YouthBank Turkey Newsletter(August - November 2012)

7/30/2019 YouthBank Turkey Newsletter(August - November 2012)

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Between 9th and 15th of August YouthBank mem-bers from all locations in Turkey participated in thedomestic workshops - YouthBank Camp in Pamucak.During one-week event the young people hadchance to meet again their project counterparts fromdierent regions in Turkey, participate in the work-shops on civic activism, team work and project man-agement, share experience and ideas on the project.

The YouthBank volunteers were working hard sincethe introductory training in January. A lot of thingswere going on around, some of the volunteers arestudents, some of them work, all of them were some-times having hard times trying to combine theirresponsibilities with the voluntary work in their local

Painted Hands

Ksa Dalga GenBank (Istanbul, Eyup district) hasimplemented two of its projects. The rst one wassubmitted by zlem, Eda and Kbra who live in theAlibeyky neighborhood of Eyup. To protect the treesand to make the whole area more colorful and joyful

joined the teams and were looking for the informa-tion and theguidelines. During the camp all thosequestions that arose were answered. Thanks to theSeluk Municipality who support the event, themembers of YouthBank teams from all over theTurkey spend one week in the youth camp facility inPamucak. Between 9 and 15 of August 17 membersof the YouthBank committees at least two partici-

pants from every location gathered together inPamucak. Designing the program was challenging to give the necessary and useful information withoutmaking the program overloaded and leave the spacefor interactions and networking. The new membersof the teams who joined the project in the meantimereceived the orientation that covers such topics ascivil society, youth, youth work, Toplum Gonul-luleri and the concept of YouthBank. Later on,together with more experienced participants we hada look at project circle and focused on developing the

skills that useful in work on the YouthBank teams team work, communication and feedback. How toexplain the YouthBank project to the people? How toengage the young people living in the neighbor-hood? We did some works on that as well to get readyfor the second grant circle. The YB teams spent sometime on preparing the plan and calendar for the next5 months of the project. The participants left thecamp motivated and ready to carry on the project.

The six YouthBank teams located in Istanbul, Samsun, Seluk, Arhavi and Batman have already implementedsome interesting projects that have engaged their peers and local communities.

they proposed building the little fences around thetrees in Osmanl Park. On the 2nd of September theproject team together with the YouthBank gatheredin the park to implement the project together. Fewdays before starting, the YouthBank teams obtainedthe permission from the local municipality. Group of15 young people painting worked together all daybuilding the fences and them, receiving also helpfrom passers-by. For the project team and manyyoung people who took part in the works it was therst social responsibility project they participated in.

Evaluation and Networking Workshops - YouthBank Camp

Young Ideas and Creativity YouthBank Teams and Their ProjectsYou

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Turkey

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YouthBank teams. By the timethe teams selected the projectsthat will receive the grants themotivation of the teamsdecreased a little bit. The new

questions and concernsappeared and need to beanswered; the new YouthBankers


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Second implemented project was more dicult but also more rewarding. Project was brought to the YB by the

Boyal Eller grati team (Painted hands), the grati group created by young people that has already gained

recognition of the local municipalities and has decorated with grati many public places. This time the group

wanted to paint together with children grati inside of orphanage in Eyup. The orphanage authoritieswelcomed the idea and prepared the wall for painting grati. Two-day project was implemented on 22 and 23

of September. Because of the delicacy of the situation and protection of the identity of the children, only YB

members and project teams participated in the event. Over 50 children (age range 7 12) living in the orphan-

age, most of them staying there because of very bad economical condition of their families, painted the colorful

grati on the wall surrounding the inside garden. The activity got the appreciation from the carers who joined

the children. Everybody had a chance to use the spray paint, paint the wall and got some useful tips from young

grati artists. Creating the painting together, having an opportunity to redecorate the space they live in gave the

children a lot of joy.

Another project aiming at engaging young

disabled people and creating the space to social-

ize with peers started recently. The young people

together participate in cotton thread jewellery

workshops organized in the Batman Youth and

Culture Center. Apart from learning, staying

together and making bracelets and necklaces

from cotton thread very popular among youngpeople, young people become more emphatic

and aware of the problems of disabled young

people. Workshops have started on 13th of

November and take place twice a week.

Engage and Include!

YouthBank team in Batman usually chooses the

projects that engage and support the members of

the local community, in poor economic condition,young people with disabilities. In September

team has implemented the project in cooperation

with Yeiltepe ATOM (Yeiltepe Multifunctional

Community Center). The arts and crafts work-

shops were organized between 2 and 7 Septem-

ber for the young women beneting from the

ATOM services. The travel expenses of the

professional trainers and artists who facilitated

workshops were covered from the YB grant. The

prepared arts and crafts were presented and put

on sale during the charity sale on 8th of Septem-ber. The incomes gained from the sale were spent

to support the families in poor economic condi-

tions and to cover the school expenses of one

young woman.


