Training for youth workers, which is part of the project YOUth With a Plan (implemented by Local Democracy Agency Mostar and funded by ERASMUS +, K2, Capacity Building Youth - Western Balkans), began on the 2nd of April 2016.

33 participants from 14 youth organizations and 10 countries — Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Slovenia, Turkey, Check Republic, Romania, Italy and Belgium — participated in a week-long training seminar in Mostar (B&H).

The training was organized for youth workers who are already experienced in Youth in Action programs (as participants or leaders), but also for those who want to take it a step further and develop their own international projects in their organizations. 

The purpose of the seminar was to train youth workers and project managers for quality work within the Erasmus + program and thus indirectly improve international youth projects. Participants were first acquainted with the basic information about the Erasmus + program and its objectives and performance characteristics. Erasmus + program supports innovative investment projects as well as new applications of good practice, as both lead to a positive outcome for the partners, participants and the program itself. Among the standards, principles, priorities and values that are essential for the participation in the program, the trainers have mainly pointed equality, inclusion, multilingualism, non-formal education, dissemination of results, visibility, security and stability of the European dimension and international projects.

Since the emphasis of the Erasmus + program is on promoting different perspectives and development of their own reflections, the participants dealt with the concept of intercultural dialogue. One of the objectives of the seminar was in fact to associate organizations of different countries, and thus to create the basis for future cooperation. At the stall "NGO Marketplace", 14 organizations were presented, which is due to the diversity and actuality programs met, with great interest among the participants. During the "International Evening", in which the participants learnt about different cultures through food and drinks, they also learnt about elements of culture at deeper levels. The participants tried to find ideas, concepts and values for each culture that are not immediately obvious, but always present. Through intercultural dialogue, they discovered their own values, ways of thinking and acting, and of course, culturally conditioned stereotypes and prejudices.

The main focus of the seminar was on the creation of high-quality and relevant international projects under the Erasmus + program. Participants first learnt about the different stages of project design, from the initial definition of the objectives and planning, until the actual implementation and final evaluation. In order to keep the quality and Headquarters-based principles for the programs, the organizers offered participants t. i. NAOMMIE - tool for writing, which helps step by step articulate the various elements of the project. It is first necessary to analyze what are the needs (N = "Needs") of a community or organization to define what is our own motivation in this, what are our competences and values, and to determine how much relevant is the project for the organization, especially for the target group. Secondly, the general intent of the project (A = "AIM") needs to be defined, and then the concrete, specific and short-term goals (O = "Objectives"). After this, it is necessary to determine the individual phases, the logical steps and timetable for the project and to define a strategy on how to achieve the stated objectives (M = "Methodology & Approach"). The next step is to devise a concrete plan for the project, to determine the activities within each phase and place them in a temporal and spatial scheme (M = "Methods & Activities"). This is then followed by the actual implementation (I = "Implementation"), and, finally, the evaluation of the project and further plans for the future (E = “evaluation & follow-up”).

Another goal of the seminar was actually the creation of projects for the interests of individual organizations. Participants, in practice, developed their competences and skills in organizing international projects. They tried to design a program that would be relevant to Erasmus + and that would have a lasting impact and potential for further development. In groups, with the help of this scheme, participants roughly shaped their projects, presented them to the organizers and got feedback. This is the first step on the road to the actual design of project within their organization.

This training also gave the participants the opportunity to learn about the city of Mostar and its attractions, and of course, to socialize and chat in a relaxed way around traditional Bosnian cuisine. 

YOUth with a Plan project began on the 1st of December 2015. The aim of the project is to build capacities of youth workers and project leaders regarding their work and the work of their organizations, in order to develop quality international projects about youth engagement within E+/YiA which are in accordance with the priorities of the E+ program. YOUth with a Plan training provides necessary knowledge about quality preparation, implementation, evaluation and tracking after implementation of activities. 


You may find detailed agenda here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16671764/time%20table%20of%20the%20training.pdf