Solidarity and activist training for youth workers
International training, 3 July online + 17-23 July in Vienna, Austria
Europe is involved in global injustices, both historically through colonial history as well as in the present through ongoing economic and political injustices. European governments and companies have been enabling and driving unacceptable working conditions, land theft, genocides and civil wars, lack of access to vaccines and medication, the disappearance of cultures and languages, etc. in the Global South. It is more than urgent for Europeans to step up in two ways: 1) to raise awareness for European involvement in global injustices and how this is related to colonial history; 2) to hold decision-makers in Europe accountable for these injustices
Creating campaigns with young people against neocolonialism. In this training you learn how to create social media or activist campaigns around neocolonialism. You will identify a struggle or hot topic you want to work on and you will work on it during the training in an international group. The campaigns we finish will be published online on the channels of Service Civil International (SCI) and its partner organisations. Participants will learn basics in campaign strategy, how to launch successful social media campaigns, how to put pressure on decision-makers and how to deal with backlash.
Two parts of the training: Online meetup with the group and with activists from the Global South as an intro to the training. From 17-23 July we meet in Vienna to create campaigns together.
“Beyond Neocolonialism – Solidarity and activist training for youth workers“ is part of the project “European Youth for Global Solidarity”, funded by the European Commission through Erasmus+. SCI Austria, as part of this project, will also organise a training around the white savior complex in volunteering in December 2021. As an outcome of the two activities, we will create an adapted version of the toolkit “The Power Behind Good Intentions”, which SCI Austria has been creating with a series of post-colonial seminars in the past few years.
Participant’s profile
The participants will be staff, activists and volunteers from volunteering and youth organisations. All participants will be expected and stimulated to contribute to the activities and discussions. They are very welcome and invited to come up with their own ideas and present some methods or workshops they are experienced in and they want to share. Please contact us in advance to tell us about it and we will see how it can fit best in the seminar agenda. :)
Additionally, we are looking for participants who are motivated and willing to subsequently disseminate and promote the project outcomes within their organisations and local communities and develop new initiatives and projects on these topics in the future - with the support of their sending organisations.
All participants selected for this project must meet the following criteria
● be 18 years old or older
● Live in one of the countries of our partner organisations: Albania, Austria, Czech Republic, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, North Macedonia, Portugal, Slovenia, Tunisia, Ukraine
● might need to be fully protected against COVID-19 (vaccinated with a vaccine accepted by Austrian authorities or recently recovered) in order to enter Austria and to participate in the project
● be able to work in English
● be interested in the training topics (neo-colonialism, global justice) and have a strong motivation to act as a multiplier
● commit to implementing the learned knowledge and skills in practice back home
● commit to being present for the full duration of the training
We explicitly encourage participants of all genders, sexual orientations, abilities, races and ethnic backgrounds to apply. We prioritize applications of people who experience racism (i.e. BIPOC applicants - Black, Indigenous and People of Color).
Logistics, financial conditions and sustainability
Simple life: The project will take place in a hostel with simple living conditions. You will share a room with other people.
Money, money, money: For participants coming from Europe and neighbouring regions, all essential costs of the program (including food, most travel costs, visa costs, accommodation and seminar) will be covered by SCI Austria through our funding by Erasmus+. You need to pay a placement fee (between 30€ and 80€) to your sending organisation.
COVID-19: The pandemic is not over yet and this might influence your participation. Please only book refundable travel tickets, as we cannot reimburse your travels in case we need to cancel the project (e.g. because of another lockdown in Austria).
Sustainable food: The food we provide will be vegan. This is not just a practical decision, but also an ideological one: SCI believes in the values of sustainability and climate justice – and if we want to contribute to a more peaceful planet, we need to give up on industrial animal agriculture and its destructive effects on our planet.
Sustainable travels?: This is also why we ask you to come to this project through more sustainable means of transport rather than flying (e.g. by train or bus), if somehow possible. We will give you more guidance on how you can reach the venue, once you are accepted to the project.
How to apply?
Please fill in this registration form and send it to Laura till 29th of May in order to receive more information about the application. In case of questions please feel free to contact Laura, too.
This project is financed by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme:
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.