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Lets Dance

Seluk YouthBank (Seluk/Izmir) is currentlyimplementing two sustainable projects. Having

convenient oce which becamethe youth center,

place of meeting for young people from Selcuk, the

YB team supported two long-term projects: English

Conversation Club and Latin Dance Workshops.

The idea of the rst project was presented to the

YB team by Burak Turfan. What is the biggest

diculty for the young people studying English is

speaking? I understand but I cant speak its one of

the most common complain. Burak proposed

organizing speaking club. Facilitated by the pro-cient English speaker, 2-hour English workshops

take place once a week. Only 7 people participated

in the rst workshops but later this number was

growing and currently around 20 young people

(age range from 15 to 25) participate in the activity.

The Latin dance project was designed by SerdarDurmuolu. Although there is quite signicant groupof young people interested in Latin dances there is no

dance school or even dance course in Selcuk. The danceteacher was found and at the moment, every Saturdayyouth from Selcuk can participate in the dance work-shops.

enter university. Institute for Arranging theFuture is coaching program prepared by theteams of 3 young sociology graduates. During

the ve-week long workshops the topics such asconcentration techniques, setting the goals andmotivation were discussed. Every week theparticipants had two meetings, workshops withwhole group and face to face consultation withthe coach. The project comes to the end at thebeginning of December with the closing eventorganized to celebrate the participants achieve-ments. The project gained recognition from thelocal municipalities and the future cooperationand implementation of the project in dierent

locations is discussed.Another eld in which the Pink House YB

supports the young people is art. The group ofyoung people interested in ImprovisationTheater decided to apply for the funding from YB

Arrange Your Future!

Pink House YouthBank fromIstanbuls Kavacik district decidedto support young people willing to

to learn more about the concept and developtheir own play. The group planned to watch 4dierent improvisation plays of dierent theatergroups and organized meetings and workshopsto discuss the concept leading nally to the crea-tion of their own play. The group encouragedand received a lot of support from the profes-sional theaters group.


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Youth on Air

Atakum YouthBank was presented with the projectof internet radio. The aim of the project is to give theyoung people necessary knowledge and skills tocreate and broadcast their own internet radioprogrammes. By developing their programmes,making interviews with artists they will increase their

self-condence and become more aware of theirchoices in the eld of art and culture. More informa-tion on radio and its current programmes as well asaccess link can be nd on

http://www.facebook.com/Radyoid

The idea of organizing grati and break-danceworkshops with mentally disabled students of Zafer Special Education School submitted to the AtakumYB gained its full support and was implemented atthe end of October. Volunteers rst explain how to

make grati and later together with children theystarted painting the walls of their school. Creatingtheir own grati, holding the spray paints in theirhands, watching and trying to dance hip-hop andbreak-dance gave the children a lot of joy. The wholegroup had a lot of fun working, dancing and jokingtogether. The workshops nished but the gratipaintings still welcome the children every day whenthey enter the school.

How to Develop The Project?Support Trainings for Youth in YB LocationsYo

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Field work and experiences gained during the project shows that young people have some diculties in turn -ing their ideas into the project eligible for YB support. The word project seems to be very dicult term. Youngpeople need support and some knowledge to develop the content and manage their own projects. To facilitatethe eorts of young people possible YB grantees and help the local YB teams the trainings on project circle andmanagement were organized and delivered in 4 YB locations by Ouzhan aamer, the peer trainer.

First training organized in Batman gathered 40 young participants who wanted to get knowledge on youth,youth work and social responsibility projects. Some of the projects written during the training were presented tothe Batman YB teams and received the support.

24 young people participated in training organizedin Arhavi between 17 and 18 of October. How is it tobe young in Arhavi? What are the needs of youngpeople living here? What can we do? These topicstopics turned out to be the most important for allparticipants, as well as for the head of local munici-pality who joined part of the training.

Two more trainings organized in Atakum andSelcuk also aroused the interest and gathered asignicant number of the participants contributingto development of the new projects ideas.


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SATR Project Cooperation and Joined Projects ofYouthBank from Turkey and ArmeniaYou

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The cooperation of YouthBanks from Armenia andTurkey under the SATR project, that started in 2011,nish with the end of the program sponsored byUSAID.

Only in 2012 two youth exchanges to Armeniaand Turkey took place accompanied by the joinedactions and projects.

Between 26th and 30th April 2012 the group of 5young people, YouthBank committee membersvisited their project counterparts in Armenia. The aimof the visit was to develop the joined projects withthe Armenian YouthBanks under the scope ofSupport to Armenia Turkey Rapprochement project.

The 4-day visit was good opportunity to learn moreabout the YouthBank project in Armenia, to speakwith the project participants and share experiencealthough the main aim was to develop the ideas forthe joint projects and strengthen the cooperationbetween Turkish and Armenian YouthBank teams.The group visited YouthBanks in Kotayk, Echmiadzinand. In Kotayk and Vaghnadzor YB volunteers partici-pated in the meetings with local communities andgave a helpful hand in implementing two projects in local school and childrens center.

The last day of the visit young people from Turkishand Armenian YouthBanks spend on brainstormingand designing the ideas of joint projects to be imple-mented in Turkey.

