1

„Facing the Economic Crisis –role and possibilities of youth organisations“role and possibilities of youth organisations“A training for ecumenical trainers in � eld of economic justice

Klaipeda, Lithuania1st – 8th August 2010

2

3

Dear Friends,

Greetings from EYCE!

This report is a summary of our memories, experiences and of

everything we learned during the EYCE training course “Facing Eco-

nomic Crisis – The Role and Possibilities of Youth Organisations”,

EYCE’s summer event of 2010, which took place in Klaipeda, Lithu-

ania.

The training course brought together almost 30 young partici-

pants, coming from eleven countries and very diverse denominati-

onal and social backgrounds. All together, they formed a creative,

motivating and inspiring group of young people, who were eager to

learn about the root causes of the financial crisis, about the conse-

quences of inequality and about possible solutions. At the end of the

week, all participants were actively involved in planning projects that

will mitigate economic injustices in Europe.

It was my pleasure to be a part of this group as a member of the

EYCE Executive Committee. I believe that each one of us learned

something valuable during the week. This would not be possible wi-

thout erudite guest-speakers, committed IPC members and, last but

not least, all of the participants. Thank you for taking on the com-

mitment!

May your further steps be blessed,

Pavlína Buzková

EYCE Treasurer

1 Greetings from ExCo 2 ContentsGreetings from ExCo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Impressions by participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Mairon Bastos Lima, Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Charlotte Lerat, France. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Introduction to the training course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Main aim of the training course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Objectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

International Planning Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Guest speakers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Participants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Venue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Methods and educational approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Timetable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Day-to-day programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Sunday, 1st of August 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Monday, 2nd of August 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Tuesday, 3rd of August 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Wednesday, 4th of August 2010. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Thursday, 5th of August 2010. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Friday, 6th of August 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Saturday, 7th of August 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Sunday, 8h of August 2010. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Evaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Educational material used for the seminar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Appendix 1: Structuring the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Appendix 2: Take a step forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Appendix 3: Role play on fair labour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Appendix 4: Forum Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

4

Mairon Bastos Lima, BrazilAs a Brazilian and originally an outsider to the EU, I have always

been a fan of this integration among countries. Living in it, in the Be-

nelux area since 2008, I became an even greater fan of all this diversi-

ty of cultures, peoples and languages coming together. This summer

I have been very fortunate to join the EYCE training course on eco-

nomic inequality in Klaipeda, Lithuania. It was my very first time with

EYCE and first time with an European youth organisation, too. The

experience was amazing – very informative, great brainstorming on

important issues, and friendships that hopefully will last for a lifetime.

We had a very nice venue for our meeting, the comfortable Hotel

Lugne, with helpful staff and a superb restaurant that was ready to do

their best for us. They even prepared a surprise banquet for our last

dinner! We were also blessed with great sunny weather that made

our walks around town and, especially, our trip to the Curonian Spit

and to the Baltic Sea an amazing time. Our organizers‘ team was very

thoughtful in making an interesting program. In addition to that, there

were always-great international evenings.

For me, the guest speakers were very interesting, along with the

discussions and activities. I was particularly taken by the whole issue

of discrimination against Roma people, which is a new subject to

me. On the other hand, I was able to share my views as a developing

national country, and I think the whole discussion got very good.

But the best of it, I think, was definitely the people, my peers. It

was such a great experience to hear different views, meet different

cultural backgrounds, and make friends from different countries. I

think making friends really „gives a life“ to those other parts of the

map – they cease from being just a country, a name you hear about

from time to time, and become the home of someone you care about.

And I think this is fundamental, if we mean to seriously work towards

greater integration and a broader European – and, why not, global –

way of thinking.

3 Impressions by participants

5

Charlotte Lerat, FranceAttending the training course “Facing Economic Crisis – The Role

and Possibilities of Youth Organisations” was a really good choice.

Before this week, I had never participated in an event organized by

EYCE, but I knew EYCE’s Office Staff. I was interested in EYCE and

as I have graduated in Political Sciences and currently doing an in-

ternship for a network of Chambers of Commerce, the theme of the

training was personally very motivating. Nevertheless, I had some

apprehensions, because even if I could bring some personal expe-

rience and political knowledge about the issue, I did not have much

to offer concerning religion. Surprisingly, my fear disappeared quite

immediately since every participant was tolerant and ready to exp-

lain things to the others. I also appreciated the fact, that the group

was very diverse, with people studying theology, people working for

NGOs, students, priests, coming from European Union, Iceland, Ar-

menia and Brazil. This diversity enriched the training.

I learnt a lot about the different Christian denominations and re-

ally enjoyed our prayer times and preparing them. In my opinion, this

training was socially speaking a success, because we managed to

create a great group spirit even if we were all very different. Thanks to

good icebreakers and efficient team building activities we all respec-

ted each other and could engage in an open dialogue. I had always

the impression, that there was a cohesion among us, which is not

always the case during training courses.

Concerning the location, it took place in a very nice Lithuanian

city, close to the seaside. We were very lucky, because on the first

days there was the annual festival of Klaipeda. It was very interes-

ting to discover Lithuanian traditional markets, special dishes, han-

dicrafts and we could even enjoy the fireworks! The hotel we stayed

in was also very comfortable and the staff was very friendly. On the

final evening, they even organized for us a special surprise dinner. We

went to wonderful places for our excursion day.

I enjoyed the guest speakers’ sessions and especially the dis-

cussion we had with Daniel Müller Þór about the role of the Church.

I received many useful inputs and liked that he freely discussed with

us.

I am very satisfied by this experience, but I would like to express

my sadness about the fact that I met young people, who were some-

times disillusioned and resigned. I am deeply convinced that young

people represent the future and can have an influence on political

decisions and make civil society react. I don’t say it is easy, but if

young people don’t try, then nothing would change.

I came back home very relaxed, full of inspiration, motivation,

memories, souvenirs from Lithuania and a wish to go back to this

beautiful country and to visit my new friends all over Europe. This

was my first step into EYCE‘s universe, I thank all of its members for

having welcomed me so nicely and I sincerely hope we will keep on

going in a common way.

6

Today, most of the European countries have experienced a pe-

riod of economic wealth, which is now followed by an economic

downturn, in particular in Eastern European countries. An alarming

number of young people is affected by these circumstances, mainly

those coming from disadvantaged social or economic background,

and many times from cultural or ethnic minority background, being

practically illiterate, unmotivated and with quite few future perspec-

tives.

In many cases it is the youth organisations, which are in a posi-

tion to approach these young people and bring the change. Howe-

ver, in many cases, the capacities of the youth organisations are not

proportional to their willingness to contribute to economic justice,

inclusion and future perspectives of young people.

There were two main thematic aspects tackled during the trai-

ning course. Firstly, the economic situation in the world and in Euro-

pe was addressed, in particular, the challenges this situation entails

- the growing numbers of unemployed youth, poverty and gap bet-

ween the social classes. Secondly, the practical analysis and training

on project planning and financial management of youth organisations

was offered.

Main aim of the training courseThe main aim of this training course was to equip the youth or-

ganisations and young people with necessary knowledge and skills

for addressing economic injustices, raising awareness of poverty and

inclusion, as well as raise their capacity in practical youthwork in the-

se areas.

ObjectivesThe objectives were:

• to analyse the current economic situation and issues of social

exclusion and economic injustice in particular taking into consi-

deration the European context;

• to explore the role, status and rights of young people and youth

organisations in the underlying patterns of economic situation

and to identify the obstacles young people face to achieve or

maintain a sufficient standard of living;

• to explore the role of churches and theological approaches to-

wards poverty and economic justice;

• to review the corporate justice, ethical records of the companies

and fair rules of trade and labour, as well as explore the impact of

youth organisations in this field;

• to provide youth organisations with practical training in project

development and management and to help the participants to

develop concrete projects matching the social realities in their

countries and raising awareness on issues of poverty and eco-

nomic justice;

• to empower youth leaders to make a difference and work to-

wards economic justice and social inclusion.

International Planning CommitteeThe training course was prepared and implemented by a team of

volunteers from Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe‘s network. This

group of volunteers was responsible for developing the programme

and methodology for the training course, as well as for the smooth

running of the event. The members of the International Planning

Committee were:

• Felix Beck (EYCE office intern, Germany)

• Pavlina Buzkova (EYCE ExCo, Czech Republic)

• Kristine Jansone (EYCE office, Latvia)

• Vera Kockler (Germany)

• Maria Mitocaru (Romania)

• Kestutis Pulokas (Hosting committee, Lithuania)

• Karolis Skausmenis (Lithuania)

• Gunnfríður Katrín Tómasdóttir (EYCE ExCo, Iceland)

4 Introduction to the training course

7

Guest speakersThere were three guest speakers invited to contribute to the trai-

ning course. Their contributions were very different from one another

and tackled various aspects of economic justice. And all of them

enhanced many discussions and enriched the knowledge of parti-

cipants.

Jānis Ošlejs (Latvia) Jānis has a BA in economics from the University of Latvia and an

MBA from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. Currently, he

is a PhD student in economics at the University of Latvia. He is an

entrepreneur and economist, as well as the founder, co-owner and

chairman of several companies in Latvia, having branches in Latvia,

Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Poland. He belie-

ves that an uninterrupted innovative effort is the only way leading to

progress. Hence through his companies, Jānis offers novelty ideas

to customers while surprising the community with cardinal crisis so-

lutions at the same time.

With his input at the training course he gave an overview of the

Economic situation in Europe, as well as the unequal position of va-

rious social groups in Europe and beyond. Furthermore, he looked

at causes of economic injustice and areas, where the consequences

of it are manifested, e.g. health, education, mobility, mortality rates

and many other.

Daniel Müller Þór (Germany) Daniel has studied protestant Theology and was ordained in

2009, whereas recently he was inaugurated as a pastor in Inden, Ger-

many. However, most importantly, Daniel was working for EYCE as

General Secretary for several years. Daniel has been always involved

and promoted the role of churches in civil society and their social

responsibility.

During his input at the training course he spoke about the theo-

logical aspects of economic justice. He also touched upon the role of

churches and young people in the churches in addressing the eco-

nomic injustice on various levels in Europe.

Paul Welch (United Kingdom) Paul is working full time as a head of the History and Religious

Education department in a County Durham school in UK. Paul has

been involved in the work of EYCE for more than 10 years and has

served as EYCE Treasurer for 8 years, ending his mandate in 2008.

Paul has great experience in fundraising, financial management of

youth organisations and the work with European funding agencies.

In Klaipeda he gave a valuable input for the practical part of the

training course. He gave a general overview of the fundraising possi-

bilities and financial management of the youth organisations, as well

as gave very concrete examples form his work with EYCE and exp-

lained in detail the application processes with EU funding agencies.

ParticipantsThe participants of the training course were young people co-

ming from all over Europe and beyond. They brought a variety of cul-

tural, social and religious backgrounds into the training course, sha-

ring their experiences and enriching other participants‘ knowledge,

thus contributing largely to acknowledge the European dimension of

the training course. List of participants:

• Lena Bartnouskaya, Belarus

• Mairon Giovani Bastos Lima, Brazil/Nederlands

• Věra Jelínková, Czech Republic

• Karlen Khachatryan, Armenia

• Andris Kleins, Latvia

• Charlotte Lerat, France

• Danica Lokoska, F.Y.R.O. Macedonia

• Alina Marinescu, Romania

• Romina Nikolova, Bulgaria

• Anna Pluzyan, Armenia

• Natalia Renčić, Croatia

• Guðjon Andri Reynisson, Iceland

• Lenka Semoradova, Czech Republic

• Slavi Spasov, Bulgaria

• Ilmārs Šukjurovs, Latvia

8

VenueDuring the training course the participants were accommodated

in “Hotel Lugne“, which is situated in the centre of Klaipeda, close to

the Old Town and the Dange river. Klaipeda is an old city at the mouth

of the Curonian Lagoon, where it flows into the Baltic Sea. The city

has a complex recorded history, partially due to the strategic regional

importance of the Port of Klaipeda. According to different sources,

the town received Lübeck city rights in 1254 or 1258 under the name

Memel. Today it is the third largest city in Lithuania.

EYCE had chosen Lithuania as country for the training course,

because it is one of the European countries, experiencing the hardest

financial difficulties, as well as showing a rather big gap between the

social groups, which is an alarming indicator of the economic situati-

on in the Eastern part of Europe.

Methods and educational approachA variety of methods was used during the training course: lectu-

res, role games, creative presentations and artistic activities, practi-

cal workshops and work in small discussion groups aimed at deve-

loping concrete projects to be implemented at home. Also learning

from each other’s experience was an important part of the training

course, where the participants had the possibility to share their diffe-

rent experiences and knowledge.

The thematic scope of the project focused on the economic justi-

ce issues as basic human rights issue. Various aspects of the theme

had been touched upon during the training course, such as an analy-

sis of the situation in different countries and the role of churches and

young Christians in addressing the issues of social and economic

injustice. The youth organisations, mostly the volunteer-based orga-

nisations, are often the main actors in addressing these issues, still

they are often without education in financial issues and lacking pro-

per skills in this area. Thus, many times the youth workers are in no

possession of necessary knowledge and skills to perform successful

fund-raising, efficient financial management and sometimes also the

project application and implementation.

Corresponding to various parts of the training course, the most

appropriate methods were applied in order to meet different lear-

ning needs and learning styles of the participants. The activities

combined theoretical input with practical experiences. In a context

of a multi-national composition the issues of economic justice and

the underlying social and economic patterns were addressed. Small

group work was used to enhance the reflection and discussion on the

theme, as well as a better cooperation and understanding between

the participants, ensuring a better expression of ideas and opini-

ons of every participant. Practical workshops on finance manage-

ment, fundraising, and application writing were offered in order to

strengthen their knowledge and gain practical skills.

The inputs by three different lecturers were used to provide a

proper analysis of the current economic situation in Europe and glo-

bally, as well as to provide sufficient theoretical basis for further dis-

cussions.

Intercultural learning was an integral part of the training course.

Several programme elements and methods were designed to ena-

ble a maximal exchange of various perspectives and cultural back-

grounds. In many sessions participants were invited to share their

experiences and examples from their countries and regions. Also

some informal programme elements provided the participants with

the opportunity to experience various cultures and traditions, e.g. the

International Banquet or the Lithuanian cultural evening.

9

5 Timetable

Sunday

01.08.

Monday

02.08.

Tuesday

03.08.

Wednesday

04.08.

Thursday

05.08.

Friday

06.08.

Saturday

07.08.

Sunday

08.08.

09:00–09:30 Prayer Prayer Prayer Prayer Prayer Prayer

09:3

0–11

:00

Ses

sion

1 Introductions/

Practicalities/

Icebreakers

Monocomy Bible study

Goo

d p

ract

ice

visi

ts

Financial

management

Guest spea-

ker:

Paul Welch

Plan your

project!

Dep

artu

res

11:00–11:30 Break Break Break Break Break

11:3

0–13

:00

Ses

sion

2 Expectations/

Approaching

the theme

Take a step

forward

Role of the church. Guest

speaker: Daniel Müller

Þór

How to plan a

project

Developing

project ideas

Present your

project!

13:00–15:30 Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch

15:3

0–17

:00

Ses

sion

3

Arr

ival

s

Economic

injustice in

Europe.

Presentations

by participants

Exclusion –

Inclusion.

What to do?

Fair labour:

Role play

Exc

ursi

on

Plan your

project!Evaluation

17:00–17:30 Break Break Break Break Break

17:3

0–18

:30

Ses

sion

4

Economic

injustice in

Europe. Guest

speaker:

Janis Oslejs

„Global village

or Global Pilla-

ge?“ – Film &

discussion

Art for

inclusion

How to apply

for funding

Closing

session

18:30–19:00 Prayer Prayer Prayer

Din

ner

in t

own Prayer Prayer

19:30 Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner

21:00 Welcome drinkInternational

banquet

European cul-

tural evening

Lithuanian

eveningFree evening Farewell party

10

Based on the daily reports written by the participants

Sunday, 1st of August 2010Sunday was dedicated mostly to the arrivals of participants. Du-

ring the „Welcome and icebreakers“ session the participants came

together and got to know each other a little better.

Monday, 2nd of August 2010After breakfast, everybody gathered for the first introductions

and the group started with icebreakers to socialise and to get to

know each other better. After getting introduced to one another it

was time to get introduced to the theme of the event, economic ju-

stice. As a first step into the theme and as a start for the debate the

participants were split into teams and a quiz was held about the eco-

nomic situation in Europe, by comparing various countries.

After lunch the time was dedicated to prepare the presentations

on examples of economic injustice from the countries of participants.

Participants found the presentations very interesting, educational

and attractive. After each presentation time for questions from the

audience was given.

During the next session guest speaker Jānis Ošlejs from Latvia

gave an overview of the Economic situation in Europe, the unequal

position of various social groups in Europe and beyond, as well as

causes and consequences of the economic injustice. The discus-

sions about the input of the guest speaker continued during dinner,

bringing interesting conversations to the table.

The evening programme was dedicated to the International

Banquet. The participants represented eleven countries and each of

them showed the variety of their “domestic heritage“ on plates and

photographs. Everybody had the possibility to try different kinds of

food and drinks from all over Europe.

Tuesday, 3rd of August 2010The first session of the day was dedicated to playing a board

game “Monocomy”. The game was an adjusted version of Monopoly

and showed the economic advantages and disadvantages of various

countries in Europe. Every player had to draw a lot with a name of

a country, so that in each group of players, there were the following

countries: Norway, Germany, Portugal, Bulgaria and Ukraine. When

the money was distributed, every player got an amount equal to half

of the country‘s GDP, as well as marbles and shells according to the

size of industry and resources in the country. There was a minimum

price of 200 € for one shell and 500 € for one marble given. Also

Chance- and Community Chest-Cards, as well as the tax fields and

the corner square GO were changed and differed depending on the

drawing country. The results of the game showed, how different

approaches can create different results. For example, in one of the

groups the poor countries started to cooperate and help each other,

so at the end of the game one of them doubled and the other tripled

their starting money!

A different approach, called “Take a step forward”, was used

during the second session. Every participant was given a role of a

person coming from a certain social background. The participants

formed a line to have an equal starting point, and then statements

concerning various possibilities and rights were read out. Every time,

6 Day-to-day programme

11

when participants could agree with the statement, they took a step

forward. Two or three persons took many steps, whereas the majority

only a few. Eventually, the participants were asked to disclose their

roles and to say a few words to evaluate the activity. It was very inte-

resting to see, how pessimistic or optimistic the participants judged

similar situations and took fewer or more steps, depending on their

own background.

The first afternoon session introduced the Forum theatre, a me-

thod, which was created by the theatre practitioner Augusto Boal

(“Theatre of the oppressed”). Forum theatre is a method, which al-

lows an interaction with the audience during the performance. The

audience can stop the performance and propose a different progress.

During the session a performance on social injustice was pre-

sented by the planning team. It was a story about a couple expecting

a visit of relatives, which they have not seen for a long time, and

who, in the meantime have adopted children from Cambodia. Then it

was performed for a second time and the participants, the so-called

spect-actors, were allowed to give their solution to the situation and

act it out.

Afterwards, the participants were divided into two groups with

the task to create a play on inequality. The groups were very creative

and worked on different issues. The play presented by the first group

was about a Roma girl trying to enter a bar. At first rejected by the

doorkeeper, the girl enters the bar after giving a bribe. After the cus-

tomers inside start to complain about her presence, the doorkeeper

asks her to leave again. The play of the second group was about an

organisation trying to fundraise from a rich family to support their

action. The family decides not to give money. This role play showed

the various approaches needed towards different possible donors.

Afterwards the performances were replayed and the audience,

the participants from the other group, started to change the course

of the play.

To continue the afternoon programme a documentary film “Glo-

bal village or Global pillage” was shown and followed by a discus-

sion. Different ideas about the film and the labour injustice issue

addressed by it were reviewed. The discussion was followed by

“Where do you stand?”, an activity aimed at enhancing a debate.

Several statements were read out and everyone had to choose if they

agree or not. Some of the statements were: Fair labour does not have

to do anything with economic justice; We need more competition

than solidarity in Europe; Individual action does not make any diffe-

rence, because the big stakeholders rule anyway; The poor should

be responsible for the improvement of their situation themselves.

Hence, interesting discussions developed, where all the par-

ticipants shared their opinions on the statements. As a conclusion

the participants acknowledged, that there are often many different

answers and they should respect the opinion of others.

During the evening programme the International Banquet took

place. The participants prepared the presentations of their countries.

The presentations were very diverse, creative and active. Apart from

video presentations, the group was singing songs, dancing traditio-

nal dances, playing quizzes, national games etc.

12

Wednesday, 4th of August 2010The first session was dedicated to the analysis of the concept of

justice through a Bible study. In small groups the participants reflec-

ted on short Bible texts, which helped to reveal the Christian under-

standing of justice and response to injustice. The discussions which

raised during the Bible study were continued during in second sessi-

on, when the role of Churches in overcoming economic injustice was

analysed by the second guest speaker of the week Daniel Müller Þór.

The input started by an invitation to look at one another and a

notion that all mankind is equal and that everyone should see God‘s

image in one other. Further, the theological aspects of the theme were

provided, as well as the role of churches and young Christians in

addressing economic injustice on various levels was touched upon.

Daniel listed the seven principles which, according to him, should be

the guidelines for every youth organisation, when taking action:

• lobby and promote religious principles,

• do research and get informed about the theme you work on,

• find a theological concept, which could be acceptable for most

of the people,

• have role models,

• develop a personal reflection,

• find one single issue to address and concentrate on it rather than

work on many things,

• find a support group.

In the afternoon more practical activities took place to link the

discussions with the real situations from the context of participants. It

was done by playing a role play on fair labour. The participants were

divided into four groups: youth organisation, labour union, Chamber

of commerce and municipality representatives. The aim of the activi-

ty was to understand that the roles and standpoints of stakeholders

can be different, while negotiations and mutually beneficial coopera-

tion can bring the win-win solutions to the problems, e.g. youth un-

employment. During the second half of the afternoon the participants

were working creatively to make posters promoting inclusion and

social justice. There were many expressive and interesting posters

created, which showed how easily one can be active.

The day finished with the Reformed and Baptist prayer and the

Lithuanian cultural evening, where traditional dances, songs and

some video presentations were showed.

Thursday, 5th of August 2010This day was dedicated to a visit of a local initiative in the mor-

ning and an excursion to the Curonian Spit in the afternoon.

In the morning the group went to a town called Kretinga to meet

Ruta Sulskiene, the chairperson of the Youth Centre of the Evange-

lical Lutheran Church of Lithuania. She presented the work of the

Youth Centre and accompanied the group to the construction site of

the future diaconal centre of Kretinga, which will be a place for the

youth work as well. There Arunas Sulskis, the head of a local diaco-

nal organisation „Sandora“, presented the idea and various projects

of the future diaconal centre. The buildings will be shared by three

organisations on the national level: the Lutheran diaconal organisati-

on, the Youth Centre of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania

(ELCL), and the Lithuanian Evangelical Church Music Fellowship.

13

Afterwards the group visited a nearby Roman Catholic church

and a Franciscan monastery belonging to it. There the group met

with a Franciscan friar, who is also one of the priests of the church.

He introduced the group to the premises and the history of the chur-

ch and the monastery, as well as presented the social projects done

by the brothers.

The first stop in the afternoon excursion was a village called

Juodkrante. There, wooden sculptures can be found on the „Raganu

kalnas“ in Lithuanian or “Hill of Witches” in English. Afterwards the

bus headed to the beautiful village of Nida, where the group split in

smaller entities. Some went to the beach, others to a viewpoint, the

Russian border or the village centre.

The afternoon was a possibility for the participants to take a

break from the intense training course atmosphere.

Friday, 6th of August 2010The day started with the input from the last guest speaker of the

week Paul Welch. He contributed greatly to the practical part of the

training course and spoke about the different fund-raising possibili-

ties for projects, as well as the financial management of youth orga-

nisations. To enhance the understanding of the issues Paul asked

the participants to think of a concrete project idea they would like to

implement back home.

The participants presented the following ideas: organisation of an

international anti-xenophobia event involving mass media, a Roma

integration project through travelling and educational exchanges

and other. Having these examples Paul explained the general gui-

delines for fund-raising, where excellent public relations and giving

a strong and positive impression of your organisation are among the

most important aspects. Then the participants were divided in small

groups and asked to identify five concrete fears and threats they

have concerning financial planning and project preparation. Among

others, the participants named lack of experience, competition, dis-

appointing funding agencies and miscalculating the budgets. Paul

explained, how to prevent these threats in simple and effective ways.

During the second session the participants were working on con-

crete project ideas, which would address social injustice, especially

the examples discussed on Monday. At the first stage, the partici-

pants presented only brief drafts of the projects without detailed pl-

anning.

Before further development of these ideas, an introduction to

project planning was given. Following the guidelines given, the parti-

cipants continued the work on their project ideas.

More practical information and input on how to apply for funding

followed in the next session. As a part of it, the programme Youth in

Action was presented, e.g. where, when and how applications can

be submitted, the thematic priorities, target groups and contact in-

formation.

The day finished with an Orthodox prayer, during which the Or-

thodox atmosphere could be felt greatly.

14

Saturday, 7th of August 2010As usual the last day of our training in Klaipeda began with the

ecumenical prayer. This time everybody was given small stones

which represented things you wanted to present to the Lord, things

you wanted to get rid of – threats or fears.

During the morning the participants were working to finalise their

projects, especially to visualize the ideas. The participants worked

either in small groups merging their ideas or continued working indi-

vidually. The themes of projects covered different aspects of social

injustice issues addressed earlier this week.

During the next session the presentations took place, either in

form of a poster or a presentation of the basic structure of the pro-

ject. Eventually there were four well developed projects presented.

The first was an Armenian project based on youth exchange „Inter-

cultural Bridges“, which would be open to youth from different coun-

tries and would offer an opportunity to the young people to get to

know other cultures.

The second project was a Roma children integration project. It

aimed at developing after-school classes for mixed groups, which

would focus on human rights education in the form of games. The

idea was to have a pilot project for the duration of one semester.

The aim of the third project was to raise awareness of graffiti as

media for hate speech messages and to promote positive social art.

Finally, a project for fighting xenophobia among young Euro-

peans „NOXENO“ was presented.

List of all initial project ideas:

1. Intercultural conference

2. Educational project for Roma children

3. Intercultural dialogue through youth exchange

4. Campaign against hate speech

5. Youth-senior unemployment project

6. NGO for protection of „young specialists“ in Belarus

7. Raising the economically positive thinking in Iceland

8. Leisure activities for Roma youth

9. Orphanage project

During the final session the evaluation of the training course took

place. The participants were asked to answer the following 3 ques-

tions on coloured post-its: “What impressed me most this week?’’,

”What could have happened differently?” and ‘’What will I take

home?”, which was followed by a more formal activity - filling out the

evaluation forms to review each session and activity during the week.

Later that evening the hotel staff presented a surprise gala din-

ner, with a long table, sparkling wine and beautiful cakes accompa-

nied with warm words – a great gesture of friendship from the hosts.

In return EYCE‘s General Secretary expressed the gratitude of the

whole group to the staff for the great care and attention during the

week and for putting such an effort in each detail.

The night continued with a great farewell party! There was a pre-

sentation of photos taken during the week, saying thank you, dances

and a lot of fun. Of course, there was a scent of sadness in the air

- but only because a beautiful week was at its real end. Everybody

parted as good friends and shared contacts with a promise to meet

again somewhere around the world. This week passed so quickly,

friendships and teams were made so easily, problems were tackled

from different points of view, new things were learned and everyone

will stay with newly learned things, new friends and amazing memo-

ries.

Sunday, 8h of August 2010This day was mainly foreseen for the departures of participants.

15

The evaluation showed that most of the activities were received

in a positive way. The importance of the interactive and creative parts

of the training course, as well as the sharing of information and ex-

periences from various countries was particularly highlighted by the

participants. The presentation of the examples of economic injustice

in various countries was highly valued as an opportunity to exchange

knowledge and good practice examples. The lack of proactive par-

ticipation during the role game was addressed by some of the par-

ticipants and compared to possible passivity, when a real action

is required. Most of the participants found the inputs by the guest

speakers very educational, enriching and inspiring. The practical trai-

ning on the project planning was assessed, depending on the previ-

ous experiences of the participants. Those having more experience

criticised the basic approach, still finding the introduction to the YiA

programme helpful. Others appreciated the introduction to the pro-

ject planning as useful for future projects. The intercultural aspects

of the training course, such as the prayers, the International banquet

and the Lithuanian evening were among the highest rated activities.

7 Evaluation

• “Compass. A manual on Human Rights Education with young

people”, Council of Europe publishing, Strasbourg, 2002

• “Education pack - Idea, resources, methods and activities for in-

formal intercultural education with young people and adults”, Pat

Brander, Carmen Cardenas, Juan de Vicente Abad, Rui Gomes,

Mark Taylor, Council of Europe publishing, Strasbourg, 2005

• T-kit no.3 „Project management“, Council of Europe publishing,

Strasbourg, 2000

• T-kit no.4 „Intercultural Learning“, Council of Europe publishing,

Strasbourg, 2000

• T-kit no.6 „Training Essentials“ , Council of Europe publishing,

Strasbourg, 2002

• T-kit no.8 „Social inclusion“, Council of Europe publishing, Stras-

bourg, 2003

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. res. 217A (III), U.N.

Doc A/810 at 71 (1948), Adopted on December 10, 1948 by the

General Assembly of the United Nations (without dissent)

• www.tearfund.org/Resources/

8 Educational material used for the seminar

16

Appendix 1: Structuring the project1. Defining aims, objectives, context and target group.

a. In what context will the project take place?

b. What changes will it entail?

c. Why carry out this project?

d. What is the expected result?

e. Who is the project designed for?

f. What are the issues at stake?

2. Content of the project?

a. What is the theme and content of the project?

b. What is the chosen approach (methodology)

c. What activities are involved?

d. What is needed for the project to go ahead?

3. Where and when?

a. Where will the project be implemented?

b. How long will it last?

c. When does it start/end?

4. Practicalities

a. What logistics are required?

b. What practical matters must be dealt with?

5. Funding

a. What is the overall cost? Planning/implementing cost

b. Where will the necessary funding come from?

6. Partner

a. Who are the partners?

b. What is their role?

c. What are the arrangements for co-ordination?

7. Means of action

a. Does the project qualify for any financial assistance?

b. Can it use existing facilities (conditions?)

8. Communication

a. Internal communication: how does the information circulate

the project team?

b. External communication: does the project need media co-

verage? Why? How? Which aspects?

9. Evaluation and follow up

a. How and when should it be evaluated?

b. Which aspects? Why? What follow –up?

9 Appendices

Appendix 2: Take a step forward Source: Compass. A manual on Human Rights Education with

young people.

• Create a calm atmosphere with some soft background music.

Alternatively, ask the participants for silence.

• Hand out the role cards at random, one to each participant. Tell

them to keep it to themselves and not to show it to anyone else.

• Invite them to sit down (preferably on the floor) and to read their

role card.

• Now ask them to begin to get into role. To help, read out some of

the following questions, pausing after each one, to give people

time to reflect and build up a picture of themselves and their

lives:

a. What was your childhood like? What sort of house did you

live in? What kind of games did you play? What sort of work

did your parents do?

b. What is your everyday life like now? Where do you socia-

lize? What do you do in the morning, in the afternoon, in the

evening?

c. What sort of lifestyle do you have? Where do you live? How

much money do you earn each month? What do you do in

your leisure time? What you do in your holidays?

d. What excites you and what are you afraid of?

• Now ask people to remain absolutely silent as they line up beside

each other (like on a starting line)

• Tell the participants that you are going to read out a list of situ-

ations or events. Every time that they can answer „yes“ to the

statement, they should take a step forward. Otherwise, they

should stay where they are and not move.

• Read out the situations one at a time. Pause for a while between

each statement to allow people time to step forward and to look

around to take note of their positions relative to each other.

• At the end invite everyone to take note of their final positions.

Then give them a couple of minutes to come out of role before

debriefing in plenary.

ment?

17

Tips for facilitators The power of this activity lies in the impact of actually seeing the

distance increasing between the participants, especially at the end

when there should be a big distance between those that stepped

forward often and those who did not. To enhance the impact, it is

important that you adjust the roles to reflect the realities of the parti-

cipants‘ own lives. As you do so, be sure you adapt the roles so that

only a minimum of people can take steps forward (i.e. can answer

„yes“). This also applies if you have a large group and have to devise

more roles.

During the debriefing and evaluation it is important to explore

how participants knew about the character whose role they had to

play. Was it through personal experience or through other sources of

information (news, books, and jokes)? Are they sure the information

and the images they have of the characters are reliable? In this way

you can introduce how stereotypes and prejudice work.

This activity is particularly relevant to making links between the

different generations of rights (civil/political and social/economic/

cultural rights) and the access to them. The problems of poverty and

social exclusion are not only a problem of formal rights - although the

latter also exists for refugees and asylum-seekers for example. The

problem is very often a matter of effective access to those rights.

Appendix 3: Role play on fair labour

Youth organisation „Young Samaritans”You are a youth organisation in the small town Precaria, working

mainly on the issues of social inclusion and injustice. This year you

want to start a new project, which would address the issues of social

inclusion of young people from less privileged social backgrounds

and at the same time fight the increasingly growing youth unemploy-

ment in your town. Especially in the past year many young people

have lost their jobs or cannot find one after graduating from universi-

ty. Your upcoming project will provide work places for young people

– they will work within the project as social workers, house supervi-

sors, accountants, cooks and many other professions. For this pro-

ject you have a limited budget, therefore you need to rise additional

funding to be able to implement it. You also need the permission from

the municipality to organise such a large scale social project. You are

contacting several stakeholders in the town to support you.

Precaria MunicipalityYou are the representatives of the municipality of the small town

Precaria. There are several big problems in the town, which have

increased in the past year. The young people are leaving the town

increasingly due to the increasing difficulties in finding jobs. Also the

number of people in social risk groups is increasing. The financial si-

tuation of the municipality has seen better days, and for the moment

there is a very conservative city council. You have been contacted

by the youth organisation “Young Samaritans”, which is proposing a

social project with young people.

Worker’s unionYou are the representatives of the worker’s union in the small

town Precaria. Recently, the situation in the town has become rather

dramatic as many workers have lost jobs and the labour market is

very rigid. This means that many of the workers in your union are

endangered of heading into the social risk groups, such as alcoho-

lism, drug abuse, suicidal risk and criminality. The worker’s union is

of the opinion that the young generation should be protected from

these social risks by providing them with proper education, training

and job opportunities. This will also secure that young people do not

leave the town. You have tried to work on this issue with the munici-

pality, however the current city council is conservative and financially

18

insecure. You have been contacted by the youth organisation “Young

Samaritans”, which is proposing a social project with young people.

Chamber of commerceYou are the representatives of the local chamber of commerce

of the town Precaria, the organisation of local companies and em-

ployers. Your organisation is aiming at improving the conditions for

the local firms and lobbying for their interest to gain maximum pro-

fit, towards the municipality and other stakeholders. The companies

you represent are convinced that too many young people lack proper

education, motivation and social skills in general. In your opinion, the

municipality and organisations doing youth work are responsible for

empowering young people and preparing them for the labour market.

As they are not too optimistic about the current economic situation,

the employers you represent have only very limited capacities for

offering job trainings and internships to young people.

© EYCE, 2011

Appendix 4: Forum TheatreForum Theatre is a type of theatre created by the innovative and

influential practitioner Augusto Boal as part of what he calls his „The-

atre of the Oppressed.“ While practising earlier in his career, Boal

would apply ‚simultaneous dramaturgy‘. In this process the actors or

audience members could stop a performance, often a short scene in

which a character was being oppressed in some way. The audience

would suggest different actions for the actors to carry out on-stage in

an attempt to change the outcome of what they were seeing.

Boal developed and practised an orthodox methodology for fo-

rum theatre based on the interaction between his actors and his so-

called „spect-actors“. The spect-actor attempts to overturn the op-

pression using some method unused by the actors, whilst the actors

portraying the oppressors improvise to attempt to bring the produc-

tion to its original, scripted ending. If the audience believes that the

spect-actor‘s actions are too unrealistic to be utilised in reality, they

may call out „magic!“, and the spect-actor must modify their actions

accordingly. If this spect-actor fails in overthrowing the oppression,

the actor resumes their character, and continues the production until

another spect-actor calls out „stop! or freeze!“ and attempts a diffe-

rent method.

If and when the oppression has been overthrown by the spect-

actors, the production changes again the spect-actors now have the

opportunity to replace the oppressors, and find new ways of chal-

lenging the oppressed character. In this way a more realistic depic-

tion of the oppression can be made by the audience, who are often

victims of the oppression. The whole process is designed to come

to a conclusion through the consideration of opposing arguments,

rather than where an argument is one-sided and pushed from the

actors with no chance of reply or counter-argument.

Scene: Nothing in the fridgeSource: Tearfund.org

This sketch is designed to be performed by the young people.

SCENE: LIVING ROOM OF A HOUSE, MAN AND WOMAN ARRIVE

HOME. THEY SLUMP DOWN ON THE SOFA, EXHAUSTED.

WOMAN: (BIG SIGH) What a day.

MAN: Yeah, I’m absolutely whacked. Shall we just veg out this eve-

ning? Get a takeaway? Where’s the menu for that Chinese place?

WOMAN: Oh no, I’ve just remembered – we’ve got people over to-

night!

MAN: For dinner?

WOMAN: No, for breakfast.

MAN: Ha, ha. Do you want to check the fridge?

WOMAN: No, I want you to check the fridge.

MAN BRACES HIMSELF TO GET UP, PULLS HIMSELF UP FROM

THE SOFA. GOES THROUGH TO THE KITCHEN. OPENS

FRIDGE DOOR.

WOMAN: How’s it looking?

MAN: Nothing.

WOMAN: Nothing?

MAN: Nothing.

WOMAN: What do you mean?

MAN: We’ve got nothing in the fridge. (PAUSE) Apart from milk.

WOMAN: I thought we had some eggs.

MAN: Yes, three eggs. Bit of cheese. Pack of bacon.

WOMAN: What about the leftover lasagne?

MAN: Still here. And an old sausage wrapped in tinfoil. Unless it’s a

bionic finger in cold storage.

WOMAN: Any veg?

MAN: Just some tired-looking cabbage. Some sleepy broccoli. And

19

a bit of soporific spinach.

WOMAN: There must be some sauce in there?

MAN: No.

WOMAN: Behind the jam and chocolate spread.

MAN: Oh, yeah. Only Thai sweet chilli, mayonnaise, tomato and

brown sauce. There’s a pot of yoghurt.

WOMAN: What flavour?

MAN: Rhubarb.

WOMAN: Well that hardly counts.

MAN: We’re nearly out of parmesan. And the cream’s out of date.

WOMAN: I see what you mean. Nothing.

MAN: How old’s that salmon?

WOMAN: ‘Bout a week.

MAN: Better chuck it. Still, there should be half a packet of biscuits

in the tin.

WOMAN: We can’t offer biscuits for dinner.

MAN RETURNS TO THE LIVING ROOM.

MAN: Who’s coming over anyway? Friends or—?

WOMAN: Family.

MAN: (SITS BACK ON THE SOFA) We had your mum and dad over

last year.

WOMAN: No, it’s Mol and Tol and the kids.

MAN: That’s a new one on me. Where did they spring from?

WOMAN: Cambodia.

MAN: Thought all your relatives came from Croydon?

WOMAN: I said they were family, not relations. Their pond’s nearly

empty and all their fish are dying.

MAN: Take them to the aquarium.

WOMAN: The fish aren’t decorative. It’s all they’ve got to eat.

MAN: Well we’re hardly overloaded with supplies. Unless you want to

open a tin of soup or some baked beans, we’ll have to go to the

24-hour supermarket.

WOMAN: We’ll do that then.

MAN: But it’s a 10-minute drive. And I’ve just got comfy.

WOMAN: Takeaway?

MAN: Did you find that leaflet?

WOMAN: No.

MAN: We’ll have to cancel. Phone them and say something has

come up.

WOMAN: But they’re expecting dinner.

MAN: Invite them over another time.

WOMAN: I’m not phoning, it’s embarrassing.

MAN: Send them a text then.

WOMAN: But what are we going to eat?

MAN: Last night’s lasagne? You send a message. I’ll bung it in the

microwave.

WOMAN: We’ll do a big shop tomorrow.

MAN: Get it delivered. It’s only a fiver. Fancy a biscuit while we wait?

WOMAN PICKS UP HER MOBILE.

20

ImprintProduced by Ecumenical Youth Council with texts written and pho-

tos taken by participants and members of the International Planning

Committee of the event “Facing Economic Crisis – The Role and

Possibilities of Youth Organisations”.

• Editing: Vera Kockler, Kristīne Jansone

• Layout: Felix Beck

Copyright:

© Photos: EYCE 2010

© Design: EYCE 2011

Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe

Rue Brogniez 44, 1070 Brussels, Belgium

www.eyce.org | general.secretary@eyce.org

21

22

Ecumenical Youth Council in EuropeRue Brogniez 44, B-1070 Brussels, Belgiumwww.eyce.org | general.secretary@eyce.org

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‚Go in peace; keep warm and eat your � ll‘, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

– The Bible, James 2, 14-17