YMCA Europe “Leadership Academy” (cohort 6) united 25 participants from 21 local communities and their civil society organisations to take the first step of the educational journey in Bratislava from 8-14 April 2024.
The project “Youth Educates: strengthening the capacity of youth civil society organisations to run non-formal education activities” takes place in the format Training the Trainers in 2024. The second session will take place between October 29th and November 2nd, 2024, in Belgium.
On the first day, the participants got acquainted with each other, went through team-building activities, and started learning the difference of non-formal education from formal and informal. The day ended with the YMCA quiz discovering history, mission and curious facts.
The second day of YMCA Europe’s “Leadership Academy” continued with discussions of essential elements of an educational process and building logic of training. The participants studied the learning cycle of David Kolb, group dynamics, and learning styles. The theoretical information helped the participants to build an understanding of how to design a programme outline from the very beginning.
The participants were working in mini-groups, experienced the World Cafe method, and studied Tuckman’s model of group dynamics through a presentation and a “Lord of the Rings” video. During the evening program, the intercultural dimensions were presented in a non-formal way with traditional food, dances, and songs.
The third day embraced deeper discussions of building logic of educational sessions, as well as the art of debriefing through the 4F model, how to approach methodology, learning styles, learning zones and non-violent communication while group work.
The participants practised the “I-statement” as an essential soft skill of a trainer and a person. On the second part of the day, the participants paid a visit to YMCA Bratislava, having an outstanding social excursion learning about the history of the building and programmes for people of the city. During the dinner, the young leaders could enjoy traditional Slovakian food.
The fourth day started typically with an energiser, devotion and recap of the previous day. The young leaders discussed the ethics of a trainer through an “agree-disagree” exercise, practical tips for a presentation, and practised the art of giving and receiving feedback, using the “sandwich” model.
The second half of the day was devoted to designing an educational session and preparing for its practical implementation in small groups. The evening was devoted to playing board games together.
The fifth day was devoted to the delivery of prepared educational sessions as an opportunity to act as trainers in a safe environment and receive constructive feedback.
This practical exercise allowed outlining the learning zones for the young trainers and highlighting key takeaways within the design and delivery of the evaluation process. After explaining further steps, the group evaluated the 5-day journey and closed the day with a warm circle of gratitude to each other. The farewell evening was organised by the participants.
The participants referred to the Self-Assessment Form at the beginning and the end of the training. It was developed based on the Youth Work Portfolio of the Council of Europe.
On each day the evaluations took place in small reflection groups.
YMCA Europe expresses big gratitude to the Planning Team: Alejandra Arcila, Ivo Tepavski, Mariam Mamulashvili and involved Experts Ben Blackman and Cihan Kilic.
Photo album of the event is available here.
This project is co-financed by the European Youth Foundation.
