This blog post is written by Maria Kondrup
Yosr and I attended a “Local Young Voices” training where we did two workshops: one on SDGs and one on Dialogue & Debate.
For those of you who don’t know what SDGs are, I’l give you a small introduction: The Sustainable Development Goals (aka. SDGs aka. Global Goals) are created by the UN as a plan to tackle different issues related to poverty, climate change, democracy and inequality by 2030. With 193 countries signing it’s a worldwide plan and one of the most ambitious ones ever made. A lot of countries and organisations are working with the goals but in order to reach them we all individually have to pitch in and change the way we go about in the life.
Below you can watch a video giving a brief introductions to some of the goals
In the SDG workshop we had a climate and an equality focus discussing problems and solutions with the participants. We talked about simple actions you can do on an everyday basis to contribute to reaching the SDGs. It was really interesting to hear what issues the teenagers thought were the most important and how they should be solved – something they didn’t always agree on.
With the Dialogue & Debate workshop Yosr and I wanted to give the participants a new perspective on how we engage with and talk to each other. We talked with them about thinking before answering, asking questions and creating safe space for everyone to share and raise their voice. We walked them through the different nature of dialogue and debate, how they can build up a well-structured argument and how to give constructive and positive framed feedback by looking at peoples potential instead of criticizing them for things they did wrong. We also discussed the importance of body language and passion when talking, emphasising that the way we deliver a message is more important than which fancy words we use.
