Romania Follow Up

The Digital Empathy Training Course consisted of an 8 day training in which 38 youth workers from 10 countries from Europe took part. The project took place in Pissouri (Cyprus) where through training, workshops and tasks participants improved their digital and empathy skills.

This experience helped us to get out of our comfort zones, it pushed language barriers and made us more vulnerable with our emotions and enlightened us about how we can use digital tools in order for them to be of real use for everyone, including people with different disabilities. We also developed our entrepreneurial skills during different activities when we worked on a wireframe in a multicultural team, when we made a presentation about a business idea that challenged our creativity and it was a good opportunity to explore what we could do to help others and when we tackled different activities that are parts of a company in the activity proposed by the Social Innovation Center in order for us to find out more about business modeling, marketing principles, legal actions that a company must do. Most importantly, we connected with people from all over Europe with whom we have made friendships and kept in contact.

After we came back from the training course that took place in Cyprus we wanted to share what we have learned and also promote the Erasmus+ opportunities within our local communities, so we made some presentations and worked on our speeches and this is how it went:

Alexandra chose to go to the highschool where she studied in her hometown (,,Gheorghe Munteanu Murgoci" National College in Braila) and she presented to 3 different classes of students information about digital tools (how to be inclusive and make the most use of them), how to create a great wireframe, what an entrepreneur should take into consideration when starting a business and how to cope with thoughts and overwhelming feelings through journaling. Each activity lasted about 50 minutes. She also trained a colleague that helped her facilitate the trainings. The students were very interested in the topics and asked a lot of questions about the experience in Cyprus and Alexandra also presented them what an Erasmus+ experience consists of: learning, meeting new cultures, exploring, developing yourself. The feedback was great, they enjoyed this nonformal learning activity and it was a first step in developing skills for the future.

Marius and Doru chose a more modern approach. They organized an online meeting with a group of young people from Targu-Jiu, the home city of Scout Society, where they presented the whole experience from Cyprus, promoting the Erasmus opportunities. They explained the importance of expressing your feelings through the approach that suits one most and they also facilitated a little training about how a website should look to be user friendly for everyone. After that there was a Q&A where the participants asked for more information about how they can improve the users' experience and how they could better promote the site and also about how they can take part in European opportunities such as the one Marius and Doru participated in. The activity lasted about 45 minutes and in the feedback session the participants said that it was very interesting and that they want to get involved in this kind of mobilities.

To sum everything up, it was an enriching experience for the Romanian team. We are very grateful for taking part in this training course, for learning so many useful things and of course, for meeting so many amazing people. We will continue to put to use the skills we gained from the project in our day-to-day lives while promoting the Erasmus+ mobilities.

Links for online dissemination

• https://www.facebook.com/ScoutSociety/posts/pfbid0LShwaSTokdJSUDiyRbzXgPprFYBM9NS3WY3FFPmdTfbYNhWikzabaZ3azLDkXEWEl 
• https://scoutsociety.ro/digital-empathy/ 

What our participants told us about the project:

• I recently had the pleasure of attending the "Digital Empathy" training course that focused on improving my communication and digital skills, and I must say that it was an incredibly enriching experience.
• The "Digital Empathy" course was thoughtfully designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of both communication and digital skills, and it exceeded my expectations in terms of the depth and breadth of the material covered. The trainers were knowledgeable, approachable, and made sure that every participant had a clear understanding of the concepts presented.
• Throughout the course, we were exposed to a variety of real-life scenarios that allowed us to put our newly acquired skills into practice. The exercises were challenging yet rewarding, and they helped me to develop my confidence and ability to communicate effectively, both in-person and online.
• The "Digital Empathy" training was particularly impressive, as it covered a wide range of topics, from social media management to email etiquette and online collaboration tools. The trainers were always up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies, and they provided practical advice that I can now apply in my professional and personal life.