From October 2 to 6, the entire team of the Youth Center - Gabrovo was on training, "20 km from Burgas..." in the beautiful Pomorie. In these 5 days, the second module of a training program organized by the Ministry of Education and Science for the development of the capacity of youth centers in Bulgaria, financed under the Local Development Program, took place.
During the training, we went deeper into the "kitchen" of youth work, we shared good practices and ideas that we apply in working with young people.
Among the highlights were research approaches and programs, what is youth research, how to map young people in the area and how to use this information. An important part was the topic of working with underprivileged groups, the Roma community, the LGBTI+ community, we touched on intercultural communication, discussed stereotypes, prejudices caused by mutual misunderstanding and emphasized the importance of solidarity. We also had communication training, which proved to us how important active listening is. We were presented with various techniques of listening and reflecting the emotional state, through various case studies and activities we were challenged to make collective decisions, defend positions and reach consensus.
We finished with a review of the past days and seal up the "winter food" - what we will take from what we have learned, we will close in jars and use further on.
We are glad that we had the opportunity to participate together with our colleagues from the youth centers in Burgas, Vratsa, Dobrich, Montana, Pernik, Plovdiv and Stara Zagora. We look forward to our next training meeting in December!
