We Embraced the Change in Youth Work and Digital Storytelling.
”Embrace the Change – Storytelling for Digital Age” was the training course which took place thanks to the hospitality of the organization #Canary Green in Tenerife and thanks to the funding of Erasmus+.
Representatives of INAT Centre had the chance to attend this well-organized and inspiring course with members of other youth organizations from 8 countries.
It was also exciting that some of our team members were exposed to this format of non-formal education and inter-cultural learning for the first time. This meant that they could understand better behind the scenes: what it takes to organize youth projects on a European level?
By organizing we mean: facilitation and preparation of the training; budget and refund of costs; selection of participants; time management for learning and free time once we are on site.
The training was possible thanks to the efforts of Canary Green’s non-profit founder John Dale Beckley ♻️ ; as well as the project coordinator Dorotea Ležaić, who conceptualized the project during her time with the organization; as well as the trainers Branimir Suk and Mirko Logožar.
The organizations that sent participants showed strong commitment to youth work and sustainable tourism: Canary Green, Ocean znanja, Social Mountain Network, Delta Dyo, Moby Dick, Volonterski centar Skopje, INGEFIEX – Acosiación para la Innovación, Energía, Cultura y Deporte, and our INAT Centre.
As one of our trainers said, ”Training course in the youth work is aimed at people who engage and help youth. In such scenarios participants should be above 18, but we had the situation that in one course the oldest participant was even 67 years old.”
Below I share 5 things I learned from this remarkable training course and how it will contribute further to my life and work:
1) a buffet of digital tools for the effective promotion of youth work
2) NGO canvas – a fantastic framework to plan the annual strategy of the NGO
3) how to connect the personal brand and the organizational brand (or even 2 jobs) on Linkedin – this was a really effective workshop by John Dale Beckley
4) plenty of energizers and remarkable facilitation techniques in order to keep the group cohesion
It was really exciting to stimulate the positive behaviour with assertiveness and express the disagrement in a polite manner. After all in our group we had 28 people from 8 countries and even more nations.
5) how to make Erasmus+ opportunities available to a wider audience = this is important for the communities where our organization contributes.
“The quality of the training is proportional to the amount of the learning that happened in the training.” – Branimir Suk, trainer and facilitator in international projects
“What we learned in this training is medium to advanced. And this knowledge is usually spread on many places online. So learning happened here thanks to the group cohesion.” – Mirko Logožar, trainer and digital marketing expert
The bonus point I learned is: how to recharge in the serene nature before or after the training sessions.
This routine is something to definitely implement in the city I live in. At Tenerife it felt natural to designate time for exercising and journaling outside and close to the water.
During autumn and other seasons in Serbia or elsewhere, I will practice similarly to recharge in nature and in solitude, while I am immersed in creative activities.
5 things I did for the first time:
1) I experienced Erasmus + project and the training course with several team members from our organization.
So far we attended trainings individually and this was a fantastic opportunity to bond in a new way as the change of location also helps.
2) We connected with organizations in the fields of ecology and sustainable tourism from several European countries.
In our European network so far we had more NGOs for digital jobs. Still, with these new partnerships that were created in Canary islands we can expand the green components in our projects.
Plus, we can build new green synergies to our existing priorities: digital jobs and location-independent jobs for youth workers.
3) Likewise, I evaluated for the first time what ChatGPT and Adobe Firefly can do for us when it comes to content creation and project planning.
In this training we also had the time to estimate what we like / don’t like about these new technologies.
4) I also liked that for the first time I learned this in the structured form of the training: how to increase the security of the digital presence and password management.
5) Last but not least, I visited the island location for an Erasmus+ project and swam in the ocean.
p.s. The collage below captures the presentation of the Serbian delegation during the Intercultural night.
During this training course it was fun to explore new geographies, mentalities and friendships. The memories we created are just the beginning as the next chapters can be created with other organizations we met.
With gratitude and open heart,
Milena
#EmbraceTheChange #ErasmusPlus #NGOs #leaning #opportunities #youthwork #tenerife #CanaryGreen #INATmotivation #connecting #future #projects
