Abstract
An innovative blended learning non-formal programme was launched in 2018-2019 for professionals and volunteers, who were encouraged to develop their own social competences in order to work directly as community animators with vulnerable groups and promote social inclusion in Greece. The intervention, which lay within an ongoing experimental European project, COMANITY, was built upon the challenges emerged from harsh economic restraints, rising demand, restricted supply and diminishing resources in our society. Within this context, youth services are urged to increase their efficiency and effectiveness, encourage civil society to fill the gaps in service provision left by ‘mainstream’ supply and try to support young people to ‘help their peers’ by getting more of them to volunteer. Community Animator’s non-formal blended learning training programme was carried out online programme delivered to 109 participants out of 947 who applied and through an experiential face to face workshop that was delivered to 14 unemployed women aiming to raise awareness and critical understanding of the concepts of democracy, equality, advocacy, human rights and social cohesion. Peer learning methods and an action research methodology were employed in order to enhance young participants to act as agents for change and develop a holding environment for those youth at risk to be marginalized. By working on their own capacities and motives, personal attitudes and possible dysfunctional assumptions, young participants actively shared and confronted critically their views and concerns, realized the impact of space and time on their civic engagement and organized themselves in social action. The present study discusses the profile and satisfaction level of participants in the online digital programme and the profile and satisfaction level of participants on the blended learning experiential programme. The data suggests that blended programmes are necessary for developing action research skills and enhancing the role of community animators, even though online programmes on their own can also assist in raising awareness about the role of community animators.
Highlights
Educational institutions, social care and mental health services throughout Europe are lately experiencing demand to provide support for an increasing number of people when seeking for new pathways to adapt into the current priorities
The Blended Learning Experiential Training Programme for developing an Action Research Experiment, to deploy the acquired skills and promote critical thinking within a specific methodological approach in the day-to-day work of the Community http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 01/02/2022 11:52:48 |
In response to the outstanding demand by the community, a decision was taken to open up an online training programme only for an extra 100 participants, to deliver with minimum requirements, as a blended learning experiential programme needed more time and commitment by trainers and participants that might affect any issues monitored during this piloting phase of the project
Summary
Educational institutions, social care and mental health services throughout Europe are lately experiencing demand to provide support for an increasing number of people when seeking for new pathways to adapt into the current priorities. These people are presented with increasingly more complex issues, shaped by rising youth unemployment, increased educational drop-out rates, the demise of ‘community’ and its replacement by precarious online relationships; loss of faith in mainstream institutions and a large increase in the influx of young migrants into EU countries. Poverty rates are higher for young people than for the overall population and involuntary part-time work or protracted temporary positions expose this generation to a risk of long-term poverty. The third sector organisations struggle to attract volunteers in those areas where service demand is highest – in ‘disadvantaged’ communities
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