My name is Silvi and from January to August 2022 I was volunteering in a Montessori school in Telfs, which has made me ponder a lot about what is important for one’s education and nurture. During my volunteering I had discovered a lot about education and nurture. How fruitful it is for a child to thrive as a part of more than a system, but a community: taking part in each aspect of school life and voicing what is dear to them as an individual. Teaching, learning and relishing the beauty of the Alps, I spent a year in InfoEck – Jugendinfo Tirol looking for the greater meaning. I share with you some photos which illustrate this amazing journey!

Volunteering Projects under European Solidarity Corps/2021-2-AT01-ESC51-VTJ-000044972

SCI cares about the high quality of our educational activities! We want to offer only the best experiences to our volunteers and the youth we work with, and we also keenly share our expertise in non-formal education with other organisations.

One such example was the Learning Lab(oratory) Pro training course which has been recently organized by our Polish branch in Pozna? in the period of 27.10-3.11.2022.

As many as 28 participants from 9 countries got more in-depth on the topics of inclusion and new tools and trends in learning and development in online and in-person settings, under the guidance of Natalie Jivkova and Goska Tur.

The training was a part of the ‘Learning Lab(oratory): quality non-formal education in the digital world’ project and co-funded by the European Union. You can find more information about the project here.

Here you can find the impressions from the participants from Bulgaria who explain what the training course was like for them in their own words… and graphics and drawings!!

Impressions from Hinka Stanimirova:
I was part of the lucky group, who had already gone through the wonderful experience of the first Learning Lab training course in Emen, Bulgaria this July. So, you can imagine that my expectations were high, to begin with. Still, our lovely trainers Natalie and Goska managed to meet and exceed them by gathering a vibrant group of 28 people from more than 10 different nationalities and leading us through a full week of discussions, games, role plays, digital tools and more. We had the chance to go out of our comfort zone and experiment in a safe zone. We learned and got inspired by each other, met new friends and made memories together.
For me, the beauty of such a well-organised international training course is that learning happens on many different levels. It is not just the tools that your trainers try to teach you. You learn with the new methods you try out, with the new people you meet, the new perspectives you encounter and the new culture you are immersed in for a whole week. It is so intensive and passes so quickly, that it takes time and reflection afterwards until you become fully aware of all the things you’ve brought back with you in your “backpack”.
So, looking back at my “backpack”, I want to give special thanks to our trainers and the organisers of SCI Poland, who made this learning journey possible. I would also like to encourage our readers, who haven’t yet experienced the magic of non-formal education to get their backpacks ready and jump into this adventure without a second thought.

Impressions from Ralitsa Drumeva:

Throwing back at the Learning Lab(oratory) Pro Training, full of inspiration and a shade of sadness and trying to reflect on all the emotions, lights of inspiring ideas and everything that I had the opportunity to learn, maybe the most distinguishing thought that comes at the forefront of everything is: “This was by far sure the most diverse group of people I have ever had the chance to interact and work with”.
Being myself an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion and working as a Co-Leader of the DEI initiative at the local division of an international IT company, I have had many occasions to see the importance of creating a space for people from diverse backgrounds to exchange ideas and innovate together.
Still, I have always had the feeling that something really important was… missing. And stepping into the circle of the Learning Lab, the missing part came to fill the space in my puzzle of what the power of diversity really was about. And as long as it is very difficult to express a feeling with words, the nearly best try would be to say that it is about creating a space for people from diverse backgrounds to explore the environment and themselves through art in all of its forms – digital, vocal, physical, written and hand-made, spoken and acted, danced and sang. Putting art in the toolbox boosts the potential and self-confidence of everyone to be able to be inspired and become inspirational for others as well, removing any limit or border.
The LARP play and conducted group singing experiences may be taken back to any country and any situation, folk dancing activities are a wonderful way of extending a hand to someone who has been through the trauma of war or violence, even if they do not speak the language of the country in which I am volunteering, thus giving both them and me the rope to feeling safe, the digital tools may remove barriers in front of people with limited mobility, audio or visual abilities, thus giving them the platform to be included and the feeling that they equally belong to a group.
And setting a safe space always starts and carries on with openness and sharing, it goes as far as walking through the dark forest of the holy night of 1st November to the cemetery, telling stories – the personal ones, family, related to city history, dating back to the full of horror times of past wars with a portion of humour to reveal a different, peaceful and mindful way of perceiving eternity.
Because being an international trainer, a facilitator, a youth worker, and a volunteer is always being an ambassador of the best virtues and values of your culture and an interpreter and ally for the best virtues and values of the cultures of the people you work with.

