‘Advocacy in Action: Safeguarding a sustainable and peaceful future’ was a training course for youth representatives, organised as a study session in the European Youth Centre of Strasbourg. It took place from Sunday 01 September to Saturday 07 September 2024 (travel days included).
Objectives
​The aim of this study session was to continue the work of DBYN volunteers in representation and continue building capacity for human rights advocacy, especially in the field of sustainability and peace-building.
The objectives are as follow:

1. To strengthen the human rights advocacy potential of local volunteers and take on future engagements as youth representatives.
2. To develop a deeper understanding of Human Rights based approach, peacebuilding and sustainability.
3. To develop participants' competences necessary for successful Human Rights advocacy at all levels, by giving young people information, know-how and practical tools to advocate and participate successfully in social change and influence decisions.
4. To create Human Rights advocacy campaigns in the field of sustainability and peace-building, on a local or international level to create spaces for dialogue.
5. Encourage them to continue the institutionalisation of DBYN’s representation work on different levels.

“Mental Health in Youth Work” was an entry-level training course, aimed at youth workers between 18-30 years old. The main aim of the training course was to improve the participants’ skills and develop ways in which they can support young people in improving their mental health.
The training course took place from the 1st to the 7th April 2023 in Bollington (UK).
Objectives
The main aim of the training course was to have youth workers get a better understanding of mental health.
The main objectives of this training course were

• to discover different tactics to improve or stabilise mental health like relaxation exercises, mindfulness, yoga or focus on healthy food
• to have the youth workers develop knowledge, skills and competences to work with children and young people who are struggling with their mental health.
• to support our youth workers with good practices and specific activities that can be learned from trainers and other participants, originating in their own organisations.
• to pass on the knowledge and guidelines we have in our safeguarding policy.
• to act as multipliers within youth organisations

"Yout(h)echnology" was a 5-day training course on project management and technology, targeting youth workers and organised by Don Bosco Youth-Net ivzw with the financial support of Erasmus+ through JINT and has been supported by ‘Aktionszentrum Benediktbeuern’ for the hosting. It aimed to develop the competences of the participants in social media and the use of technology for them to create their own projects or to develop projects in their local youth organisations.
It took place from the 01st to the 07th May 2023 in Benediktbeuern, Germany.

DBYN's trainers developed a training manual including all session outlines. ​You can read the manual online, or download it by clicking on the button.

The edition 2023 of the "European Summer School of Animators - New Animation" was a 5-day training course on intercultural learning and animation, aiming at introducing the participants to a first intercultural learning activity and to be able to provide activities for an intercultural group of participants.
It took place from the 19th to the 25th March 2023, in Rome, Italy.
DBYN's trainers developed a training manual including all session outlines.
​You can read the manual online, or download it by clicking on the button.

A high level expert meeting was convened on 31 May and 1 June 2017 in Vienna by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in response to the urgent need to more effectively communicate, at every level, the fact that rights and freedoms belong to all. There is now widespread understanding that misdirected public opinion has the potential to undermine even the most firmly established institutions and instruments, and that therefore many human rights organisations are paying the price for leaving public attitudes largely unattended.
 
In order to communicate well with the public, institutions need to communicate unlike institutions. They must acquire qualities of speed, agility, flexibility, imagination and novelty, and experiment boldly with new approaches, especially in the rapidly evolving sphere of social media. To this end, the meeting sought to bring together an unusually wide range of disciplines and professions: journalists from both traditional and new media, including data journalists, satirists, human rights educators, NGO communications experts, visual and infographic designers, marketers and advertisers, anthropologists, epistemologists, socio-linguists and neuroscientists, as well as experts in political communication, intercultural education, data analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis.
 
The following report is a distillation of conclusions (not formally adopted) and views, based on two days of presentations and lively debate, and combined with written and recorded contributions subsequently submitted by several experts unable to attend in person.
 
The meeting was conducted under Chatham House rules, meaning that remarks are cited here without attribution, and none of the many sources or examples of implemented strategies suggested in footnotes or textboxes are officially endorsed by  FRA; they are intended merely as signposts towards key developments in relevant  academic and professional disciplines. These signposts are, however, some of the most useful and practical products of the meeting.
 
While the meeting report we are sending you now is as such final, we nevertheless invite you to share your eventual feedback or comments on it or anything else you would like to share with us on the wider issue of effectively communicating human rights. This will allow us to incorporate your views into any future follow up of the meeting, including in any possible future related FRA publications.
 
The report  is also available on the FRA website via this link. http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2017-communicating-rights-expert-meeting-report_en.pdf
​

The Building Bridges Toolkit is a web platform, designed to share the know-how on voluntary projects involving asylum seekers and refugees as well as raising awareness on forced migration in general. We want to inspire you with our case studies of successful projects on the topic. We also want to support you in starting similar initiatives by providing you with a list of practical guidelines on how to organize such projects and specific methods you can use inside them.  

The creation of this online toolkit has been driven by the ever bigger need of the international SCI network to exchange best practices on projects with refugees and asylum seekers. The project is coordinated by SCI Switzerland with the support of Utilapu Hungary. Its existence wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the Mercator Foundation Switzerland and the active contribution of Building Bridges working group and a number of SCI branches.
​
The Building Bridges Toolkit is an ongoing project. We welcome you to send us your best practices in the field and inspire others to continue the work towards peace and intercultural understanding.

Civil Service International founded by Pierre Cérésole, a Swiss engineer who established a peace and humanitarian movement in the aftermath of World War I and laid down the foundations of SCI in 1920. Cornerstone in their work are international work camps for volunteers. More info: http://www.sci.ngo​.