International youth work experience

I was invited to run a one day session at YMCA Fairthorne with Karina for a youth work international program for Volunteers from England, Ireland and Kosovo. Before I got there I was very nervous traveling to Fair Thorne YMCA, I even question myself “ am I ready for this? “Are they going to enjoy the session? At the same time, very excited for having this opportunity. Anyone could have been selected to do this that me and Karina got selected, something I always be going I’m grateful for.

This was my first time actually running a session to an international group.  Our role was to talk about YMCA international opportunities.  I introduced myself and told my story, how I started at my local YMCA, something I am always proud of. While telling my story made me realize how far I come, its almost been a decade since I have been at the YMCA. I also talked about YES which I attended for first time this year, it was a great  insight for a young person like myself to see what YMCA Europe does and meet inspiring young people that show so much passion for YMCA.

After we talked about the International opportunities we took the group to the hall, we did leadership games something which Karina and I learnt at our regional training in Switzerland. Great way to develop their communicating skills and initiative.
  It was great to see what we have been learning on our Change agent program playing leadership games, something simple as that can be very effective. The participants were laughing enjoying them selves, engaging with each other that put a smile on my face. Great feeling to see young people coming together from different cultures having fun.

Next day we did the George William tour in London the founder YMCA 1844, a  great story by a great leader  the reason why we are here today. 

This was great experience for me, hopefully me and Karina will have the chance do something like this in the future.She is someone I'm comfortable working with. We ain't just Change Agents, we are good friends as well. We will probably be working with each other after the Change Agent program.

    

Home

Well.... i have now arrived home after extending my Canadian Discovery visit. 

After a fantastic first week with a great bunch of YMCA folk i headed back to Toronto to meet up with the family. We took in some more sights, got to see a lot more of Toronto that wasn't possible in the first week and also had the chance to visit a couple of other YMCA projects.

A project that stood out for me in the second week was one that we didn't get chance to see the first week; this is the YCafe Training and Education project which is located in a municipal authority facility - Metro Hall in downtown Toronto. 
Adam the centre director was very welcoming and spent a good amount of time showing me around and explaining the philosophy and outcomes of the project using catering and life skills as a means to gaining fulfilling and lasting employment. This is done whilst also being a social enterprise serving 300 meals on wheels per week, operating a cafe and also providing 2000 meals a week to homeless and young people agencies. Excuse the pun but real food for thought......