Impressions from Eliza Pankova:
For me “learning equals behaviour change”, so even though I am eager to talk plenty about my experience from the training time – how much I enjoyed the amazing nature of the accommodation place, the connection with the people in the group, the stimulating and entertaining workshops and the presence of the trainers with their dedication and care – I would rather share my learnings and inspirations

A lot of the things that I learned I have yet to put into practice, especially those for leading a group of participants through a multi-day experience. But some I have already started implementing – like making a warm and cosy atmosphere even for a working meeting, lighting candles and small lights and having pleasant things to eat.
The biggest learning and inspiration for me though was the introduction of digital tools. Me and a couple of others from the training group started working together to create an online calendar with simple challenges for people to be mindful and act toward creating a deeper sense of inner peace in their lives. We are experimenting with the digital tools that we learned in the training and also finding new ones to suit our project.
While working like this these few weeks after the training course in Pozna?, tons of new ideas came to my mind for new projects that can be realized with the help of these types of tools and for improvement of the current digital courses that I lead. I sparkle inside and can’t wait to continue exploring this field of possibilities that Goska and Natalie introduced to us in Learning Lab Pro.

Visual story by Vera Nikolova

Useful materials have been created for Erasmus+: Youth in Action mobility project implementers within the framework of Erasmus+ strategic partnership “Project HOWs” project.

Partners from 4 countries – Baltic Regional Fund from Latvia, Vsl Inovatyvi karta from Lithuania, CVS-Bulgaria from Bulgaria, and Tudatos Ifj?s?g?rt Alap?tv?ny from Hungary – have worked together in the project to create support materials for newcomers to Erasmus+: Youth in Programme.

1. A research was conducted in the initial phase of the project to obtain data on the previous experience of the organisations in project implementation and to collect information from mobility project participants about their personal experiences and benefits which have been further used in the development of support materials.

2. An online learning platform has been created (in English), www.projecthows.com, which will help to get to know project components and develop project implementation skills in a more modern way. There are 7 blocks of topics available on the platform such as Project Management, Logistics, Participants, Learning Process, Evaluation, Dissemination and Follow-up, Something More and sub-topics are also available in each of them. The topics include both theoretical information and additional materials – videos/articles that help to understand a specific topic better, and at the end there is also an opportunity to test your knowledge.

The platform also serves as an access point for all developed materials and the platform’s learning themes are aligned with the manual and the educational game.

3. A “Pocket-Size Guide for Newcomers – Support for Erasmus+: Youth in Action for Mobility Project Implementers” has been developed and is available in the English, Latvian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, and Bulgarian languages. The material includes answers to many “HOW” questions of project implementation. It is intended for practical use and has been developed keeping in mind that it needs to include both useful information and practical tips and techniques that can be used in projects. We are aware that the guide does not contain all the necessary information and it will not provide all the answers, yet we hope that it will be a real help, stimulate curiosity, motivation, and desire to learn, grow, and implement even higher quality mobility activities.

4. An educational project game “HOWs Cards” has been created, and it is available in the English, Latvian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, and Bulgarian languages. The game contains 60 situation cards, each of which depicts a thought-provoking image and describes a specific situation. The cards also include questions encouraging users to think outside the box, look for solutions, develop strategic thinking, and face different real-life situations to discover new opportunities for personal growth and learning opportunities when organising Erasmus+ youth projects.

We hope that the materials developed within the framework of the project will become friends, assistants, and allies of organisations and project implementers, and will provide support at all stages and moments of project implementation.

The aim of the project has been to promote the quality of Erasmus +: Youth in Action project implementation, providing an opportunity for young project implementers to learn project implementation skills in an interactive, interesting, and educational way in order to increase the participation of young people and encourage more active involvement in the implementation of youth projects.

More about the project in Bulgarian

More about the project in English

Erasmus+ strategic partnership project “Project HOWs”, No. 2020-2-LV02-KA205-003404 was implemented from September 2020 to September 2022 and was financially supported by the European Commission through the “Erasmus+: Youth in Action” programme, which is administered by the Agency of International Programmes in Latvia.