Coaching Guide WWW

Coaching
YO U T H I N I T I AT I V E S & PA R T I C I PAT I O N
Guide
Are you a youth worker, a youth leader, a volunteer in a youth organisation,

an officer working in an institution for European youth programmes,
a teacher, an educator, a trainer, or simply a support or resource person
who wants to help young people to develop their own initiatives?
Then we invite you to take a look at this handbook!
How would you name the activity of helping young people to prepare their projects?
You might have used the terms supporting, advising, counselling, mentoring,
accompanying, or maybe you have already heard about the word coaching to
refer to this kind of activities? Does coaching apply to youth work?
How do we understand coaching within Youth Initiatives? Why people coach?
Why do they (you) want to be a coach? What does it mean to be a coach?
Somehow coaching relates to opening the door to young people for taking the
initiative, for being active, for showing their interests, for taking care of their own
contributions and development, for making the world a better place
Written by an international team of authors for local or international use!
This coaching guide can be downloaded for free at:
www.salto-youth.net/youthinitiatives
Coaching
Yo u t h
Initiatives
C O A C H I N G Y O U T H I N I T I AT I V E S
Guide for Supporting Youth Participation
A guide that explores the concepts of Coaching,

Youth Initiatives and Youth Participation, including practical
tools and methods, advice and information, opportunities
and support for those encouraging young peoples
participation in Youth Initiatives
www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/YouthInitiatives/
C O A C H I N G Y O U T H I N I T I AT I V E S
Guide for Supporting Youth Participation
by
Mario dAgostino, Jochen Butt-Ponik, Milena Butt-Ponik,
Pascal Chaumette, lly Enn, Heike Hornig, Nerijus Kriauciunas
Authors
Buzz Bury
Contributor
Henar Conde
Editor & Co-ordinator
This publication has been made possible with the support of the European Commission, the Bureau International
Jeunesse in the French Community of Belgium and the Polish National Agency of the YOUTH programme.
Many thanks to Patricia Brulefert and Sandrine Suel who provided valuable support to the creation of this guide.
Also special thanks to Gisele Kirby for the final proof-reading.
SALTO-YOUTH Stands for...
Support, Advanced Learning and Training Opportunities

within the YOUTH programme. The European Commission
has created a network of eight SALTO-YOUTH Resource
Centres to enhance the implementation of the YOUTH
programme, which provides young people with valuable
non-formal learning experiences.
SALTOs aim is to support European YOUTH projects
dealing with important issues such as Social Inclusion
or Cultural Diversity, with actions such as Youth Initiatives
(Action 3 of the YOUTH programme), with regions such
as EuroMed, South-East Europe or Eastern Europe and
Caucasus, with Training and Co-operation activities and
with Information tools for National Agencies of the YOUTH
programme.
In these European priority areas, SALTO-YOUTH provides
resources, information and training for National Agencies
and European youth workers. Several resources in the
above areas are offered via www.SALTO-YOUTH.net. Find online
the European Training Calendar, the Toolbox for Training
and Youth Work, Trainers Online for Youth, links to online
resources and much more
SALTO-YOUTH actively co-operates with other actors in
European youth work such as the National Agencies of the
YOUTH programme, the Council of Europe, European youth
workers and training organisers.
The SALTO YOUTH Initiatives Resource Centre

www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/youthinitiatives/
The SALTO Youth Initiatives Resource Centre (in French

Community of Belgium) provides support, information and
training on Youth Initiatives of the YOUTH programme
(Action 3), with the aim to promote this Action and
increase its visibility at both national and European level.
SALTO Youth Initiatives works with National Agencies and
youth workers to develop a coaching strategy to support
and enhance the quality of Youth Initiative projects.
Furthermore SALTO Youth Initiatives also contribute to
facilitate the search of partners and to empower young
people to develop networking projects.
To reach its aims SALTO Youth Initiatives provides the
following resources:
training courses on coaching and peer education
training courses on networking project management
annual magazine on Youth Initiatives related topics
database of local Youth Initiative projects updated every
year
up-to-date information about Youth Initiatives and
opportunities via the Youth Initiatives Newsletter

a
serie of methodological toolbox ready to use
for organising training courses on Youth Intiatives
an overview of trainers and support persons in the field
of Youth Initiatives
For more details you can visit the Youth Initiative pages of
the SALTO-YOUTH website: www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/YouthInitiatives/
Contents
FOREWORD _
INTRODUCTION _
1. OPENING THE DOOR FOR TAKING INITIATIVE _

. The Weather Forecast for European Youth Policy _
. Non-formal Education and Active Participation _
. Youth Initiatives and Realising Participation _
. Young People as Key Holders _
. Who Needs a Coach _
2. THE COACHING MIRROR _

. What do We Mean by Coaching _
. A Coach in European Youth Work _
. Discovering Yourself as a Coach _
.. Clearing Your Coaching Motivation _
.. Reflecting on Your Coaching Attitude _
.. Clarifying Your Coaching Role _
.. Identifying Your Competencies and Experiences _
.. Being Aware of Your Limits and Possibilities _
. Between Coaching and Autonomy _
3. THE COACHING BI-CYCLE _

. The Road of Youth Initiatives _
. The Mechanics of the Coaching Bi-Cycle _
. Climbing on Board the Coaching Bi-Cycle _
. Riding the Coaching Bi-Cycle _
.. Motivating _
.. Getting to Know Each Other _
.. Building the Relationship _
.. Identifying Needs and Competencies _
.. Supporting _
.. Evaluating _
.. Keeping Contact and Feedback _
5. BEST PRACTICE AND BEYOND _

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Postcard from Poland: Our Few Minutes _

Postcard from Lithuania: Video Book of Recipes _
Postcard from Italy: Initiative after Initiative _
Postcard from Germany: Participation Mission (Im)possible? _
Poscard from France: Against Violence at School _
Postcard from Estonia: Rural Information Network _
Postcard from Belgium: Urban Artistic Gallery _
Summary and Prospective _
6. BI-CYCLE TOOLS _
. Coaching Ghost Inventory _
. Visualisation Methods _
. Analysis of Coaching Needs _
. Group Behaviours _
. My Competences as a Coach _
. SWOT Analysis _
. Assessment of Qualitative Criteria _
. Mid-Term Evaluation Questionnaire _
. Incomplete Sentences _
. Best Liked / Least Liked _
. Observation Indicators _
. Self-Esteem Questionnaire _
. Personal Record of Achievement _
THE COACHING SCENERY FROM ANOTHER VIEW POINT _
YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE THEIR SAY: A PERFECT COACH IS _
REFLECTION OF THE JOURNEY _
BI-CYCLE DICTIONARY _
BI-CYCLE PARTS SUPPLIERS _
BI-CYCLE MANUFACTURES AND JOURNEY NAVIGATORS _
EDITORIAL INFO _
. Challenges on the Road _
4. INCREASING THE VELOCITY FOR YOUTH PARTICIPATION _

. Learning to Participate _
.. Personal Development through Progressive Participation _
.. Social Development through Community Participation _
.. Route Planning from Local to European _
7
. Travel Conditions for Participation _
tion
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Summary and
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BEST PRACTIC
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Young people have their
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BI-CY
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ON
Welcome to Coaching Youth Initiatives

A magic dwells in each beginning, protecting us,
tells us how to live a German poem claims. You open the
book, the title may already have caught your attention, or
the strange mouse might have made you think what is this
book about? So a few words to introduce you to Coaching
Youth Initiatives Guide for Supporting Youth Participation.
The title hopefully speaks for itself. It reflects our attempt
to come to a common understanding on how to provide
support and advice to groups of young people running
Youth Initiative projects. The action of coaching
is being progressively developed within the youth field and
non-formal education, both at national and trans-national
level, but still there is not a clear picture of what this practice
looks like, particularly when it comes to supporting specific
projects such as Youth Initiatives.
But what we found on this field is lovely PACo, a vivid little
creature with a lot of curiosity and sensitive antennas on his
mousey moustache. He will be with you as your Personal
Assistant of the Coach throughout the book, bringing
additional colour and a little sunshine into the reading.
So, let PACo invite you now to take the first steps into the
Coaching Youth Universe.
10
Feedback is welcome at youthinitiatives@salto-youth.net
PACo
Personal Assistant of the Coach
PACo encourages you to climb aboard the coaching bi-cycle of youth participation and to enjoy the journey of Youth Initiatives
11
Foreword
Youth Initiatives: at the heart of contemporary change
The wish of young people to participate in the life of their
district, city, town or village, as well as have their say in
worldwide questions, is relevant and young people are
getting more and more involved. However, we can observe
an evolution in these forms of involvement. By comparison
to their elders, there are less debates, long arguments and
interminable exchanges of political views. Now the method
of involvement is more creative and is directly linked to the
evolution of media and globalisation.
Through their actions, Youth Initiatives enable a large
12
number of young people to become inventive in their daily

life and to speak out on their local needs and interests but
also on the main world issues. The idea behind this action
of the European programmes Youth (2000-2006) and
Youth in Action (2007-2013) is to ensure that young people
develop their creativity by giving them the opportunity
to try out ideas through initiatives on different areas of life
such as: arts and culture, social inclusion, environment,
heritage protection, youth participation, European
awareness, rural development, youth policies, health,
anti-drugs/ substances abuse, youth leisure, anti-racism/
xenophobia, equal opportunities, youth sport, media and
communication and lots more. Youth Initiatives allow
young people to be directly and actively involved in their
local community and therefore are a real springboard for
youth participation.
A particular fondness is becoming apparent in young

people for creative forms of involvement, with images,
music, theatre, digital developments, youth information,
health and drugs education, environmental projects and
social actions to the fore. A single Youth Initiative can
achieve a lot of things such as creation of an art gallery
for the display of work by young artists of all origins and
cultures, creation of an opinion-based newspaper or local
radio station, production of a discussion site, debates
and eyewitness accounts, production of a CD-rom on
a European concern, organisation of events/festivals in rural
surroundings, suggestion of activities to young children in
class, so as to help them discover Europe
Youth Initiatives: a link for political and social Europe

Youth Initiatives represent an essential action within the
European YOUTH programme to ensure that young people
find their place in political and social Europe, so that all
young people are able to get involved in the issues of today
and tomorrow. In allowing young people to get involved
in a joint project, they offer concrete and lively involvement,
through which young people come to an agreement on
objectives and achieve results together. They also offer
the opportunity for young people to try their hand
at taking responsibility, negotiating between themselves

and their surroundings, planning and promotion.
Youth Initiatives is an action that links an area (where
the young people live) with a common interest in the
European context. That is to say that these projects are
about a theme or concern common to young Europeans,
in line with the values upheld in Europe and given priority.
By means of Youth Initiatives, young people have the
chance to become actors in their own life and torch
bearers for the future. It provides a platform for suggesting
solutions and improvements at a local level through the
creation of projects or tools and arouses the interest of
other young people Europe-wide. Moreover, this action
constitutes a remarkable means for providing experience
in responsibility, autonomy and involvement for the benefit
of a common interest.
Youth Initiatives: experiential learning

Youth Initiatives represent a great tool for non-formal and
experiential learning. The defining characteristic of these
projects is that they take the day-to-day experience of the
young people as a starting point.
The value of Youth Initiatives experience does not lie solely

in the quality or performance of the project. Rather it lies
first and foremost in the wealth of the project processes.
That is why those supporting Youth Initiatives have
encounters and negotiation within a group as their main
priority. The adventure begins with cultural and social
diversity, and relations between young women and men,
and this adventure can be seen as a progressive process:
communicate, gather information, co-exist, express,
use imagination, develop creativity, carry out a common
production and promote it, take the initiative, get involved,
commit oneself and act. Of course we are aware that each
project may start at a different level depending on the
young people and the context.
Where is the place of coaching in such an adventure?
Supporting a Youth Initiative cannot be improvised but
requires a solid preparation. This handbook is intended
to guide those people coaching youth projects,
to give some points of reference, keys for self-reflection,
suggestions and practical tools. If this is what you are
looking for, please join in!
Majo Hansotte
Citizenship Officer
Bureau International Jeunesse
French Community of Belgium
13
By means of Youth Initiatives, young people have

the opportunity to gain cognitive skills (gathering
of information on Europe, other cultures, European
institutions), social and relational skills (communicating,
negotiating, group debate, acting in combination with
others, promoting a project, meeting people, listening,
power to convince...), ethical skills (openness to others,
development of solidarity, respect of the democratic
principles of human freedom and equality...), pragmatic
and strategic skills (filling in an application form, respecting
deadlines, planning and carrying out an action...) or even
political skills in the sense mentioned previously (putting
oneself at the service of the common interest).
Youth Initiatives: a step-by-step adventure
intro14
INTRODUCTION
Why this Coaching Guide?

Simply because we believe it is needed. Within
the field of non-formal education in the youth
sector, it has become increasingly evident that
a variety of support methods and strategies are
required to ensure active participation, quality
standards, recognition, and even health and
safety. The European YOUTH programme already
has a well established system and understanding
of mentoring, supporting individuals who are
realising European Voluntary Service projects.
Thus we asked ourselves if it could be possible
to transfer a similar type of support to Youth
Initiative projects?
After consulting a wide range of practitioners
supporting Youth Initiatives we felt that there is
something quite different than mentoring that
happens when supporting Youth Initiatives. We
think mentoring describes best the relationship
and activities required for individual support as
in European Voluntary Service. But what about
supporting a group of young people in a Youth
Initiative project?
The term we chose and had a common

understanding of was coaching. Generally
coaching has been understood as a process
in which people and teams are helped to make
the best of themselves and facilitate the way
of working effectively as part of a team.
But nowadays this word has a wider meaning.
And even though throughout different fields
this term coaching has many meanings and
interpretations, we identified it as one of the ways
of increasing the quality of Youth Initiatives as
well as working towards autonomy and active
participation.
Coaching is a relatively new element in supporting
youth work and it might be the case that you
would never use the equivalent of the English
word coaching in your language to describe
the activity you do. You might think of sport
coaches or high paid consultants in suits who
help managers to be better competitors, but not
of what you do. We thought of all those people
who support youth projects and initiatives and
would propose calling their consulting, helping,
supporting or advising, coaching.
Who is it meant for?

Somehow this guide, Coaching Youth Initiatives,
has arrived in your hands. Either our promotion
was incredibly successful, or you had an
expectation connected with the title, which made
you make the effort to get this book. For sure you
are exactly the right target group for this material!
When the international editorial team of this guide
first met in Brussels we had somebody in mind just
like you: motivated, active and directly working
with young people, is that right? Maybe you have
a vague understanding of your supporting role
with these young people as coaching. Perhaps
you have the motivation to coach in the future,
because of your own experiences as a young
person, because of a need in your organisation
or because of professional aims. Thus, the
readers we address in this book are as diverse as
the landscapes of European youth work itself,
starting with young people who want to support
their own Youth Initiative to adult professionals,
who want to expand their knowledge and skills in
youth work.
15
What you, as people supporting Youth Initiatives

do have in common with other coaches? It might
sound surprising but the job you do has so much
in common with the job done by business or
sport coaches. You have to have the experience
and skills on which you base your support, a clear
picture of the change you want to achieve with
the group you coach (from the start till the ending
point) and tools to get there. You need as well
to be rather longer than short term perspective
oriented; its almost impossible to coach a group
within one meeting without monitoring and
following their development. And you see if your
coaching bears fruits or not, if your youth team
plays better or bring more benefits to its project
life.
So how to encourage young people to be active

throughout the project? How to offer the needed
support in each step of the project? What are
the coaching steps of a project? How to deal with
the challenges between coaching and autonomy?
This Coaching Guide has been developed
as a handbook, with the aim of offering practical
support for people actively coaching Youth
Initiatives. Hopefully you will find some answers
to the above questions in this book.
Your coaching activity might follow diverse

objectives, according to your organisations
profile, the nature of youth work in your country
or your target group. A handbook on such topics
published at European level would never be able
to fit to all these possible backgrounds and needs.
In working as an international team, bringing
together people from eight European countries
and with such diverse background as we expect
you readers to have, we attempt to benefit rather
than loose from the diversity.
Through our different views and realities of
coaching young people you will find in this book
a number of different experiences and approaches
towards this topic. We strongly recommend you
to take from this whatever fits into your reality
and needs. You can read this as any other book
starting from the beginning, and reading to the
end. Or you can look only for practical tools and
choose to skip the rest. You know better than we
do what you are looking for. We tried to give this
book a shape that enables you to easily find what
you are looking for.
16
What is it all about?

What we publish here is definitely different to
what you can find in handbooks on professional
coaching of managers or sportsmen. Not only
because of the field we work in and the framework
we gave to this book by connecting coaching
with youth work. It differs as well because of our
attitude, which makes this not just a compilation
of different and possibly contradictory elements.
The authors agree on certain values in coaching
youth projects: firstly, it should lead to greater

autonomy and active participation of young
people and, secondly, the impact of the coaching
should not replace the ideas and interests of
the young people. You will find this attitude of
coaching more developed throughout the whole
book.
We will start the journey with chapter 1
Opening the Door for Taking Initiative in

which we will take a closer look into some of the
key concepts behind the topics of the guide like
Youth Initiatives and Active Participation. You will
find views on the political relevance of such active
youth participation and the role that coaching
plays in this.
As a handbook which aims to offer practical
support for people active in coaching youth
projects, the biggest part of this publication
deals with coaching itself and the adaptation of
different coaching techniques to the field of youth
work. While chapter 2 The Coaching Mirror
offers a number of perspectives to reflect on the
role of a coach and implications of the coaching
effects, chapter 3 The Coaching Bi-cycle
comes to the point of how coaching might be
structured and of what elements and methods
it should consist within the frame of youth work.
At this point of the book we hope you will be
already seduced by the idea of coaching Youth
Initiatives. But you still might be asking yourself
how to optimise the process, how to make the
best of your coaching practice for improving
active participation of every young person of
a Youth Initiative. Chapter 4 Increasing the
Velocity for Youth Participation will help you to
identify different dimensions of participation and
will provide you with some hints and advice to act
in concrete situations.
As an illustration of concrete projects, a number of
examples of Youth Initiatives and related coaching
experiences will be presented in chapter 5 Best

Practice and Beyond. We will try to throw some
light on how coaching looks and can feel in
reality, for you to get inspired about what a Youth
Initiative project could be. For you to learn from
our own practices, good and bad ones.
Finally, to make this handbook helpful with a
practical purpose, chapter 6 Bi-cycle Tools
includes a selection of methods, techniques and
instruments to be used when coaching Youth
Initiatives, for you to adapt them to the context
you are working in and to the people you are
working with.
Last but not least we would like to thank all the
people who have contributed to this book greatly
with their opinions, ideas and experiences.

Also thanks to 30 young people from 12 European
countries and to coaches and participants of
national and international seminars whose
contributions are included in different chapters
of the guide, as quotas from interviews and
questionnaires.
We hope you enjoy reading this Coaching Guide
and find some benefit for your youth work.
If you want to share your coaching experience,
tools, methods, links, additional material with us,
or simply give feed-back about this handbook,
please use the Card to the editors we publish on
the last page.
Coaching(ly) Yours,
Your Editorial Team
duction
17
initiative
18
1 . O P E N I N G T H E D O O R F O R TA K I N G I N I T I AT I V E
Be active! Dont wait for others to solve your problems! Show your interest! Take care of
your own contributions and development! See how you can make the world a better place
It is very likely that you have come across this type of slogan more than once, since they seem
to be quite popular these days. So why bother? Why is it so important to be hands on and take
the initiative?
In this chapter we will play around with the terms Youth Initiatives and Active Participation in
order to start reflecting on some of these core issues. Why participate and what does it mean
to be active for a young person? How can tools such as local and international Youth Initiatives
be used to empower active participation? And why is it an issue at all?
19
1.1 The Weather Forecast for European Youth Policy

A warm front is bringing a heat of motivation and interest in the areas of youth participation and active
citizenship...
Participation of young people in public life is not only the core of the current guide but is one of
the key issues in the European youth field in general. Recent years have shown a remarkable rise
in attention to the issues of youth participation and active citizenship. The European Union as well
as the Council of Europe are the two actors with probably the widest influence in the area of youth
policy at a European level.
On one hand the attention towards youth participation is evident in terms of political will, as various declarations express the importance. The active participation of young people in decisions and
actions at local and regional level is essential if we are to build more democratic, inclusive and prosperous
societies, states the European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional
Life of Council of Europe (revised version since ). Nevertheless the intention does not concern
only the grass roots level but has a higher political interest. On -.. the leaders of the EU
adopted the Laeken Declaration stating that the Union has to resolve three basic challenges. One of
these is ...how to bring citizens and primarily the young, closer to the European design and the European
institutions, ambitious but a truly important objective.
20 Opening the door for taking initiative
In addition, it is of great importance that the European Commissions White Paper A New Impetus
for European Youth () identified youth participation as one of the priorities for action in the
European youth field. The reasons for this referred to significant demographic and socio-cultural
trends affecting youth in Europe. In particular the prolongation of the period of youth, the need
to attract youth to community work, when individualism becomes more and more the tendency in
societal developments and the interest of young people in project-based rather than organisational
participation mechanisms, amongst others.
Although the reality is that, very often, a political paper does not change much in practice, in the
youth field a lot of emphasis has been paid to guaranteeing further attention to issues raised by
the White Paper. In the area of youth participation one should first of all mention the open method
of co-ordination (OMC, see the White Paper A new impetus for European Youth, ) and the
questionnaires drawn up by the European Commission.
These are aimed at identifying practices of Member States in three main areas:
participation of young people in local community life,
participation of young people in institutional systems of representative democracy and
education for active participation.
According to the results of the questionnaires the participation systems are diverse, youth councils,
youth parliaments and youth associations being the most common systems which represent local
communities (Analysis of Member States replies to the Commission questionnaires on youth participation and information, ).
Furthermore, the report seeks to identify practices of coaching for youth in their participative actions
and finds that ...there is an emphasis on the role of actors on the ground, in particular that of social workers, who act as an essential relay in informing young people about public authority action and programmes,
providing support for them in implementing projects and initiatives, and publicising and utilising results.
As well as information, guidance and counselling activities, support for participation includes training,
including training in project management, and exchange of experience (ibd, p. ). In this way, even if
very generally, it still provides some guidelines for coaching actions in youth projects.
The political actions described above gain their very practical impact through different programmes and
actions supported by national authorities as well as the European Commission. For example the panEuropean programme supporting active participation and non-formal learning in the area of youth.
Non-Formal Education and Active Participation
1. 2
The good practice of common action in the form of a pan-European youth field programme dates
back to the s and has shown great development ever since. Whilst writing the current guide,
the European programme called YOUTH (-) is operating and aims at providing non-formal
learning and mobility experiences for young people in the age of - as well as to support co-operation in the youth work field. With its five actions (Youth for Europe, European Voluntary Service,
Youth Initiatives, Joint Actions and Support Measures), the field of activities within the programme is
rather wide, involving both activities centred at individuals (e.g. European Voluntary Service) as well as
those supporting the participation of youth groups. The action which is primarily designed to provide
youth groups with opportunities to contribute to their local community is Youth Initiatives.
In this initiative young people can choose to concentrate on the needs of their local community and
their peers. Where a group would like to challenge themselves to implement a project in co-operation with one or several youth groups at international level, the opportunity exists to get support
for international Youth Initiatives.
Opening the door for taking initiative 21
Youth Initiatives do not only live in todays achievements and concerns but aim to look ahead to
improve conditions for tomorrow. The European Commission, in co-operation with other actors
involved with youth, has launched discussions on a new European programme for youth so-called
Youth in Action and starting in . Youth Initiatives are one of the ways to support youth participation and are firmly part of the new programme Youth in Action.
I understand a Youth Initiative

like the perfect method to try to make
a better world. A lot of persons can
make a difference in the society
where they live thanks to this action
Alex (18), Romania
While a local initiative aims to bring a European touch to purely local activities (whether it be by
choosing a theme which is relevant also for other countries in Europe or by getting inspired by similar
kind of projects from other countries without direct co-operation) the trans-national co-operation
brings an added value. It combines the local activities (each partner group implements them in
their home environment) as well as activities realised in international partnership (exchange of own
experiences, producing common materials, organising international events).
In that way it is not only doing something actively for your local community but also about making
your contribution towards todays Europe. It may sound big words but probably for anyone who has
struggled to realise a project in partnership with youth groups from another country, sharing the
same values and ideals and seeking to make a change through your project activities, it has great
meaning and value.
So how does it all work? The framework of the pan-European programme has been designed by
the European Commission. The Commission is also responsible for the efficiency of the programme
at a European level and so set respective priorities, conditions and criteria. Having recognised that
the area of youth participation is a high political priority and might find a practical realisation in
Youth Initiative projects in the frame of the European Youth programme, the European Commission
has also launched the SALTO Youth Initiatives Resource Centre in in order to support Youth
Initiatives with respective trainings, materials and resources. (More information about SALTO Youth
Initiatives is available at the official website of SALTO-YOUTH 8 http://www.salto-youth.net/)
Compared to structures at European level mentioned above, closer to young people and youth
workers, who would like to realise their ideas through initiative projects, there are the National
Agencies. These are structures in all countries participating in the programme to provide information, project counselling, training and other support. National Agencies also oversee funding and
project applications. (You can find the contact details of National Agencies at the official website of
the European Commission 8 http://europa.eu.int/comm/youth/index_en.html)
Youth Initiatives and Realising Participation
1. 3
A Youth Initiative is a way to stress an interesting subject or very serious problem and show it to others, making them also think and do something about it. From my point of view
Youth Initiatives help to grow more intelligent and sensitive generation, since people who have ever done or attended a project of that kind, seem to return and stay with it for as long as possible
Jaana (19), Estonia
As already mentioned Youth Initiatives are a great tool for active participation of young people
in their local realities. The idea behind this concept is that young people themselves should take
the initiative to make their life better, solve the problems around them and respond to their needs
(within their possible scope of action and influence) instead of waiting for somebody to do it for
them. Most of the Youth Initiatives are thus directly linked with local community life but some of
them concern regional, national or trans-national issues.
The scheme below reflects the core of active participation within Youth Initiatives. Being active gives
one the power of influencing the world around you and allows young people to use their creativity
in working on common tasks.
shaping reality
For me a Youth Initiative is

a chance for youth with ideas to put those
ideas into life. As for active participation.
it is not to wait for others to do the things
that you expect to be done.
Tomasz Moleda (21), Poland
being active
being responsible forthings

we can influence
taking part
Active
Participation
impact on decision-making process
working together
self-realisation
Benefits of young peoples active participation are numerous: having an impact on things which are
important for young people, learning new skills and capacities, expressing ones own creativity and
interests, working in groups of peers who share common perspectives, shaping self-responsibility
together with responsibility for local community, and lots more.
nothing about uswithout us
Additionally there is one more thing which is worth mentioning: the recognition of youth as an
active and vivid force. In cases where young people take an active role to contribute to their local
environment they are seen by others not as a potential source of problems (which is often the case
in communities where youth is passive) but as a very important resource group and partner whose
opinion is to be taken seriously and with whom youth issues should be discussed.
Youth initiatives gives youngsters

a chance to gain skills and methods which
are not possible to learn at school.
Dimitri (18), Estonia
When I am part of the workteam

I feel included and I can take some
bricks to build the wall
Martin (18), Czech Republic
For me a Youth Initiative is the

way to get new experience, develop my
skills and the first step to change the
world, starting from your local society
Baiba (18), Latvia
The list of possible themes for Youth Initiatives is not limited, the creativity and imagination of young
people are the only limits. These could concern art and culture, urban or rural development, peer
education, equal opportunities, work with migrants, work with disabled, elderly or homeless people or could concentrate on youth information, protection of the environment or developing other
interests of young people. Special priority is given to initiatives which involve young people who
have fewer opportunities due to health, social, economical, geographical or cultural reasons.
Local/ Regional/ National Youth Initiatives

When realising a Youth Initiative at local level, a group of young people needs to co-operate together
in carrying out their common idea, which on the one hand reflects their own interests and on the
other has local impact and European dimension. Both of the terms are commonly used in European
youth work but what do they mean?
Local Impact
There are many ways for young people to be active and participative in their local life. Setting up
their own youth club in the neighbourhood, creating walls for graffiti painters, organising paths for
frogs under high-ways, recruiting volunteers to help in elderly peoples houses, designing anti-drugs
promotion in schools and clubs, creating an international youth newspaper... these are just some
examples of young people actions undertaken as Youth Initiatives. So it is evident that the forms of
active participation can vary and thus can also be understood in many ways. In chapter Increasing
the Velocity for Youth Participation we will come back to different definitions of participation, factors
which influence it and the role of a coach in empowering young people to be active participants.
But before that we would need to take a look at what is a Youth Initiative.
Indeed, one of the ways to look at the local impact is to identify how the idea which young people
want to develop will bring benefits to their local community. It will change something, help to
solve some local problems and develop local life. It also means that young people will try to involve
some other people and institutions in working together such as a local council, the town hall, the
municipality, the schools, associations, youth clubs, church, newspaper, etc. Working on an issue
which has an importance for the local community, as well as co-operating together and integrating
local forces in order to achieve goals which are important for local communities, this is the heart of
the local impact.
Different Youth Initiatives obviously have rather different expressions of local impact. Setting up
a pool of young volunteers to work with disabled kids and helping to organise their free time has
already had a huge local impact, since in that community nobody had ever before thought about
integrating able young people and kids with disabilities. It goes without saying that the local impact
depends a lot on the different realities and needs of the local community but it is often related to
helping groups of people who face difficult situations. Being able to initiate new possibilities in an
area through a Youth Initiative project can definitely have a huge local impact.
European Dimension
The European dimension is the second important element of a Youth Initiative. Does an initiative
which involves only local activities and no international cooperation have a European dimension?
If yes, how? And if no, how to develop this dimension?
It is not easy (or maybe it is even impossible) to give the one and the right answer. Nevertheless,
one of the ways to start reflecting on this is through questioning: is the theme we have for our Youth
Initiative only local or does also reflect European issues? For example in a Youth Initiative dealing
with environment, the European dimension is reflected by the environment protection, concern
and challenge that is common to any European country.
Does the Youth Initiative project you support involve groups of young people who have limited
access to opportunities, such as the ones offered by the European Community programmes, and
is your initiative aiming to equalise their chances in the society? For example: young people who
are often marginalised by society because they are different (different colour, different mental or
physical abilities, different culture, different sexual orientation, different religion) or because they
are in a vulnerable situation (lacking family support, facing poverty, limited qualifications, criminality and abuse, addiction to drugs, unemployment) or because they are simply living in rural or
remote areas with limited access to information. If your initiative is targeting any of those young
people, you might see this as European dimension since working towards equal opportunities is
one of the European priorities.
Based on this, in principle we can see the European dimension as an added value for a local project.
Try taking off your own shoes for a moment and take a look at your local initiative from above to
see which elements are connected with European issues, values, priorities, themes, etc. There are
obviously loads of materials reflecting European trends on the Internet. You might also like to look
for more information about actual European priorities in the European Youth Portal launched by
the European Commission (see link at the Bi-cycle Parts Supplies). But you might also like to take
the challenge of starting up an international Youth Initiative from scratch.
to start to make something really good to

change society
Gianlucca (26), Italy
Having designed a project, do young people use methods or ideas which were developed in other
European countries? For example if a Youth Initiative group is working on graffiti and aims to use
methods developed by youth in some other European country, it could well be the element of
European dimension in this project. Actually almost any kind of European co-operation or experiences which help young people to add new elements to their initiative could be seen as European
dimension of the project.
For me a Youth Initiative its a way
Transnational Youth Initiatives

If asked to explain what the transnational Youth Initiatives are, you might have some difficulties.
Youth initiatives are very often defined first of all by their clear impact at a local level, so that their
relation to international issues might raise questions. The transnational Youth Initiatives, as introduced in the frame of the pan-European YOUTH programme, are based on the main elements of the
local Youth Initiatives but have strong international networking and co-operation.
Youth initiatives can be local or be

done in co-operation with youth from
other countries in addition to concerning
local matters
Maria (20), Poland
Activities within Transnational Youth Initiatives are designed as projects of co-operation between
local youth initiatives from different countries where each of the partners work to the benefit of their
local community. In other words, a Transnational Youth Initiative is a project where young people
doing local activities co-operate together with international partners who have similar needs or
interests in order to share and learn from other practices, methodologies, etc.
One of the added values of Transnational Youth Initiatives is that young people learn how to participate at European level. Ideally, such projects will allow young people to develop intercultural
competences, to experience communication at international level, to learn how to work and take
decisions within international teams, to share tasks and responsibilities with people from other
countries. Participation in such projects helps to build self-confidence to take an active stance in
their local community and implement ideas developed with European peers.
I think that Youth Initiatives

represents, for young people, a concrete
possibility to compare themselves
with contemporary life, themselves
with young people of their age
coming from other European countries
Claudio (24), Italy
Think global, act local, this well known motto applies also to Transnational Youth Initiatives since
very often the examples of good practice from other countries motivate young people to start up
a project to change their local environment and try to make their lives better. So it happens that by
sharing experiences young people become more aware of realities in different countries and learn
innovative ways to solve the issues concerning young people.
Transnational Youth Initiative projects run in co-operation with partners allow young people to apply
experience of European peers in their local reality which is one of the very practical explanations of
how transnational projects raise the young peoples awareness of their role in the community life
as active European citizens. Young people together with their peers from other countries search for
common interests or concerns and by combining their efforts change their life for the better.
Local/ Regional/ National versus Transnational Youth Initiatives

Transnational Youth Initiatives*
local, regional or national co-operation
international co-operation based on networking

principles
intercultural element is not necessarily present
intercultural element is present
can have regional or national mobility
can have regional, national or international mobility
core group from one country is building up the

project, there is no need for international project
partner
minimum two groups of young people from

different countries are building up the project in
co-operation
project has the theme/activities that reflect the

interests of the core group and are concentrated
on local issues
project has common themes/activities that are

based on the interests of young people participating
from different countries
continued local activities consisting of several

events or actions
continued local and international activities

consisting of several events or actions
core group takes the lead of the project
core groups from all participating countries share

the leadership of the project
responsibilities and ownership of the project are

shared among members of a core group
responsibilities and ownership of the project are

shared among members of all partner groups
core group applies for the project and, if

successful, gets funding
one of the partner groups applies for the project

funding on behalf of all partners involved and,
if successful, receives funding and distributes it
among partners according to arrangements agreed
beforehand
group dynamics mostly concerns the core group
group dynamics in national groups go in parallel with

processes in international group through the people
who have permanent contact with the partners
Summing up, remember that in both local/ regional/ national and transnational Youth Initiatives, young
people themselves should be responsible for the planning, implementation and evaluation of their
project idea and it should bring benefits to the local community or communities of the partner groups
involved in the project.
This guide focuses mainly on how to support local/ regional/ national Youth Initiatives, however due to
differences between these projects and transnational ones a variety of suggestions for Transnational
Youth Initiatives will be introduced and highlighted at different points throughout the guide.
* Please note that these rules

might change for the new Youth
in Action programme to be
implemented in 2007. For the
updates, please check the Users
Guide of the Youth in Action
programme at the official website
of the European Commission:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/youth/
program/index_en.html
Youth Initiatives*
1.4 Young People as Key Holders

To better understand what active participation means for young people and what kind of meanings
they relate to the terms Youth Initiative and Active Participation, young people from different European countries were interviewed. In addition to presenting the illustrating quotations through the
guide, we would like to take a closer look into the opinions expressed during interviews as it brings
out the perspectives of young Europeans on the main topics tackled in this guide. We consider the
interviewed group of young people extensive not only in their geographical origins but also in their
experiences in Youth Initiatives. Some of them have implemented transnational initiatives, some have
experiences in local level initiatives, whilst others have no previous links to such projects. For the
young people we interviewed while preparing this guide a Youth Initiative means many things:
self development, opportunity to be active, responsibility for long-term ideas, willingness to help others, exchange
of ideas, being engaged, working
with others, creating of ones own world according to ones own needs, improving the situation of young people, realisation of
ones own ideas and dreams, acting for others, trying out new paths and solutions, being independent
from adults decisions, common aims and actions
The essence of these many answers is common to all, Youth Initiatives are young peoples actions,
undertaken by them to bring something new to, or change something in, their close surroundings.
Moreover, as said by young people, Youth Initiatives give them recognition as partners at a European
level in youth issues, since young people and not local authorities or schools, have received funding
for realising their ideas.
Another aspect which young people emphasise is the link between self-development and developments in local community. As they have indicated, Youth Initiatives give them a chance to make
a difference, to bring a small brick to the building of local life. Needing to do something, not to be
passive, to take problems and difficulties into ones own hands, are recognised by young people as
their own active participation in public life. The extent of the impact which their actions have on
the local community is of high importance: I can influence whats around me was said
by a young person.
Active participation is seen by young people as a multilayer construction (depending on the situation
of youngsters). In some cases not staying at home in front of TV but doing something with others
is already recognised as being active. In most cases active participation is linked directly with their
projects and direct involvement of Youth Initiative groups members in all phases of the project.
The last layer of active participation is seen as being fully aware of the importance and meaning of
young people actions for local authorities, adults and other young peoples who live in the same
local community and whose interests active youngsters try to represent.
So, as far as those (one might say) idealistic ideas and understandings of active participation in Youth
Initiatives are concerned there seems to be a rather good congruence between young peoples point
of view and politically defined objectives.
Who Needs a Coach

In different stages of the Youth Initiative project young people have the chance to experience and
take opportunities to learn new skills in areas such as working in groups, communication, project
management, problem solving, conflict management, financial management, fundraising, public
relations and lots more. It is quite an impressive list and brings forward the great potential of Youth
Initiatives as pedagogical tools. But still in order to guarantee that the process turns into a valuable
learning experience, young people may need some additional support. It might be because of difficulties they meet during the project process, limited skills or lack of previous experiences.
1.5
What I think is difficult is just to start

a project. When starting a project, I think that
advice from professionals is very important
Mari (18), Estonia
Being active is not difficult when you are young and full of energy. But doing a project within
a European programme requires more than energy and motivation. Some skills and abilities, which
young people might not possess, are required in order to respond to certain rules and responsibilities such us preparing a budget, planning activities, keeping deadlines, etc.
And once started, young people will probably face various challenges all through the project
process. How to keep the group together? How to motivate their peers when they are bored and
not willing to help any more? How to manage money, collect invoices and project materials, write
reports, convince adults to be supportive, communicate with local communities and react in crisis
situations? These are just some of the examples of situations where young people see a need for a
coach who would help them out and give some support on how to move forward.
In most cases Youth Initiative projects are long term projects which raise an additional challenge as
they result in a long term commitment for young people. According to young people the coach is
especially needed to help out with the preparation of the project, checking out if everything is OK,
keeping a handle on legal and financial issues as well as keeping an eye on the group dynamic.
Last but not least, always keep in mind that the amount of support needed depends on the individual situations and needs of course, but should always respect the independence and autonomy
of young people.
project we had a person to whom we could

ask questions when we had any problem.
This person wasnt taking over our project,
she was always our shadow giving us
support and help when needed.
Tomasz (21), Poland
It can also be the case that the only time young people identify a need for support and assistance is
when being faced with a problem or crisis during the realisation of the project. For example, the biggest fear may be that either their group would collapse one day for different reasons or they would
not be able to prepare all financial documentation according to the rules or sponsors expectation.
Remember that if the project or group collapses or folds, the legal responsibility for the project will
be with at least one of the group members and possibly the supporting organisation. In these cases
your support as a coach will likely be extremely valuable and much appreciated.
All the time when realising our
30
2. THE COACHING MIRROR
mirror
In this chapter we will share some thoughts and reflections on coaching and the coachs role
in the context of work with groups of young people willing to or already implementing Youth
Initiative projects. We believe these thoughts are also applicable to all the projects run by young
people themselves, supported or/and accompanied by resource people who work as volunteers
or professional youth workers.
why am I coaching?
So we will also invite you to look at the mirror and ask yourself:
or, why do I want to be a coach? You might have different reasons for coaching: some of you
want to support young people to realise their potential, others want to support young people in
acquiring the skills for success. No matter what your reasons are every coach in every situation has
the same basic roles and should have the same basic attitude.
31
coaching is a bit like opening eyes
- helping to see different pictures
and perspectives
2.1 What do We Mean by Coaching

As we already said in the introduction, although coaching is not a new activity it is a term that is
still quite rarely used in the context of European youth work. It is more often used in the area of
sport or professional business, and these areas might more readily come to mind when you think of
coaching. We know about the danger of setting expectations with a term used in different contexts
(as, for example, you thinking of football coaches initially). But even though coaching for sport, for
education, for business and for life can all bring along very different experiences the principles and
aims are usually the same. Coaching is usually dialogue and activities aimed at releasing potential
within groups and individuals. It is a dialogue of learning and change. At the same time the coaching
dialogue is a model of how easily and quickly changes can be developed and achieved.
You might not call your activity of supporting young people coaching. In this handbook, indeed
we do refer to a variety of activities which support young people in carrying out Youth Initiatives
and youth projects as coaching. Some of the techniques used in the field of European youth work
have their origin in other fields of coaching, but incorporate specific attitudes and approaches in
the area of youth work at European level.
There are non-governmental organisations offering coaching services for project groups, or teams
performing concrete tasks, but in the framework of the European YOUTH programme the use of
coaching is quite new. As we stressed in the introduction, we want to further develop coaching in
this field, with the aim of supporting higher quality active youth participation. This situation opens
the door for us to define what we mean by using the terms coach or coaching ourselves. At the
same time we are aware that we take the risk of not covering all elements of the activities, profile
and specific national backgrounds if we try to define the content of the coaching process and the
work done by a coach. At least we hope that our attempts to describe coaching will be a good base
for further discussions.
32 The coaching mirror
2. 2 A Coach in European Youth Work

