Being a youth worker means, first of all, having the sense of initiative and involvement necessary to support the young people you work with – often disadvantaged young people or young people looking to define their “life project”.

These skills depend, at first, on self-confidence, essential for successful work with young people, and can be built on the basis of a strong self-knowledge and self-awareness, through concrete actions that strengthen a chain of trust.

This is one of the leitmotiv of the training course “Leadership For Change“, held from the 24th of May to the 1st of June 2018, in Serra Guarneri, in the province of Palermo.

The training involved 25 youth workers from Belarus, Georgia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, France, Armenia, Turkey, Italy and Ukraine.

In contact with nature, immersed in the frame of the Environmental Education Center of Serra Guarneri, the participants took a path that allowed them to explore their energy, which came out of the desire to change the world, in order to become stimulating leaders in the community and with other young people, to act with integrity, namely to live according to our own values and principles, to be and act according to what is most true for us, so to create value for people and the world.

Inner change and transformation: the methodology of Joseph Campbell’s Hero / Shero’s Journey and the Dragon Dreaming tool – as a reference for experiential learning – led the participants’ journey of understanding and developing inner leadership, which develops from the values and the inner qualities of each, then flowing outwards, inspiring communities.

This path had been divided into three main pillars: Inner Leadership (Self) that addresses the roots of identity and self, Leadership with others (Others) and Community Leadership (World), which allow to develop skills on relevant aspects of human behavior, shared leadership, embracing diversity, individual and social changes, etc.

What prevents us from acting? Which are the fears that do not allow us to carry out the change we desire?

The first part of the training course was addressed not only to the knowledge and creation of the group, but also to the introduction of the participants to the journey of transformation, starting from the awareness of their “Call” (passion) and the reasons why their actions remains potential, and so to overcome the threshold of their vulnerabilities.

Through team building activities and experiential sessions, participants were able to recognize and reflect on their own potential and inner strength, as well as on the important role played by responsibility and motivation, listening and communication within a group.

The sharing, within the group, of the idea of each about the concepts of “leadership” and “power” was a fundamental starting point in order to be able, on one hand, to understand the distortive aspects that are commonly associated to these aspects, and on the other, embark on the journey of discovering their potential.

It’s time for the Dragon Dreaming! Once they were into the Underworld, the participants were able to put in practice their transformation path, through the approach to creative project management.

Dreaming, Planning, Making, Celebrating: through symbolism, “aha” moments, pinakarri and guardians of time, our participants, divided into three groups,dreamed about, planned and implemented projects for the Center of Serra Guarneri, of which the future visitors could benefit from them

Increased awareness of themselves and their potential, motivation and energy: the circle of Dragon Dreaming ended with the evaluation of the path taken, through which the participants were able to reflect on how the perception of themselves as leaders is changed.

But the journey does not end here! The leadership, from the individual dimension, has to flow outside in order to release its potential and make a contribution to the world; come back home, our participants realized projects that involved young people of their communities and, thus, contribute to their personal growth path, forwarding in turn what they had learnt about leadership and starting a chain path of sustainable change for the world.

Be the change you want to see in the world

(Gandhi)

DOWNLOAD “LEADERSHIP FOR CHANGE TOOLKIT, with the descriptions of all the sessions, energizers and suggestions for trainers to realize and implement your training course on Inner Leadership: Leadership for change.Toolkit

HAVE A LOOK AT THE PHOTOGALLERY OF THE PROJECT!

WATCH THE FINAL VIDEO OF THE PROJECT!

To know more about the path of Leadership For Change read the article: Leadership for change: in May a training course on Leadership

https://ceipes.org/it/leadership-for-change-training-a-palermo-per-la-leadership/

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