The training for youth workers “The power of stories in ‘difficult’ topics – explaining inequalities and economy!” took place from 12th November to 21st November 2019 in Wisła, Poland. The training was attended by 18 youth workers from 6 countries: Armenia, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia, and Ukraine.
The objective of the training was to equip youth workers with broader knowledge regarding Social Economy and possibilities that it gives in terms of promoting tolerance and feeling of solidarity with excluded groups in local communities while providing the youth workers with knowledge of Storytelling as a tool of non-formal education. The project is funded by Erasmus+.
Youth workers from 6 European countries had a chance to gain knowledge regarding Social Economy and possibilities it gives in terms of promoting tolerance and feeling of solidarity with excluded groups in local communities and Storytelling and conditions that need to be ensured to use it effectively. Besides this, the participants had the opportunity to develop practical skills regarding using Storytelling when covering the topic of Social Economy in a way that allows to change youth’ behaviour and promote tolerance as well as the feeling of solidarity and become more confident with their qualification and capacity to work with youth.
The training was attended by 3 girls from Serbia, Bojana who was representing IDC and its social enterprise Agro Iris, Zorana who represented Coalition for solidarity economy development, and Milica who was a representative of one of the IRIS network members – Sigma plus. They had a chance to participate in a very intense and demanding training with numerous workshops. The methodology of the training was new to our representatives and they had a chance to exchange their knowledge with other participants. Besides this, they created a workshop for high school class to familiarize them with the concepts of social inequality, poverty and other social problems that are the main focus of social economy. In a fun and age-appropriate manner, they discussed the problems, possible solutions and actors of this process. This was a very innovative and unusual approach for our colleagues and it allowed them to work with youth in a completely new area.
Zorana and Bojana participated in the training as lecturers also. Zorana spoke about social economy within the context of the mainstream economy. The participants had a chance to hear about the basic framework of social economy and the impact it has on different economic systems. On the other hand, Bojana talked about the social entrepreneurship in Serbia and shared the experience of Agro Iris as a food social enterprise. The participants were very interested to hear the context of Serbian social economy and good examples in practice.
Our representatives will have the opportunity to transfer the acquired knowledge and methodology to their organisations upon the return to Serbia, as well as to give a lecture in 3 high schools in Niš, Šabac and Belgrade. This will be a new opportunity to familiarize local youth with the topics of social economy and storytelling and involve them in solving problems of their local community.