Representatives of NGO Mladiinfo Montenegro, a youth worker and computer technician, participated in the preparatory training for the upcoming hackaton within the project “Map the gap”. This training was held in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the period from June 14 to June 21, 2019.
Participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Northern Macedonia, Slovenia, Italy, Turkey and Serbia took part in this training besides participants from Montenegro.
On the first working day, participants, besides activities for better understanding and building a team spirit, talked about youth work in their countries as well as cooperation between NGOs, private sector and youth.
In the activities that followed, the functions of youth workers, NGOs, decision makers and the private sector were detected, and then the participants who were divided into these four groups tried to find common solutions between what is expected and the functions of each individual.
In addition, on the first day they are presented through literary works, information on how young workers see IT professionals and vice versa. Through laughter and socializing, both groups broke prejudices about each other.
In the continuation of the first day there were words about the Erasmus plus program as well as youtpass certificates.
Evening terms were reserved for getting to know Banja Luka.
On the second working day, more talked about who are youth workers and what their job involves. IT experts had the task of drawing up a youth worker and explaining their views.
In the second section during the working day, the word was more about IT professionals and what they are doing, how to use and know. What shared the prejudice was that computer science informatics technicians were explaining to a group of youth workers that for every problem they find some sort of solutions they are looking for on the Internet and exploring.
The third activity has sent participants more to what is the participation and how young people can participate. Also, the level of participation was also discussed, and at what level young people in different countries take part in volunteering, local actions, and others …
Also discussed were the main reasons for the inactivity of young people, and problems such as lack of time, lack of ambition, lack of information, support were detected.
The activities that followed resulted in how to achieve cooperation and how the IT sector, together with youth workers, can come up with creative solutions to the problem.
At the end of the day, the participants were referred to the Kahoot application.
On the third day the word was more about civic initiatives, and in order to better understand the participants were divided into three groups: young people, NGOs and local authorities. In the task that followed, it happened exactly what was happening and in reality, and during the elaboration of the task, no group communicated with the other. In this way it is shown how much mutual cooperation is necessary and how much results are worse if there is no one.
Subsequently, the participants were divided into working groups, with two youth workers and two IT experts in the group. Each group gave its team a name that will keep up to the end of the training. So the teams had the names: fantastic four, sparks, Jago and co …
Teams were taught about the work of trello, marvel, WiX and free logo design. ..
The trainer also referred to the process of hackathon itself, what it looks like and what should be done during the preparation period for the same.
Through video clips, participants have learned more about how to present a product and how a hakaton looks like it.
On the fourth day, a trial hakaton (simulation) was followed. There was a problem that young people did not volunteer enough and the groups were tasked to find a creative solution to this problem.
All teams worked on their applications, websites, designs and logos, and the presentation itself until late into the night.
The fifth day was followed by a presentation made to the judges.
After the official part and closing of the hakaton until the winners were announced, the participants used for the study visit to the youth cent “Hello, you are”. The participants are familiar with the work, problems and challenges that this center encounters.
After the announcement of the winner, an agreement was reached on the next project activities, as well as the evolution of the training itself and the award ceremony (youthpass).
This project is co-financed by the EU under the Erasmus plus program.