know it better than you. Others will catch your attention when they make jokes and when they make you feel recognized as equal. Liz, 35. You are a single mom, with 2 children, and you work as a history teacher at the local school. In your vacation time, you organize archaeology camps for children where they can explore history with their own hands. You take your kids with you when you go on these camps. You enjoy working with very different people, with your colleagues at school as well as with the teamers in your free time.
Pearl, 25 You are a police officer, meaning that you are fighting with a huge amount of trouble in a country, where warlords and foreign troops control the daily life. Being one of the very few female officers on your team, you are responsible for crimes that have been committed towards women. You have learnt that your
It is important for you to put your actions into the bigger picture . You hate it when the school director tells you what you should do without explaining why. When somebody wants you to go for something, he needs to give you enough background information to make you understand the sense of your commitment. You don’t give much on appearance, such as dressing up and wearing make-up. How could you, with 2 kids and a full time job? However, you feel uncomfortable when something seems to disturb others – you question yourself if you are not appropriately dressed or behave inadequately. You avoid any contact with people who might have this image of you.
job needs a lot of patience. The administration is slow, the results are unsatisfying. People have lost trust in governmental institutions. You ink it is necessary to invest much time talking to people on the street or over a coffee to overcome this. You feel easily offended when somebody criticizes you. You are giving your best in your job, and it really hurts you when people
make you responsible for the ineffectiveness of your country’s administration or for widespread corruption. Having a chat and going for a coffee with people is WORK for you, not laziness!!! The most important thing for you is personal relations. You have lost your sister during the civil war, and you are deeply thankful for every person who shares your life. You seek to establish good relationships, including physical proximity and eye contact.
Role plays and simulations were part of this training course as well. The main aim of these activities was to provide the participants a chance to become somebody else...to get new identity, to increase ability of EMPATHY.
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adventure is meeting somebody from other culture Training course Adventureship connected participants coming from more than 20 countries. Mostly all countries were represented just by one participant. All training course included several activities during which the participants had an opportunity to discver and learn something new about other cultures.
but how much we really know about other countries, cultures? Let’s try one exercise. Imagine that you are getting ready for trip to Czech Republic and please list below at least 15 characteristics but now geographical data, let’s focus on society. So how many children has Czech family? When young people are living family house? Are they getting married or there is no need for this step? What role plays religion in society? Is it easy? Just pick up other country and try again. Let’s get ready for the summer trips.
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adventure is solving conflict without hurting somebody During the training course we used also diffferent methods of brainstorming as starting point for discussions. So let’s try to in case of conflict. Please list below at least 10 associations. CONFLICT IS.... Please list below at least 10 associations. CONFLICT IS NOT ...
WE NEED CONFLICTS BECAUSE ...
WE DO NOT NEED CONFLICTS BECAUSE THERE IS ALWAYS OTHER WAY...
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D Feedback activities were organized on regular base during the training course. The E participants had opportunity to provide feedback in daily reflection groups as after implemented activities in open discussion. The final evaluation of the training course E had several steps, one of these steps was also final questionnaire. Below you can find several short notes from the final evaluation forms as messages from the participants. P adventure is providing feedback yourself and others
Can we try it again! Erald Gega (Albania)
the most useful thing was to work with team because all of use are different, but it was excellent!!! (XX)
...working in a team. usually I work alone but now I understand tthat it is more easy work together (easy and productive). It tis important for my study/work cause I will work in a team. (Francesca Bianchi, Italy) I learned lot¨s of activities that can be used within my work. I liked simulations, energizers. Also hiking I have never done it before now I love it. XX
I learned to deal with people from different backgrounds, cultures and charecteristics. Also I imrpoved my team work skills. Studied to accept different opinions and compromise sometimes. (Miranda Tskhadadze, Georgia)
How was the training course? It was educational but also fun, interesting organised and with one word...Adventurous. (Sasho Chadamov, Macedonia)
Now I know the different roles of the people in a project. If the work is divided good the result will be fantastic. This mix of culture is amazing. I never was in a training course with a lot nacionalities. It is very interesting observe the diference. Jose Maria Gomez Arios (Spain)
“You guys almost became my another family and First time I have learnt to live without any complain because of my sexual orientation when people do know about me “ Umut Dere
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...personal emotions, connections,pfff, impossible to describe, impossible to have perception now. I think just when I arrive at home I will feel it!!! (XX)
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adventure is to try again We hope that this training course motivate the partcipants to continue to take part in different activities organised under Youth in Action Programme. Below, please find several links that can help to find create sesion, to take part in training course or youth exchange, to go as EVS. to find idea for session, to find a partner for project, to find a training abroad http://www.salto-youth.net/
to start with Youth in Action Programme http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/index_en.php
to find EVS project http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_en.cfm
to get to know more about creativity http://www.jpb.com/creative/index.php
to know more abotu European Year of Volunteering http://europa.eu/volunteering/
to get to more data and information about youth in Europe http://europa.eu/rapid/
looking for grant opportunities http://www.eyf.coe.int/fej/
to again come to Macedonia Volunteers Centre Skopje ttp://www.vcs.org.mk/
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VOLUNTEERS CENTRE SKOPJE WISHES YOU A LOT NEW ADVENTURES.
coin tomorrow
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects 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.