We know that neither the professional or educational background defines this person nor do the activities the person does. So what does he or she look like? Who is this coach we are talking about here?
There is no such title, vocational career or university study as far as we know. Coaches in our understanding can be volunteers or professionals, youth leaders or leaders of youth organisations, workers of
youth clubs or youth services. They can be young people who have experience in implementing Youth
Initiatives or projects and are starting to spread their knowledge among other young people. Across
Europe different countries or even regions have their own understanding of youth work depending
on the structures of youth work, experience and traditions, socio-cultural context of the country.
We can try to define the youth coach according to what that person is doing with young people.
By supporting young people in a specific way, this person first of all aims at the personal development of young people by using a variety of methods or creating opportunities to participate in different programmes or activities. Generally we can consider it as non-formal education. By participating
in non-formal educational activities young people gain self-confidence and experience, learn to
work together and take responsibility for themselves and the environment they live in. Non-formal
education is also a good space for young people to learn how to participate, as it is based on self
governance and voluntary principles, where they have to make decisions themselves as well as take
the responsibility of implementing them.
This means, as well, that a coach has to have youth work experience and competence to accompany
groups of young people and support their participation. However, when it comes to involvement in
the Youth Initiative process and relationship with the group of young people running the project,
a coach has a position which can be different.
A coach is a resource person rather outside a Youth Initiative but still supporting the group of
young people in the implementation of their project (so, even though the person might be physically present where the young people meet, the position is clearly different from being a member
of the core group). He or she is working with young people from time to time performing specific
tasks based on the needs of the group (like providing information, advice, running a training workshop).
The coach is responsible for the coaching process and rarely involves him or herself in the implementation of the project by the young people or undertakes responsibility for concrete tasks in the
project. The place, role and responsibilities determine the specific relationship between the person
accompanying a Youth Initiative and a youth group implementing the project.
Another important aspect, as basis of the coach`s work, is the relationship with the young people.
This is the most important condition in the empowerment process; in our case empowerment for
greater participation. The coach does not necessarily have to know the group of young people
running a Youth Initiative beforehand, but if not, it might take some time at the beginning to build
a positive relationship with the group. The coach might also not know all members of the group,
but could meet a core group. Regarding the Youth Initiative process (as it is shown in chapter The
Coaching Bi-cycle) it might even happen that coaching starts not at the beginning of a Youth Initiative project but in the middle or even towards the end.
where there are

guide showing
a
e
lik
ies
re
mo
is
ect
h these difficult
h initiative proj
s for dealing wit
od
th
Coach in a yout
me
g
in
os
d prop
s on the route an
difficult moment
The coaching mirror 33
Please notice that all aspects mentioned so far are not to be seen as exclusive factors. This is not the
single definition of a coach in European youth work. Depending on the situation and varying from
project to project the role of a person accompanying the youth group can change. It is good to be
aware of this as it has an influence on your work.
2. 3
Discovering Yourself as a Coach

Take a moment to look at the mirror and ask yourself: Who am I as a coach? Why do I want to do
coaching? What are my motivations? What are my interests? What are my attitudes towards young
people? Which of my previous experiences can be helpful for my current or future coaching practice?
What are my competences and abilities to deal with people? What are my strengths and my limits
in working with young people? Which role fits me better or I feel more comfortable with? What are
my own resources to be a coach?
Maybe too many questions or maybe not enough! Discovering who we are as persons, as human
beings, is a non-ending life process. In the same way, discovering who we are as coaches could be
a constant introspective process during our work with young people. Asking questions and selfreflection is needed before starting any coaching activity because it will help you to know yourself
better, to discover your motivations, your attitudes, your abilities, your limits, your roles. To discover
yourself in order to be ready to discover others.
2. 3.1 Clearing your Coaching Motivation

Motivations to advise and accompany a youth project can come from many different directions.
The initial ideas, financial, friendly and personal or institutional interests or motives can play a role
here. It is important to clarify ones own motivations at the start before one begins with the coaching process in a youth group. We will notice in the following text that one of the prerequisites for
successful and constructive coaching is the impartiality and openness of the coach.
Idealistic interests can be a factor if you believe that the theme on what the youth group would
like to work is extremely important and valuable for our society and therefore you will support the
initiative with all your commitment.
Financial interests can be in the foreground if you work mainly as a coach and must safeguard your
livelihood through this work or you might as well believe that it will be of economic value to the
community or your locality.
In cases where you, as the coach, are somehow already related to the group or you are a friend of
some members of the group, your motives to coach the group are likely to be based on this personal
relationship.
The most dangerous motivation however is if institutional interests or ones own interests are in the
foreground. Dangerous because the coach could take a steering or leading role instead of offering
a frame and methods through which the group can proceed freely and realise its targets and ideas
in a self initiated way. It could easily happen that you start to manipulate the group in the direction
of your own interests and that the main ideas and aims of the group get lost.
So, if at the start, after clarifying your personal interests and motives, you notice that you want to
accompany and to support the youth group mainly because you, or the organisation you work for,
expect to profit out of the potential results of the project; in this case, you must pay attention during the coaching not to act in a steering or teaching way. It would be useful in such cases to name
the personal or institutional interests openly at the start and, if necessary, to come to an agreement
that both sides understand the expectations.
To sum up, we would say: If you are clear on your motivation beforehand, then you smooth your own
way. You will win confidence and clarity and the group you coach will gain great benefit from it!
After reflecting on your own motivation the next important step is to have a look at your attitude
when coaching other people.
Reflecting on Your Coaching Attitude 2. 3. 2

If we ask ourselves for a moment: When was the last time that I had a consultation for myself? What
was, during this consultation, helpful for me, what was it I enjoyed? or the opposite: What disturbed
me? Very quickly it becomes clear, that we dont remember the purpose, creative methods and
techniques or interventions of the mentor, but questions like: was the mentor devoted and sensitive,
did he/she listen to my story or did he/she freely give me advice?
Therefore you, as a coach, should primarily have the value of estimating the inner attitude based
on a confidential relationship. This attitude shows your readiness to listen actively to the person in
front of you, showing your interest for him or her and also presenting yourself as first and foremost
an individual.
don`t give up! Be like a drop of
water which slowly but surely

makes a difference in a stone.
Work on yourself!
To coach a group constructively and successfully in its processes, you should, first of all, create a
confidence base between you and the group. It is essential to the construction of this mutual trust
that you, as the coach, accept and respect the people sitting in front of you. Among other things
this means that you should be as free as possible from prejudices and judgements.
As a coach you should try to understand and to see the world of other people through their eyes.
Feelings and expressed experiences are allowed and taken seriously. First of all you should accept
that the members of a Youth Initiative are the owners and experts of the project and that in principle they know the best answers to their questions, as well as the solutions for their own problems.
You will provide encouragement, advice and perhaps help with structure of thoughts, as may be
needed from time to time, but you should never take over the responsibility for the people you are
coaching.
before I became a coa
ch I thought that coa

ching means letting
young people to do wh
a bit of emergency he
lp. Now I see that it`
atever they want and
s more complicated being
it means a much more
creating a good space
active role for the coa
for possible activities
and inspiration
ch -
In every case you will be required to handle diverse attitudes. You must be able to take different
points of view and to think across a range of disciplines. But you are also a human being and therefore your personal condition and emotions play a role in the process of coaching. Personal problems
can represent an obstacle to an empathic attitude from your side. With reference to the confidential
relationship between you and the group, its important to identify obstacles at such moments and
perhaps make another appointment.
After questionning and answering yourself about the attitude you will adopt towards the young people you are coaching, you will be able to clarify the role or roles you will take during the process.
2. 3. 3 Clarifying Your Coaching Role

Everybody takes on different characters, roles and positions in everyday life. We are neighbours,
friends, fellows, life companions, partners, parents, sons, daughters, colleagues, chiefs, co-workers
and a lot more Most of these characters and roles we know very well, we can take them over easily and we are trained and self-confident within them. If we have to undertake a new role, we have
to accustom ourselves to it. In the beginning, from time to time we may stumble in this unknown
terrain, we feel unfit and clumsy. But after a certain experience we almost certainly learn fast how
to feel familiar within the new role.
So, what does it mean for you, if you want to start as a coach for self organised youth projects, and offer them your support and your experience? What character and which role do you undertake then?
Are you a friend and partner of the group, who asked you to advise them? Or are you more a teacher
and leader? Do you see yourself as a colleague or do you fill in the place of a chieftain or the elder?
To answer this question of role clarification is easier if you ask yourself what you would expect
from the person in front of you if it were you looking for advice. Most probably you would like to
find somebody who listens to you carefully, who asks the right questions at the right moment, who
understands you but also critically reflects the situation. Not an arrogant person who thinks he or
she knows all that is needed to know, but a person who recognises him or herself as an expert with
different qualifications.
In addition, depending on the different circumstances, as a coach you might be asked to be an
empathic mediator, a conspicuous teacher, a discreet counsellor, a sensible and honest fellow, an
effective trainer; in short, an encouraging person who helps the young people to help themselves
and who is always a discreet confident.
This huge variety of roles to play and approaches to use require flexibility as well as some training
and experience. Probably you will know some of these roles from your every day life and if you listen
and observe actively you will recognise the right moments, when you are asked to slip into one or
another role or use a combination of roles.
Once you are sure about your motivation and have reflected on your attitude and role as a coach, it
is important to know what competences and experiences you should bring with you when starting
to coach others.
Identifying Your Competences and Experiences 2. 3.4

Whether you think that you can, or that you cant, you are usually right. This quotation from Henry
Ford expresses very clearly that the most important thing is to be aware and have belief in your own
abilities. Belief and awareness in our own abilities are usually born and reinforced with the acquisition of competencies and through gaining experience. For these reasons it is important to reflect
in advance on your own experiences and competences.
Which knowledge and experiences should I bring when I want to advise and support others in an
effective and competent way? Is it enough to have an open ear for the problems and sorrows of
other people? Is it a basic condition to have experience in developing and initiating a project of my
own if I want to help others with their project development?
These and others are questions that you might ask yourself if you are thinking about starting to
become active as a coach for youth projects! There could be very different forms of questions in a
variety of contexts in which coaching will be requested. It is not possible to define a standard, listing exhaustively all the competences a coach needs for supporting youth projects, although this
would be very useful.
We would suggest the following as a list for ideal abilities, competences and experiences. You
could ask yourself if you fulfil them or not, or if you would like to use them as a guide in future,
so take a look in the mirror

What does this mean?!
PATIENCE
I have learned to wait until others make up their own experience! I am able to
watch group processes and to wait for the result they will achieve!
HUMOUR
I am able to laugh with others and sometimes also about myself! In difficult
situations, e.g. if the motivation in the group is in danger of disappearing, some
sense of humour at the right time can help a lot.
EMPATHY
I can respond to the emotions of others, like anger, fear, worry or shame without
being frightened! I always try to understand the point of view of the person facing
me.
CAPABILITY OF SELF
REFLECTION
I know my personal strengths and weaknesses! I know my personal limits and Im

able to refer to them!
Check-Box
Ability
Ability
What does this mean?!
PERSONAL STANDING
I have both feet on the ground! I have surroundings in which I feel comfortable and
I feel well supported by my friends and family! Because of this I have people I can
talk to if I need to reflect on the coaching situation.
CONFLICT AND
RELATIONSHIP
ATTITUDE
Im able to solve conflicts and critical situations with others in a positive and
constructive way!
EXPERIENCE IN PROJECT
DEVELOPMENT AND
MANAGEMENT
I have already developed my own projects and initiated them! Because of this I am
able to offer the group some methods and tools on how to develop their project.
KNOWLEDGE ABOUT
GROUP PROCESSES
I gather experiences and observations of how groups interact and which processes
they use regularly! This helps me to understand the emotions and reactions of the
participants in each step of the process.
COMMUNICATION
TECHNIQUES
I know one or more techniques of communication e.g. person centred individual

consultation! This helps me to moderate the group communication in difficult
situations.
METHODS FOR
COACHING
I know some creative methods to visualise or moderate situations and processes!

Those can be helpful to structure ideas and opinions within the group and support
the decision making process.
SELF EXPERIENCE WITH

COACHING
I have had a consultation during a project development or other situation! This

helps me to see the advantage of it. It was important that someone from outside
who wasnt personally involved supported me to structure my ideas and opinions
in a different way.
COACHING
EXPERIENCE
I have experience in coaching groups or individuals! Out of this experience I know

about different reactions of participants in different situations.
EXPERT KNOWLEDGE
I have expert knowledge in different areas, such as .., which

I can offer to others!
PERSONAL CONTACTS
WITH OTHER
ADVISORS
I have an existing network of contacts with other experts concerning consultation,

youth work or supervision!
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND
PEDAGOGICAL SKILLS
I have experience in psychological or pedagogical support activities!
ETC.
..
Check-Box
Possibly this list isnt complete and you could adapt it to meet your own needs. You should understand it as a motivating technique to reflect in advance about your own abilities and limits. However
its not necessary to satisfy all the listed requirements. If you can say yes! to at least half of the above
mentioned topics, we think you are already well prepared to start coaching youth projects. If you
are also willing to extend your own knowledge and experiences, there are no better preconditions
you can have.
Comparing the necessity for reflection on personal motives and interests it is as important to develop a clear picture about your own experiences and competences appropriate for coaching youth
groups. If you discover deficits which you would like to eliminate its always possible to gather new
experiences and to acquire specific knowledge. A proper analysis of ones own resources is indispensable so that you can use the above listed requirements in a convenient and correct way. Please
dont overestimate yourself and try to interpret the quotation of Henry Ford, mentioned above, in
a way that its good to be aware of the things you can and especially of the things you cant! If you
arrive, at one point, in a coaching situation in which you do not feel comfortable anymore, do not
hesitate to ask for advice and guidance yourself.
Being Aware of Your Limits and Possibilities 2. 3.5

Despite its increasing popularity, coaching shouldnt be understood as a cure all for the successful development of projects. While coaching self initiated youth projects we have to handle the
individual bounds of the group in a very sensitive way so as not to disturb the creativity and active
participation.
So in which situations is it better not to coach a youth project?
Personal involvement: Because of all the trees, you cant see the forest?!
Personality and looks: If the face doesnt fit find a new one!
It is just human that some persons are more attractive to us than others. Sometimes we meet people
and from the first moment we feel a certain harmony. On the other hand we have contact with new
It could occur that you lost the necessary distance from the group which you want to coach, because you have built up a very close relationship with the group or even because you are part of the
group. Its no longer possible for you to keep an objective position and you are unable to change
or to switch between different perspectives. If this happens at a time when the group is stuck itself,
it could be advisable to consult an external person. But in many cases its sufficient to take a look
at different opinions or the thoughts of others. This could mean discussing the coaching process
and your feelings with friends or colleagues, which helps to widen horizons so as to find the way
out of the situation.
Missing expert knowledge: I have no idea about the subject!

At some moments in the coaching process you will not need to know much about the topic or the
content the group is working on. It is often more important to offer tools and methods to structure
the process and to smooth the way of decision-making. To the contrary sometimes it could happen that you interfere personally too much. Particularly if you are very familiar with the subject the
group is working on. Should the group need professional advice in regard with the contents of the
project, it could be your task as the coach to offer the group names and addresses of experts. No
more or less!
Missing variety of advice methodology: Running out of ideas?

Sooner or later you could arrive at a point within the coaching process where you have the feeling
that you cant stop rotating in a circle. You always ask the same questions again and again and you always get similar and partly monosyllabic answers. It can be very helpful to use another conversation
and advice methodology in such situations or, for example, to use visualisation (see Bi-cycle Tools ()).
Personal state of the coach: Own problems and worries?!

If you, as the coach, are facing problems and worries, you surely will have difficulty in developing a
real interest in the requests of the youth group. In any case it makes sense in such a situation that
you ask the group to postpone your appointment. It is also advisable for your positive relationship
with the group to be open and to inform the group about the reason for the postponement. For
example you could ask them: Today I feel not very well, are we able to find another date?
Lack of time: Unexpected duties!

It might happen that, when you are on the way to coach a Youth Initiative, you realise that you do
not have enough time to meet the group. Maybe because the group has a bigger need than you
thought in advance or maybe because you have more work than you expected beforehand. Then
its again desirable to be open and honest with the group members. Its better to recommend to
the group somebody else who could support them rather than you having to hurry through short
meetings.
temptation of
it`s not easy to resist
young people
doing the project for
r them
and deciding things fo
time is a challenge for me. Good coaching means devotion of time
people and we feel an undefined antipathy. We feel disturbed because of this persons behaviour,
maybe we dont like his or her voice or the way he or she is talking, but there is no concrete reason
why we dont like him or her. Also within the group who wants to be coached there could be one
or two participants for whom you feel immediately an antipathy which possibly stops you from
having an objective perspective. In such a case you can try to analyse your feelings: what arouses
the negative feelings, what has this to do with myself? and then to make the effort to get a neutral
standpoint on these participants anyway. If this doesnt work, you might think to recommend another coach to the group.
Belief of the coach that the group has arrived at a point at which no further advice is needed:
When its over, its over!
The main aim of coaching for self initiated youth projects is to support the participants to be creative, self organised and active. With regard to this goal the main task of the coach is to be aware of
the situations and phases within their project processes and where its better for the group to be
independent and left alone. It is absolutely possible that you, the coach, and the group are no longer
feeling the same conviction. Then its better to stop or to interrupt the coaching process. You probably could arrange a common final meeting to avoid frustration and additionally you could arrange
an appointment for an evaluation meeting, where you as the coach are informed by the group about
further processes and the development of the project since the end of the coaching.
And so, after all these thoughts and reflection on motivation, attitudes, roles, competencies and
experiences, limits and possibilities... did you finally discover a bit more about who you are as a
coach? Actually you dont need to answer this question right now. Discovering yourself as a coach,
as we said at the beginning of this chapter, might be a very long trip. But if you still want to know
more about yourself, and more concretely about your coaching approach, we invite you to go to
the end of this guide, Bi-cycle Tools (), and fill in The Coaching Ghost Inventory exercise. It might
help you to explore and identify possible learning and development areas for improvement as well
as to understand a bit better the role of a coach.
Between Coaching and Autonomy

When you already identify yourself as a coach and find out what roles belong to this job then you
can easily discover that being a coach is a wonderful experience: you get the chance to improve
things you tended to do wrong in the past, so helping others not to fall in the same trap. As you get
to know (by your own experience or during studies or professional development), there are many
traps, and we presume that a part of your motivation in being a coach for youth projects is, that you
want to help them not to invent the wheel over and over again. But what if they want to invent it
again? And what if they are about to fail? As far as personal development is concerned it could be
the best thing that could happen to them.
I would like the coach to give me

advice and answer my questions but not to
tell me everything, rather to motivate me
to search for answers and ideas by myself
Maria (20), Poland
So what happens if they fail? What about the involvement of the organisation in the background
(maybe the body that pays you)? How much can they or can you afford a learning experience ending
with a failure, meaning that the grant given for the project might be even paid back? In sociology,
the youth age is often seen as a kind of moratorium: a time where young people have a prolonged
time to gain experiences without the full responsibility of an adult in terms of liability or carrying
financial consequences. Youth Initiatives and projects are perfect tools for gaining such experiences.
2.4
I would not like the coach to take

over our project. I would like to feel that
me and my group have done everyting by
ourselves, but with some support
Pia (20), Finland
Within a framework young people are able to realise their ideas and interests and a failure does not
necessarily mean personal bankruptcy or sitting in jail for years as it might be the case in adult business. For the young people, failure (it maybe a clash in the group, total breakdown in the motivation
of members or the organisational disaster of an event) can be a source of learning.
As a coach of Youth Initiatives your very difficult task is to find a balance between the rights of young
people to gain their own (good and bad) experiences, your motivation as a coach to be as helpful as
possible and the interests of donors and supporting organisations. What is the highest value in this?
Idealistically speaking, of course the autonomy of the young people. But realistically, the influence
of the mentioned external factors tend to have such a strong impact that young people sometimes
become the mere material to be used to the organisations and coachs advantage in terms of grant
aided activities, number of members, or others.
Therefore we see the role of a coach in this system as a mediator, somebody who gives enough space
for youth development, provides protection against being used as instrument of organisational
interests and keeps an eye on the proper amount of support that is needed to add to resources the
young people have themselves.
The best coach should allow me

and all the group to find our own way to
reach our goal. The coach should ensure
me and my team to be autonomus
in our project activities. The coach should
be the map, not the driver!
Anna (23), Poland
PACo TIPS
Five Coaching Principles
Our experiences and research have led us to identify five universal coaching principles. They are an
integral part of the learning and changing process. Conscious use of them as principles of change
should provide an easier and quicker path to achieving goals.
1st Principle:
Resources for the job!

In principle we all have the resources for managing challenges. It only becomes difficult when we
fail to recognise these skills and resources in ourselves. Identifying our resources helps us feel confident in our abilities.
2nd Principle:
Understanding yourself and change!

In principle we all have the resources for managing challenges. It only becomes difficult when we
fail to recognise these skills and resources in ourselves. Identifying our resources helps us feel confident in our abilities.
3rd Principle:
Taking Responsibility!
Responsibility arises out of the awareness for what is and what should be. Trust, consciousness
and responsibility are important ingredients of high performance in every activity.
4th Principle:
You have the choice!

This always applies! Just how many options we have depends on the degree of our awareness
and our willingness to take on responsibility. Think outside the box, work outside of your comfort
zone.
Learning Opportunities!
That is the fundamental principle of learning! There is always a risk involved with trying out something new that you have not practiced before. Performance can only develop in a previously unknown sphere if horizons are broadened with every mistake and every success that is made. Accept
there is no such thing as mistakes, only learning opportunities.
5th Principle:
bicycle
44
3. THE COACHING BI- C YCLE
coaching is an art.
There is no universal approach,

Just as we cannot define one type
of profile for a coach, there is no universal way to approach coaching, only individual approaches,
generally guided by professional ethics. Nevertheless there is a general consensus about the skills
required and the principles that must be respected.
In this chapter, you will not find any ready-made recipes, however you will be able to identify
many of the essential ingredients required for coaching. Projects cannot be dealt with by applying
a standard how to methodology and the same goes for coaching. But we can identify some key
points and moments to optimise the coaching experience as well as practical tools to be used at
different steps of the coaching process.
45
3.1
The Road of Youth Initiatives

Youth Initiative projects follow the same road as every project: planning, implementation and evaluation, and hopefully, it will have some future continuation or impact. The Youth Initiative process is
organised around this understanding.
Planning: In this phase the group of young people work together on their project idea and adjust it
to the formal, qualitative and financial criteria of Youth Initiatives. Before the application is submitted
the whole project has to be designed and planned and tasks divided within the group.
Transnational Youth Initiatives should be planned and designed involving all the groups from different countries. The task sharing should be also balanced.
Implementation: Implementation of the project should be done according to what was planned,
described in the project and confirmed in the contract. All changes have to be monitored and most
often they have to be accepted by the grant giver or approving body.
PACo TIPS
Evaluation: Its very important that the project is monitored and evaluated throughout the whole
project time, not only at the very end. It helps young people to follow the flow of the project and to
share the common experience of learning together. In practice, monitoring of the project can take
place in many different forms.
12 questions for planning Youth Initiatives
46 The coaching bi-cycle
Context and motivation Why is the idea important for the young people? Why do they want to
realise this project within Youth Initiatives? Whats the context of this project? Whats the personal
motivation of young people?
Aims and objectives What are the aims and objectives of this project? What do the young people
want to achieve through realising the project? What change should it bring and by what means?
Beneficiaries Who would benefit from this project? Who are the people directly affected by this
project and what advantages will it bring? How will the young people themselves benefit from the
initiative? What do they hope to learn for themselves personally?
Preparation What actions have to be done in order to prepare for the realisation of these aims?
Involvement of group members Who and how would they be responsible for realising the project
idea? Can all group members devote the same amount of time and energy? Is there any leader/s in
the group? What are the roles within the group? What communication channels are there for the
group during project?
Coaching What is the role of the coach and other supporters? When and how will they communicate? What are the boundaries of self independence before asking for help? If there is an informal
group which needs a supporting organisation, what are the means of communication and cooperation? How will money be transferred to young people and what would be the procedure of financial
reporting?
Local impact What impact would this project have on the life of local community? What other actors or/ and institutions are already involved and willing to help in the realisation of this idea? Who
could also be useful in realising this project and in working towards making it as beneficial for the
local community as possible?
European dimension What is the added European value of this project? Why should it be financed not by local funds but through European resources? What is the European dimension of the
project?
Time schedule What activities would help to achieve the aims and objectives set by young people?
Who is responsible for which part? When and where exactly will these activities take place? What
are the time deadlines?
Budget What are expenses linked with this project? What material and resources are needed? What
other expected resources (in kind or financial) are required for the project and should the budget
include?
Continuation How do they imagine possible continuation of their project? Which elements should
be continued and in what forms? What are the next steps after the possible conclusion and successful
happy end to their project?
The coaching bi-cycle 47
Evaluation How will the project be evaluated throughout the whole process? How will young
people check if everything is realised according to the plan and that they have reached their aims?
By what means will they monitor the work as a group, impact of their project on local community
and development of their idea?
Hopefully you will have now an understanding of what a Youth Initiative looks like and how you as
a coach can enter and move along this journey. Since there are no identical Youth Initiatives there
are no similar supporting processes. But still it is possible to draw out main phases of a coaching
process that are present in more or less all the cases of coaching.
Are you ready to follow the road of Youth Initiatives? You might need a vehicle, why
not a simple Coaching Bi-cycle?
3. 2
The Mechanics of the Coaching Bi-cycle

The coaching bi-cycle model (see picture below), aims to provide a guide for the main coaching
phases and will help in managing the coaching process. Why we use the picture of a penny farthing
bicycle to describe the coaching process? If you visualise the structure of a regular penny farthing you
will see two wheels: a main big wheel and a small wheel, next to the big one. The structure of a penny
farthing will help us to understand the coaching cycle process, including the following phases:
motivating
getting to know
building the relationship
identifying needs and competences
supporting
evaluating
keeping contact and feedback
According to the picture, the coaching process of a Youth Initiative will work in a similar way that
a regular penny farthing: two wheels moving at the same time and influencing each other in their
movement. The big wheel represents the motivational and relational aspect of the coaching process
as well as the reflection about abilities of the group individuals to manage the project. The small
wheel represents the supporting dimension of the coaching. Support could be offered in many
different ways depending on the needs and competences identified for a specific group. The small
wheel represents the different possibilities to offer support, including:
informing
suggesting
facilitating
training
other
Evaluating should be done throughout the whole process, every support given should be thoroughly
analysed and the coaching strategy adopted accordingly. Now take a look at the following picture
which represents the different phases of the coaching bi-cycle process, including relational elements
of the big wheel and supporting possibilities of the small wheel.
Coaching Bi-cycle
EV
AL
UA
TIN
Mo
tiv
ati
n
ting
Facilita
SUPPORTING
Tra
ini
ng
rmin
Info
tti
Ge
ok
gt
w
no
Bu
rel ildin
ati g t
on he
sh
ip
Othe
Su
gg
es
tin
g
ds
ee ies
n
c
g
in ten
it fy pe
en m
Id d co
an
KEEPING CONTACT AND FEEDBACK
The penny farthing was one of the first

