Open Call for participants — Peace(ful)Response — Training course on peaceful crisis management and communication

Have you always searched for a place to express yourself? To understand other points of view? To bring not only a change in the world but to make it more peaceful and inclusive?

The Youth Peace Ambassadors Network (YPAN) with the support of Peace Up, invites you to discover the compass that will guide you towards a more inclusive society. That is why we created:

Peace(ful) Response

What is this? A 6-day training course on crisis management and communication

Who? 41 participants from Poland, Spain, Greece, Ukraine, Germany, Portugal, Azerbaijan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Lithuania, Armenia, Russia, Turkey, Kosovo*, Georgia, Belgium and France.

When? From the 22nd till 29th April

Venue: Munich (Germany)

Deadline: 13th of March 2022

Application form: https://forms.gle/Bn9qqyaCPjhG7zwf7

YPAN, as so it’s training, is open to everyone, no matter of your gender, age, nationality, religion or political views. We believe and advocate for Human Rights. So if you would like to learn in a respectful and diverse space — this training is for you.

WHY THIS PROJECT?

As youth workers behind this project application, we acknowledge that Covid-19 has posed a common threat to humanity. However, we also believe that it should contribute to habits of cooperation on a global scale. Unfortunately, it would not be fair to say that the Corona Crisis is managed peacefully. It has led to an increase in acts and displays of Sinophobia as well as the prejudice, xenophobia, hate speech, racism, and different sorts of discrimination. These developments made it clear that peaceful and holistic crisis management tools and methodologies need to be developed in order to radically collaborate when responding to crisis situations.

AIM

We propose to equip youth workers with peaceful crisis management skills by providing them the knowledge and competencies in areas such as combating hate speech, nonviolent communication and by introducing the new tools that can be used as a guide by young people.

WITH AN AIM… COME THE OBJECTIVES

The objectives are:

• to bring together youth workers and young activists in order to analyze the effects of the crisis on everyday life;
• to increase the competencies of youth workers for addressing the crisis in a peaceful way;
• to equip youth workers with non-violent communication skills as a tool to maintain peaceful communication during times of crisis.
• to strengthen the YPA network with new active members so that it can serve as a space for engagement in peaceful crisis management for young people.
• Young People creating a guideline on ‘peaceful crises management for young people and youth workers. “Guide to Peaceful Crisis Management and Communication”
• To support youth workers with tools and methods to ensure their well-being during measures like self-isolation, quarantine, and other situations requiring lack of human contact.

ARE YOU WILLING TO…?

• Join a group with an open mind, ready to take action, seeking for constructive learning, and willing to be changemakers;
• Challenge your way of behaving/living in a process of unlearning for 6 days (this one is VERY important — think about it);
• Create a community with respect, love, and “sharing is caring” mood;
• Show your best skills to others, offer an ear to hear and questions to ask;
• Be in the middle of nature, practicing morning mindfulness or yoga;
• Find what “outside the box” really means;
• Believe that youth is part of the change…

THEN YOU ARE PERFECT FOR THIS PROJECT!

BESIDES, IF YOU CAUGHT YOURSELF…

• sticking to your ideas, values or ways of living without reflection;
• talking for talking without giving the space to express to others,
• showing your power and super-ego towards the others,
• going on about party and drinking all the time,
• not listening to others’ thoughts or ideas, but rather spending time on the phone…

We still love you, but we recommend you to read “Just Kids” (Patti Smith) in your closest library, and then come back to this call :)

HOW WE WORK (we try to be different)

Training course will be based on the principles of non-formal education: it will have a planned programme of personal and social education for young people designed to improve a range of skills and competencies, outside the formal educational curriculum.

We will implement the basic elements of the non-formal education, such as the education being voluntary, organized with educational objectives, participatory and learner-centered, about learning life skills and preparing for active citizenship, based on involving both individual and group learning with a collective approach, holistic and process-oriented, as well as based on experience and action (we will plan the follow-up activities) and starts from the needs of the participants.

COSTS, WHAT IS THAT?

We believe in one thing, the power of peace education and the right for all to have an opportunity. That is why, thanks to the ERASMUS+ scheme, we are able to provide this training for you for FREE.

We will be able to reimburse you for your travel to Munich + Antigen test with a limit of:
- Russia — 820 euros
- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia — 530
- Turkey, — 360 euros
- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Kosovo, Spain, Belgium, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Greece, Belarus, France, Germany — 275 euros

Youth Peace Ambassadors Network

The Youth Peace Ambassadors Network (YPAN) is an informal network of 92 young peacebuilders from across Europe who work with and in conflict-affected communities.

The majority of the members of the network are trained on human rights, non-formal education, and conflict transformation by the Council of Europe in the long term project (2011–2014).

Our Mission: The YPA Network wants to develop a culture of peace by empowering young people, promoting human rights, dignity, equality and respect of diversity through education, advocacy and other non-violent actions through projects at local and international level.

As YPA Network we promote local and international peace-building activities by young people around Europe.

DEADLINE — 13th of March 2022

Link to the application -> https://forms.gle/Bn9qqyaCPjhG7zwf7

CONTACT

Raminta Bagdonaite, Nevena Radosavljevic, Alper Paris Gurlek — Project coordinators

youthpeaceambassadors@gmail.com

Youth Peace Ambassadors Network on FB

PEACE(FUL) RESPONSE is a project financed by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme.