Play Your Cards Right II – Summer Challenge is a three-phase training course about effective methods in outdoor learning and experiential education for youth workers held between June and September in the Czech Republic.

The 24 participants from 6 countries (Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and Slovakia) took part in 8 days training course (June 2015), then prepared and led the experiential-learning-method-based event/activity in their home country. The participants met again in August in the Czech Republic to present their projects and evaluate their learning process.

During the training course, participants deepened their knowledge and skills in the field of experiential education and practiced their application within their youthwork in their home countries. They also experienced and learned the principles of experiential learning while working with culturally and socially heterogeneous group. Participants also got the opportunity to deepen self-knowledge and develop their key competencies with special focus on “Learning to Learn” competence.

The project is built on the model of Kolb’s learning cycle. Participants went through the following phases:

First hand Experience -> personal reflection -> vocational / methodological and theoretical insight -> practice and feedback -> preparation, implementation and evaluation of proposed project -> reflection of their own project and learning process.

In other words, youth workers got the first-hand experience with the programmes, games and activities used in experiential learning, learned and understood the theory behind, shared experience and good practice from their own youth work, tried out the role of an instructor leading the activity for other participants and planned and developped their own projects based on the experiential methodology in their home countries. After the project realisation, participants came together again to reflect on their new experience, share the new ideas and get more inspiration for their future work as youth workers.

The project outcomes are:

– free ebook “Booklet of Activities” including the participants’ games and activities

– “Experiential Learning” handouts enriched of the Risk management chapter

– blog with information about events and projects organized by the participants and with the outcomes mentioned above (http://playyourcardsright-training.blogspot.cz/)

Play your cards right! was  9 days training course about effective methods of outdoor learning in winter and experiential education for youth workers. The training course took place in the Czech Republic in Orlické hory in February 2014.

There were 24 youth workers from 8 countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey) and 9 organizations who got first hand experience with experiential learning via outdoor experience, the programmes, games and activities used in experiential learning, understood the theory behind, shared experience and good practices from their own youth work, tried out the role of an instructor leading the activity for other participants and planned and developped their own projects based on the experiential learning methodology in their home country.

The program flow was based on the experiential learning method and the Kolb’s learning cycle:

Firstly, the participants went through three days winter outdoor adventure to get personal experience with the methods of experiential learning in winter conditions. They practiced outdoor skills necessary to survive on the snow (packing for winter hike, orientation in winter nature, building a camp, cooking…) as well as experienced the adventure games and activities.

In the second step they reflected on their personal experience and gained knowledge about the methods used. They went through several methodical workshops ( principles of the experiential learning, building a game/activity, group review/reflection leading, risk management…)

Then the participants practiced the skills gained by leading an activity for the others and by gaining a feedback after.

In the last part of the training participants created and presented their own project to be realized later in their home country. They got feedback for their project as well and created coaching triples to support each other in realizing the projects.

“68: Youth for Hope, Hope for Youth!” was a youth exchange that we organized in 2009 in south Bohemia in a cottage house close to Veselí nad Lužnicí. There were 27 participants from the Czech Republic, Austria (Caretaker), Bulgaria (Bulgarian Young Greens), Hungary (Artist of Life), Latvia (NGO „Culture, Tolerance, Friendship“) and Italy (Binario Uno).

The main idea of the exchange was to zoom in on events which happened in 1968 and to find inspiration for our actions in everyday life.

• Firstly we wanted to remember and learn about events which took place in 1968 in Europe and all around the worlds and formed the change in the world.
• Secondly we wanted to understand how (young) people contributed to changes that happened.
• Thirdly we focused on modern day global issues considering what an individual or a group of people can do to find a solution.

There were two main outputs of the exchange.

• At the end of the exchange participants created comics/posters displaying their thoughts about global issues and bringing awareness to topics that should be considered in all societies worldwide. These displays were printed on postcards and spread in participating countries and other places.
• The national groups did a small project at their places to bring a change to their local community and to experience that they can be the promoters of the change. (Hungarians prepared workshop about the generation 1989, Austrians began with gardening in public places of Wien (“Guerilla Gardening Wien”), Czechs prepared a weekend stay for children from foster care).

During the exchange we applied experiential learning (a simulation game at the beginning of the exchange to sense the atmosphere of 1968). We promoted active participation of all partners – there was always one national group responsible for each day. Moreover, participants had to share responsibilities around the house (cleaning, chopping wood, making fire) and collect materials relevant to 1968 before the exchange.

“Bare Feet – Open Mind” was a youth exchange organized in 2008. It took place close to a small village in north of the Czech Republic Jindřichovice pod Smrkem. The village is typical by it’s multicultural composition of inhabitants and by many ecological projects and activities. The exchange took 10 days and we had 25 participants from the Czech Republic, Austria (Caretaker), Hungary (Artists of Life) and Slovenia (OE Skala).

The main ideas of the project were

1. to experience and search for natural, sustainable and responsible lifestyle and identity through living in the countryside
2. to become aware of continuity between causes and consequences of our everyday behaviour, particularly consequences for nature

We stayed on a meadow sleeping in teepees and forest, using water from the spring, cooking on fire, bathing in a small river. We had the opportunity to perceive nature via all senses and become aware of different aspects of our everyday life like food (its origin, preparation, taste, quality), time (rush,biological rhythm, perception of time), community (responsibility for others, sharing, getting to know people with whom I live).

We organized a “neighbourhood meeting” with people from the village at a local school. Both our participants and local children prepared a part of the programme. We spent the evening talking and dancing with people who grew vegetables and baked bread we ate all the week.

Taste your waste or „Our waste – our problem“ was our first youth exchange we organized as Czekobanda. It took place in Brno in the spring 2007. It was a multilateral project where 37 participants from seven EU countries met (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden).

The main idea was to bring the awareness of the participants and local community towards the waste treatment as an important part of environmental friendly lifestyle. Most people stop thinking and forget about their household waste at the moment of throwing it into the basket. We started our investigation at this point. We discovered what was happening with our waste after being thrown into the garbage bin.

We found out and compared how the waste is treated in participating countries. We visited different waste treatment facilities such as landfill, incinerator, recycling and composting facility and learned about various possibilities of waste treatment (reusing, sorting, recycling, dumping, burning).

In the second part of the exchange we shared our knowledge and brought awareness about waste treatment politics to local community. We organized an exhibition at the Faculty of Social Studies were our participants explained how the waste is treated in their countries. In the evening we organized a public event with concerts for university students. It was another more informal space for continuing discussions.

This exchange had a huge impact on many people. Some of the participants focused on waste treatment politics in their studies. Lot of following projects were developed after this exchange (e.g. „Back to nature“ – Youth exchange in Poland, „SOS – Spirit of Sport“ – Youth exchange in Hungary,Bare Feet – Open Mind – Czekobanda’s second youth exchange).