Projects Archive 2019

In a world where formal learning is the standard, it becomes more and more important to explore non-formal learning methods. We decided to dedicate this training course on the method of playing. Games have been played since men first stepped into this world. Now the question is: How can we use them in an educational sense?

Participants explored in our seminar different kinds of games – the theoretical and practical sides of them. We hope that in the end, we can enable participants to improve their quality of youth work.

The main goals of the training course were:

- To train youth workers the recognition of the method "games" as non-formal education and becoming part of the process “learning by playing”;

- To test different types of games and understand the content of this instrument;

- To motivate participants to be a part of self-assessment processes through playing;

- To gain different perspectives and improve the quality of youth work and activities provided to young people, through sharing different attitudes and competences connected with "learning by playing" in the international environment.

On January 25, 2020, a meeting of members and friends of East West East Germany took place, during which participants of the international training course "INSPIRATION: INvolving youthS in Project and Inclusion RATIONal activities" in Narva (Estonia) spoke about their participation in the project.

Since the participants are already well acquainted with the Erasmus+ programme and its possibilities, Olga and Ilya shared their knowledge gained during the training on the organization and implementation of inclusive events, as well as held a discussion on possible future projects involving people with special needs. It turned out that several members of the organization have experience working with people with disabilities and would like to continue working in this direction in new youth projects.

The participants also shared contacts with local organizations working in this field and partnership opportunities at local and international levels. At the end of the event the participants agreed to continue discussing future projects involving people with special needs.

We are now observing among young people in Europe a loss of a common European narrative, a story that can be shared by this generation. A narrative that connects the community and gives them a meaning. And this is the sense that prevents radical moods, prejudices, return to conservatism, closed communities, the breakdown of solidarity. This is a sense that enables us to survive the crises of the community.

That's why the young people from 5 different countries gathered to get to know the opinions and experiences of our peers from different backgrounds, countries, cultures and find common experiences connected with experiencing Europe together. We want a common history - a narrative that can be owned by young people and make them feel something more about the idea of a common Europe.

The project was aimed at:

1) strengthening the feeling of belonging of young people aged 18-25 from Poland, Germany, Spain, Hungary and Greece (of diverse origins, culture, level competence, status) to a diverse community of Europeans,

2) finding common generational experiences of young people from different parts of Europe and giving them a common meaning,

3) creating a narrative for the young generation of Europeans, who will attach them to the idea of a common Europe and its values and prevent attitudes of confinement, isolation and mistrust.

33 participants from all corners of Europe gathered in Kranenburg, Germany to explore the connection of Migration to Human rights with the help of Arts. In a good mixture of plenary sessions with presentations, discussions, human library and small group workshops in video, storytelling, psychology and visual arts we tried to figure this out together and express our opinions through these arts. All the youngsters came from very different backgrounds. Using the mix of non-formal education methods and the different arts we wanted our participants to realise the necessity of tolerance, solidarity and equality in the relationship with other people, especially with the challenging background. The significant impact was reached by sharing their own stories, expressing the opinions of the participants on the topic of migration and human rights and learning from each other.

The seminar focused on analysis of the outcomes of the training and the implementation of the interphase. Participants discussed and shared experiences of the training and interphase. During the seminar, participants further explored outdoor education and its usage as an inclusive tool for youth work in their organization.

The seminar structure included reflecting and evaluating past activities, the seminar, and the entire project, recording and documenting outcomes, developing follow-up activities, high-quality dissemination of the result, future cooperation and outdoor education encyclopedia.

The youth exchange consisted of only female participants. The intention was to create a safe space for the participants, to think about what it means to be a woman. We were given a room to discuss how we are idealized by media and society and the pressure we are confronted with to „look pretty“ and to fit into a frame of expectations. We spoke about feminism, our personal boundaries as well as about vulnerability. We practised contact improvisation and went hiking in nature. But let's talk about the experience and the remaining feelings after this project. The group activities, the location and the fact that we´ve been women only, helped us to create a room where everyone felt comfortable, safe and accepted as well as highly inspired, which made us experience valuable conversations, strong connections between each other and the energy of women supporting each other. To feel the power that is able to arise while bringing a group of women together to connect is something very pure and intense, which made this youth exchange absolutely special and enriching, not only for teenage girls. It made us understand how important it is to support each other and to stand up for ourselves, in a world where we still have to fight for gender equality.

