Empowering Summer Camp Youth Leaders (ESYL for short) is a short training course, hosted by YMCA Nederland, to strengthen the YMCA summer camp work in Europe. The training course takes place from 4 – 8 of May, and is located on one of the national camp sites of YMCA Nederland in Leusden, in the middle of The Netherlands. There are 2 goals for the training First of all there is the goal to strengthen the YMCA summer camp work in Europe, by sharing knowledge with each other, learning new ideas, methods and games from each other. The second goal is to see if we can start to make some sort of ‘YMCA standard’ for European summer camps from the YMCA. Making a standard means that we start making a rough guideline what you offer as YMCA when you organize summer camps, what it is to make sure you offer quality that fits within the YMCA, and what you need to reach that quality.

The training course is for volunteers and/or youth workers who organize summer camps, or want to learn how to organize summer camps. The age of the participants should be between 17 and 30.

For the development of the participant and for the YMCA standard for summer camping, it is important that the volunteers who participate have the possibility to be a leader at a summer camps this summer, so they can use the knowledge we share and teach during the training!

Participants from Romania: 5+1 group leader

What does the program look like? The program will be full of knowledge about how to organize summer camps, how to work with youth, to be a good youth leader, group work, and of course games! The program that you can find in timeline.pdf is still a concept, if you have feedback and suggestions for us, please let us know.

When does the training start? The training starts on 4 th of May. Arrival on the 4 th is possible till 18.00. The trainers will arrive on the 3 th of May. We can arrive at the campsite till 18.00. It is important for the trainers to arrive one day earlier than the participants so we can prepare the training program. If you are later, please let us know. The training will end on the 8 th of May, we need to clear the campsite before 12.00. If you want to enjoy The Netherlands before or after the training, you are welcome to do that, but you cannot come earlier or stay at the campsite, as it is booked for other groups.

Where does the training take place? The training takes place on the YMCA Campsite of the Dutch YMCA. The campsite can host up to 300 people at the same time, divided into 9 different groups. The training group will be 1 of the groups that will be at the campsite during the training. The campsite is located in the middle of the woods, and during spring and autumn is used by many different groups who want to organizes camps. During summertime the YMCA organizes their own summercamps there. Although it is a big terrain, it is still a simple accommodation. There is a big kitchen and central building, where the staff works and prepares the dinners, but the campsites itself consist of tents. So group leaders and participants will sleep in tents, so you need to take a sleeping bag with you. There are mattresses at the campsite, so you do not need to bring one of those. The address of the campsite is: Paradijsweg 4, Leusden.

For an impression: http://www.ymcakampeercentra.nl/foto-s

Infoletter:Infoletter ESYL

Application form:application form ESYL

deadline: 5 April 2016

More infos: office@ymca.ro