Second meeting in person, third overall, is behind us. This time, we met across the English Channel, in Manchester. Classic english weather welcomed us with open arms, but nothing that could make us enjoy this meeting less.
Day One
First day, we started with opening program at Brookland Hockey Club, where we had all of our sessions this day.
After the kickoff we went through IO2 Grassroot Programme prepared by Cameron, Andrea, Tom, Chloe and Hannah. IO2 should consist from four main pillars which are: communication, leadership, governance and project management, at this time. Each of them will have its own workshop (1-2 hour long) during which youth leaders will learn networking tips, public speaking, icebreakers, leadership – what makes a good leader, differences between leaders, style – people management, governance and project management. We also tried some of the icebreakers presented and collected valuable feedback from youth leaders about each topic in IO2.
With IO2 presented, we tried local cuisine in a near restaurant. Of course, fish and chips were present as well.
In the afternoon we continued with IO3, where Thomas took the stage and presented what he and Bartel have done from the last meeting in Amsterdam. This third IO is well connected to previous one and starts putting acquired knowledge to use by creating regional projects with involved youth leaders. However, each of the leaders have to meet most of the requirements of this part, for example (rest is in the attached presentation):
- strong interest in community action
- willingnes to learn and grow
- experience related to AIYL IO3
- migth seem absurd at first, but for successful participation, we need youth leaders to be well prepared beforehand
- commitment and ability to complete the course (and its required tasks)
- proficiency in English
- 18 – 30 years old
- passion for given sport
- …
In a nutshell, a young change maker that makes things happen.
All of the participants will be carefully picked according to given criterias. After the intake, youth leaders will take part in 18 months long program with three in person events and three online ones, during which they will develop their regional projects with an emphasis on value driven project and leadership development.
Day two
After a small recapitulation of the first day in the morning, we had block “Leadership in time of crisis”, where we called with Iryna from Ukrainian Hockey Federation and discussed current situation in Ukraine, how we can help and spread word amongst our peers. It was eye opening and it reminded us that all of our “modern world standards” and mainly the freedom is not certain and we have to still fight for it.
With that in mind and small break, we moved on to piloting IO2 as described the day before. After, we discussed IO4 (Career pathways) status and had lunch.
Last but not least, we discussed plan for upcomming months before our next meet, which will be held in Cardiff.
