Training and exchange activities in the first months of the European project YOUTH+ for social inclusion

After its launch at the end of 2021, the project has dedicated the first months of 2022 to the exchange of experiences and the training of youth workers

The European project YOUTH+ for social inclusion has started this year 2022 encouraging the training of youth workers, since its main mission is to educate professionals in the youth field for the support and accompaniment of self-managed initiatives of groups of young people in situation or risk of social vulnerability. It has also promoted the exchange of experiences among the participants, sharing the methodologies and work tools of each of the partner organizations -Elményakadémia, ABD, Via Kreaktion and OBR-. At all times, values such as solidarity, anti-racism and promotion of a participatory society have governed the trainings.

In March, the first international meeting with all the organizations participating in the project (Germany, Spain, Hungary and Romania) took place in Tápiószecső (Hungary), where it also also took place a workshop to design a quality online course for youth workers. Methodologies, tools and activities for the creation and development of good practices in relation to youth work were shared in order to set up a practical, effective and useful course to serve as a model for these professionals. The roles of each organization were also defined, working agreements were reached and various project management issues were discussed in order to meet the objectives.

In May, the “Youth workers training” took place in Galyatető (Hungary). During one week youth workers were trained on the management of the effects of the traumatic process on young people at risk of vulnerability and social exclusion. The youth workers started to prepare the pedagogical line and content of the activities that will take place this summer. The collaboration between Intress and ABD was also launched, through the participation of FEDAIA, to involve a group of young beneficiaries of the program as well as the educators who will accompany them.

In June the second transnational project meeting was held at Outward Bound Romania Youth Center in Sovata (Romania). In this meeting we continued working on the activities aimed at youth that will be implemented during the month of July in parallel, between Spain-Hungary and Germany-Romania. These include team building activities, cultural exchanges and visits, and the planning of a volunteer project to be carried out by the young people themselves in a second phase of the project.

At this meeting we also began to prepare the implementation of the FUY (From Us to You) methodology – an educational method that consists of empowering one’s own personal capacity while collaborating in the improvement of society at the local level – and we worked on some of the project materials: O1 – Online courses for professionals working with young people; O2 – Guide and Toolkit for professionals and youth organizations.

The project is coordinated by the Hungarian organization Élményakadémia in collaboration with ABD in Spain, Via Kreaktion in Germany and OBR in Romania. The initiative, financed by the European program Erasmus+ KA2, will be carried out from November 2021 to February 2024 through various specific actions both at international and local level.