bicycles produced in the 1800s
But how are all these elements linked with the practice of coaching? What exactly is happening
during each of the phases of the coaching bi-cycle?
During the getting to know phase both the young people and the coach get to know each
other. During this phase the coach gets more information about the group (their age, previous
experiences, interests, passions, etc) and about their Youth Initiative project (main idea, aims and
Before a starting point can be identified firstly the young people must have the motivation,
inspiration and enthusiasm to embark on a Youth Initiative. The desire to take such a journey can
be an exciting one, which in itself can be motivation enough for the group, but the challenge can
often be maintaining this motivation and focus. This is where the coach comes in and this can play
an important part in the development of, and support for the group. Another key factor will also
be the desire and motivation of an individual to become a coach. This can come from experience,
training, and the determination of supporting young people in realising their dreams and reaching
their potential.
objectives, activities, etc). The information can be gathered through meeting the young people,
from the supporting organisation(s), from the funding institution, or others. For young people it
is also good to know about the experiences of the coach and current involvement in the activities.
The getting to know phase is a starting point and throughout the whole coaching process people
usually get to know each other better.
Building the relationship phase is for establishing the need for coaching and ensuring a
positive working relationship among the members of the group as well as the relationship between
the group and the coach. It is worth clarifying for both the coach and the group of young people
what are their respective expectations and where could be the limits of the coaching process and
relationship. It is useful to know the roles and responsibilities during the coaching process. Agreeing
on communication, cooperation and responsibility can simplify the process of keeping the contacts
alive.
To identify needs and competencies of the youth group both time and investment are
needed. During this phase, through observing the Youth Initiative process, exchanging information
with a group of young people, asking questions or using other tools, the coach identifies both hard
and soft skills for improvement and can advise on the methods or ways of possible development.
This phase is repeated constantly as the process of a Youth Initiative can take quite a long time itself
and new needs appear throughout the project lifespan.
To answer the identified needs of the group as well as of the individuals, the coach should identify
accordingly different ways of supporting young people in their project development process.
Take a quick look at the small wheel of the Bi-cycle model; it highlights: informing, suggesting,
facilitating, training and... others. There are no ingredients for specific methods to be used
in coaching that are identified as essential. It is better to look at this phase of the coaching cycle
as a combination of actions, knowledge and skills that are at the disposal of a coach. The decision
however to use one or another of the methods identified in helping young people depends on the
experience and competencies of the coach as well as the preferences of the group to be coached.
Besides the above described phases, there are important elements in coaching that cannot be put
as a separate phase as it goes on throughout the entire coaching process. Those are evaluating,
keeping contact and feedback.
Evaluating phase is for reviewing, on the one hand the objectives and outcomes of the project,
and on the other one, the objectives and outcomes of the learning. It is also the moment t review the
coaching process itself. The coach can receive feedback on his or her work with the aim to improve his
or her performance in the future. It can be negotiated with a group to continue the coaching process
with follow-up activities but this should be clearly confirmed and agreed by both parties (the young
people and coach). Moreover, if young people have enjoyed and learnt so much from the Youth
Initiative and coaching experience, why not become a coach? They could indeed be encouraged to
become peer coaches for other young people wanting to develop their own Youth Initiatives. And
then the coaching bi-cycle starts moving again ridden by the young peer coaches themselves!
Keeping contact and feedback between the group and the coach is for following the process from the beginning till the end in order to maintain the relationship as well as to identify the
needs for improvement.
The intensity of the coaching process will also depend on the time spent with the young people during the Youth Initiative process. We tend to think that the coach who spends more time with young
people have a more intensive relationship with them and through this support them more efficiently.
This is probably true, but you should not take this as a universal rule. Remember that when it comes
to personal relationships, quality is often much more appreciated than quantity!
Climbing on Board the Coaching Bi-cycle

Does an ideal way of coaching exist? One universal model for all groups and different Youth Initiatives
projects in different countries? It would be just perfect, right? Somehow, as we have seen above,
the intuitive answer is No, it does not exist. Each group and topic is so specific that its not possible
to have one approach on how to coach in general Youth Initiatives. Of course from all experience
gathered by coaches from all over Europe working with a given type of young people, and from the
collection of specific needs of the Youth Initiative projects in general, we can more or less create a
framework for the basic elements of ideal support. But as it is mostly with all ideals in our lives, they
are not overlapping with the reality. It always depends on a given group, context, situation, need,
time, complexity, aims, motivation, and lots more.
3. 3
The coach should be the person who

wouldnt be involved in the whole process
but only when a problem appears and
the team does not know how to solve it.
Rasa (18), Lithuania
When to start? The simple answer is: when needed. Some young people need a coach from the
very beginning, maybe before the idea for the project comes to their mind. They need somebody
who will stimulate them, empower them and enable them to realise the possibilities of doing
something together. If young people are independent and self organised already they might need
coaching in further phases of their project when things get naturally complicated
Our coach was just watching

and giving tips how to improve
one or another thing
Gintaras (20), Lithuania
What to do? A similar simple answer would be: whatever is needed. First of all, try to build trust and
Being a good coach is like doing anything good in our life. One has to be convinced that what he or
she does makes sense and has a purpose. Moreover, whats needed in coaching, according to the
young people whose opinion we asked for, is: passion, need for constant self development, need
to make a difference, belief in young people, patience, a lot of understanding and time for young
people. The main tool for working as a coach is personality and experience; a good coach has to
have the respect and trust of young people.
relationship. These are fundamental for working with young people. Its important to be honest and
realistic with making promises and moving forward. If young people really trust you, they would feel
free to share their problems and dilemmas. Listen to yourself and be honest about your limits. Try to
ensure a safe space and let young people fill it themselves by whats most important for them.
It seems to be quite a hard job What does a coach get in return? First of all you will get self and job
satisfaction and the knowledge of the differences which are made in young peoples lives. Second of
all you will get self development as working with young people can be a source of constant learning.
Since we live in a time of constant change there is no one stable adult world, the work is not about
simply transferring experience and knowledge to the younger generation but rather about learning
from each other and common participation in projects built around this thing we call life.
3.4
Riding the Coaching Bi-cycle

How to ride the coaching bi-cycle? Given the lack of how to universal methodology to ride coaching,
it might not be as easy as riding a real bicycle. But still we will provide you with a kind of instructions
manual, based on our coaching practices and experiences, to help you to climb on board and ride
the coaching bi-cycle. For that we need to re-visit carefully the different phases of the two bi-cycle
wheels.
3.4.1 Motivating
The most difficult can be to start
together and to finish together
Ilja (24), Estonia
For me the perfect coach is a person
who never stops saying that there is

nothing impossible, if you try, then there
will be a time when you will succeed!
Baiba (18), Latvia
As we highlighted in chapter The Coaching Mirror, the first key factor is the desire and motivation
of an individual to become a coach and this can come from experience, training, and the determination of supporting young people in realising their dreams and reaching their potential. If you are
motivated yourself, then you are ready to motivate others. But how to do so? Not an easy task, we
know.
Firstly try to discover young peoples motivation, inspiration and momentum to embark on a Youth
Initiative: what they like, what they need, what things or feelings make them feel alive, what inspires
them to do a project together, why on this topic, why at this period of their lives. Then the challenge
can often be maintaining this motivation and focus throughout their project lifetime.
It could be that the developed objectives of a project are difficult to achieve and therefore young
people feel less enthusiastic than at the beginning. It is your role then to keep the motivation of the
group from the beginning till the end of the project and challenge them in finding solutions to reach
their aims. Please remember that your role as a coach in developing and maintaining motivation
can be integral to a successful project!
What is motivation?
Put simply motivation is what makes people tick. Motivation is what makes people want to do well,
for themselves, their friends, their school, their job, and their family. Motivated people are inclined
to do things willingly, with enthusiasm, direction and team sprit. They are inclined to do the best
of their ability.
PACo TIPS
So why is it so important to help young people to keep and maintain motivation during the whole
Youth Initiative process? Motivated young people will more easily rise to the challenge and achieve
their potential, their own enthusiasm will drive them to perform. Motivation will make them feel
enthusiastic and full of energy, co-operate in solving problems, accept responsibility and change,
perform at a high level.
Motivation in Transnational
Youth Initiatives
Two theorists on motivation are Maslow and Herzbeg (references in Bi-cycle Parts Supplies). Lets
see what they say and how it applies when it comes to motivate young people doing Youth Initiatives.
Maslows theory came from his hierarchy of needs. His thinking was that people are motivated
to take action to meet various needs:
physiological needs: to satisfy hunger, thirst, etc;
need for safety: to have emotional security and protection from physical danger;
need to belong: to have satisfying relationships with others;
need for self esteem: to feel good about themselves and to be recognised for their accomplish-
ments;
need for self realisation: to grow and develop in a way that is personally fulfilling.
Herzbergs Theory was based on things that cause satisfaction and things that cause dissatisfaction. The aim is to identify areas under these two headings and working towards building on and
increasing the satisfaction areas and illuminating the dissatisfaction areas.
These theories, as often happens, have been expanded, developed, exploited, dismissed and challenged over the years, however they can still prove extremely valuable as a guide and a tool when
thinking about our own motivation and that of others.
In transnational Youth
Initiatives a strong motivator
is the opportunity to
co-operate with young
people from other cultures
and countries and maybe
even to visit and meet them.
At the same time
co-operation with people
from other cultures can be
a challenge. The goal for you
as a coach here is to help
young people experience
positive co-operation (for
instance provide intercultural
learning sessions, cultural
diversity awareness),
that will make them feel
like developing other
international projects (such as
organising a Youth Exchange
after a Transnational Youth
Initiative).
What to do in practice?
Keep in mind that everyone is different and not necessarily a perfect reflection of the models described by Maslow or Herzberg. In general to motivate people try to ensure that the coaching process
provides as many as the following elements as possible.
Use the table below to help you identify motivational factors that may help in the coaching
of a Youth Initiative.
Elements to be considered
For the coach
For the young people
A safe, healthy environment

(physical)
e.g. work space (office)
e.g. a good place to meet
A nurturing environment
(emotional)
e.g. supervision and line

management for the coach
e.g. space to talk, people to

listen (maybe a group contract/
agreement), building a strong
group
Positive, respectful and

supportive relationship
e.g. constructive and positive

feedback from management
and colleagues
e.g. taking responsibility and

being shown trust by the coach,
the community and others
Setting realistic and achievable

goals
e.g. time committed to

the group and coaching
process, being aware of your
coaching competences as
well as your coaching limits
e.g. being aware of the group

and individuals competences,
identifying short and long term
successes
Accomplishment,
responsibility, trust and
recognition
e.g. management approval,

being paid
e.g. certificates, rewards, local

recognition (press/media
coverage)
Use the models and think about what your own motivational needs are for the coaching process
to be a success. Then do the same for the young people, put yourself in their shoes: what would
enthuse and motivate you if it were your group and project? It will be important to remember that
you are there to coach the group and the project, other de-motivating factors outside of these will
be difficult to deal with.
To sum up, always keep in mind to monitor and reflect on the three different levels of motivation:
your motivation to be a coach and to coach this specific project, the motivation of the group at the
start of the project, and finally maintaining the motivation through the coaching process for all
involved.
Getting to Know Each Other
3.4. 2
In this phase of the coaching process, your task is to get a sufficiently clear picture of the group and
the social and psycho-dynamic reality of its members as well as their Youth Initiative project idea.
You should concentrate your actions to build trust and a reliable relationship between the members
of the group but also between the group and yourself. But how to do so? How to get to know each
other? How to get to know the project idea? How to build trust, establish a relationship that builds
the base for a productive co-operation, without being too close and sabotage the distinct function
of a coach, which is in the first instance to accompany and not lead the Youth Initiative project?
Getting to Know the Group

Who is the group of young people you are going to work with? How many are they? Since when they
know each other? What do they do in life? What have they done together so far? What is the stage
of the group process they are at? What are the potential obstacles for the success of your coaching
having in mind the educational or psychological background of the young people?
As your coaching can be a permanent struggle to find the right entrance (e.g. to find the right words,
approaches, methods) that would enable a reflection/ action/ process by the young people, you
should know about obstacles inherent in the social reality and characters of the young people. Try
to get as much information as possible at the beginning of your coaching process to have a clear
picture of the young people you will work with and the tasks to be undertaken accordingly.
To help young people reflect on their self-image and for you to get to know what are their deepest wishes, dreams and fears, we suggest you to use the method Personal Mind Map. It is generally used for illustrating a task, a project idea or the interdependence between various aspects of
a problem; starting with writing as brief as possible the main definition, the idea, the problem in the
middle of a big paper and then naming sub-problems, side-ideas or parts of definition on branches,
starting from this given middle point. As Personal Mind Map it is the name of one person (you/ the
young person) that stands in the middle and the branches lead to aspects of this person such as life
dream, wants to become, is good at, is afraid of, belongs to this family etc. It looks a bit like this:
I am a
fraid
o
f red
t to
I wan
ld
a better wor
rker
wo
outh
be a y
panish f
Maria
rom a S
I come f
I am good a
Mind Map
immig
ily who
am
t listening
and advisin
rated to
g people
Belgium
m is to live in
My life drea
tapes
Personal
The Personal Mind Map is a powerful tool for self-reflection, getting to know each other and resource
orientated youth work.
This getting to know each other period is an important foundation to a relatively long relationship
that will hopefully be productive and fruitful to both the coach and the group. This is the coachs
chance to get to know the key characters and players in the group: who is leading, who has the
ideas, who is most passionate about the project, who is the most committed, who is the joker, and
many others.
young
people
have a
big pro
believin
blem o
g that
f
they ca
in the
world
n be pa
of adu
r
tners
lt
Besides, please remember that getting to know each other means giving the opportunity to young
people to get to know you as well. What experiences brought you there, what kind of person are
you, what type of activities you did as a young person, what are the values you would fight for
whatever they want to know and you want to tell can be exchanged in this first getting to know
section of the process. It is here when both of you have to decide if it fits, if you trust each other
at least enough to get the whole thing started, if you can get along. And it is at this point where
coaching can find an end before it even started.
In the Bi-cycle Tools () you will find a checklist which will help you to formalise the process of getting to know and keep the history of all Youth Initiatives you will support during your coaching
practice life.
Getting to Know the Project Idea

As stressed already, you dont necessarily have to be an expert in the field of the groups activity or
project. But for sure you have to have an understanding of what the project is about, what are the
objectives and aims, what are the financial and organisational requests, staffing and volunteer needs
and all the other aspects that are part of project management to be a good coach.
To get a clearer picture what the project or activities are about, we propose you follow the
W-Questions (Laswell):
What? Project activities and description

