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Navigate your inner compass II: a journey to explore the connection between sexuality and identity
Start date: Dec 31, 2015, End date: May 30, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The training course Navigate your inner compass II: a journey to explore the connection between sexuality and identity took place in youth center Villa Elba, in the town of Kokkola in Finland between the 1/ 4-8/ 4-2016. The training course brought together 23 participants from Sweden, Malta, Finland, Slovakia, The UK, Czech Republic, Belgium, Italy, Estonia, Greece and Austria. The two trainers were from Sweden and Belgium and two support persons from Villa Elba in Finland joined to course. The profile of the participants were youth workers from Ngo´s and public bodies who are involved in sexuality/relationships issues. The training course is the developed further from the first edition of the training course Navigate your inner compass that was implemented in Munkviken, Sweden between the 3/ 4-10/ 4-2015. This TC is started with the idea that prevention of sexuality is so much more than dry information and facts. Sexuality and the human body are essential for young people and play an important role in the learning process of sexuality. Questions and issues regarding sexuality and relationships are essentially a question of identity. With this training course we extended the subject of sexuality beyond information and widen the perspective of the matter and connected sexuality to identity and discover values and norms in connection to sexuality on a societal, European, national and personal level. Further youth workers can play an important role in establishing a context and making life comprehensible for young people. The policies and praciticies of sexual pedagogy varies across Europe. This training course answered the need among youth workers to explore how sexuality is connected to identity and at the same time learn tools, methods and approaches in connection to sexuality which can be transferred into youth work practicies. The second edition of Navigate your Inner Compass is more focussed on the concept of the body. We felt there was a need to go back to the base of that what we see and feel every day in our life: our own body. How much are we still related to our body? And how much does it limit us? What is the relationship between body and mind in a sexual context? We wanted to respond this need by a full day about the body with many shorter exercise and one big task. The overall aim The overall aim of the TC was to increase awareness among youth workers of the inner process and inner compass from a holistic approach (body, mind and heart) in connection to sexuality and identity, and to develop the capacity in supporting young people to explore this. During the TC this aim also came clearly out, which the participants confirmed. Objectives: -Discover which norms we have in connection to sexuality and identity - Investigate how society and myself sees sexuality and how it influence young people - Raise awareness of your own identity and your body in general and resources - Learn how to express sexuality in words/communication and attitude - Explore how sexuality is seen in different European cultures - Share knowledge and experience within the group about methods and tools for sexual education for young people. All the photos, exercises and all the materials, handouts, pictures, movies, tools, useful links from the training course was collected on a google drive and shared among the participants. They were stimulated to spread their learning process in their own practise and share it with the other participants and with the colleagues from their own organisation and community. This direct learning process reveal in the so-called ‘good action’. A ‘good action’ is realistic, concrete action that they could achieve within a month after the end of the training course. By sending reminders the trainers encourage them to make new initiatives in connection to the topic of the training course within their organisation or the young people they work with. The participants were inspired to spread the results with their target groups : youngsters. Through this, the project result was dissememinated. The long term impact of the training course is that back home the participants are better prepared for questions from youngsters about sexuality/relationships. The participants are more aware of their role and identity as a youth worker. As a result and impact of this training course, the participants will give more of themselves in their consults so the youngsters have the feeling they receive more than only concrete information. Also participating organisations have an increased number of methods, theory and experiences about this topic since the participants have spread their experience within their organisations.
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