non-formal education Archivi - Youth Networks

Capacity-Building in the field of Youth

Editorial Staff — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 13:16:15 +0000

Introduction

Are you a young person or an association that deals with youth work? Discover capacity-building opportunities!

Capacity-building projects promote international collaboration, fostering multilateral partnerships among organisations engaged in youth-related activities in the European Union (EU) and other program nations, alongside non-affiliated third countries in the Western Balkans and the Southern Mediterranean.

These initiatives want to boost global cooperation and policy discussions concerning youth and informal education.

Furthermore these are projects funded by the Erasmus+ programme and are recommended to all youth workers who want to improve their skills in youth work.

The goals of the projects

The capacity building projects have many objectives that are achieved through non-formal education activities and comparison between participants.

Particularly the main objectives can be summarised as follows:

Helping organisations that work with young people outside of traditional schools to become better at what they do
Encouraging activities that teach things in informal settings in countries that are not part of a specific program. In fact these activities are especially for young people who face challenges, and the goal is to improve their skills and get them more involved in society.
Supporting the growth of youth programs in countries that aren’t in the main program, making them better and more recognised.
Promoting the creation and testing of programs that allow young people to learn outside of traditional school settings in countries not part of the main program.
Helping achieve the goals set out in the EU Youth Strategy for 2019-2027, including 11 goals for young people in Europe.
Encouraging cooperation between different parts of the world through joint projects.
Making sure that non-formal education and youth work fit well with formal education and the job market.

The topics of the projects

Finally from the capacity building projects, participants have the opportunity to deepen themes such as:

political participation and dialogue with decision-makers
inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities
democracy, rule of law and values
empowerment / engagement / employability of young people
peace and post-conflict reconciliation
environment and climate
anti-discrimination and gender equality
digital and entrepreneurial skills

Discover more about the initiative

For more information about this type of projects and the requirements to participate we recommend you visit the official website.

TOOL: Remembrance for Peace

Editorial Staff — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 09:00:00 +0000

As we approach January 27th 2021, the International Day of Holocaust Remembrance, it is important now, but also throughout the year, to find ways and to tools to spread the culture of peace. With the Remembrance Day, indeed, we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to counter antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group-targeted violence.

unesco SAYS:
Member States share a collective responsibility for addressing the residual trauma, maintaining effective remembrance policies, caring for historic sites, and promoting education, documentation and research, seven decades after the genocide. his responsibility entails educating about the causes, consequences and dynamics of such crimes so as to strengthen the resilience of young people against ideologies of hatred. As genocide and atrocity crimes keep occurring across several regions, and as we are witnessing a global rise of anti-Semitism and hateful discourses, this has never been so relevant.

The Tool for Remembrance

A useful tool to address the culture of peace inside your organisation could be the “Remembrance for Peace” toolkit. It provides an overview over different approaches, non-formal education methods and practical examples for youth workers to work with young people on remembrance and reconciliation. And it is the outcome of SCI Germany‘s work, available on S.A.L.T.O. website. SCI believes that a culture of peace can only happen through a culture of remembrance, of critically looking back at injustices of the past and never repeating them again.

The tool “Remembrance for Peace” aims to provide innovative and interesting approaches to remembrance when working with young people. It therefore addresses youth workers all over Europe and beyond.

The tool goes through the following contents:

Ways of approaching Remembrance with young people;
Examples for Remembrance;
Non-Formal Education Methods for Remembrance;
Tips for Non-Formal Education.

This toolkit gives you inspiration for remembrance work with young people. It introduces approaches, methods and practical examples of how to do remembrance. The tool focuses especially on volunteering and non-formal education, but also on online
remembrance and gives valuable examples of know-how.

You can download the Toolkit here. It is freely available and in English.

How to Improve Work with Foreign Children, Volunteers and Organisations

Editorial Staff — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 09:32:59 +0000

How to improve communication and daily work with foreign children, volunteers and project partners from other countries

Work with people in a foreign country is usually very challenging. Facing a new culture, language, and norms require a lot of effort. Volunteers who travel to other countries encounter many cultural barriers on their way. In this, they have a very important role in their projects. The presence of volunteers in educational institutions helps teachers and children develop linguistic, social, and cultural competences. The contact with volunteers has a positive impact on accepting others, stimulates tolerance, and prevents discrimination.

However, the work of foreign volunteers in hosting organisations, also brings some difficulties. Foundation of Social Integration Prom conducted an analysis of reports and statements of their volunteers and organisations among their volunteers. The results show that one of the main barriers obstructing cooperation is the lack of foreign language skills. This could come from the side of the hosting organisations’ employees, children, parents, and lack of language knowledge among international volunteers. The communication difficulties may lead to a situation in which volunteers’ especially at the beginning get in contact only with those few staff members who know foreign languages.

Voluntary service in a foreign country is a challenge for most of the volunteers. Not surprisingly, sometimes difficulties in verbal communication with children or teachers may lead to volunteers’ loss of confidence in the initiatives planned for children.

About the project Happy Kids, Better Europe 4

The attempt to find a solution for this issue led the Foundation of Social Integration Prom to an idea for implementing a strategic EVS project.

This project – Happy Kids, Better Europe 4 – except for daily work of volunteers in educational institutions, featured organising eight workshops for volunteers and hosting organisations’ employees. Also, they conducted two study visits of sending organisations’ representatives and the project participants prepared written assignments.

During workshops receiving organisations’ employees had a chance to take the role of volunteers. This way, they could empirically understand how difficult it is to work when you do not know the language. They got to know what intercultural communication is and learned about the basic elements of culture theory/cultural differences. As part of conducted activities the participants worked out methods of teaching foreign languages to children. They laid down games and activities for kids which do not demand advanced knowledge of Polish language. Moreover, they learned how to communicate non-verbally, and communicate with children and teachers with basic knowledge of a foreign language.

Thanks to this toolkit volunteers and organisation could improve their team work.

This practical knowledge will allow volunteers to easier find themselves in hosting organisations and enable both volunteers and organisations to effectively work in an international team. Materials from workshops and written assignments of volunteers and hosting organisations’ representatives were gathered in the publication Volunteer with us! – a guide of good practices in working with people coming from different cultures and using foreign languages.

The guide was designed primarily for volunteers working with children and their tutors at work. However, it will be also helpful to coordinators and other staff members of sending, hosting and coordinating organisations, mentors, as well as teachers working with foreign children or youth.

Here you can download the GUIDE.

L'articolo How to Improve Work with Foreign Children, Volunteers and Organisations proviene da Youth Networks.

NFL Goes Online – join the voluntary action for youth field professionals!

Editorial Staff — Wed, 13 May 2020 12:48:16 +0000

NFL Goes Online – youth field professionals in action!

What happens to youth workers when there is a pandemic in the world and all trainings and activities are canceled and it is uncertain if things will change soon? Lie down and cry about the missed opportunities…? Definitely NOT!

The current situation is a great opportunity to embrace new solutions and ideas! And where would it be better to start if not within a group of people who are in the same situation and share a similar mindset? In this way, a voluntary initiative started – NFL Goes Online – where everybody who wants to remain active in the youth work field is free to join.

You can join the NFL Goes Online group on Facebook. The group is for those who are directly involved in European learning mobility projects like Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps; CoE; etc. (trainers; organizers; funders; NA staff, etc.). The content of the group is an informal exchange of views, tips, and experience. You will find there webinars, (ideas for) petitions, surveys, online workshops, and much more!

Weekly zoom meetings are organized, where anybody can join. The goal is to bring people together, to inspire and get inspired! The participants have usually different roles and responsibilities (trainers, researches, NA staff, project managers, etc.), which makes these informal consultations even more interesting!

The second season starts SOON (14th of May! For more info, check in the Facebook group).

L'articolo NFL Goes Online – join the voluntary action for youth field professionals! proviene da Youth Networks.

BODY and MOVEMENT as tools to develop an entrepreneurial mindset – Embodied Change

Editorial Staff — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 15:31:02 +0000

Embodied Change is a strategic partnership project which goals were to elaborate innovative body and movement based learning principles and methods for boosting young people’s participation and activism.

