The grantees from the second call for proposals in Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles met on the 14th and 21st of February for their first two capacity-building workshops. After the launch seminar in January, these workshops and the upcoming ones aim not only to further strengthen the cohesion of the group, but also to provide a stimulating space for discussion and reflection on Mindchangers’ main topics: youth engagement, the SDGs, climate change, and migrations.
The first capacity-building workshop took place at the Ministry and focused on youth engagement as a gradual and a diverse process. In the morning, the grantees had the opportunity to explore the engagement of their young participants through the 6 levels of the Pyramid of Engagement developed by the DEAR programme. Some grantees from the first call for proposals were also invited to introduce their projects in the light of the Pyramid and its various levels of engagement, to bring food for thought to the new grantees. The afternoon was designed as a group activity for the grantees to share their experience and tools with one another and foster peer review: each of them presented a practice or a tool to support young people’s active engagement and about which the other group members could either ask for more details, suggest improvements, highlight risks or show their interest using cards provided by the facilitators. Throughout the day’s activities, the grantees showed a keen interest in listening to and exchanging with each other, while discovering new ways of engaging young people on climate change and migrations.
As some of the participating grantees said, those first two capacity-building workshops came at the perfect moment to take a step back from all the ongoing projects and refocus on essential questions: how to actively and sustainably engage youth? How to communicate efficiently about a project for its participants to shift from awareness to mobilisation?
Since the start of Mindchangers’ implementation in Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, the capacity-building workshops have always been very much appreciated by the grantees, and not only because of the delicious and sustainable lunches that are offered on those occasions – as a way to put the Mindchangers’ objectives into practice! During those meetings, grantees foster their skills and nurture their thoughts. They can share their questions and difficulties, develop their networking, and finally, see the Mindchangers’ community take shape and experience being part of it.
