Youth work is often challenged to respond to the rising extremism in Europe. Prevention of radicalization is one of the priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme and it is a political priority set during the Slovak presidency of EU.

Through building positive relationships, youth workers play an important role in supporting the self-development of young people. However, youth workers often lack effective tools and strategies to deal with extremism and violent radicalization in their everyday practice.

We will build on a model of Democratic competences developed by the Council of Europe and explore how building these competences can strengthen the resilience of youth against violent radicalisation.

The training aims to give participants an understanding of democratic competences. It will provide concrete tools for use in everyday youth work and the capacity to train other youth workers in these tools.

The training will take place on Utøya. On 22 July 2011, 69 young people lost their lives and many more were wounded by a terrorist attack on a youth camp at this island. Utøya symbolizes how important it is to defend and shape democracy every day. This makes Utøya a special place for young people to reflect on what democracy means to them, what challenges our democracies face and how young people can promote democratic values and practices. Today, Utøya hosts a new learning centre which offers trainings to young people in Norway and the rest of Europe.

The training will be followed by an international training for youth workers hosted by NA SK (Youth work against violent radicalization: The role of democratic competences – focus on V4 countries) during which some of our participants will get a chance to implement their training activities in the role of junior trainers. (Participation in the training for youth workers hosted by Slovak NA is not mandatory.)

Objectives:

To train youth workers who wish to train others on how to build democratic competences through youth work, and how this could help to prevent violent radicalisation.

The training will enable participants to:
• Build educational concepts based on:
– human rights education and education for democratic competences,
– approaches to prevent violent radicalisation in different national/regional contexts,
– needs of youth workers in different types of youth work.
• Utilize available educational resources developed by the Council of Europe and the European Commission in the field of human rights education.
• Understand and consider the specific political and social realities of violent radicalization in their region to target the main factors influencing young people to enter radical groups.
• Train youth workers in their country/region with the aim to raise the quality of youth work activities, prepare youth workers to build resilience to violent radicalization, foster democratic competences in individual youth and create a democratic culture in their communities.

Profile of participants:

• Active youth workers who regularly work with young people (in Youth organisations, Low-threshold community centres, social centres) and aspire to become trainers or supervisors for other youth workers
• Trainers of youth workers who provide trainings for youth workers in their country and would like to develop their training competences in HRE/EDC and prevention of radicalization
• Participants who are willing to develop their training concepts based on the national context and needs of local youth work.
• Participants who are motivated to implement the training concepts in their region and to offer training activities for youth workers or future youth workers.
Methodology:
The training will link together: the history of Utøya, the model of Competences for Democratic Culture developed by Council of Europe and approaches to prevent violent extremism through youth work and non-formal education.

The programme will be based on non-formal and experiential learning methods. Participants may be asked to complete pre-task activities before the training and follow-up activities (action plans, proposals of training activities or small scale regional projects) after the training.
Organizers:
European Wergeland Center, Oslo
Aktiv Ungdom – Erasmus+: Youth in Action Norwegian National Agency
Iuventa – Slovak Youth Institute

This activity is for participants from:
Erasmus+: Youth in Action Programme countries, Visegrad Group Countries