Why? Needs that the project responds to, motivation
For Whom? Target groups

Who? Project group, partners
With What? Resources that are needed, budget
How? Methods, realisation
Where? Venue/s
When? Time schedule
Here the attention is drawn on the project idea and all eight (or more if required) questions should be
answered by the young people. It allows you to structure and visualise the most important aspects
of the planned project and can therefore already be part of your coaching!
Some of you might think: after all our experiences, a project is a project, and therefore it does not
matter much from a coaching point of view what the project is about. Somehow you are right.
Projects face very similar life cycles, similar problems and similar tasks for young people who try to
realise them. But project cycles, problems and tasks are to be faced by different groups of young
people. And therefore, as much as people are different, projects are also different. Therefore if you
want to gain the groups trust and to provide them with the best of yourself, in terms of understanding, supporting and feedbacking, it is important to get to know the group and the project as deeply
as possible.
The project idea in Transnational Youth Initiatives
PACo TIPS
Creating a common understanding about the project idea can be more challenging in Transna-
tional projects due to the cultural differences, different realities and the contexts young people
are living, different experiences and distance between the groups as well as other communication
barriers.
Ideally the project idea should come from the communication between, and agreement of all
the groups involved. Quite often it comes as a proposal from one of the groups, in this case it is
worth ensuring there is space for the ideas and understanding of other partner groups to become
involved.
Ensure young people share and discuss essential questions with their partners, such us: what is
each partner understanding of the project idea? Why do they want to do this project? What are the
links with their local realities? Do all partners involved have a common vision of the project? If yes,
which one? If not, do their different visions fit into a common project and how to deal with these
differences?
It is also important to be aware that different countries may have different rules for account-
ancy and financial matters. Therefore it is good to clarify the rules from the very beginning of the
project.
ments and achieved tasks to ensure efficiency. Maybe an online journal/ diary of events, chat rooms,
web forums and online meetings could help to improve communication .
Signing an agreement outlining each partner groups responsibilities and division of tasks might
be a way to ensure the commitment of all the groups in contributing to the project as well as to
avoid possible misunderstandings.
Encourage young people to keep other partner groups informed of activity levels, time commit-
3.4. 3
Building the Relationship

When a group of young people come together to create and develop a Youth Initiative, what takes
place between them, besides the project itself, is a group dynamic. Building the relationship means
essentially managing group dynamics, which is managing the interactions between members of
the group as well as between the group and you.
At this stage, some reflection on group behaviours might be needed. For example, which kind of
group behaviours you will face during a Youth Initiative process? Which style of group leadership
applies to which behaviours? In the Bi-cycle Tools () you will find a table which will help you to
identify behaviours and suggest ideas for improving relationships within groups of young people.
In practice, the aim is to guarantee a favourable environment in which the project and the group can
each develop. To ensure a favourable environment you will need to develop your skills of observer
and of communicator. You should be able to understand the verbal and non verbal signals and know
what is going on with each of the members so as to get the most out of the group and to adapt to
different styles of communication. Among other things, you have to be careful to avoid negative
attitudes that prevent group members from expressing themselves naturally.
Porter Scale
The Porter Scale model might be useful to identify different styles of communication and select
those that encourage people to speak and communicate.
Actions
Advice for the coach
Tool
Possible coach responses
Questionning
During meetings
encourage young people
to reflect about and
question what is to be /
has been achieved... Get
them to ask questions
themselves.
Simple reformulation.
When someone stops
speaking, encourage
them to say more by
repeating what was
said.
So you didnt get the

co-funding you were
expecting, have you asked
yourself why it failed?
Simple reformulation.
Dont be afraid of
silence, possible
answers might come
after some time of
reflection.
OKso, like you say, its

not going to be that easy
to get the Mayor to come
along to this event. How
do you think he might get
to know about the event
youre organising at the
start of your project?
Providing answers First encourage young

people to find the
answers themselves. Dont
automatically give them
all the answers because it
might prevent them from
thinking by themselves.
Problem solving
First ensure that everybody

listens to the others view of
the problem. Facilitate the
discussion and encourage
them to suggest possible
solutions. If needed
propose solutions yourself
but let young people take
their own decisions.
Mirror reformulation.
Reflect the feeling that
you think the other
person is trying to
express.
If I understand correctly
there are two different
opinions about the
current situation. Both of
you think to be right and
feel frustated because of
not being understood by
others. Could you both
propose a way to solve
this problem and we will
discuss it all together?
Interpreting
Try to sum up long

discussion going around
in circles. Be careful of
interpretations, since they
might lead to frustations if
misinterpreted. Try to be as
neutral as possible.
Reformulate and
summarise. Take notes
and reformulate using
your own words.
OK, Ive made a note of

everything youve just
explained. Id just like
to go over it to check
everythings understood
and see if theres anything
thats not clear
Understanding
Be empathic and try to

accept others as they
are. Try to be as free of
prejudices as possible.
Listen and reformulate.

Try to make people feel
at ease so that they
express their inner
feelings.
So you said you have

problems at the moment
and therefore you cannot
be involved in the project
as much as you wished
Stating opinion
Whether its positive or

Just dont do it!
negative, your opinion is
likely to influence young
peoples opinion as what you
say (as a reference person)
can be taken for granted.
Avoid sentences like:

Lets not work in this area
since the local population
is not interested in your
project
Furthermore, building and maintaining a safe and trustful relationship during the time you spend
together will ensure that both sides, the group and you, learn together and achieve a personal
development process.
try to know your group as muc
h as possible - who they are?, wha

t problems do they
have? What do they want to achi
eve in their lives,? What are the
ir abilities?
To this end we can suppose that some socio-psychological skills useful for human interaction will
help you to understand the process of group dynamics; this combined with communication skills
will enable you to use this knowledge to help members of the group to manage their aspirations
and cope with change and succeed in their projects. But most often, your effectiveness in building
a good relationship with the group will depend on factors linked to experience, to your abilities to
listen, observe and establish a dialogue, combined with an open-minded spirit and the ability to
deal with different personalities.
3.4.4
Identifying Needs and Competences

You can suppose that to run a Youth Initiative project there is first an essential need: funding. And
you are right, most of project ideas need money to be realised. But money is not the only need and
often neither the most important element to develop a project. What else is then needed to realise
a Youth Initiative? It is very important that you find out what competences and abilities the members
of the group have already and which ones they need to develop in order to reach the targets of the
project. Do not worry if you find out that the group is missing some essential capabilities to realise
a given task related to the project. Through a Youth Initiative they will have the chance to develop
them and your tasks as a coach will be to help the group to identify their own learning objectives
to be reached during the project.
To support a group in this phase of the coaching process, first of all you have to know what target to
reach and the time estimated to reach it (). Then you need to find out which competences are available in the group and which others are needed for reaching the target (). Last but not least its very
important to identify economical, structural, material and human resources to be used to reach the
target (). Here below follows an example and a scheme that intends to be a tool for practical use.
Target (1)
Competences needed
by the group (2)
Financial, structural, material and human

resources external to the group (3)
An electronic
and multimedia
publication
about youth
related issues.
To be done in 3
months.
- Web designing skills

- Journalistic skills
- Public relation skills
- Organisational skills
- Teamwork skills
- Communication skills
Financial resources
Budget needed to create the website is 800
Structural resources
Workshop room with computers and telephone
available, photocopy machine
Material resources
Paper, digital camera, CD-roms, software
progammes (Photoshop, Quark Xpress)
Human resources
Coach , Information and Telecommunication
Technology (ITT) expert
Once you have clarified the targets to reach, the needed skills and the available resources (from
a global point of view), you will have to identify the support to be offered accordingly. You will need
to clarify together with young people the following:
(a) what competences need to be developed in order to reach the target of the project but also the
individual learning objectives
(b) which strategy to establish for developing the competences needed
(c) who does the strategy address
(d) the places and spaces necessary to meet
(e) the time schedule
(f) which support people for helping the development of the competences required
(a) What
(b) How
(c) For who
(d) Where
(e) When
(f) With who
Learn how
to create
a website
Training course
organised
by an ITT
expert (700
expert fee)
+ workshop
on teamwork
organised by
the coach +
peer learning
for PR skills
For two of
the people
involved in the
project
In the main
room of the
association
In one month
The coach can

support the
group to find
an ITT expert
This is just an example for a given project and a given group. According to the several tasks the group
identifies, you will find yourself suggesting different strategies for supporting the group.
Last but not least, this phase could be a great moment to identify the learning objectives of the
group and/or the individuals: which skills do you already have and which ones would you like to
acquire or to improve through the project? The division of tasks could be done according to the
competencies that the members of the group(s) already have or according to the skills that they
would like to develop. For example, if it is the case of a Transnational Youth Initiative and the task is
to create a website, it could be that the group more experienced on web designing proposes itself
to create and develop the website, or it could be that one of the groups less experienced in this field
would like to take this task in order to improve their skills in web desigining. Your role here would
be to encourage young people to learn from and support each other in developing new skills. Peer
education plays an important role in this process and should be used as a tool to lead young people
towards autonomy and youth participation.
3.4.5
Supporting
e to
ns being clos
g people mea
oblems.
pr
Coaching youn
d
needs an
open to their
g
in
be
,
em
th
ing around
means just be
Sometimes it
Once you have determined what the group needs for realising the project, you have to evaluate
your own competences to support either individual or collective needs.
During the Youth Initiative process specific competences might be needed by you as a coach in order
to meet specific needs of the young people. Generally, the most needed skills are related to:
I would like the coach to share

with me his ideas and knowledge
Miriam (17), Malta
Informing
It might be that at a certain moment in the coaching process young people will ask for concrete
information related to the implementation of the project, e.g. aspects of project management,
contacts for funding. You do not necessarily have to be an expert here but to respond at all to this
is of crucial importance. Not knowing is no shame, but use your competence to help them to find
sources of information and preferably leave the decision of action on using it or not with the young
people.
Suggesting
ready ideas but rather to mobilise me to

think by myself, to develop my own skills.
Not to force his/her solutions, to ask
how I see the things
Maria (20), Poland
This is creating opportunities for young people to find themselves answers and some kind of direction or solution to the more complex and difficult situations. This can also include sharing some
guiding advice gained from prior experiences. Your role here is, together with the young people,
to clarify the situation and identify all possible options for the decision. This is also to highlight
possible consequences of each option, motives, so as to make the final decision. Most importantly
young people should make the final decision, even if sometimes it does not correspond with the
opinion of the coach.
I wouldnt like the coach to give me
Facilitating
You as a coach can be asked or decide to take a facilitators role at certain moments of the coaching
process. Facilitating can be useful when you are responsible for structuring the process of the work
and the group of young people is filling in the content. This might happen during meetings, the
planning or evaluating process or in solving conflicts within a group. In this sense facilitation implies
also moderation. You can use different tools or methods: ask specific questions, make visual notes
and minutes to summarise the results reached by the group, among others. It is important to stay
as neutral as possible, not stepping into the content area but staying responsible for structuring
the process.
Training
In order to improve the performance of a group, you might use training methods or arrange training opportunities. Training activities might aim at personal development (e.g. self-awareness, time
management, planning skills), improvement of the group performance (e.g. team work, sharing
tasks and responsibilities, conflict management) or be theme oriented (e.g. intercultural learning, gender issues). Training activities can be run either by you or by external trainers (training
opportunities in institutions, associations, enterprises) as recommended by you.
When realising Youth Initiative the

most difficult for me and our group was to
achieve and coordinate different interests
and to manage the diversity of the group
Sonia (27), Portugal
Training, preparation would

have helped us to realise our project
even better than we did
Vytas (22), Lithuania
Other
Besides these competences there are also other abilities or roles that you might perform during
the coaching process. These roles are less concrete, but still remain important elements in coaching. As examples, you might think of the roles of needs analyser, observer, challenger, teamworker,
animator, etc.
In the Bi-cycle Tools () you will find a tool which might help you to reflect on your personal attitudes, knowledge and skills as a coach to support a given Youth Initiative project.
What does the coach do?
PACo TIPS
helps to shake the world view of young people in order to open new possibilities for action;
helps young people to identify their true interests and capacities they have;
listens, makes enquires, observes and reflects;
identifies the areas for improvement and actions plans for their development;
accompanies young people in the development process motivating and challenging them in
reaching their aims;

works with young people to discover answers to their questions and concerns;
explores the possibilities available and makes the results reached by a youth group visible to
them;
asks powerful, thought-provoking questions that touch the inherent wisdom and creativity of
young people.
3.4.6
Evaluating
Evaluation is an essential part of the coaching bi-cycle model. Making sure that the project works
well in its different stages and providing help with decision-making for needed improvements, as
well as checking with the group if the coaching itself is meeting their needs, are not to be neglected
in any coaching process. In terms of young peoples personal development, evaluation provides an
opportunity to set learning objectives for each of the young persons involved in the project (also
for the coach), then review these objectives at different moments of the process and finally reflect
on what knowledge, skills and competences you all gained through the process.
When evaluating a Youth Initiative you should take into consideration three complementary elements: the group, the project and the coaching. For each of these, a main general objective is to be
met: identify the limits and the needs for improvement and draw attention to positive achievements.
In this way a Youth Initiative can be constantly improved both in terms of the project activities and
of the coaching strategy.
But of course a final evaluation reviewing all different aspects of the Youth Initiative and making
clear end of the coaching process is needed.
Who to evaluate for

The young people, yourself, the funding institution/s, the supporting association/s, the local (or
international) partner/s, the sponsors, the municipality or even the local community. Keeping in
mind for whom you are evaluating will help you in identifying the appropriate methods to be used.
Stressing the importance from the beginning of the project of setting up an evaluation strategy
(identify concrete moments for evaluation during the project process, select methods, etc) will help
in improving the project strategies and the actions being taken about future planning. This is also
about being accountable for the way public and/or private money is spent.
When and why to evaluate

