Find Your Place. Empowering Youth for Active Participation through Nature Experience

Do you want the young people you work with to take more initiative and responsibility for themselves and their local community? Do you want to explore innovative outdoor & community methods as an attractive means to facilitate young people’s search to find their place in their community & in the world? Are you looking for inspiration on how to use your local surroundings as an active part of the learning of the young people you work with? ‘Find Your Place’ is a 5-day training course for youth leaders, youth workers & trainers who seek to further develop their competencies to empower young people - to take initiative and responsibility for themselves and their community - by using outdoor experiences, nature- based education and activities within the local community. By the end of the project, participants will be able to use and apply a wide range of outdoor and nature-based tools and methods for empowering young people. Objectives • To raise awareness about the variety of learning opportunities that the local environment can offer within the non-formal education of young people. • To allow participants to experience, and reflect on, the use and the educational value of innovative outdoor methods that support youth workers to promote the involvement and initiative-taking of young people in their local communities. • To explore the different understandings of what ”interconnectedness with the natural world“ means in terms of educational work with young people. • To connect and contribute to the local community (of this training course) and reflect on the potential values and competences that such activities encourage in young people’s sense of responsibility and initiative-taking. • To encourage participants to share good practices from their own experiences in order to facilitate peer learning and future cooperation. Target group and criteria 25 experienced youth workers, youth leaders and trainers, who either: - have experience with outdoor activities (outdoor sports trainers, outdoor summer camp leaders, etc. ) and want to develop further their competences in nature-based education; or - work in urban areas and want to integrate the use of natural environment in their work. All participants should have a sufficient level of English to be able to participate in discussion and in training activities The participants should be resident of one of the YiA Programme countries and be at least 18 years old.