Booklet TC Improve Social and Life Skills of Young Poeple

booklet of

training course IMPROVE SOCIAL & LIFE SKILLS OF YOUNG PEOPLE hosted by Volunteers Centre Skopje

“This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [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.”

ABOUT training course The training course Improve social & life skills of young people hosted by Volunteers Centre Skopje and implemented with support of Youth in Action Programme connected youth workers and leaders coming from 12 countries and this booklet is bringing overview of the activities of the training course as words from the participants.

The main aim of 8 - days training course Improve social & life skills of young people wass to improved communication (verbal and non-verbal) and life skills (conflict management, leadership, creativity, ability of critical thinking) of youth workers and youth leaders that are working with young people facing obstacles and difficulties: coming from improvisace background, divided societies, facing longterm unemployment, belong to social marginalized groups. As to increase quality of youth work and providing services not just in directly involved organizations, but through dissemination and exploitation activities shared the lessons learned with organizations facing similar challenges and obstacles.

The training course was based on non-formal education and included various activities as discussions, creative learning exercises, simulations and integrated sport activities implemented with goal to provide to the participants better understanding of team work and conflict situations and to improve their skills necessary for work with youngsters coming from different backgrounds and leading youth organization in way to provide good services to young people, to develop their social and life skills and to contribute to change in their local communities.

TO CHECK: Youth in Action Programme

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/index_ en.php

EVS database

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_ en.cfm

SALTO

http://www.salto-youth.net/ “This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [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.�

WHITE PAPER ON YOUTH

http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries /education_training_youth/youth/c11055_ en.htm

Volunteers Centre Skopje www.vcs.org.mk

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GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER The first sessions were focusing on breaking the ice in the group and creating positive team atmosphere.

The participants were sharing their fears, expectations as discovering project venue or more about themselves - through exercise when they needed to settle their learning goals and reflect on own skills and knowledge as

CREATING NAME TAGS During the first session the participants created their own name tags which do not just contain the name of the person but also were expressing the interests...hobbies... professional backgrounds...

3 LIES and 1 TRUE

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The participants were asked to write down on paper cut in various forms ... 3 statements that were true about them and 1 false one ... for example I like dancing, I have a pet. After the participants were miggling around and guessing which statements is true and which one is lie...

The participants received list of tasks which they needed to finish in limited time as a group - it was their first group task - the main aim of the task was to encourage the participants to get to know the project venue as to support interaction among the participants - for example the participants were asked to take pictures in three different environments, write down 10 facts about hosting city, check out the rules of the hotel...

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

COMMUNICATION One of the main topics of the training course was communication thus several exercises was included into the program with goal to increase communication skills of participants and their ability to provide constructive feedback as being active listener.

The participants also experienced different communication styles as got to know the most important elements of speech.

Other important topic of the day was communication across cultures and during this session the participants for example learnt about the role non-verbal communication as about different ways of showing respects or greetings...

TO CHECK: BODY LANGUAGE

LISTEN ACTIVELY What is the difference between hearing and listening?

What makes a good listener?

PROVIDE FEEDBACK What are the elements of constructive feedback?

Why is feedback needed?

Do you know how to give/receive feedback?

http://www.businessballs.com/ body-language.htm

FEEDBACK

http://www.mindtools.com/pages /article/newTMM_98.htm http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tat/ pdfs/feedback.pdf

COMMUNICATION ACROSS CULTURES

http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ Cross-Cultural-communication.htm

ACTIVE LISTENING

http://www.studygs.net/listening.htm

BODY LANGUAGE ALSO SPEAK 3

DISCRIMINATION During the day tackling the issue of discrimination the participants had an opportunity to increase their knowledge about the roots of discrimination as it’s types.

Moreover they had opportunity to share realities of their countries and reflect on the reason why some of the groups in the society are discriminated ...

TO CHECK: BREAK YOUR ASSUMPTIONS

CHANGE

PERSPECTIVE

Ask when you don’t understand

WE are individuals 4

DISCRIMINATION

http://www.soros.org/voices/getting-rootroma-discrimination-europe http://www.avert.org/homophobia.htm

PARTICIPANTS STORIES “Improve social and life skills” Representation, challenges and future values

A

s we know, the European Commission finances many projects, training courses and providing financial support for new developments in the field of creating human resources.

Most of such support is aimed at raising the level of education of new generations throughout Europe. One of the most common forms of such support is funding projects to plan and organize training events dedicated for young people, their way of education and the problems they encounter every day.

Even though I had the opportunity to attend different courses, for me is the first time I am participating in such training. “Improve Social and Life Skills of Young People” training is organized by the Volunteer Center in Skopje, who has selected youngsters who will participate in training from different European countries. The aim of the training is to exchange different cultures, mentalities, ideas of reform and exchange experi-

ences on how these young people are solving problems in their daily lives.

The union of these youngsters as young leaders of their countries show the best way how they deals with essential problems in their society such as: discrimination, communication and media, religion, power of social campaigns and organization of various workshops.

Certainly organizers thought very well for the entertainment part of the program performance despite the tight schedule in that to not become tedious and boring. The ways of study are combined with other activities such as: relaxing games, theatrical performances, and improvisations of funny situations or even free debates where participants can express their experiences.

The training was organized in Struga - small town near the Lake Ohrid, and lasted 10 days. There were 12 countries participating in this training (Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Portugal,

Italy, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Hungary, Turkey and Germany).

Classification of the participants is based on the proposal of non-governmental organizations from the countries they come from. All training costs are reimbursed 100%, while transport costs are reimbursed 70%. Perhaps this fact has made things easier and at the same time has raised the interest of youngsters to participate in these trainings.

This was the first time I came in Struga, and hope very much not to be the last one ...

Written by Yllka Pajaziti, participant from Kosovo

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... It is interesting how these different viewpoints, traditions and religious meet each other...

ziasztok! Well this is a greeting in our language – Hungarian. I am from Hungary and I would like to share my experiences about this training course called “Improve Social and Life Skills of Young People�. In a nutshell: this is so great! I am studying communication now so this is a great chance for me to improve my skills.

The people here are very friendly and this part of Macedonia is totally covered with mountains. Struga and the lake called Ohrid is a typical Balkan city and beautiful, too. So before this I had fears about how will I express myself but now I see it is does not matter. We are together from so many different countries like: Portugal, Italy, Germany, Georgia etc. Now I have also friends from these countries and this is so cool. Few weeks ago I could not imagine that I will have any Italian, Serbian or Bulgarian friends.

It is interesting how these different viewpoints, traditions and religious meet each other and now it is like a big family. The team is great and we can work together really good. Work, of course we have to work to improve our skills.

But this work is enjoyable and we face ourselves and different characters. So finally I would like to say a big thanks to this chance and to be here. It is a lifetime experience believes. Do not miss it.

To be honest I had some fears and questions before I came here, Macedonia. By the way this country is beautiful.

Written by Csaba Vass, participant from Hungary

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CONFLICT Improving conflict management skills was other important goal of this training course. During day focused on conflict participants had opportunity to learn more about different levels conflict, conflict escalation through exercise ‘Gain how much you can’ as to discuss various aspects of conflict in debate that included following questions - life without conflict is (im) possible, conflict is source of creativity, the main sources of conflict are values and norms.

For this debate the participants were divided in six teams when always one team was supporting the statement and other was against it.

Important inside to the participants realities provided exercise ‘Fish Bowl of Conflict’ and simulation Albatross provided an opportunity to reflect on the role of culture in conflict.

