We started off our long-term training course “Youth Work Strengthening Minority Youth Rights” in Bakuriani, Georgia, and implemented the first training course during 7-13 of November 2022. This project is built on the needs and requirements of youth workers and youth organisations, therefore, it gathered practitioner youth workers and youth educators from six different countries - who work in close proximity to minority young people.
Due to the fact that young people from minorities face considerable barriers in accessing youth work services, the aim of this project is to revitalise youth work’s task to address minority youth rights by fostering the human-rights-based approach through capacity building of youth workers and youth work organisations.
Thematically, this project explores the intersections between youth work and human rights, in the following specific directions:
1. Social-economic empowerment;
2. Widening the youth civic space;
3. Human rights education and awareness-raising;
4. Redress, monitoring and advocacy
Throughout these seven days, the training was focused on laying the foundation and training practitioner youth workers in specific tools for minority youth empowerment and advocacy.
Participants had the opportunity to learn about the role of youth work in minority rights, identify common pitfalls and relevant solutions, discover the local context in Georgia through local practitioners, and share their own experiences.
One of the objectives of the training was to increase the inner readiness of youth workers to outreach to minority youth and offer them tailor-made opportunities, therefore the program aimed to impact their attitudes, as well as their knowledge and skills. After the training, participants will go through an intermediate phase, during which they will conduct a needs analysis of their youth work and in their organisations, before we meet again in Brussels for the second activity.
This project is supported by BIJ - Belgian National Agency under the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.