The project was implemented in cooperation of three creative associations from Latvia, France and Italy.

The main theme uniting all the activities and outputs of this project is body and movement based learning – its important concepts, principles, benefits, approaches and various methods, viewing the physical body as a domain of learning and transformation.

Partners have developed an online course about body and movement based learning and an embodied learning toolkit

Find out more about this project and get access to the toolkit, online course and a podcast HERE.

L'articolo BODY and MOVEMENT as tools to develop an entrepreneurial mindset – Embodied Change proviene da Youth Networks.

Non-formal education: an opportunity for the future

Editorial Staff — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 16:00:01 +0000

A room, a class, pupils, a desk and a teacher behind it: up to a few decades ago, this were the only things that came up when one though about education. The formality as a guarantee of quality; the upper position of the teacher, the element that identified its knowledge. All of this has been lasting for centuries: but what if there are alternative ways of learning? Non-formal education (NFE) started to arise between the 60s and 70s, prompting a rollover of such scheme. As for the definition provided by UNESCO, Non-formal education’s defining characteristic

is that it is an addition, alternative and/or a complement to formal education within the process of the lifelong learning of individuals.

Which are the differences between formal and non-formal education?

There are two ways to establish the difference. The first relates to the concept of hierarchy: in formal education, this is clearly recongnisable – and accepted. The teacher, to whom one refers as “sir” or “miss”, provides you a lesson, a lecture, a seminar, on topics officially set by curricula. Digressions are allowed, but not recognised as part of the cultural baggage that learners are expected to acquire. In non-formal education, on the contrary, there is no hierarchy: teacher and learners sit at the same level, in a non-frontal position, and the contributions from the learners matter as much as the ones from the teacher.

Pro: formal education is granted and recognised as fundamental virtually all over the world, without any discrimination based on race, gender or ethnic group reasons, and gives to everyone the opportunity to get a basic knoweldge to be exploited during lifetime.

The curricola are the second characteristic. Formal education foresees defined programmes with a set of subjects, that may or may not be of interest of the learner, although their value is officially recognised. In the end, there is always a test. In non-formal education, instead, the choice of what to learn is up to the learner. It’s the case of sport lessons, hobbies courses, language classes and so on. The final outcome doesn’t matter: the important thing is that the learner has developed something more, that s/he feels enriched.

Pro: it enables everyone to focus on his/her favourite activities, to develop personal skills according to what comes natural. He feels empowered, making NFE easier for him/her to succeed.

How is non-formal education important for Europe and EU programmes?

It’s not a case that youth workers are particularly familiar with the concept of non-formal education. It perfectly adapts to the flow of youth exchanges, intercultural dialogues and the exchange of good practices. People taking part in Erasmus+ Programmes in fact usually match the identikit of the non-formal learner. They make the first step, proving themeselves with new challenges – also and above all when it comes at learning.

Non-formal education turns out to be really helpful even when facing difficult situations, such as the integration of adult migrant to a new host country. It’s what the Council of Europe underlined as regard to language courses for adult migrants. “At a time when many Council of Europe member states are receiving large numbers of adult refugees, the distinctions between formal, non-formal and informal learning help us to formulate radical and cost-effective responses to questions that have previously been answered in traditional ways”, we read on its website.

“Instead of organising formal language courses, for example, in the short term it makes much better sense, and is certainly more affordable, to involve volunteers in the organisation of social activities that promote non-formal and informal language learning”

After all, the Council of Europe officially recognised non-formal education in 2000, with a reccommendation of the parliamentary Assembly. As it’s stated in the document:

The Assembly recognises that investment in education and welfare is an effective measure for the promotion of active citizenship and the prevention of social exclusion.
The Assembly acknowledges that formal educational systems alone cannot respond to rapid andconstant technological, social and economic change in society, and that they should be reinforced by non-formal educational practices.
Non-formal education is an integral part of a lifelong learning concept that allows young people and adults to acquire and maintain the skills, abilities and outlook needed to adapt to a continuously changingenvironment.

L'articolo Non-formal education: an opportunity for the future proviene da Youth Networks.