JEF Europe is looking for 1 senior and 1 junior non-formal education trainer to facilitate a series of training activities supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. These training activities are carried out in the framework of the REVIVE project, which aims at enhancing the situation of youth civic spaces in Europe through building capacities of young people and promoting the new Council of Europe Recommendation on protecting youth civil society and young people.

You can find more information about the project, the details of the training sessions and the application form link below.

About REVIVE

Working to support healthy and resilient democracies is a core part of the work of JEF Europe. In particular, conceived in the context of JEF’s Democracy under Pressure (DuP) campaigns, the REVIVE project will respond to the first priority of the Council of Europe Youth Sector for 2022-25, ‘Revitalising pluralistic democracies’. It will combine actions that focus on supporting young people’s participation in political life, raising awareness about the shrinking of youth civic spaces and supporting youth participation in strengthening effective, accountable and inclusive democratic institutions.

While recognising the overall declining trend in Europe, this project is specifically designed to target European countries where significant civic space issues have been reported in recent years. More concretely, the political developments in Central and Eastern Europe (especially in Hungary and Poland) have led to significant issues with civic space. Therefore, the opening international capacity building seminar will take place in Hungary, and will be followed by other activities in other Central Eastern European Countries (Poland) and in the Western Balkans (Albania).

One of the objectives of the project, which this call covers, is to equip young people with the competences to act for safeguarding civic spaces especially in countries where youth civic spaces are particularly under pressure.

The lasting impact of the project would be that young people will be empowered with sustainable tools and skills to act as supporters and defenders of youth civic spaces all over Europe, by employing the Council of Europe Recommendation on protecting youth civil society as a foundational guideline.

About the trainings

The trainers joining this call will guide the participants through understanding the Council of Europe Recommendation on Protecting Youth Civil Society and Young People and develop the young participants’ skills to implement it. Youth activists from at least 7 CoE countries will take part in this training, and will be selected through an open call. This activity will be the first regional seminar of the project on the topic of safeguarding youth civic spaces, after delivering the European seminar in Budapest at the beginning of April 2023.

This regional training will include the following steps:

• Online preparation meetings that will bring together the trainers and the members of JEF Europe’s Secretariat. This session will take place prior to the beginning of the training and will be necessary to make decisions about the methods of training which will be employed.
• The training event, which will take place in Lublin (Poland), with an arrival date set for May 26^th, 2023 and departure date set for June 1^st, 2023 for a total stay of 7 During this period, the non-formal education trainers will deliver sessions for five working days about a variety of topics – including democratic activism in Europe, building safe civic spaces and countering their disappearance, enhancing youth participation in political processes – by using the previously approved methodologies. The remaining two days will be dedicated to travel.

Selection criteria for trainers

• Experience in implementing and facilitating activities using non-formal methodologies.
• At least one of the trainers has to be from Poland or at least from the Central-Eastern European region, and they both should be specialized in the geopolitical situation from Central and Eastern Europe.
• Ability to contribute to work in an intercultural team.
• Fluent in both spoken and written English.
• Expertise in, or knowledge of, one or more of the following areas:
  • The basics of democratic activism in Europe;
  • Network building;
  • Creating an enabling and safe environment for a sustainable youth civil society;
  • Strengthening youth participation in democratic life;
  • Ensuring young people’s access to rights;
  • Citizen engagement for democracy;
  • Countering shrinking civic space with active citizenship;
  • The use of CoE instruments and resources in democratic activism;
  • Liaising with national, regional and local authorities for democratic activism.
• Priority in the recruitment will be given to the current members of JEF Europe and the European Youth Forum members, but non-members are highly encouraged to apply to this call.

Responsibilities of the trainer

• Get familiar with the project.
• Attend the online preparation meetings.
• Prepare session outlines well in advance, facilitate sessions and deliver trainings using non-formal education techniques in person in Lublin, Poland during the indicated time period (May 26^th to June 1^st).
• Conduct an evaluation with the coordinator during the training and a final evaluation after the event.
• Prepare a final report 15 days after the training at the latest.

Contract conditions

• The trainer fee for the junior trainer is €420 in total. (5 days for delivering the trainings and 2 days for preparation).
• The trainer fee for the senior trainer is €700 in total. (5 days for delivering the trainings and 2 days for preparation).
• The preparation meetings will take place online (date to be confirmed, it will be decided according to the trainers’ availability).
• The training will take place in-person in Lublin, Poland and will last for 5 days, plus two days of traveling, from May 26^th to June 1^st.
• Online platform access and tools will be provided by the organisers if needed.
• Accommodation, food and travel costs will be covered for the in-person events.
• The trainer fee will be paid after the completion of the service and upon the presentation of an invoice by the trainer.

How to apply?

Please apply by completing the application webform: APPLICATION FORM

The deadline to apply is  April 16^th, 2023 at 23:59 CET. If you have any questions, feel free to send an email to michela.procoli@jef.eu