During the first week of May 2019, the Capacity Building Activity focused on community youth work “Empowered for change – Strengthening Local Capacities for Youth Participation” was held in the city of Kobuleti (Georgia).
We started with a brief presentation by Maka, the project coordinator, where the objectives and possibilities of the exchange were clarified. As a collaborating participant, my main role in this youth work was to contribute to creating a prolific environment for information on skills and knowledge that Georgian participants could improve to plan and develop a project for their communities.
The facilitators played a crucial role through the chosen methodologies to facilitate the expression and exercise of some skills such as teambuilding and teamwork. Discussions about data collection and information moments were also an important point this week.
The group of Spanish participants had the opportunity to share their experiences at different times. One of them, who had previous experience in a social project in Brazil, spoke about the main steps and the learning that these projects brought for the people involved.
An important issue that was discussed during the training was the “needs assessment” in which each young participant must think and work to develop the next cycle of the project in Georgia.
After this discussion, the focus was redirected, the facilitators began to help them think and debate about the interest and issues they would like to address in their communities.
We had an interesting exercise to share experiences and show one another those problems, it was during the group presentations that the international participants could listen and comment on the idea presented for the young participants.
Then, it was time to share with them information about our organizations and the activities and objectives established for the target-local groups.
From this point in the process, we started to walk towards the closing and evaluation stage of the training, in this moment we had the last opportunity to debate and contribute with the reflection of the young participants on the results, learning and expectations that they already have on the following stages.