Eastern Europe FLEX-Ability Workshop Program Description
FLEX Alumni Bringing Ideas, Leadership, and Initiative To Youth
American Councils for International Education announces the Eastern Europe FLEX Ability Workshop, to be held outside of Kyiv, Ukraine on November 9-12, 2017. The Eastern Europe FLEX Ability Workshop 2017 is a four-day training for FLEX alumni from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. The workshop will equip participants with skills that will help them create projects in their communities and address community needs. Sessions will focus on developing participants’ leadership, teamwork, and communication skills. Participants will learn how to develop community projects through trainings on project design and management with a focusing on issue-mapping to get at the real needs in participants’ communities. Alumni will return home able to take action in their communities by building impactful, scalable projects.
As a follow-up to the workshop, each participant will be required to organize a project to share the skills and experience gained through with youth or the alumni community. All participants will be offered the opportunity to apply for small grant funding to support follow-on projects.
Who can participate in the FLEX-Ability Workshop?
FLEX alumni from each country will be selected by a panel evaluators from American Councils based on the submitted application.
Participants can apply here.
Eligibility criteria: FLEX alumni of all years who are living in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine may apply. Preference will be given to those alumni whose applications highlight a need for the training sessions and a desire to address needs identified in their communities. Active FLEX alumni and City Representatives will be given preference. Preference will also be given to those alumni who have not previously attended a FLEX-Ability Workshop. Alumni may be asked to attend an interview as part of the selection process.
Conference Costs:
Participation in the Eastern Europe FLEX-Ability Workshop is free for selected participants. All costs, including round-trip transportation and room and board, will be covered by funding through the FLEX Alumni Program, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participants may be asked to cover the cost of travel to and from their home to the capitol city of their country.
Who can be a workshop mentor?
The FLEX Alumni program is searching for eight senior FLEX alumni who have experience in workshop or training facilitation and who have been actively involved in community development and service projects to serve as mentors at the workshop.
Mentors can apply here.
Requirements for mentors:
- Be a successful participant of the FLEX program between the program years of 1994-2010.
- Be from, or currently reside in, one of the participating countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine.
- Have demonstrable training expertise, and experience in one of the workshop theme area.
- Have past mentoring or coaching experience and the ability to follow the set curriculum in the designated theme area.
- Have workshop-ready English language skills.
- Be available to attend and actively participate in both the workshop and pre-workshop training outside of Kyiv, Ukraine for the entire period November 7-8 (ToT) and November 9-12 (workshop), 2017.
Selected mentors will be asked to arrive to Kyiv on November 7th to attend a training with the lead trainer. During these meetings and the in-person training, which are mandatory, mentors will be thoroughly prepared for the workshop sessions, structure, expectations, and goals.
Accommodation and travel costs are fully covered by the program. In addition, every selected mentor will receive a symbolic engagement fee of $300 for their role at the workshop.
Application Information:
Interested participant and mentor applicants must complete and submit this online application with all accompanying materials and a picture for the workshop handbook by September 25, 2017. Late submissions will not be accepted!
For questions, write to flexalumni@americancouncils.org
