CONTEXT As pointed out in the EU2020 strategy, youth unemployment is one of the principal social and economic challenges of this decade in Europe and its neighbouring partner countries. New ways must be pursed to develop more oriented projects as well as to enhance professional and managerial competencies needed for community based work. Indeed the achievement of desired outcomes in community projects is often compromised by the shortage of well-trained youth workers and inadequate competences required for systematic project cycle management. THE TRAINING COURSE Dates: 10-16 September 2015 Venue: Caltanissetta, IT Country involved: Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Kosovo, The Netherlands, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia. The project is a 7 days training course involving 33 youth workers and 11 youth organizations from EU and Western Balkans countries, providing a creative training that links project management with non-formal education and youth work. Participants are guided through the various stages of project management: - from identifying young people's needs: - starting with what is present in the community; - focusing on the need analysis, problem-solving capacity and strategic planning; - stressing entrepreneurship and creativity to efficacy and effectiveness of community-based projects; - successfully turning identified needs into an action plan that responds to identified young people community’s needs. - encouraging a vision for sustainable co-development in order to face common challenge in increasingly diverse local and global societies. TC will provide an intercultural space for critical reflection and exploration of recent developments in the field of youth work in both EU and Eastern Balkan countries. The overall goal is to engage youth workers from EU and Western Balkans partner countries to step up into leadership roles in their local communities as agent and multipliers for sustainable co-development and growth. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES - To provide youth workers with knowledge, skills and practical tools related to the project management and community development that are needed to turn young people's needs into an action plan for inclusive community growth at both local and international level. - To involve youth workers in the strategic planning of services and projects that are responsive to identified young people’s community needs. - To develop a cross-cultural understanding of different youth work experiences in both European and Western Balkans countries. - To facilitate opportunities for networking and partnerships between youth workers and organizations in EU and Western Balkans countries. PARTICIPANT PROFILE N. 31 youth workers: - aged between 18 and 35 years old - have experience with youth work, particularly with disadvantaged young people or 'at risk' of exclusion in community-based activities; - motivated to learn about Project Management and Community Development. Youth workers from minorities groups are strongly encouraged to apply for. Training staff: N.2 Trainers (IT, MK), 1 Facilitator (LT), 2 support staff (IT) THE WORKING METHODS The TC is structured in practical workshops where participants learn by doing on the basis of key concepts and trainers guidelines. Main working methods used are: - Peer and cooperative learning: role playing, individual and group exercises, brainstorming, problem solving and decision making plays, focus questions, brain maps, problems and objectives trees, case studies, plenary discussions, open space technology. - Reciprocal Maieutic Approach (RMA), Danilo Dolci (problem analysis, context analysis, stakeholders analysis). RMA can be defined as a “process of collective exploration that takes, as a departure point, the experience and the intuition of individuals” (Dolci). - Theatre and drama in education, with emphasis on image theatre, dialogical theatre (problem analysis, objective analysis, strategy analysis) and forum theatre (Boal) used as a tool to analyse problems through drama and find common and creative solutions. - Team building and cooperative work (learn how to communicate, work and develop within a group). - Overall the four pillars of learning of UNESCO: Learning to know, Learning to do, Learning to be, Learning to live together. IMPACT ENVISAGED - N. 36 participants from EU and Western Balkans equipped with the following key competences they need to take action on the issues that affect young people in their local communities. - N. 11 organizations involved EU and Western Balkans: increased cooperation and networking in the youth field - Multiplication of the training programme and learning material to other potential end-users in different community contexts at both local and international level