Participants were diving into the medieval world next to a medieval castle, creating stories for their characters, constantly walking in costumes and didn't use any gadgets – this is the Live Action Role Play. LARP is an interactive format of the non-formal and informal learning, where all participants are experiencing the real life situations behaving on behalf of their character. During this youth exchange the participants not only had a 3 day long LARPing experience, but also visited the city center of Krakow.

This project aimed to analyze the European history in terms of types of migration, step into the role of a migrant in order to create a personal connection and raise empathy, develop the innovative learning agenda for the topic of migration, based on outdoor activities and simulation games.

Our German participants Stephanie and Bastian took part in a training course for youth workers to improve skills through the power of Labyrinth Theatre. The overall aim of this project was to improve the self-awareness and self-confidence of youth workers from across Europe so that they can support the young people that they work with and can guide them in their learning process as full, authentic people. The course participants did this through the development of a learning toolkit which they can use with their own young people in their own countries.

The training logic was based on the experiential learning cycle, participants received concrete experience, conducted reflective observation, carried out abstract conceptualization, and finally actively experimented. The integral part of the training was a hiking challenge, the hosting organization has implemented several projects in this national park, using comparable methodologies, and the experience of implemented projects in this national park is very positive.

After the training participants reflected on the experience, this process was divided into several stages, the process and its results were recorded.

The team ensured that participants had an opportunity to explore and deepen knowledge on the efficiency of outdoor education by offering open space for sharing experiences and practices amongst each other.

The training structure involved team-building activities, hiking challenge preparation (assigning responsibilities amongst food, program and material teams), a hiking challenge (consolidated educational activities and reflection), reflection process (several stages, using multiply evaluation methods), outdoor education theory, sharing experiences amongst participants, creation of outdoor activities and its practice, focusing on facilitation skills and methods.

Three different groups, three different countries and a worrying trend. The anti-semitism in Europe seems to have awaken again and he finds his followers in the most different layers of our society.

A topic that young people from Germany, Poland and Russia discussed in the summer of 2019 at a youth meeting in Krakow. Through presentations, reports, the exchange with contemporary witnesses and a visit to the former concentration camp in Auschwitz, they sensitized to the topic of anti-semitism and its history in Europe, such as the Reichspogromnacht.

But also the everyday hatred against Jews in the nations of the participating organizations in recent years was discussed. It is very important for young people to share their experiences so that they can strengthen their own point of view and their European values.

After the international meeting, the groups developed their own projects at the local level and continue to work intensively on the topic. The young people continued their education and developed methods to counteract anti-semitism and exclusion while strengthening the understanding of other cultures.

56 youngsters from all corners of Europe have gathered together in Kranenburg to discuss the hot topic of gender. During the project participants thought about gender roles. They learned a distance to homophobia and that sexuality can also be lived by people in different manifestations. All the activities were held in a creative way - participants worked together in 5 thematic workshops: classic theatre by our leader Gandhi, music by Sivaz, SMM workshop by our partner from Russia Yulia, dance workshop by Nataliya from Greece, street art workshop by Mary and theater of the senses by Pompei from Romania.

The "nordic"-type of LARP (Life Action Role Play) used at the youth exchange was the main format of the project, in which players not only play their characters, but become them - lose themselves in new characters for a almost 1 week. For this fictional reality have been created specific conditions: the participants lived in a castle, wore medieval clothes and were forbidden to use phones.       

During the project participants discussed the main historical war-and-peace-topics, current conflict situations in their home countries and were involved in several workshops. Moreover, they visited Reichswald Forest War Cemetery near Kranenburg, had excursions to Köln and Nijmegen (Holland). In a round table format together with members of Peace Building Organization Hagen participants discussed a topic about Atomic warfare and nuclear weapons.

During the seminar participants have shared and evaluated the intermediate phase results, created a booklet for young people and organisations on how to become cyber-hygenic, created session outlines of the non-formal education-based activities on cyber security and started working on generation of new Erasmus+ projects. Additionally, participants visited the local historical sights and the city center of Hattingen.