Open Call: YOCOMO – be(come) civically engaged

Are you a youth worker who is:

• active in international youth work?
• interested to explore political (civic) education in your youth work context and practice?
• looking to exchange with others and explore challenges and opportunities of civic engagement?
• interested to explore the Being Civically Engaged competence area of the ETS competence model for youth workers working internationally? (note: the updated though not designed yet version is attached below)

If yes, keep reading!

Being and becoming civically engaged means being aware and taking a principled stance on political and societal issues affecting young people, civil society, human rights, democracy, digital rights, etc. In addition, when being civically engaged, a youth worker actively supports young people’s civic, political and social engagement and helps them to participate as makers of the changes they want to see in their local and online communities, societies, Europe and beyond.

Does this resonate with you? Would you like to explore your civic engagement and role in supporting young people in be(ing)(coming) civically engaged? If the answer is still yes, then we will happily welcome you to YOCOMO – be(come) civically engaged training course!

The course will support sharing, learning and working with civic engagement stories, and by using the city of Dresden as a learning environment. More specifically, the course will look at:

• “Being civically engaged” competence area and the range of what being civically engaged in youth work means;
• The ways in which youth work context can stimulate the development of youth workers’ civic engagement competence and their practice;
• The different dimensions (values, attitudes, knowledge, skills, behaviours) of be(coming) civically engaged;
• Different pathways that youth workers can take to comprehend their (youth work) system from a civic engagement perspective;
• The areas of tension of the Being Civically engaged competence area (e.g. power relations, critical thinking, neutrality);
• The ways to address challenges when being civically engaged and in youth work practice supporting young people to be civically engaged? (with a special focus on the support that might be needed)

Your hosts for the course, Ajša Hadžibegović and Snežana Bačlija Knoch are eager to accompany you on this journey and to explore, experiment, reflect and learn together with you!