The second exchange visit of the YouthBank volun-teers from Armenia and Turkey took place in Samsunand Istanbul, Turkey, between 27th of August and2nd of September.

The visit started on 27th of August in Samsun and

was hosted by the Atakum YouthBank team. The rstday of the visit passed on workshops and getting toknow each other. The YouthBank members had

chance to present their local committees, imple-mented projects and speak about situation of youthin Turkey and Armenia.

The second day of the visit was the Big Day. Volun-teers from Armenia and Turkey together arranged aspace in a little park in front of the ne Delii YouthCenter by planting the Peace Sign and organized thesurrounding area. The project had been organizedwith the support of the Atakum Municipality. Inu-enced by the project the authorities decided to namethe square and from now on its called Peace Park.

Three days with Atakum YouthBank volunteerspassed very fast and time to leave to Istanbul had

come. During 4-day the stay in Istanbul the volun-teers had chance to visit the Hrant Dink Foundationand get familiarized with its projects, meet withYouthBank teams hosted by the Short Wave YouthCenter and pay the visit to the Sulukule volunteersAssociation and Children Art Workshops workingwith children in the Sulukule district. Especially meet-ing with the young volunteers of the Children ArtWorkshops, learning their stories, listening their hiphop lyrics and playing music together was interestingand enjoyable experience for the YouthBank volun-teers from Armenia and Turkey.

The group of Armenian and Turkish volunteersvisited also summer project organized by the youngvolunteers of Tog on Princess Islands. During theshort meeting apart from introducing the YouthBankproject in Armenia and Turkey some volunteers fromTog and guests from Armenia shortly presented theirhometowns and countries.

For more photos and information about the visitcheck:

https://www.facebook.com/GencBankTOGhttps://twitter.com/GencBank


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Togs National Youth Meeting and YouthBankIstanbul, 27-28 September

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YouthBank volunteers are the part of the biggergroup of young people implementing the socialresponsibility projects with TOGs support. Every yearTOG supports the realization of over 800 projectswith the participation of about 35,000 young peoplein over 100 university clubs all around the Turkey.Twice representatives of the university clubs meetduring the Youth Council. The last council that tookplace in Istanbul was very special as it was marked byanniversary it was 20th volunteers meeting. Themembers of the YouthBank also participated in

the event, where they had chance to meet othervolunteers, learn about dierent projects, participatein workshops on dierent topics organized by variouscivil society organizations (Amnesty International,Greenpeace and Hrant Dink Foundation among theothers). During the university clubs and nationalprojects fair YB members opened their stand thatattracted a lot of attention and interest. The teampresented the works of 6 YB teams and their imple-mented projects.

Five Regions, Five YouthBank Projects Regional YouthBank

The activities of the Regional YouthBank project

are carried out in ve regions (Georgia, Armenia,

Azerbaijan, Abkhazia and Turkey) by Eurasia

Partnership Foundation in cooperation with

Toplum Gnllleri Vakf and Save the Children. The

YouthBank committees members from all locations

will participate in the set of activities, including

exchange visit and nal conference in Istanbul. The

aim of the Building a Young Constituency for Peace

across the South Caucasus and Turkey project

granted by the Belgian Government is to build the

YouthBank network in the region and facilitate the

cooperation between the volunteers.

The rst exchange visit of the YouthBank teams

members from Georgia and Turkey to Armenia tookplace in Armenia at the beginning of October.

enable further development of the cooperation

between the YouthBanks and building the network

in South Caucasus region and Turkey.

The visit was preceded by the two-day Cross

Cultural Communication Trainings preparing them

for interacting and working together with the peers

coming from dierent cultures and countries. The

content of the training was designed by the cross

cultural communication and conict resolution

expert together with the project coordinators from

the regions participating in the project. Training

was delivered to 6 YB members between 2 and 3 of

October by the project coordinator supported by

experienced Tog trainer.

During the four-day long visit YB members from

Turkey learned more about the YouthBank projects

in dierent locations and met with the project

volunteers from Armenia and Georgia. The groupstayed visited the YouthBank teams in Dilijan, Ararat

and Yeghenadzor. In Dilijan exchange participants

worked together in the batik workshop founded by

the YouthBank committee and painted two

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pictures. Ararat YB invited the group to their oce

and presented their successful projects followed by

the concert of the young musician who organized

his rst big performance with the support of the

local YouthBank. The last visited YouthBank team

from Yeghenadzor invited the visitors to imple-

mented one of their project. The YouthBank mem-

bers from Armenia, Turkey and Georgia together

arranged and redecorated square in Yeghenadzor.

Getting to know new people, places and cultures

was a great experience for all of the participants.

The YouthBank members from Turkey, Georgia and

Armenia learned that they have a lot of in common

and are looking forward to meet and work together

again during the conference scheduled for Febru-

ary 2013.

www.twitter.com/gencbank

www.facebook.com/GencBankTOG

http://eng.gencbank.org

Documents

YouthBank Turkey Newsletter(August - November 2012)