Young Activists Communicating Peace 15.08.2022 - 22.08.2022

An international training for those who are involved in youth work and who want to learn and experience concrete peace work at an international level!

Location: Sievershausen, near Hannover, Germany
Age: 18 + 
Language: English

  • Are you interested in a qualification in peace and conflict resolution on a personal and societal level?
  • Do you find it exciting to promote peace and international friendship among young people - even if they come from countries that are at war with each other?
  • Would you like to learn more about the application of nonviolent communication and transactional analysis?
  • Would you like to develop your personal skills together with other youth workers?
  • Would you then like to receive official recognition of your participation in this learning experience afterwards? (Youth Passport for more information).

If so, we look forward to receiving your registration!

In recent years, we have observed an increasing radicalization in public communications and an increase in hate speech on social media. News and social media are dominated by escalating and polarizing language. Nationalist, anti-democratic and racist actors are threatening social cohesion worldwide with targeted fake news. This has become increasingly clear over the past 10 years and has reached a new level since Russian troops invaded Ukraine: democracy and peace are under threat worldwide.

With this training, which is part of our long-term project "Young Activist for Peace", we want to remind you that we as human beings are also characterized by the ability to communicate successfully, to cooperate, to show compassion and to act in solidarity. We believe that the ability to communicate successfully is a key to greater understanding and appreciation for one another and contributes to a more peaceful society.

Our training aims to provide the opportunity to develop knowledge by learning and performing. We are inspired by the following questions:

  • Which concepts help us to understand and deal with interpersonal and social conflicts?
  • How do my personal experiences of violence shape my thoughts and actions in conflicts, in general and in view of the current war in Ukraine?
  • How is it possible to communicate peacefully instead of escalating and how can we implement this in our work with young people?
  • How can we recognize fake news and propaganda in the media-led war and replace them with positive examples?
  • Where can we contribute to peaceful communication in public discourse?

We are happy that Christoph Pinkert will be our trainer this year. He is an experienced trainer, lecturer and supervisor for peace education, conflict management as well as leadership and organizational development, whose achievements are recognised at an international level. During the training, he will combine theoretical concepts with their practical implementation to reach a non-violent conflict resolution.

The participation of Ukrainian participants as well as online communication with Russian young people is planned. For potential participants with the Russian citizenship: If you are interested to join our Training, please consult this page in Russian [ВНИМАНИЮ УЧАСТНИКОВ С ГРАЖДАНСТВОМ РФ].

Become part of the international community working for peace and a world without discrimination!
We invite two participants from EU- and neighbouring countries from each partner. Some experience in youth or non-formal political education is required. You are welcome to use the experiences and results of this project in your own work.

Conditions for Participation & Contact

  • Date of arrival: 15.08.2022 in the afternoon
  • Date of departure: 22.08.2022 after lunch
  • Location: Sievershausen (Germany)
  • Age: 18+ (no upper limit)
  • Working language: English
  • Previous experience: you should have some experience in running non-formal youth learning or political education activities
  • The Hosting Organization of this offer will organise the accommodation and covers the costs for accommodation and food
  • The participation fee: 40,- Euro from EU, 20,- from non EU residents. There might be other costs charged by your Sending Organization.
  • Reimbursement of the travel expenses is calculated according to the flat rate of the ERASMUS + programme.

To register, please contact one of our partners in your country.

NB! There are no more available places

Turkey PIYA Turkey Website iletisim(at)pigenclikdernegi.org
Estonia ESTYES Website estyes(at)estyes.ee
Italy Lunaria Website scambi(at)lunaria.org
Germany ICJA Website youthexchange(at)icja.de
Ukraine ISKRA Website

info(at)iskra.org.ua

Greece ELIX Website youth(at)elix.org.gr

Finland

Maailmanvaihto – ICYE Finland Webiste maailmanvaihto(at)maailmanvaihto.fi
France Concordia France Website vlt(at)concordia.fr
Slovakia KERIC Website lenicka(at)keric.sk

The Activities in Detail

Contrary to what was announced, there will be no online session before the training in presence: Our team made the experience that online sessions are also excluding participants, due to lack of time or for technical reasons. So our first meeting will be at the venue itself. But we will arrange an online session after the training as opportunity for more feedback and extended exchange

Day 1 - 15.08.
•    Arrival and welcome
•    Getting to know each other, team building
•    Orientation about venue, Corona rules
•    Expectations, first information about program

Day 2 - 16.08
•    Introduction in the program
•    Getting to know each other: on personal level, on level of activities, presentation of your organizations
•    our motivation of participation
•    Clarification of important terms
•    How do the war in Ukraine effect my live and my work?
•    Daily reflection round

Day 3 - 17.08
•    Communication in times of war: Work with sources, videos, excerpts to learn about and assess forms and ways of communication and propaganda.
•    Current development of the war
•    First steps towards communication with Russian participants, exploring online tools
•    Daily reflection round
•    
Day 4 - 18.08
•    What does peaceful communication mean? Introduction and exchange of experiences, Introduction in “Non Violent Communication, (NVC)”
•    Deepen the communication with Russian participants: Sharing thoughts, feelings and actions about the war based on NVC
•    Transactional Analysis (TA): communication from the adult ego How can communication succeed in crisis and mediation.
•    Getting to know the ego states AND contracting when working with groups to set the framework of appreciative communication.
•    Daily reflection round

Day 5- 19.08
•    Working on contracts and working with own target groups,
•    Upcoming projects of the participants will be looked at from the perspective of TA and contracts: Ensuring peaceful communication / dealing with resistance and violent intervention
•    Free afternoon / Daily reflection round
•    Introduction in Erasmus+ and Youth Pass

Day 6 - 20.08
•    Deepen the communication with Russian participants: Sharing thoughts, feelings and actions about the war based on NVC
•    My contribution to the war in Ukraine and other conflicts
•    What can I, what can we contribute?! Where are the limits and possibilities?
•    Focus on the methodical exchange of one's own projects, vision work to escape the powerlessness in the face of war, conclude final agreements and self-contracts


Day 7 - 21.08
•    Develop your own examples of appreciative communication, or find where such examples exist
•    Integrate them into your own work/project development
•    Workshops and small groups possible: peaceful communication in social media, theatre performances, continuation of the project phase from the previous evening
•    Establish concrete application of all contents to future-oriented projects in their respective sphere of activity
•    Presentations of the developed contents
•   Final evaluation  / How can I implement at home what I have learned?
•    Farewell party
•    
Day 8 - 22.08
•    Youthpass Certificates
•    Farewell & Departure