Last week, Center for Intercultural Dialogue held a training course for youth workers from Macedonia, Turkey and Poland on the topic of active participation and democratic management of youth organisations. The training is part of the KA2 project ”Honeycomb of Participation”, which includes several stages: a research conducted in several European organisations, two training courses in Poznan and Struga, as well as several mobility activities for youth workers.

Held in Struga between 29th of September and 4th of October, the training course focused on exploring the following topics: structures of organisational management, active participation and its forms, channels of communication between youth organisations and its stakeholders. The working group included eight participants from the abovementioned countries and two trainers: Matej Manevski from CID and Michal Klopocki from CIM Horyzonty.

The participants worked in groups during the training course and shared their expertise based on the organisations that they are part of. They discussed and compared different structures, debated about the efficiency of the communication channels used by their organisations and proposed recommendations for improvement and for increasing the inclusion of youth organisations.

The outcomes of the training course will become part of a publication intended as a toolkit of guidelines for youth organisations. The toolkit will sum up as well the results from the conducted research and the other activities of the project.

Some of the participants shared their impressions after the training course:

Ljupka, Macedonia:

This training course provided for me the knowledge that I didn’t quite have about democratic management in youth organizations. I understand now how my own organization functions and is structured, and I also had the chance to learn about how other NGOs from different countries are developing. It was a very useful experience for me and I am sure it will have a big influence in my future.

Cansu, Turkey:

It was a very productive experience for me. We had discussions in a peaceful and respectful environment with the support of the trainers at all times. I am a youth worker myself so I think doing brainstorming about how we ensure active youth participation, how to involve everyone democratically in decision making processes can be useful in the future.

11145092_880225835387540_4512074363886570918_o

Sennur, Turkey:

It was an interesting experience for me – being in Macedonia an being part of this project,  thinking about participation and organisational structures, seeing how other people think. And of course it’s always really educative getting to interact with each other by creating new ideas with new people and groups.

Magdalena, Poland:

I learned a lot about structures of organisations. In every association we have other needs, points of view and formal things connected with national legislation. These factors influence how the structures look like. It was really inspiring – learning about structures and factors which have an influence in the decision making process. I really enjoyed projecting the ideal structure of my dream organisation too! Also I visited Macedonia for the first time. The training course was a great experience!