Oratory for the Leadership Adventure Erasmus Project

Project Title

Oratory for the Leadership Adventure

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The Oratory for Leadership Adventure Project , OLA, has been a twelve-month strategic partnership in the field of youth that aims to reinforce the European priority of social inclusion and to strengthen of youth leadership and empowerment. To this end, an innovative methodology based on the technique of Oratory will be developed. Work will be carried out in two ways, on the one hand with youth workers and on the other with young people . The participating countries in the consortium are Spain, Poland, Croatia and Slovenia.

Three specific objectives have been established:
– To promote the leadership and empowerment of young people through the innovative methodology of public speaking.
– To promote gender equality and non-discrimination through the development of competences and skills of young people in pre-adolescent stage.
– To train youth workers by developing effective methods that prevent discrimination and promote the critical spirit of young people.

The OLA Project has managed to bring together and train more than 70 young people from 4 European countries, 50% of whom are from vulnerable backgrounds, on issues of equality, violence, discrimination and leadership. Also 14 youth workers have received training in the methodology of public speaking, followed in the project.

To be able to carry out these results, the following activities are carried out:

1.- 2 Transnational meetings – Kick-off meeting and Final meeting, to coordinate and evaluate the project

2.- Training of trainers in public speaking
It was held over four days, at the Senara Foundation headquarters in Madrid, from 14 to 17 May 2020. The purpose was to train 2 members from each institution of the OLA project in the methodology followed throughout the year. These trainers, two from each institution, have been selected by each organization. It was established that all those coming to the training of trainers should have experience in the field of youth They should also have worked with vulnerable groups in order to be able to adapt to the training difficulties that may arise. None of the participants had received specific training in public speaking, except in the case of Senara Foundation, where the participants did have training and previous experience in public speaking.
The sessions simulated the four public speaking workshops that were to be given to the young people. In addition during 4 hours the improvisation workshop was given, teaching to the assistants to know how to react in different situations in a fast and effective way, favoring the improvement in the communicative abilities of all the participants.

3.- Replication of Training to other trainers: it was carried out from the end of the previous activity until the beginning of the workshops for the young participants of the OLA project.

4.- four sessions of public speaking workshops for young people
The activity is publicized in each country, the young people interested are interviewed, and the registration is made. It is taken into account that half of the participants must belong to groups at risk of exclusion.
The training workshops begin. All the countries have had three speech sessions, during the months of June, July and August
Once the theoretical and practical speech sessions were over, most of the participants chose to prepare a topic with their partner on equality, violence, discrimination or leadership, in order to participate in a national contest. The 10 best exhibitions (in the case of Slovenia 5), would be awarded with a 5 days exchange in Warsaw (Poland), where they would have the opportunity to represent their exercises in English, in front of an international audience.

5.- Youth mobility in Poland
From 3 to 7 September, 35 students (accompanied by 7 monitors), carried out an international youth exchange in Warsaw (Poland). During these five days, the participants got to know the cities of Warsaw and Croatia, visited different museums, had two conferences on leadership and knowledge of the country and finally during two days they made presentations in English, of the speech topics they had presented in the competitions of their countries. All this was combined with activities.
After the evaluation made by the young people, where they had a remarkable high, it was seen the resounding success of the oratory methodology as a means of learning.

6.- Documentation produced throughout the project: Website; analysis of equality, violence, discrimination and leadership; public speaking decalogue; good practice guide; audiovisual documentation. All this material can be found on the results platform and on the project’s website.
All the partners are committed to giving continuity to this project, with the same method and with other topics of interest.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 51762 Eur

Project Coordinator

FUNDACION SENARA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• STOWARZYSZENIE KRZEWIENIA EDUKACJII KULTURY DZIESIATKA
• FUNDACIJA SURSUM DRUSTVO ZA IZOBRAZEVANJE IN KULTURO
• Kulturni centar Harmica