What if we could be someone else? What if a shitstorm suddenly takes place? What if everyone had privileges? What if climate change was solved with an escape room? What if we used creativity to tackle challenges? Many questions to which the 140 young people at the European Youth Forum Trogen (EYFT) sought possible answers. Over the course of seven days, young people from all over Europe took part in five different workshops to discuss the future of Europe. The fifth edition of the EYFT brought together 10 different delegations from Scotland, Latvia, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Ukraine and Switzerland, from the Kantonsschule Trogen.
Escaping climate change in the escape room
What if climate change was like an escape room? Would it be easy to decode? In the "Climate Challenge" workshop, the young people solved an escape room on the topic of climate change every day. Lillemor Spadin, a teacher at Kanti Trogen, wanted to use the methodology of an escape room to create further access to the topic. Among other things, the young people had to decipher ten terms in their own language in order to solve the next puzzle. What if we used creativity to tackle challenges? The young people from "The Future of Europe" workshop began by defining six key topics that will be important for the future of Europe. These included "Population Politics", "Healthy Environment" and "Educational Prospects". The young people produced a stop-motion video on the six challenges, which was shown to all participants at the final presentation. They also underpinned the issues musically with their own sound - recorded in the Pestalozzi Children's Village school building. The young people were supported by Sebastian Wehrfritz and Lea Rechtsteiner, both teachers at the cantonal school in Trogen, and Stefanie Bumbacher, a trainee at the Pestalozzi Children's Village.
Between privileges, truth and heroes
What if everyone had privileges? In "Break the Silence" workshop, the young people explored privilege and oppression in relation to Europe. They looked at the topic from different angles and intensively explored what it actually means to have privileges. "The young people expressed their feelings in various ways, for example with paint on large canvases," says Pascal Haltiner, pedagogue at the Pestalozzi Children's Village. What would happen if a shitstorm suddenly takes place? A simulation of a shitstorm was part of the "Media and Truth" workshop. In it, young people explored what truth means in society and media. For Mariel Diez, pedagogue at the Children's Village, this is a fundamental topic in today's world: "It is important for young people to be able to decipher the media between subjectivity and objectivity." What if we could be someone else? What if we could change the world? In the "What if" workshop, young people focussed on human rights and children's rights and evaluated various challenges in their home countries in relation to these. From this, they developed their own personal hero who could solve these challenges. Aida Brülisauer, pedagogue for the "What if" workshop, is delighted: "It's inspiring to see how the young people think outside the box to develop their ideas."
A successful closure
"Mayonnaise or ketchup?" with entertaining either-or questions lured the young people Damian Zimmermann, Head of Projects Switzerland, and Reto Knöpfel, representative of the cantonal school in Trogen, out of their shells at the final presentation. The presentation, which ended with thunderous applause, and the subsequent exhibition of all the project work in the school building brought the fifth EYFT to a successful and emotional conclusion. The participants marvelled at the heroine portraits from the "What if" workshop, tested their ecological footprint, freed themselves from the climate change escape room and took a look behind the scenes at the components required for a stop-motion video. One participant summed up the European Youth Forum Trogen: "EYFT made me realise how many beautiful people there are in Europe."