Guest Post from YODA board member Irena Molnar
Barcelona . Between the 12-13 June 2017, on behalf of Youth Organisations for Drug Action, Irena Molnar participated in the co-creation workshop for the The TWIST project (Training WIth STakeholders – Capacity building in the application of EU drug research). This project is designed to include participation from early stage professionals and other addictions specialist stakeholders. It will be delivered within the framework of the forthcoming Lisbon Addictions 2017, the second European Conference on Addictive Behaviors and Dependencies (LxAddictions17), on 24-26 October 2017.
Apply to be a part of the TWIST project by 30/06/2017
(details below)
The topics, contents and delivery formats of the TWIST training programme are being conceptualised and designed through a participatory process. This involves selected EU representatives of addictions stakeholder groups including our target audience, i.e. early stage addictions professionals. YODA representation alongside two YOUTH Rise representatives opened the door for discussing and designing the training. This ensured that the training was better suited to addressing the needs of youth and early stage professionals. We were able to give our inputs on the training modules and content based from our experience, but also give our comments to how the training will be delivered.
The participatory process is formed in 2 main steps:
– An interactive survey and forum discussions with the stakeholder groups on the training programme content, formats and learning outcomes through the TWIST online participatory platform
– A co-creation workshop in Barcelona aimed at distilling the input from the TWIST online platform, and define meaningful training pathways within the programme of LxAddictions17 with invited participants from a range of stakeholder profiles, sectors and geographical areas.
The TWIST project will bring together 120 early stage drug and addiction professionals – researchers, public administration officers, health and care professionals, civil society organisations, health economists, public health professionals, health communicators and educators, patient organisations, patient advocacy and self-help groups – with world-class experts from the research and non-research stakeholder groups mentioned. We expect participants to come from a wide variety of European and neighbouring countries, and are working to ensure balance and diversity in terms of geography (including participants from lower income and less research-intensive EU and neighbouring countries), ability, gender and career stage.
The TWIST project is now seeking for applications for the participation in the new TWIST training strand, with attendance covered at the Lisbon Addictions conference in October this year.
TWIST will cover the flight, hotel, daily lunches and conference fees for training programme participants, and the application process is now open. Participants will be required to engage in the participatory process to input in the design of the training strand via the online platform.
The closing date for applications is 30/06/2017