The purpose of YOUTHIFICATION

This training course is trying to provide possible solutions to the issues of non-consistent and unstructured work with the young people in the process of their personal and professional development and realizing their potential. The approach that will be explored in details during this training course is the developmental community youth work within youth centers and youth clubs as physical facilities, most of the time supported by the local government and local stakeholders. Especially Subkult would like to develop competences of the youth workers in direction with Erasmus+ projects and how the organizations can achieve greater dissemination of the results coming out from these projects where they send participants, such as training courses, youth exchanges, contact making seminars, partnership building activities etc. How to keep the accumulated knowledge and the people in the youth centers in order to give valuable contribution to the local community? How to encourage these young people to motivate their peers to become part of these learning processes? Which are the different models of youth centers?

YOUTHIFICATION 2017 has an aim to contribute to the preparation of the staff members to manage, lead and execute daily tasks related to the management of the youth center, including leadership and organizational skills, financial and human resource management and necessary European dimension. Thus, the training program will offer a platform where these competences could be explored and developed.

The participants will be also prepared to welcome new approaches in youth work that could be introduced to their work back home in their local community. The mix of youth organizations that are partners in this project, have very distinctive and different styles of creating the programs in their youth centers. Also the youth workers who are going to take part in this training course have different educational background and experience. Having in mind the fact that not everywhere the term "youth work" has the same meaning, should be a trigger for each youth worker to start thinking "out of the box" where s/he grew up. By addressing the topic of different types of youth centers and youth clubs, the participant will improve their understanding about the potential that could be exploited in order to enrich the quality of their youth programs in their youth centers. Through the examples of good practice that will be presented by the other organizations, would enable the participants to acquire new knowledge from the youth work field.

Through this combination of young people from 11 countries, combining north, east, south and west Europe, the young people will be exposed to different cultural aspects both on personal and professional levels. Therefore, European awareness will be increased and developed in all the participants. Inter-cultural exchanges will take place through the exploration of subjects related to youth work within different setting of youth centers and youth clubs, through structured social time and through informal time spent by participants.

By strongly encouraged interaction between participants, through breaking down the barriers and cultural stereotypes, many prejudices between the young participants will be broken down. Particularly in relation to communication skills, the participants will be pushed to think about their own discriminatory attitudes and encouraged to challenge them for themselves. Subkult would like to build up an attitude among the participants that will initiate further cooperation between themselves even after going back to their countries. By seeing the potential of working together, the participants will have chance to learn in details about the funding opportunities of the Erasmus+ Programme, to develop their project management skills by initiating project ideas and plan follow up activities.

Through this project it is expected a great impact to be made on the participants' personal and professional development as youth workers who will continue further to support young people from their local communities in the frames of the youth centers where they are working. After going back to their countries, within their organizations, the participants will play a significant role in the process of improving the quality of the activities offered to the youngsters. The knowledge acquired during the training course will be easy to transfer to the local reality in each youth center and the youth workers will be capable to adjust and adapt the methodologies to the specific needs of their target group.

Through the methodology used, the participants will develop their competences as youth workers, they will build up their self-confidence, the ability for self-reflection and self-assessment, they will improve their communication and presentation skills and will get practical experience from which they will benefit in the future.

The partner organizations will be able to integrate the participants' ideas into their planned strategies for the upcoming period in their youth centers and they will benefit directly from the enlarged potential of their staff members through offering space for improvement and innovation in their work. The young people who are visiting those youth centers will be offered new fresh ideas, new learning opportunities not only on local, but also on international level through the Erasmus+ Programme.

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