Year: 2020

“Do you lead camp activities for young people or work otherwise among youth groups? Would you like to gain new ideas on discussing about inequality, discrimination and racism with young people – especially in face to face group activities but also online? Would you like to share experiences on advancing equality?”

Maailmanvaihto – ICYE Finland, together with its co-operation organisations Allianssi Youth Exchanges and the Finnish Branch of Service Civil International, organizes on the 19th of May at 4 – 7 p.m. an online workshop “Together towards equality in youth camp activities!” to introduce the handbooks published in the STAR E project. The workshop will concentrate on the handbook “Standing Together Against Racism: A Training Handbook!”.

The event will take place in Discord (https://discord.com), an online platform for communities with voice and video chat features. The exercises of the workshop offer ways to explore prejudices and the development of human rights together with young people. The exercises have been further developed to fit into online use from the exercises of the training handbook.

The workshop was originally designed as a face to face meeting to be held on the Day Against Racism in March, but it has been transferred into an online workshop due to the coronavirus situation. The workshop meant for those you who work among young people or study youth field. It is free of charge and it will be held in English. In the event the principles for a safer space of Maailmanvaihto will be followed: https://maailmanvaihto.fi/turvallisemman-tilan-periaatteet (in Finnish).

Currently the organizers are finalizing the plans and looking forward to meeting all the enrolled participants and learning together in the workshop. The organizers co-operate in Finland as Kansainvälisen Vapaaehtoistyön Verkosto (network of international volunteering), which aims at advancing quality and responsible international volunteering. Get to know the organizations:

Maailmanvaihto: https://maailmanvaihto.fi
Allianssi Youth Exchanges: https://www.nuorisovaihto.fi
The Finnish Branch of Service Civil International: https://www.kvtfinland.org

On 12.03.2020 we organized the second STAR E multiplier event with workshop character and presented the publication “Managing Organisational Change – Tools and methods to become a diversity-sensitive NGO” to an interested expert audience. The expert audience consisted of different representatives* of NGOS, who are active in the area of youth, voluntary work, political education and organisational development. The event started with a lunch reception where the participants had the opportunity to get to know and talk to each other.

After a short introduction to the guests and team, Andreas Schwab, the international coordinator of the STAR E project introduced the Erasmus+ Key Action 2 Partnership project, its results and the experiences made since ugust 2017 as well as plans for the coming months. We then continued with a panel discussion. It was  moderated by Martha Bienert and  included professionals that have to do with diversity in different fields of work: Maria Gehre (Diversity Expert at VereinT Zukunft bilden e.V.), Stephan Langenberg (Managing Director ICJA volunteer exchange worldwide), Christian Baier (Managing Director of SOCIUS Organisationsentwicklung gmbH). The discussion focused on diversity and the use of the handbook from the perspective and practice of these organisations. Many participants stated that they were enthusiastic about developing their organisation into a more diversity sensitive organisation. They agreed with the experts and organizers that some of the methods of the handbook can be very helpful to stimulate the necessary reflection on the internal structures and management practices of organisations. They particularly liked the way the methods and tools are presented in the 2 handbooks and found it easy and convenient to work with them

After a short coffee break, which was also used to continue the dialogue on a personal level, Christian Baier presented the handbook “Managing Organisational Change Tools and methods to become a diversity-sensitive NGO” and went into more detail about the development, the structure of the publication and the different methods. This was followed by the practical application of the “Guerrilla Gardening” method, in which the participants first gathered ideas for a diversity-rich change for their own organisation in individual work. This was followed by an exchange of ideas in partner work. Finally, the participants had the opportunity to present their results voluntarily to the plenum.

There was a very positive feedback on the method “Guerilla gardening”. It helped participants to immediately feel part of the solution in making their organisations culture more diversity-oriented and -sensitive. Interesting ideas for change processes were generated and three participants even were encouraged to present their ideas in the final plenary session. Last but not least the organizers  received positive feedback from the attendees: The event and workshop had enriched the participants as  it contained theoretical input, a practical exercise and enough space for discussions and questions.

We would like to thank all participants for their active participation and express special thanks to Maria Gehre, Martha Bienert, Christian Baier and Stephan Langenberg for their interesting input and great moderation.

On 20 February 2020 we held the first STAR E workshop day with representatives of 22 NGOs working in the field of youth, volunteering and political education in the Global Village in Berlin Neukölln. The conference started with a culinary reception, which gave possibilities to meet and talk to other participants. After a short introduction to the project STAR E and the experience made since August 2017, we had two lectures by guest speakers. They reported on their experience in working with groups with a high level of diversity and sensitizing participants about racism in a white dominated environment. This triggered many questions and an intense discussion.

After a coffee break which was also used to continue the dialogue at personal level, two experts presented the first handbook “Standing Together Against Racism – A Training Handbook-” by actively involving the attendees in doing the method “Don’t act like me” which encourages participants to do a self- and then group reflection about racist incidents they have experienced or witnessed in their life. After this reflection experience and good discussions in the groups we went into the final round of exchange with the speakers in the plenary. A very positive feedback was given regarding the methodology of this workshop as it contained both a theoretical input, a practice exercise and enough room for discussions and questions. As one participant put it in the final evaluation round: I felt warmly invited to participate and taken along the programme!

The positive experience will be continued – the second workshop day will take place tomorrow on March 12!  We will have a panel discussion and  present the second publication “Managing Organisational Change – Tools and methods to become a diversity-sensitive NGO”.  Around 25 representatives of around 20 organisations (mainly from Berlin) have registered to this event. We look forward to an interesting exchange and dicussion!