(Un)mapped grounds- Slovenia

(Un)mapped grounds – Slovenia

The aim of this project was to teach us how to be better youth workers and, as the project title suggests, to explore the unmapped areas of ourselves. We certainly managed to achieve both of these goals, even though initially we had great respect for them, as our experience with youth work was very limited. These fears, as it later turned out, were unfounded, as the project was designed even for complete beginners. We learned several things; what we liked most was that we got to try inventing our own activity, which required a lot of creativity. Every such project has a certain main goal, but in our opinion, its greatest value lies in an unknown group of young people coming together with the task of creating something together, and during this creation, the best things happen and the best experiences are gained, which are hidden in getting to know each other, talking about our countries, and sharing experiences. English is the language of the project, so we definitely improved not only in speaking but also in active listening, and thanks to the other participants, we learned a lot about the similarities of our languages. We met a handful of different people with different experiences from different countries, so it was interesting to get to know the differences that prevail in our countries and to discuss various, even controversial, topics. We gained new knowledge in informal education, which we will try to use in our future professional lives.

Regarding the organizational aspect of the project, we were very satisfied. It was the first training for one of our facilitators, and we think she handled it perfectly. The content of the training was very engaging and interesting; each day was fully packed, but we also had enough time to relax. The accommodation was nice, suitably located in the beautiful heart of Slovenian nature. As for the food, we couldn't imagine anything better than what we received. We had varied fresh food every day. Communication with both the sending and the Slovenian organization was excellent; they always helped us when we needed it, especially with planning the trip. From this project, we are taking away a lot of experience, memories, and several new friends.