Deadline:  5 May 2016 (Applicants who require visas to enter Romania); 30 May 2016 (Applicants who don’t need visas to enter Romania)
Open to:  youth workers, peacebuilders and activists between the ages of 18 and 30 years old
Venue: 10 July – 20 July 2016 in Cluj Napoca, Romania

Description

GYR Summer Camp is a space in the beautiful Romanian countryside where dedicated, passionate, motivated youth activists and peacebuilders from across the globe come together to learn, share, build and exchange their experiences from their movements and organizations. GYR is a space where youth already involved in organizations, movements and initiatives within their countries or globally will share and learn together while supported and empowered by experienced peace workers from a number of key organizations in the field of peacebuilding. This exciting summer camp will include a variety of workshops and training sessions on key topics in the field, as well as seminars, film showings, discussions, exchanges, planning spaces, as well as the chance to hike and explore the surrounding countryside. This is a space not only for preparing people to change the world in the future, but to bring together those of you who are already doing so today.

The GYR summer camp offers a variety of engaging and empowering workshops and training sessions that aim to develop the knowledge, practical skills and capacities of people in the field of activism and peacebuilding. It is a horizontal forum for sharing, learning and collaboration, where co-creation and joint movements can arise and strong new movements can be created.

The main topics and themes are:

• tackling violent extremism, radicalisation, discrimination and prejudice;

• psychological well-being, inner peace and self-care: looking after yourself as a practitioner;

• working with and healing from trauma (with a focus on conflict and refugee situations);

• peace education;

• practical peacebuilding skills, e.g. project development, organising and fundraising, working with digital and social media/IT;

• the environmental and its relation to peace;

• building a global solidarity movement with Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen supporting the people’s and activists peace movements in these countries.

We will announce the official list of workshops and training sessions as these are confirmed.

Currently announced sessions will include:

• Youth participation: What does it mean, what are people’s experiences of it?

• Advocacy: How to lobby your government, the EU or the UN for your issues;

• Innovative approaches to peacebuilding: the use of theatre and the arts in peace (delivered by facilitators from Istanbouli Theatre);

• Perceptions and mindsets: European perceptions of asylum seekers and refugees and how we can start to change them;

• Peace education: Using experiential learning for peace education; transformational approaches to peace education;

• Activist TV: how to make a video story to show your activist work;

• Self-care and inner balance: from inner peace to world peace

• Self-development: a 3-day course on stress managements, breathing techniques (delivered by the International Association of Human Values)

• Dealing with and healing from trauma: Moving from blame to empathy and forgiveness (delivered by Jo Berry from Building Bridges to Peace)

• Designing and implementing effective peace programs and projects

Objectives:

• Increasing youth activists and peacebuilders’ capacities in the fields of conflict transformation, practical peacebuilding skills, activism on a variety of important topics and to develop practical skills that will benefit youth activists/peaceworkers and their organizations/communities.
• Creating a forum for sharing, cooperation and exchange between participants from different backgrounds and to create collaborative movements between organizations worldwide.
• Linking young activists from the MENA region with young activists from Europe and to look at starting to build a true international solidarity and support movement for peacebuilding in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen.
• Developing of a strong social, organizational and field-based network to continue the sharing and development of ideas and relationships beyond the physical gathering.
• Full support and follow-up will be given, including a briefing before coming to Romania; an invitation to an online discussion and learning space where participants can meet each other before the summer camp, take part in discussions facilitated by our organizers and share resources before they meet in person. During the camp, participants will be supported through daily morning meetings with the chance to learn powerful techniques for psychological wellbeing; high quality training sessions and workshops delivered by our expert trainers; one-to-one support, coaching or mentoring from facilitators and trainers; the creation of a strategic plan of action. After the course, participants will be able to access support, mentoring, and advice from facilitators and trainers; follow-up Skype calls, and continued access to an online discussion group.

Eligibility

Global Youth Rising Summer Camp 2016 is open to youth workers, peacebuilders and activists aged 18 – 30 (although older participants are welcome to apply).

Costs

We aim to keep costs as low as possible in the interests of making the camp as accessible as possible.

Course contributions are:

• OECD participants: 500 EUR
• Non-OECD participants: 300 EUR

A 10% discount is also available for anybody who applies and pays the fees before 30th March 2016. Organizations sending 5 or more participants can receive an additional 10% discount.

Application

Please note that a high level of English proficiency is required for this event.

In order to apply, register HERE.

If you have any questions, please contact at:  ilona.traista@patrir.ro

The official web-page.