Tools in Schools: coordinating the coordinators!
One week ago, OBESSU gave the official kick-start to Tools in Schools – Students Get Organised: the one-year-long project that will be running for the entire 2016!
Tools in Schools will include a number of activities which aim at fostering and enhancing school student participation in education systems and hence, in society as a whole. To reach this goal, the objectives that OBESSU will explore during 2016 will be: to build the capacity of school students to take an active role in society and schools to defend their rights and interests; to strengthen already existing school student structures and provide them with tools to reach out to unorganised young people; to create an online platform to collect educational materials that help school students to get organised, discuss and promote youth participation; to facilitate the sharing of experiences around Europe on school students and youth participation, and to give the space for school students to connect and network with each other.
During the year we will organise three main activities open to OBESSU Member, Candidate and Affiliate Organisations, as well as to other OBESSU structures like the Pool of Trainers.
The activities will include:
- the Training of Trainers (April, Sarajevo);
- the Summer School: Democracy and Active participation (July, venue tbc);
- a local phase (August-October);
- the Closing meeting (November).
The final outcomes of the year will be collected in a very user-friendly online platform filled with materials, activity sessions and tips on how to promote “Education for Democratic Citizenship” and youth participation. It will also include the updated Manual for School Students together with educational materials, sessions and hints to help school students to get organised in their schools, to learn what student’s rights are, but also how to train young people on advocacy and how to create participatory structures in your organisations.
The content of the online platform will be created throughout the year and participants to the different activities will play a very important role in this process. During the Training of Trainers, participants, mainly members of the OBESSU Pool of Trainers, will develop sessions and educational tools to be included in the online platform. Later on, during the summer school, these sessions will be tested and participants will be asked to bring these materials to their local and national realities and to try them again during the so called “local phase”. At the end of the year, the Closing meeting will have the role to finalise the content of the online platform and… we will go public!
This process will be followed and coordinated by the Coordination Group that includes Sasa Pesic and Alba Serrano from the OBESSU Pool of Trainers (PoT), a member of the OBESSU Board with the support of a member of the OBESSU Secretariat. During the first coordination meeting, 20-21 of February, they planned the process for the whole year and the programme for the Training of Trainers.
Stay tuned, because Tools in Schools will be amazing!
Tools in Schools – Students Get Organised! is a project funded by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.
