Participation out of the Box! – Day 1

Our seminar “Participation out of the Box” has officially begun! For the next 5 days, 25 youth/social workers will be gathered in Oviedo, Spain.

This seminar is the first activity of the work plan “Shake the Box! – Alternative ways of Participation“.

Our work plan this year will be aiming at bringing together different layers of society together to claim that vulnerable youth’s participation is real, effective and promising, implementing local actions using alternative ways of youth participation.

This seminar will help setting the foundations of the whole project. It will allow each partner organisation to fully understand the project and built their capacity to implement alternative ways of youth participation and to involve stakeholders in local actions.

Getting to know each other

The first session of the day aimed at welcoming the participants and allowing them to get to know each other through different name games and icebreakers. They discussed and discovered some of each other’s passions and aspirations.

Introduction to the project

For the second session, the team of facilitators presented the Work Plan “Shake the Box! – Alternative ways of participation“, and the aim and objectives of the Seminar “Participation out of the Box!”. They also presented the programme of the 5 days to come, and invited the participants to reflect on their expectations, fear and contributions.

Team Building

During the afternoon, the group was invited to take part in 4 team building activities: games of “Mission Impossible”, “Group body statues”, “Untie the knot” and “Minesweeper”. These games allowed the group to build a cohesive and respectful group dynamic.

Intercultural Evening

The day ended with the traditional intercultural evening. The participants brought culinary specialities from their countries and cultures and got to present them to the rest of the group.