Factor

Between July 21 and 29, 2021, in Carei, a youth mobility FACTOR – Facilitation actor is taking place. It is a a course funded by the Erasmus program and organized by the Beyond Association, takes place in Carei.
It is intended for youth workers (trainers, educators, teachers or other people involved in educational activities for young people) its theme being the facilitation of educational activities.
At this time, there are youth workers from Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary, Spain, Portugal and Italy are participating.

22/07/2021
Discovery. Unknown. Adaptation.

What do you think about meeting new people, after a long period disconnected from projects? You remember every knowledge game and try to remember the name of the one next to you. Feel how the connections are already created. – This is how the participants in the Erasmus + FACTOR – Facilitation Actor training course felt: curiosity and enthusiasm.

In the first part of the workshop I travelled through a game. Where would you like to live? Who would you take with you on a trip? All these questions helped us to see a little beyond the names of the participants around us. I discovered thoughts, emotions, principles and fears. All this dressed the atmosphere of the workshop in a warm and friendly light.

Do you think it’s possible to throw away your fears by just writing them down on a small piece of paper and then throwing them away? Yes it’s possible. But how? The key is to join the Erasmus + Training Course Factor program, where you will learn how to identify your fears and then overcome them, learning new skills that improve your personal and professional perspectives.

In the second part of the day, we connected with nature. Where else but Carei would have been so perfect to discover educational methods? In the middle of the park, full of peace and fresh air. Learning River – a technique through which we created a moment of connection and reflection, when participants had the task of remembering and classifying fractions of their lives either as part of formal, non-formal and informal education. After that, we continued to find out what a facilitator is and what he / she does? For this part, everyone was divided into groups and tried to find their own answer. The workshops ended with a session of reflection.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗜 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵, 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 … 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝗯𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. 𝗜 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀. 𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝘆𝗽𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱, 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁, 𝗯𝘂𝘁, 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀, 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝘂𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲. 𝗔𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵, 𝗜 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲, 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗳 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗜 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲, 𝗜 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲. 𝗜𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘂𝗽 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀. 𝗕𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵. – Eduard, RO

For me, the simulation of the shipwreck that brought a place 3 different cultures of the representative an interactive activity, interesting, but at the same time difficult. It involved overcoming internal barriers, finding an effective way to communicate with other communities, and accepting the beliefs of the people we interact with. I learned that when working with people who have different cultures and perspectives, it is necessary to reach a common number. It is important to listen to them in order to understand them, but it is equally necessary not to forget our own person, but to learn not to adapt. – Iulia, RO

Food, music and great company – there isn’t another perfect combination.

24/07/2021

The third day of training began with the long awaited workshop by all participants: Public Speaking. The motto of the session was the following: Public speaking is like a mountain without a peak. What does it mean? It underlines that it is a domain without a finish line. There will always be things to strengthen, to overcome and to discover.

At some point, the participants have been asked what their fears are when it comes to public speaking. Among the most mentioned fears were the following:
– Forgetting the lines
– Not being aware of the body language
– Not being able to maintain the focus of the people
– Not being able to make eye contact with the public

Alongside the fears, we have been searching for  the ingredients that would make a speech memorable, and those ingredients were:

• Humour (or self irony)
• Telling a story
• Picking a good subject

After this session, the participants have been divided into working groups. They had to prepare a speech and then to choose a representative to present it in front of the whole group. After each speech, the participants were giving feedback and pieces of advice related to the  performance that they had just seen. Then, after every round of presentations (3 in total), they had to take into consideration the feedback and apply it into their speech and performance.
It was a challenging session, but the improvement of the participants’ speeches could be seen round after round. Below, we are presenting you a short testimonial from participants that were also in the shoes of a speaker:

I really liked the Public Speaking workshop with Lerio. He is a very good trainer. I was glad that I had the opportunity to practice some of the techniques I learned. From one speech to another, I felt a pretty good evolution. The first time I spoke I was very excited, after which, little by little, I started to relax and convey the message more and more clearly. The third speech, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to work so well for me, because I didn’t organize the ideas well, but the good part was that I introduced another teammate to talk to and that made the difference. Overall it was a very nice experience. I really appreciate that each trainer has other questions to think about, they are not always the same – which makes things more interesting. I learned a lot, a lot of new things (tips and tricks). What impresses me is how we managed, in such a short time, to discover many methods, to put them into practice and to practice them! – Sergiu, RO

The public speaking workshop with Lerio was a revealing experience for me. It helped me a lot to change my perspective on what a speech means, considering it a discussion with loved ones, to enjoy the moment and to overcome my fears about emotions and limitations. I also received some fantastic tools to improve a speech, and their effects were noticed almost instantly, from one half of the workshop to another. Many thanks 🙏 – Alexandra, RO

After the sessions and lunch, we had Cultural Visit – we discovered the castle, the surroundings and connected with the local community. By the end of the day, all the participants got the chance to enjoy Carei.

25/07/2021

The fourth day of training, started with a good vibration!

After breakfast, we went outside enjoying the green space of nature and we received instructions for an amazing activity. We all had to pass through a wall which was made of 24 holes, so that each of us had to pass through a different hole, without using the same hole twice. It was a surprising activity which included group strategy, learning about how to trust each other having a pre-set time for this game, where everyone had his one role as initiator, leader, follower, or the role of helping in accomplishing the activity.

After this activity, we had a debriefing session, where we were divided into four groups for preparing questions regarding the activity. After that, we gathered, and we made a union between the groups, creating only two groups, in order to analyse deeper the questions regarding the activity.

Then, our trainer presented us four categories in which to divide questions: fact, feeling, finding and future questions.

After a coffee break, we chosed two people from the team to represent us and they presented the most relevant questions from the four categories, and we all answered depending on personal feeling that we experienced.

After the lunch break, we started a new interesting subject in the same green environment! This time it was about conflict fear and conflict management.

We were asked questions about conflict and depending on the situation if we agreed or disagreed with the statement, we had to stay on one side or the other side of a line, and argue the decision of choosing the place in which side of the line we stayed.

After a coffee break we had again a great exercise. We were split in three groups, and each group had to arrange the chairs in a different position. Although, at the beginning, there seemed to be different tasks, in the end we realised that each group’s task led to the same goal.

After this, we had another activity. We were divided into four groups and we had to deal with a negotiation regarding a big cause of saving people from a disaster. After analysing deeper the subject, we formed two groups and after debate we concluded that many things require attention and understanding!

At the end we shared our opinion regarding the first four days impressions of the training, doing a very funny game. We draw our hand on a paper, and on every finger we had to write a few words about what we most liked untill now, what we want to point out, what we disliked ,what commitment we take, and also what do we feel like sharing from this experience that we had these days.

We ended the day in a note of celebration. We organised Carei Got Talent and each group had to prepare a moment (dance / music/ etc). It was amazing, because we have created an atmosphere like in the movies. Everyone having fun, laughing, feeling relaxed and enjoying the moment.

26/07/2021

On the fifth day of the project FACTOR (Facilitation Actor), the participants had the chance to learn about creative problem solving, project management and also about how to design an activity.

One of the participants, Anna from Hungary, shared some of her thoughts and perspectives regarding the sessions:

,,To gain all these knowledge Toninho was in charge. He has created an interesting so called step-by-step figure for us and the community was able to fill the missing parts by expressions regarding a project (from having a target group, or settling concrete objectives, through creating a strategy, and planning activities untill evaluation and celebration etc).

Afterwards everyone had the chance to write about the challenges what a facilitator can face before, during and after the project – furthermore we shared our opinions about these as well and had an amazing conversation.

After a nice break we had the Thinking hats activity with Laris, who made us put on imaginary hats on our minds and have a different perspective for a while, which actually created the feeling that we can reach everything (or nothing) with different attitudes.

Finally, there was an amazing show about two fascinating experts (Laris and Lerio), who shared their experience about facilitating to help the team in understanding the idea about their own workshops.

The afternoon was very productive – we have designed workshops in small groups and had a wonderful spare time on the other hand. (The keyword for me is: together ),,

Another participant, Marta from Italy, said about the day that:

,,Yesterday was a very important day. We had to put in practice what we have done ’till now, draw out our creativity and collaboration to realize a captivating workshop. I was a bit worried at first, but when my team-mates and I started to bring out our ideas, I was thrilled,,

27/07/2021

The sixth day was one of the fullest days. Every team got the chance to facilitate, to be on the other side of the stage. This experience gives you perspectives. Sometimes, it is not only about WHAT you are going to say, but HOW you are going to say.

And our participants had this opportunity – to exercise their abilities of delivering a speech and involve the public into the facilitation process. Below, two of our participants shared their thoughts:

Boyana, Bulgaria: Today we reached the conclusion of our training. The trainers gave us what they had throughout the week and we had the complicated task to implement it all by creating a new Workshop.

All that sounded compelling on paper, but I never expected the workshops to be so unique. Every one of them stood out with the point they were trying to make and the various ways they used to get there. It was a roller-coaster of activities and debriefings, but the facilitators in training managed to keep it a smooth feel-good ride for everybody.

Ilyass, Italy: We are here! We are in Carei, a small town with a big heart. 24 guys and 3 trainers get together, ready to experience something unique and unexpected. FACTOR! what a nice name! We learn to become facilitators from the best facilitators I’ve ever met. I feel lucky, happy and finally useful after a year of pandemic. CAREI GOT TALENT, we said but the truth is that in this small and beautiful place we are making history, something that will always remain written, which will remain forever in our hearts. I feel important, happy because I’m part of a group that is committed to overcoming its limits by understanding its fears. Because it is really true that “the limits as the fears are just illusions”

After all the sessions have been delivered by the facilitation teams, they had a surprise party – the Rekettye Kulturalis Egyesulet, respectively ,,Ansamblul Cetera’’ organised a spectacle for our participants. There have been both Romanian and Hungarian traditional dances, and the public had the chance to try and learn the steps.

Boyanna, Bulgaria: At the end of the day we were surprised by a cultural visit that came to visit us. I couldn’t believe so many people and resources were gathered here in our lovely stables just so our stay in Carei becomes memorable. I haven’t had that much fun while also gaining new knowledge in forever, so this day will stay with me for a long time.

It was a day from which all of us collected memories that will stay forever in our hearts and minds.