Youth workers for Peaceful Conflict Transformation

The training course “Youth workers for Peaceful Conflict Transformation” will be held between 12-20 November 2019 (included travel days) in Pamporovo, Bulgaria. The participants will be 35 young people from 10 countries – Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Greece, Serbia, Croatia and Romania. The context of the project is the concept of “conflict transformation”. It’s focus is on the efforts of young people who face cultural differences, social inequalities, stereotypes or hatred to help them understand the best way to solve conflict and build a peaceful and sustainable dialogue. The participating countries are part of the process of internal and external conflicts and a struggle for independence (the dispute over the name of Macedonia with Greece, the territorial conflicts between the former Yugoslav countries (Serbia, Macedonia and Croatia), the conflicts between Romania and the neighboring northern states, the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the two conflict areas in Georgia – Abkhazia and Samakablo, the Ukraine-Russia conflict for the Crimea and the Donbass, the eternal historical dispute between Bulgaria and Macedonia). Through the implementation of this project, we are looking to learning stories with impact across cultural and social conflicts in European societies. We will look at the content and trace the impact of international conflicts on young people, transforming their perceptions and attitudes into the idea of creating peaceful societies and understanding between
different countries.

The main needs addressed by the project “Youth workers for Peaceful Conflict Transformation” are driven by the opportunity to bring together representatives of youth organizations coming from these “critical” countries of Europe that have been associated with persistent conflicts and accumulated tension for decades and aims at:

1. To train youth workers with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes related to the transformation of conflicts.
2. Promoting the universal understanding between young people across different countries
3. Raise public and civil participation and encourage their active involvement in common causes
4. Encourage young people from different countries to cooperate despite the borders in the name of a common goal – the peace between them and
5. To become a peace ambassadors in Europe and around the world!
In order to achieve our goals, we will focus on issues related to conflict understanding; conflict analysis; sharing good examples of achieving peace; practical knowledge to deal with conflicts; analytical ideas and models of conflict intervention; relationships and roles in conflict situations; finding common goals for achieving peace and taking appropriate action. All activities and methods used in the exchange program will be based on non-formal education and will follow the “learning by doing” and “learning by participation”, “learning by experience” models. The working methods that we will use are debates, simulations, energizers, ice-breakers, communication games, knowledge and sharing activities, group discussions, reflection and self-analysis, teamwork, ideas generation, open space,etc.

Venue of the project:

For more information download info-pack: