Youth Worker… in Action! Back to Help Decision Makers and Young Makers

 

AFA - Art for Action a new adventures in NFE!

It feels good to be back, and sometimes there are experiences that truly inspire you and remind you why you do what you do. Art for Action was one of those moments. It was a project where I could see young people and decision makers coming together, making a real difference through dialogue, creativity and cooperation.

Me and Aras DM from MEGA

As a youth worker my main focus has always been to help young people grow, reduce barriers to participation and feel part of their communities. And sometimes you get to witness that happening in front of your eyes, and it gives you a deep sense of purpose. Since my EVS experience I have been constantly engaged in helping our NGO develop new opportunities for youth, meeting inspiring people and communities that truly believe in participation and solidarity.

For this reason I would like to thank AIART from Potenza and Simply Services from Malta, who invited me to be part of this amazing journey and to support this group of young people in exploring what active participation and civic engagement really mean. Throughout the project I had the chance to meet incredible individuals, to see young minds growing in confidence and to watch communities come together to face challenges and build a stronger and more inclusive future.

Street view of Valletta

Art for Action reminded me that real change starts when people listen, collaborate and believe that their actions can make a difference. Seeing youth and decision makers share the same space, ideas and hopes was one of the most powerful outcomes I could have asked for.

Labor Omnia Vincit

Memories of March - Time to be United

Flyer of the Event "Time to be United"

Between 16 and 24 March, the European Action Week Against Racism will be marked by activities all around Europe to combat racism and prejudice. Coordinated by "UNITED" for Intercultural Action, the pan-European network of anti racist NGOs, this annual campaign sees civil society groups, educational institutions and city governments come together to protest against racism and stand up for inclusive European societies. Together with Dominique we choose to develop a new big event in Resita, and we join in the idea of UNITED, because every single action can change the world and and we choose to take took part in the event "Time to be United". Together with my colleges Eleni, Sarah, Esra, Simon and Lucia we develop double ideas to have more influence on the community. The first idea was a "Walk and Talk" with interview around the city, and the second a NF (Non Formal) activities led in the association NevoParudimos on the 21 of March

Part 1 Walk and talk - Dissemination Campaign

The day was ideal for a "Walk and Talk" and we found a lot of volunteers that were interesting to join in our interview giving us a lot of opinions, it was funny and interesting

The activity was really funny and  also Dominique join in our activity around the city , it was a good moment we spent had a lot of fun, and we find interesting lightening the opinion of different people.

During the activity we took some video interview with local people to collect impression and opinions about "Racism" what is it for them and how they live it.

Volunteers and a citizen of Resita involved in the campaign

(from left to right - Lucia - Simon - Citizen - Michele - Eleni - Sarah)

Part 2 - Racism in the school - Activity in Nevo Parudimos

During the 21 of March we developed two activities with students of the University 'Eftmie Murgu of Resita' and students of the Colegiul-National Diaconovici-Tietz.

The activity stated with a big energizer in the yard of the University where we split the participants in two group. One that was coordinate by Eleni and Esra and the second from Sarah and me. In this activity we involve the students to discover and find solution on how to reduce  the racism incidents in the different schools or in other environment.

The activity was really good and also the students get fun, spending a different day based on inclusion and active participation.

In the end of the day we show also the video made with the help of Sarah that we record during the 18th of March.

I was really happy of the work  done and of the effort spent to develop such activities. 

My EVS is not over yet and I am sure that I will develop new activities based on Inclusion for the people of the community and collaboration between all of us.

Wipe Out Hate!

Memories of November

Together against the discrimination 

As promised some time ago we collaborated once again with the municipal library of  Resita and with my dear friend Dominuque.
Together we made an event called "Wipe Out Hate" which featured the Municipal Library, the Nevo Parudimos Association and the Gimnaziale School n. 2 Resita. The event served to remind adults and teach the younger ones which are the values ​​that make us unique and not different and how we can be better citizens for tomorrow.


With the "Wipe Out Hate" event we created a workshop based on non-formal activities together with 20 young people from the Resita school.
The workshop allowed us to teach young people the difference between a Stereotype and a Prejudice and how they affect our daily lives and our actions especially towards what is different or new to us.
The event was not coincidentally realized on November 9th which is also the International Day against Fascism and Anti-Semitism and with the 80th anniversary of the Night of Crystals.

As promised to Dominque, immediately after the event "Nocturna Bibliotecilor" we are committed to creating a new non-formal activity, to train young people on what are the concepts related to social discrimination.
The activity was carried out by two of my colleagues Eleni and Nadia and I was very happy to collaborate with them, I like their energy during the activities and they are very diligent while they develop the activities.
They have prepared a PPT (PowerPoint Document) collecting phrases and stereotypes from friends scattered around the world, so you can help young people recognize what a stereotype is. Their commitment was really essential to carry out the activity.

It was really interesting to see how much information they got during the preparation and how they organized them to realize non-formal activity. The workshop was very interesting and we also received good feedback from the teachers who were present during the activity. I hope to be able to reaffirm other activities together with the local library and as we say in Italy "There are two without three" but I'm sure that this is also a stereotype ;)!

Before concluding this month I'm sure there will be some excellent updates, let's say that this month started in a totally unexpected, but really pleasant. I learned that there are very interesting conferences that are worth participating in.
I am sure that from now on the activities will become more and more interesting and I have many reasons for which to continue the path that I started which I do not intend to finish :) .....