Brave New YOU Reloaded - online training course

In May 2020, we started with the first activity in the framework of the Brave New You-RELOADED project. The project tackles the issues caused by the lack of participation of disadvantaged and less represented groups in communities around Europe. Through a process of capacity building in local and international activities, youth workers and youth organisations will develop competencies for reaching out to disadvantaged youngsters and communities. It will empower disadvantaged young people to be community leaders, to identify and deconstruct hateful narratives, and build more inclusive narratives for their communities.

Even if the face-to-face meetings are still not possible in the midst of the covid-19 crisis, we have adjusted the project to the current situation and started its implementation online. The last 7 weeks were busy with the first-ever training course organised by YEU done fully via the Internet. Since the 15th of May, we were holding two sessions of the activity one day per week. The process of the training was quite long but weekly homework supported the educational path of the training. 

Each of the local youth workers from 10 countries developed action plans which will be implemented during the following months. Participants got to know more about hate speech and to recognise it in public spaces. They had a chance to analyse hateful narratives from their countries to better clarify the disadvantaged youth with which they will be working with on the local level. In order to bring an institutional perspective to the training, trainers were supporting the activities with a manual published by the Council of Europe called “We CAN! Taking action against hate speech through counter and alternative narratives”.

This event has been very important for the organisation as it was the first long term activity which has been implemented online. It has taught us a good lesson about the future possibility of doing our events via the Internet. It was a learning experience for us as an organisation and also a totally new formula for doing events for participants who took part in the Erasmus+ activities before.   

Katarzyna Sokolowska

YEU Projects and Advocacy Officer