Training 80 Youth Encounter Leaders

Some 15 participants came to this encounter. Some were new participants, and some of the participants from the previous encounter could not attend due to schedule challenges.

We opened the encounter with a round of responses on "What is most disturbing to me now", and then we had a round of sharing on "What makes me optimistic". In both rounds issues were related to politics, rifts in society, family, dialogue, culture of discussion and meeting with other groups in the country.

Then we moved to the subject on which we have focused on for the rest of the encounter: The concept of identity. We asked participants to share elements of identity and wrote them on the board. We divided the participants into three groups of 4-5, and asked them to make a list of five elements that express the identity of the group, in hierarchical order. After this activity, we returned to the circle and asked participants to view the lists that they created. We discussed the difficulties that arose from all the lists. We asked if all the members of the group agreed to the final list, and if they felt that they were required to "give up" on elements of their identity, or if there was anything on the list that does not characterize them. We continued to discuss the complexities of collective identity versus the personal identity, and the conflicts that exist between individuals/communities in the same group/country. We referred also to the importance of community identity, and the fact that personal and community identity often mix. The discussion touched general and personal experiences of different groups within the country.

In summary, we related to how the various participants in the group deal with being part of the conversation group, we raised the fact that some people feel more comfortable in the group and some less, and people express their identity in different ways as part of our group.

Links:

• IEA general website
• IEA annual reports