The peace project

Summary of the project: This 8 days training course will bring 32 youth workers and youth leader from 8 European countries- UK, Greece, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Latvia – to Loughborough and Leicester, UK, from 16-24 September 2017. It will provide a platform for  participants to explore cultural and faith diversity through the face to face dialogue. It will equip them with tools for a successful facilitation of the intercultural dialogue and bringing communities together as well as raise awareness on vulnerability of young people to be groomed towards extremism and importance of community engagement as a resilience and counter force to radicalisation.

Objectives:

• Raising awareness of cultural and religious values
• Identifying and understanding the causes of extremism
• Increasing the competences of youth leaders, youth workers and educators in the field of active citizenship and Intercultural/Interfaith dialogue through nonformal learning
• Building understanding for actions we can take to bring about global peace
• increasing the international dimension of youth work, notably with reference to human rights and intercultural education

Training methods and foreseen activities: We will be using different methods of non-formal education such as workshops, round tables, group work, board game, visit to religious venues, educational establishments and youth clubs, and the sharing of experiences and challenges. As it is a training for trainers and educators we will provide an opportunity for the participants to practise their learning in local youth establishments like schools and youth clubs.

Expected outcomes: We expect that by the end of this training course the participants will increase their knowledge on and understanding of different religions and cultures and build their confidence to facilitate an intercultural and/ or interfaith dialogue in their own communities; they will be able to share their knowledge in identification and understanding of the effects of radicalisation and be able to consider a framework to tackle the issue or organise projects to run preventative work  with Erasmus+ and other relevant programmes.
In this project we focus in steps on restoration of people’s trust and building stronger connections between communities which we believe will help them to become more resilient towards many threats, including of terrorism.

Who should attend:

• A youth or community worker/ trainer/ educator from a sending organisation or their network who is interested in working with young people from different backgrounds, be it cultural minorities, migrant or refugees and/or on polices aiming at partnership working when addressing raised  by communities problems, such as youth vulnerability and integration of new young people in the new area.
• We assume that the interest of the participants driven by the realisation of the need to build or re-establish a peaceful environment based on diversity and respect for people of different faith and culture ensuring
  that nobody falls through the net.
• Who is ambitious to become a more confident and risk averted educator and community worker. Who  likes to learn by doing and from experiences and ready to share his/her knowledge and experiences with others through follow up projects and their future work in their communities.
• Age limit is 18+
• Good command of English
• Resident of UK, Greece, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Finland, Poland, Hungary  and Latvia.
• Must be able to attend the whole programme.