Sunday, September 09, 2018

Youth are the voice, 13 – 21 August 2018, Lapua & Seinajoki, Finland








 It was another journey for Panagiotis Moisidis and Vasilis Hortomaris, (volunteers from PRAXIS) who were able to participate in a learning mobility project based on non-formal education, on how to use social media for effective participation. The hosting organization was Youth Work Services of Seinäjoki, while the program took place in Lapua, a small town of Seinajoki county of Finland. The big and convenient Youth house, offers the possibility of conducting a unique program, since the benefits was over of any temptation with many facilities. The duration of daylight lasted still long hours in mid of August and the weather was mostly sunny with temperature around 20°C. There were 25 participants in the training course from 12 countries that represented 12 institutions. Trainers introduced various theoretical topics such as rules of rhetoric and persuasion, public communication and social psychology, working with stereotypes and symbols, the power of images – video and photography. After the second day and every evening we had the opportunity to practice on the morning sessions with various case studies on media labs, a workshop which based on team work and the use of social media. Undoubtedly, the combination of theory and practice was really beneficial and fruitful. In addition, there were a NGO fair that followed up by a visual network of them. After the intense 3 first days, the “youth are the voice family” had the chance to visit the university of Seinajoki and other interest points of the town. On Saturday 18-8 was another interesting evening with an excursion to the lake hirvijarven tekojarvi where we had a walk on the forest and sauna, a traditional custom for every Finnish. The seminar continued after that with more interesting topics such as targeting on social groups, learning software for creating posters, competences for critical thinking and how to distinguish fake news, followed up with the conclusion of the media labs and presenting them. Apart of all these activities, it was inspiring and impressive for the participants due to the fact that through that process it was able to strengthen the relations between the organizations and to attract future partners for various projects. Obviously, the seminar was beneficial for all the participants in various ways such as increase of cultural diversity awareness, working in groups and through other activities that helped us to improve our skills. Moreover, it is also clear that young people have the opportunity to travel and to participate in such kind of projects in order to gain experience of these multicultural events and to improve their skills and qualities as well. So stay tuned with Praxis and next time, grab the chance...

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