“Follow the Yellow Brick Road” takes its name from the yellow brick road of “The Wizard of Oz”.

We chose this name because it is perfectly related to the topic of change, journey and transformation and that’s what the training course is gonna be about. The main topic of the course will be change and learning in relation to the problem of youth unemployment.

The main aim of this course is to create awareness of the reality which surrounds us, especially for what it concerns the work field. We can summarize the objectives in the following points:

• To better understand the issue of youth unemployment and learn how to use the opportunities of the Youth in Action programme and non formal education as a tool to facilitate the entrance of the young people into the work field;
• To promote active citizenship, participation of young people and responsibility to make change in the society and community;
• To develop the ability of self-reflection and self-awareness of the participants (which are useful tools of self growth) through daily sharing and the practise of reflection and coaching groups.
• To create a social experience of community through sharing work and life spaces, domestic work and practical tasks related to the community life;

What is BACKPACK JOURNALISM?

The aim of Backpack Journalism is to raise media literacy of young people through their active participation as non-professional journalists. The idea of the methodology is to go to different places with basic journalistic equipment and to explore the local environment. Participants take all the equipment with them in their backpacks. The method can be used to motivate and train young people to become citizen journalists and critical media users. It also includes a rich learning dimension, not only in the media literacy context but also in terms of intercultural learning, project management, team work and responsible citizenship.

Hosted by PETRKLIC HELP – platform for creativity (www.petrklichelp.cz/english)

Training objectives:

• to introduce the methodology of Backpack Journalism (BPJ) and see examples of previous projects and good practice
• to explore and identify how BPJ can be used as a tool for working with disadvantaged young people
• to discuss and share how BPJ can increase employability of young people through developing skills such as media literacy, communication skills, responsibility, team work and sense of initiative
• to inspire participants to include BPJ or elements of BPJ in their organizations and their youth work
• to develop partnership between organizations which wish to develop BPJ projects in future
• to promote active citizenship, participation of young people and responsibility to make change in the society and community

The training course will take place in the region of the Beskydy mountains, in the mountain hotel “Ameryka” – http://www.hotelameryka.cz/en/.

The closest biggest city is Ostrava – with connections and possibilities to fly to either to Prague in the Czech Republic, or Vienna in Austria or Katowice and Krakow in Poland. We will inform the selected participants about flights and how to get to the venue in detail later.