Section 9
Peer educators
training days
The training for peer educators is
based on what they need to do for the planned projects
and to provide stimulation for actually carrying out
activities as means in the fight against racism, xenophobia,
anti-Semitism and intolerance. Small group discussions
and brain-storm sessions prior to the days will reveal
the knowledge and skills they already have and help
them to plan the training days.
The training often focuses on topics
such as:
You as the peer educator
• Why am I involved in
racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance
activities?
• Where do I stand?
• What are my support
systems?
Designing the programme
• Why include some topics
and not others?
• What knowledge is needed?
• Which techniques will
I choose and use?
You and the group
• How will I deal with
unexpected situations?
• How do I work with the
group?
• How people behave in
groups?
Planning and evaluation
• What are the expectations
of the people involved in the project?
• What makes a good working
environment?
• When to organise it?
Training days, usually from morning
to evening (10.00 am to 10.00 pm) on a Saturday or
Sunday have the advantage of allowing time to work
closely with a small group over a longer period of
time. These offer better opportunities to get to know
people, for finding out what other people really think,
discussing problems and getting different opinions
of how to handle the problems etc.
The responsibility for planning and running these
days can be divided between the peer educators and
the peer coach. Three for each day is a good number.
Responsibilities should be clearly define by being
involved in planning the group will get variety and
some implicit training in organisational skills.
The content of the training days may of course
be varied enormously. It is important that the topic
is one which the group is interested in. That it is
relevant for the planned peer education project in
the area of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and
intolerance if they are to be fully involved in the
training days.
There are many resource books around from which
ideas can be chosen for activities which are fun and
will get a group thinking and discussing. With a little
imagination many of these can be adopted to suit the
theme. The most important thing is to make a start
this depends a great deal on the group and the peer
coaches. Introducing a range of stimulus materials
such as cartoons, video, poster set, articles from
newspapers, role plays are good ways of starting and
creating an atmosphere in which discussion is possible.
The following activities can be used as a stimulus
for discussions, most of them have been tried and
tested in a variety of settings and with different
groups. The ideal group size for such activities is,
depending on the number of trainers involved, 10 -
30 persons. They may need to be adapted a little for
the particular age group.
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