Young Activists for Peace and “A World We Want” - Training, Evaluation and Planning Seminar for Youth Workers

Young Activists for Peace is a project series developed by ICJA Freiwilligenaustausch weltweit and around 20 partner organizations in EU and neighboring partner countries. The project receives financial support from the Erasmus+ Youth in Action Program of the European Union and the Children and Youth plan of the German Federal Government (BMFSFJ). Activities implemented since 2015 included 5 training courses for youth workers and 7 youth exchanges offering a wide range of activities, topics and pedagogical concepts in the field of peace and democracy education, racism sensitization and empowerment for young people with fewer opportunities, in particular refugees. Over 300 young participants coming from different corners of the European Union, Eastern Europe and Caucasus, as well as the Mediterranean Region have been reached and many of them have started to promote and defend peace after their participation.

Despite recent setbacks, a growing number of young people and youth workers from across Europe still believe that peace is the option for the world we want and are ready to engage actively in Peace Education! That is why this year the project was named Young Activists for Peace and “A World We Want”.

After a series of 4 yearly peace education projects, representatives from partner organizations of ICJA from Azerbaijan, Belgium, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Russia, Turkey and Palestine met for one week in Berlin (30.10.-05.11.18) to evaluate the work and impact of the Young Activists for Peace projects that have been run since 2015. They analyzed the current situation of peace work and designed concepts dealing with current challenges and threats to peace in their countries as well as at the European and Global level.

The Training, Evaluation and Planning Seminar provided sessions and opportunities to:

- Learn and reflect about the concept “Young Activists for Peace” and other peace and democracy oriented concepts and methods and to assess the impact of such activities
- Learn and reflect about the Sustainable Development Goals and the contribution their achievement could make to lasting peace at society and global level.
- Discuss what is needed so that more young people will stand up against racism and intolerance and for the utopia of a better world based on peaceful dialogue.
- Learn about methods and get know-how for peace oriented youth work activities
- Work in a structured way on approaches and ideas for future Youth exchange and education activities which foster the democratic values and active citizenship of young people

The 6-day program provided participants with opportunities to learn and reflect about the concept “Youth as agents of peace” and other peace and democracy oriented concepts and methods, as well as to assess the impact of such activities. They reflected on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the contribution their achievement made to lasting peace at both society and global levels. They discussed what is needed to encourage more young people to stand up against racism and intolerance and for the utopia of a better world based on peaceful dialogue. All together they visited the “Berlin Global Village” association in Neukölln district. This enabled participants to learn from their practice and experience in running campaigns and education activities for global transformation. The workshop a “one world promoter” on SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) took place as well.

How it was…

Day 1

The seminar started out with an introduction session in the evening of the first day. The late start in the evening gave everyone the chance to use that day to travel to Berlin. Firstly, participants and organizers got the chance to introduce themselves. This was done by splitting up the group in pairs as a first step and then each pair got the task to introduce themselves to each other and find out one unexpected fact about the other person. The final activity initiated team building. It could be called “What do you have in common?” For that participants got a large piece of paper on which they put their name cards and drew connection lines for all to see, what they actually have in common. In the end all the participants were surprised that in spite of being mostly strangers to each other, they had so many things in common. It definitely broke the ice, and people started chatting personally, exchanging experiences, and it got clear that they would make a team.

Day 2

The second day started out with the presentation of the program (day schedule, review of the aims, etc.). After that all the participants were asked to share their expectations and fears related to the current seminar.

Organizers presented their experience and results of past 4 yearly Young Activists for Peace projects and organized reflection about “Youth as Agents of Peace” within the youth exchanges carried out. The most inspiring part was personal experiences of the participants related to Young Activists for Peace.

Day 3

This day participants were invited to the impact assessment working groups. There were 4 working groups taking care of the following topics:

WG 1: “The view and experience of Participants”.

Working group assessed the evaluation and comments by participants of the “Young Activists for Peace” series since 2015.

WG 2: “The view and experience of Local communities and partner organizations”.

Working group assessed the follow-up activities of individuals and groups and their impact on local communities and sending organizations.

WG 3: “The view and experience of refugees”

This Working group assessed the learning experience/impact on both sides, refugees and other youth exchange participants.

WG4: Peace Education as underlying concept of youth exchange - what did we achieve regarding “Peace” and how do we see the future?

Afterwards the presentation of results by working groups took place.

Day 4

The fourth day group spent at the “Berlin Global Village” (for further information see http://www.berlin-global-village.de). This place supposed to be an area for SDGs workshop. After a short introduction of Sustainable Development Goals the facilitator Murat made a point of SDG №16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). Murat worked on mobilizing youth toward SDG 16: How to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development? How to provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels?

The facilitator used a “Bicycle method”. To the group were given the picture of bicycle. The task was to give a name to all the parts of the Bicycle in frame of SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). Afterwards participants shared their ideas on SDGs and importance for future youth work activities.

Day 5

This day was important to run the evaluation of the project visit. Participants were free to express themselves. After reflection round were introduced a "Future Workshop” (Critique and Fantasy Phase). Rest of the day the group were split up to 4 small groups and worked on collecting their experiences and transforming it into Critique (What was wrong? What could be done better?) and Fantasy (What do I want to have during the project? Swimming pool? Or maybe organize the project on the island?). They were high motivated to be critical to find out the proper way for creating and running future projects. After collecting all the critical points, they have to work on Fantasy part.

At the end the group had Open Agenda. One participant presented one of the Betzavta-Methods. This activity was focused on showing the importance of the communication, dialogue, among the different groups. Different tasks were given to each participants but none was allowed to say his/her task to other group members. Tasks were different but all around the place and number of chairs located in the room. Someone had to build a tower from the chairs, someone put all the chairs in the circle. Actually it was hardly possible to match given tasks because the group can´t communicate, lots of chairs fights took place there. The goal of this activity was to show the importance of the communication.

Day 6

The day was full of creative ideas and started with the “Future Workshop: Implementation Phase”. The participants kept on working in 4 groups. This time the task was to create their own peace project. Each team was free to choose to create a concept or almost ready project plan. They took into considerations all the problematic moments based on their experience, as well as some fantastic ideas they had during the Fantasy part. At the end to the group were presented four well-organized projects and were made a decision to keep on working on one most realistic project after the Seminar.

The closing part took place this day as well. All the participants were asked to evaluate the seminar.

Afterwards all of them got Youthpass Certificates and were invited to Farewell party.

Day 7

For this day was no program planed. All the participants had breakfast together and started their trip back home.

As a result the participants learnt about methods and gained know-how for their future peace oriented youth work activities. They worked in a structured way on approaches and ideas for future youth exchanges and education activities which foster democratic values, peace orientation, and active citizenship of young people and established cooperation agreements for joint projects and campaigns.