Project Reference:

Youth workers – the engine of social change

“Youth workers – the engine of social change” mainstreamed human rights education in youth work, particularly to counter the recent rise in xenophobia and hostility towards asylum seekers and migrants in Europe.

Objectives of this Project

The Project lifecycle was divided into 3 main phases:

  1. Preparatory phase

  2. Implementation – The main project activity was a six-day training course on the Council of Europe’s ‘Compass’ Human Rights Education Manual and informal learning, that toke place in Varna (Bulgaria) in the period 1-6 August 2016. We involved social workers, youth educators, youth leaders and teachers from different cities in Bulgaria, working with young refugees.

  3. Follow-up – After the completion of the training the participants organised 5 workshops on topics related to human rights in their own cities involving young refugees and Bulgarians.

Results of the project

  1. Follow-up workshops – participants organised 4 follow-up workshops, that are detailed in a Final Summary Report

  2. Strategy for activation of young refugees

“The methods that were used by the trainers were innovative and are very useful to me as an educator.“Natalya Lukova

“This training gave me motivation and new directions for work, as well I feel more supported. The contacts with the other participants strength to continue working in the field.”Alexandra Goteva

“The most powerful lesson to me was to put myself in the shoes of the other person – the different one, to see the world through his eyes, how many different nuance the black and white have, what would mean fear, happiness, love, ‘if it was not me, but the one who migrated, foreign, alone, misunderstood, while at the same time dozens are afraid of him…’Desislava Ivanova

The project is supported by the European Youth Foundation and Council of Europe

Coordinator: