Tuesday, February 26, 2008

youth-camp-knjazevac@googlegroups.com

The Youth Camp Knjazevac group is formed to motivate all the people to actively partipcipate in the social and political events in their community. Our main goal is to connect willing and able people who want to make changes for the better. We are all individuals, but only together we can succeed.

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Group email:
youth-camp-knjazevac@googlegroups.com

``Има ли неко овде млад?``

Музичко – сценски перформанс у извођењу аматерског позоришта ТЕАТАР 91 из Алексинца.

Музичка подршка: проф.др Зоран Живадиновић.

Представа је о породици, љубави, насиљу, протекцији и актуелним проблемима.

Организација: „Друштво за развој креативности“ Алексинац, а у циљу израде Националне стратегије за младе Министарства омладине и спорта Републике Србије.

Глумци:
Милош Паовић,
Срђан Стојадиновић,
Бојан Цветковић и
Душан Јовановић.

Café Incognito Сврљиг
Петак, 29. фебруар 2008.

Почетак: 21h

Monday, February 4, 2008

Youth Camp

January 14-19, 2008

48 young community leaders from the cross-border region between Bulgaria and Serbia participated in the Youth Camp. The camp took place from January 14-19, 2008 at Knjazevac, Serbia.

The participants arrived at Knjazevac on Monday, January 14. After registered, we began introducing them to the six-day program and participants were given the chance to introduce themselves, in order to foster the communication and bring them closer to the others. This point is very important, because of the upcoming workshops that included active discussion and team work. The chosen participants were aged 15-25, so they took the first introducing steps easily, as they had similar interests and were accepted by the others at the very beginning.

First two days’ sessions were run by Danijela Gavrilović, a PhD of Sociology at University of Niš, Serbia. The first session was “The Crisis of Values in the World”. She was talking about values, defining them from the aspect of different people and nationalities all over the world. Everybody understood the role of values in today’s world and established their own list of values so that was discussed thoroughly afterwards. Every individual valued different things and then compared them with the others. Why the values are so important and need to be respected was one of the questions. Participants were free to explain and give examples on the questions. After they said that it was very important to them that somebody listened and accepted their opinion and attitude. The other session, “What do you consider valuable; what do I consider valuable” left more space for discussion with provided explanations and examples by the trainer.

The next day sessions began with „The Identities“. What is the Identity of an individual, a social group, or a nation? What social roles does everybody have? What is the difference between the identities among Bulgarian and Serbian participants? They were mostly giving similar answers (especially the peer groups). After that, we had a long session on the Balkans and European Identity. The participants were given a chance to recognize the similarities and/or differences. Living in the same region in Europe, they agreed on many things. The very important workshop was establishing identity among Youth with following question – Who Am I? So, they had a clear view regarding their position in society and relationships. All the participants were given some stories to read during the break which were to be discussed at the beginning of the next session. The stories were about the identities of different nations in the world, their position; borders and boundaries, imaginative and the real ones. They analyzed and gave their impressions on them. It was interesting to notice and listen to different explanations. Again, opposite attitudes were accepted by the others. As a final workshop of the day, giving the resume of lessons, Universal Values and Open Identities explained again the main points of that day’s topics.

The third day on the camp covered Youth Initiatives in local Communities, when the participants had the opportunity to make presentations of their organizations explaining the main objectives and activities they took part in. There were five presentations: Voluntary Center Nis, ``Be a Part of the Team`` of Secondary School ``D. T. DRAGOS`` of Svrljig, Creative Group ``MEDA``, NGO ``InterCOOLt`` of Knjazevac and the ``Creative Dialogue``, a project of Denizen Center and CPE Prizren, Kosovo supported by the Initiative Foundation of Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Belgrade and Mr. Charles Merrill JR, Boston USA .
The second part was provided for the mapping of problems in local communities. The participants were divided according to the communities they live in. After mapping numerous problems, they made group presentations.
The presentations showed that all of the participants are discouraged by the current situation at the both sides of the borders, as they live in the poorest regions of the countries. They realize that a lot needs to be done to improve various areas of life. They are desperate for opportunities to DO something. They are desperate for new partnerships, experiences, opportunities to learn from colleagues’ in-country and abroad, for materials, and for some hope that things will get better. This action responds to these needs and is therefore highly relevant.

Additionally, the following part was to introduce participants to the field of Conflict Resolution; it aims to help participants develop a basic understanding of communication, conflict and conflict resolution process and to develop skills to engage more effectively with each other, with personnel from other organizations, and with local communities. The workshop was not intended to teach participants how to engage directly or to intervene in the large and complex issues, rather the objectives of the workshops are:
To increase participants` understanding of the general principles and explanations of conflict and its management;
To increase participants` ability to communicate effectively and work in groups;
To provide participants with a better awareness of their own skills in conflict management.
To offer participants an opportunity to practice some of these skills through small groups exercises and discussions.
To increase participants` understanding of culture and cultural differences and how they may influence conflict and conflict resolution processes.
Overall, the session aimed to introduce the ways in which participants can call on conflict resolution related communication skills to adopt a problem-solving approach to their roles and responsibilities.
The following topics were addressed:
Active listening
Reflective listening debate
Verbal and Non-verbal communication tools
Re-framing and Non-blaming language
Effective speaking
Understanding conflict and Conflict Resolution
Personal Conflict Management Styles
Facilitating Group Process
Questioning
Facilitation Role Play
Mediation Skills
Mediation Role Play
The Youth Camp was organized as a set of workshops, and various social activities. In addition to educational part of the camp, there were informal presentation sessions of the two courtiers and the participants’ native towns and schools. The ones who wanted to introduce their activities and engagement in NGOs or other informal civic groups were free to participate in this part, too. In that way, we had mostly Power Point presentations explaining different topics, interests and places, regarding the life and problems of youth from both sides of the border.