TO CHECK: FISH BOWL OF CONFLICT

IS SOURCE OF CREATIVITY

http://www.salto-youth.net/tools/toolbox/ tool/fish-bowl-of-conflict.1362/

ALBATROS

http://www.salto-youth.net/tools/toolbox/ tool/visiting-the-albatross-culture.417/

G. HOESTEDE

FISH BOWL OF CONFLICT

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/ newLDR_66.htm

CONFLICT ANALYSIS TOOLS

http://www.css.ethz.ch/publications/pdfs/ Conflict-Analysis-Tools.pdf

CONFLICT ESCALATION

PROBLEM TREE

http://esrnational.org/esr/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/grade_5_lesson_7.pdf

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OUTDOOR In the training course were also included several outdoor based activities that provided the participants a chance to implemented their new knowledge (leadership, team work, conflict management) in practice when finding the solution on team challenge as when supporting each other during trust exercise.

STEP OUT FROM COMFORT ZONE

SUPPORT

TOUCH AND FEEL

ENCOURAGE

TO CHECK: TRUST EXERCISES

http://www.diversityanddialogue.org.uk/files/ communication_activities_0.pdf

TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES

http://www.businessballs.com/freeteambuildingactivities.htm

ADVENTURE EDUCATION

http://teachers.schoolsofwestfield.org/ kgomez/files/2011/05/Adventure-EducationHandout.pdf http://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/users/ michaelb/Staff_webpage/SPANZ%20copy. pdf http://www.teachmeteamwork.com/teachmeteamwork/files/InDefenseOfAdventureBasedEducation.pdf

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ADVOCACY The main aim of the days focus on advocacy was to provide the participants an opportunity to increase as their theoretical knowledge in the field of advocacy, creating and making campaign for example by discussing the importance of identifying and knowing the target audience of the campaign, to be able to choose the right tools – ‘right media’, the importance of having clear slogan of the campaign as importance of vision when bringing the change to the local communities.

Working on the social campaigns were also starting steps for developing ideas for future projects.

KNOW YOUR TARGET BRAND IT CREATE PRESS

KIT

TO CHECK: ADVOCACY

http://www.ciperomania.org/dyn-img/ Romania_Advocacy_Guide.pdf http://www.socialbrite.org/2012/02/23/ the-best-tools-for-advocacy-campaigns/ http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/41868_6.pdf

SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS

http://osocio.org/ http://www.communityorganizer20.com/

MEDIA

http://www.mainecreative.com/ articles/media_kit.htm

PRESS REALESE

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/how_tos/ cyw_64_press_release.pdf

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ADVOCACY HAVE A CLEAR MESSAG

E

CHOOSE CHANNEL

HAVE A VISION

guerilla marketing 10

FOR FUTURE In the last sessions of the training course the participants focused on creating a plan for future steps that could lead to new projects at local as international level.

MAKE ACTION PLAN

SHARE CONTACTS CREATE NETWORK

When planning the future steps the participants had opportunity to work on their ideas for future and with support of the trainers clarify for example concrete Action under which the idea can be developed into the training course, youth exchange or EVS project.

Special attention was also paid to the European Voluntary Service as being EVS volunteer or sending/hosting EVS volunteers raised a lot of questions among the participants.

The training course was after closed up by final evaluation session during which the participants could share with other their last words as provide feedback to project team through final evaluation forms.

SHARING LAST WORDS...

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PARTICIPANTS STORIES

“If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” …

… This training course Improve Social & Life Skills of Young People in my opinion has many advantages. To begin with one, more and more young people are losing personal communication skills. Youth relax too much on technology today, which can make them feel lonely and bored. There are losing communication skills through lack of practice.

During this TC I have received useful information, and gave me more opportunity how I can spread in my country, to show some examples how to feel comfortable in the company of others, examples of how to fight against discrimination and any kind of conflicts.

The main task of this TC was to show that there are many ways to make our world a better place. We all need to do whatever we can. As Malcolmn Bradbary said: “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” …

Written by Tamari Lolua, participant from Georgia

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TC IMPROVE SOCIAL & LIFE SKILLS OF YOUNG PEOPLE hosted by Volunteers Centre Skopje

“With the support of the Youth in Action Programme of the European Union”