ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: training course
Místo konání: Woodstown, County Waterford, Ireland
Dates: 23—30 September 2023
Czech team: 2 participants
Please read the info-pack.
Participating countries: Spain, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Ukraine, Ireland, Estonia, Armenia, Belgium, Greece
Hosting organisation: Waterford and South Tipperary Community Youth Service Ltd
Project report:
Welcome to Ireland! Welcome to the world full of the nicest people, guiness, honesty and a loots of rain. It was my pleasure to travel to Ireland (Woodstown) with Nela on the 23th September. To be honest we weren’t really sure what to expect from the project “It’s my nature, A training course for youth workers to improve skills through the power of Participatory Theater”, but it turned out better then we could have imagined. There were eighteen people in total (plus 2 trainers), from the following countries: Spain, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Ukraine, Ireland, Estonia, Armenia, Belgium and Greece.
We owe a big thanks to our leaders, Elena and Domonique, for getting everything organized so well. We formed an awesome team without any hiccups! We did lots of activities, which helped us get to know each other better, for example hugging game from Elena. The main objective of this training course was to improve the self-awareness and self-confidence of Youth workers so that they can support the young people that they work with and can guide them in their learning process as full, authentic people – which i felt like was really accomplished, way better than I thought it could ever be. Everyday we had sessions with different topics, for example vulnerability or comfort zone, and after we had done those, we would continue with some exercises. We dove deep into ourselves, and I can say that each of us came back as at least a bit of a different person.
Besides our project, we also got to enjoy Irish culture. Every evening, we would go to eat at some local restaurant, where we could enjoy some traditional Irish foods as well as a well-deserved pint of Guinness. On our fourth day, we all went on a trip around Ireland, where we got to see the famous Irish cliffs and beaches, as well as the magnificent landscapes and this one gigantic valley with a waterfall.
All in all, this project had something special about it. It felt really hard sometimes, because you had to go into yourself and sometimes share parts of you that you normally wouldn’t, but that’s where all the magic happens – when you leave your comfort zone behind. What made it great was how different nations and ages (we were a group from age 18 to 50+) worked together, realizing that we are all the same in some things yet everyone of us is special in their own way. The most important thing was knowing that every person can do something to make things better. During the project, we all learnt so much about ourselves and we formed great new friendships.
The journey doesn’t stop there though! When you get back from a project like this, you can easily go back to your old habits and forget everything that you’ve learnt, but that’s not what we ́re gonna do! We are going to keep on growing, each in their beautiful and unique way!
To sum it up, I think that we are all really grateful for being a part of something like this, and if there will be an opportunity to go on another adventure like this – none of us will hesitate. Thanks a lot to every person who made this project happen.
Zuzka