Even though the highlight of the evaluation is often situated at the end of the coaching bi-cycle, it
should actually take place at different moments of the process, as an ongoing process itself (helped
by constant feedback). Imagine that you are doing a very long trip by bike: you could go non-stop
till the end of the journey, or stopping in your way only when something wrong happens, for example one of the wheels is broken; or you could stop at different moments of your trip to check if
everything is OK, the air in the tyres, your health, etc.
As far as evaluation is concerned, your task as a coach is to identify the moments and methods
of evaluation based on the needs of the group, your own needs as a support person, the support
organisation and the funding bodies. Also it would be good to share and discuss with the young
The purpose of this evaluation is to analyse if the goals and planned

activities will enable you to achieve the aim and clarify if the goals
and activities are realistic, achievable and measurable. It is an
opportunity to clarify the learning objectives for the group, the
individuals and the coach.
Mid term
Evaluation
At the
middle of the
coaching
process
The purpose of this evaluation is to confirm that the goals and the
means chosen to achieve them are appropriate. It also allows you
to adapt the coaching according to the results of the mid term
evaluation, confirm direction, achievements and challenges at the
mid way point of the process and project. It can be an opportunity
to identify and celebrate those goals already achieved.
Final
Evaluation
At the end of
the coaching
process
The purpose of this evaluation is to confirm that the initial aims,

objectives and activities have been achieved. The evaluation
provides an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of this project,
how useful it will be and whether its effects are likely to last. The
evaluation should also provide some feedback about the coaching
and about the impact on the young people (e.g. new skills acquired).
Follow-up
Evaluation
After an
identified
period of the
coaching
process
The purpose of this evaluation is to measure the long term learning,

development and impact of the coaching experience and project.
It would be an opportunity to explore the achievements following
the project and the transferable skills and competences used.
Throughout the whole coaching process
At the
beginning of
the coaching
process
Ongoing Evaluation
Preliminary
Evaluation
people the need and importance of evaluation. The following table might help you to identify some
concrete evaluation location possibilities and understand the importance of them.
As you can see, evaluation is needed troughout the whole coaching bi-cycle and therefore should
not be considered as a separate phase in the process. The benefit of carrying out an ongoing evaluation is for both you and the group of young people to identify and respond to the every day needs
of the process and the project. This will include closing sessions or meetings, everyday discussions
about the project, regular feedback and will allow you to gauge the ongoing success or not of
the coaching process for yourself and for the group.
Within a Youth Initiative project we have identified three clear areas for evaluating the process: the
project process, the coaching process and the learning process. We will try now to understand what
it means to evaluate each of these areas and will suggest some tools and methods accordingly, to
be found in the annexes of this guide.
What to evaluate
the beginning is the most difficult: how to organize everything, how to coordinate the whole project?
1 Evaluation of the project process

To evaluate the project itself you should first make an assessment of the situation at a given moment (starting point); then decide what goals you want to achieve, at a certain time t; then make
another assessment of the situation at a later time t+; and finally measure the difference between
this situation and the starting point, in the light of the goals that were decided at the beginning.
In order to do so, you have to be able to refer to indicators, that is elements that allow you to
measure the difference in terms of quantitative or qualitative variations. For example, if the goal
is to increase the number of people that benefit from the action, a simple indicator would be the
number of people taking part. However, the goals are often more complex (for example, improve
public awareness of environmental issues) and the indicators are therefore more difficult to identify,
implement and measure.
To follow the project process you should organise meetings with the young people, some of which
focusing on the development of the project while others will be an opportunity to keep things on
track. Thanks to the continuous feed-back provided during planned meetings, you can facilitate
synergy within the group and help them to move forward with the project. Some meetings will
serve as warning lights, key points in the project process, taking the form of partial ongoing evaluations often requiring modifications which can be identified using a SWOT analysis (see description
of this method at Bi-cycle Tools ()). Remember that whatever method you decide upon it is very
important that the group is actively involved in the reflection.
In the Bi-cycle Tools (-) you will find some questionnaires which might help you to collect information about the project and the group during the planned meetings.
2 Evaluation of the coaching process
When collecting indicators that will help you to adapt the coaching strategy, it is essential to have
the right tools. However there are no magic tools, only simple ways of taking note of hidden dimensions, things not immediately obvious, sometimes simulated or under the surface such as feelings,
the beginnings of demotivation, well-being or assimilations, etc.
The evaluation of the coaching process should be open and interactive. The aim is to start a discussion about something that has not yet been dealt with in the group such as, for example: the
effectiveness of the meetings with the group members, the relationship with you, your availability,
your role and involvement within the project, the methods you used for supporting the group, the
evaluation itself, etc.
To stimulate the discussion you can use some starting sentences which should be continued by the
young people, according with their feelings, opinions or suggestions, such as: I feel I am happy
I dont have I suggest I would like I dont like etc; or such as: the three things I best liked
are the three things I least liked are If you would like to use these methods properly, they are
further developed in the Bi-cycle Tools (-).
3 Evaluation of the learning process

It often happens that after finishing a project we evaluate the outcomes of the project, that is, if the
objectives initially planned have been reached or not, but do not put much attention on what has
been learned through being involved in such experience (no matter if the final outcomes are positive
or not). It could happen that we focus too much on the results of the project itself and not enough
(or not at all) on the process development. However our experiences showed us that whether the
project has been successful or not there is always a learning outcome which should not be forgotten
or neglected. The learning outcomes should be also taken into consideration when evaluating the
success of the project as a personal development experience.
The evaluation of the learning process can be subdivided into two parts: the learning of group members
and your own learning as a coach. Experience and skills that young people acquire from setting up a
Youth Initiative project are usually called key or transferable skills which include, among others, working with others, self-awareness, communication, problem solving, autonomy, adaptability. Although
difficult to measure, their consequences are invaluable, also for professional insertion purposes.
In the Bi-cycle Tools () you will find a list of indicators that validate what has been observed by you
in terms of personal development of the group members. They correspond to objectives put forward
by the coach such as: developing motivation and enthusiasm, empowering, developing autonomy,
building self esteem, changing social behaviour, developing citizenship, etc.
If you want young people to evaluate themselves, for example in terms of self-esteem and skills to
interact with others, you can use the Self-esteem Questionnaire provided in Bi-cycle Tools (),
which aims to identify weak and strong points that could serve as learning objectives for personal
development during the progression of the project.
To identify what exactly has been the learning points from the project but also to guarantee that
the project achieves the set aim and objectives, both mid-term and final evaluation should form
essential part of the project process. What is your role as a coach in that?
So the opinion and feedback from the coach? Why not? In some countries the role of the coach is also
associated with more concrete mapping of acquired skills and competences, in which young people
might need some support and will certainly require feedback. For example, in the UK the British Council
has developed a model of Personal Record of Achievement (PRA) in order to provide evidence of young
peoples experiences and development from their participation in a Youth Initiative project (see
Bi-cycle Tools (). It can be a valuable tool in terms of recognition and accreditation of gained skills.
the shortages of our project because

sometimes the people that are
so involved in what they are doing
they dont analyse their actions,
Kadri (18), Estonia
To sum up, evaluation is a constructive and ongoing process and should be approached positively.
It shows the dynamic nature of a project and the corresponding actions (possibility of adapting the
project, basis for communicating information about and outcomes of the project). It can help
to strengthen co-operation between you and the group of young people (increase in confidence,
reinforce teamwork ). And it is an opportunity to make the most out of the skills (sharing them,
recognising them).
The coach could point out
Coaching Bi-cycle in Transnational Youth Initiatives

PACo TIPS
In projects with international partners, getting to know the other groups involved in the
project may be a difficult and time consuming process but extremely valuable for ensuring a good
co-operation. It will also be good to know about the coach(es) involved in the other youth group(s),
if any, and plan coaching strategies together. If the country groups have never met before you could
suggest them to organise a meeting at the very beginning of the project, gathering - project
leaders of every partner country. This would be an opportunity to get to know about each others
previous experiences and local activities of their organisations as well as to ensure that all groups
have the same understanding of the project idea. Reflect with them on the following questions:
why they want to do this project (and not another one)? What is the link between the project idea
and their respective needs and interests? What is the link between the project activities and their
respective local communities?
Building the relationship in transnational projects take more time as there are different
cultural and country groups working together. When working as part of a wider team it is good to
know the expectations of the partners involved towards the project itself, towards their co-operation
as an international team and towards your coaching strategies and coaching availability. You should
communicate regularly with the partners involved and set realistic frameworks for supporting all the
groups, if needed. Be honest with the partner groups when discussing the limits of your coaching
practice in case there would not be any coach directly supporting the other groups.
When identifying needs and competences in a transnational project you should ensure that the different contexts and realities of the countries involved in the project are taken into
consideration. Creating a project idea with other countries can be a lot of fun but implementing it
according to different needs and interests of the local groups could be a challenge. Encourage the
young people you are coaching to share their group specific needs with the partners as well as to
identify common needs of the network. Also work with them in identifying competences of different
partners and looking for possibilities for peer learning among the different groups.
When it comes to supporting a transnational Youth Initiative one of the main points to consider is how to communicate within international teams. Communication does not just happen, it
has to be encouraged and it has to be organised. In this sense you might help the group to develop
a communication strategy together with their partners: When to communicate? How to communicate? What to report to the other groups? Who does it? Sending regular emails, organising virtual
meetings through chat forums, naming a person reponsible to communicate with the partners in
each group, setting an agenda about when to inform about what could be suggested as useful
tools to improve better communication among the groups.
With regard to evaluation it is very important to ensure that two different levels of activities
are evaluated: the local activities in the partner countries and the international activities as a network.
You should also encourage the group to evaluate how they worked together as an international
team: did they communicate effectively? Did all the groups feel part of the network? What they learnt
from each other? You could also encourage the group to reflect on their intercultural awareness
before and after their networking experience. A final evaluation meeting including all the partners
could be organised within the project. It could be an opportunity for the group to evaluate the
project but also to celebrate their achievements as a team, and maybe to plan follow-up activities
and future co-operation.
Keeping Contact and Feedback

In addtion to all key elements described previously: motivating, getting to know, building the relationship, identifying needs and competences, supporting and evaluating, there are certain tasks or
activities that you, as a coach of a Youth Initiative project, will have to perform in a permanent way,
that is during the whole coaching process. Those permanent tasks are related, on the one hand,
to maintaining regular contact with the group of young people and on the other hand to sharing
feedback during the entire process of a Youth Initiative.
As far as keeping contact is concerned, it involves both you and the members of the group in
continuous communication and exchange of information. It is important for you to have up-dated
information about the situation in the group, development of the project, answers to questions that
concern the young people running the project. For the young people it is also important to know
about your availability if the need for coaching emerges.
3.4.7
A coach should come up with

constructive criticism. I wouldnt like
him/her to express criticism without
having any suggestion for improvement.
Palmir (23), Denmar
As for feedback, it is important to create the space for giving and receiving feedback both for the
group of young people and for you as coach. Being able to observe the process of a Youth Initiative from aside can give you the opportunity to relay the effect of project process to the group/
individuals for their use and learning; therefore raising their awareness on the group process and
enabling them to improve their performance. At the same time you can use feedback from the young
people to improve your own coaching practice.
In order to make feedback be most productive and beneficial, you should keep in mind that the
feedback you provide should be helpful to the person/s receiving it. To be helpful, feedback to
the group or individuals must be such that the group or the person: understand the information,
is able to accept the information and is able to do something about the information. Be sure that
the feedback you give serves only the needs of the person/s receiving it and not your own needs;
otherwise it is likely to produce defensive reactions from the group receiving the feedback and they
are unlikey to amend the project process as a result.
How to Give Feedback

PACo TIPS
. Your feedback should be given in terms of specific, observable actions or behaviours and the
effect of that on the project process and the project results.

. Perceptions, reactions and opinions you have concerning the project process or specific be-
haviours of the group members should be presented as such and not as facts.
. Ensure that feedback you provide refers to the relevant performance, behaviour or outcomes,
but not to the group of young people or individuals as persons.

. If your feedback concerns an area of performance it should include a discussion of what is
viewed as the high and low points of the performance and the specific behaviours which appear
to be contributing to or limiting full effectiveness or accomplishment.
. When discussing problematic areas you should try to encourage the group to find out the ways
how to improve performance, and if needed, also give suggestions. The discussion might lead to
establishing some procedures or activity plan for achieving solutions.
. When you give feedback, it should aim at possible improvements and should thus have clear
evaluative purpose (rather than purely descriptive). Yet it is important to avoid simplified judgements
of good or bad and set clear criteria for assessment.
. The feedback you provide should be concerned with those things over which the group or an
individual can exercise some control, and may include indicators of how the feedback can be used
for improvement or planning alternative actions.
. You should avoid terms which produce emotional reactions and raise defences; but in case
you encounter those reactions, you should deal with the reactions themselves rather than trying to
convince, reason, or supply additional information.
. You should give the feedback in a manner which communicates acceptance of the group/
individuals as a worthwhile person/s and of that persons right to be different.

. Usually, feedback is most effective when given as soon as possible after the event (though
some aspects of a persons performance may be better dealt with in private).

But in practice, how to ensure the contact keeping and feedbacking during the whole process? As
a general rule, when coaching takes place it is in the form of meetings between the coach and the
young people. These usually happen in a place chosen by the coach (often where the coach works)
or a venue the coach is aware of or used before. We would advise you to go and meet the young
people regularly when the project activities take place to see how the project is developing. All of
these meetings provide opportunities for you to help the group apply the ground rules they agreed
on together (punctuality, checking if the project is on schedule, etc).
It is important for the meetings to be informal, not to make the coach look important but, because
you may need to redefine the parameters, clarify your role and check that the young people have
effectively accomplished the goals set for the project. You can do this by simply holding a meeting
in your office (if you have any) or any other common place and discussing how the project is going
on, with an official looking file showing the name of the group and the title of the project clearly
in evidence! This kind of administrative detail isnt just there for show, its part of the guidelines for
effective coaching. Your file on the project has to be up to date and contain details showing how
the group has evolved, the schedule and the tasks to be carried out.
A coach should help with

providing information, supporting,
advicing I would like to have regular
meetings with the coach
Vytas (22), Lithuania
These meetings are therefore opportunities for getting feedback from the group by reminding
them what happened during the first meeting when you both (the coach and the group) agreed to
embark together into this Youth Initiative journey. If you formalised the agreement with a contract,
it will be easier to refer to it and maybe to redefine your role, or more to the point, the roles and
responsibilities of the young people!
Remember that meetings with the group could also be an opportunity for managing group dynamics and work towards group cohesion. You should aim, among other things, to build their self-confidence, help them deal with conflicting issues (if any) and focus energy on positive factors in the
project group and the surrounding environment.
Coaching Meetings
What role to undertake?
Which attitude to develop?
Listen attentively to all members of the group

Respect the ideas and the individuals
First try to understand, then to be understood
Give equal opportunity to the different points of view to be weighted and examined by the group
Try your best not to have preconceived ideas about the members and the points of view
PACo TIPS
Specify the goal of each meeting

Facilitate discussion between the members (i.e. questions, suggestions, etc)
Ask questions and let the members answer
Maintain order in the discussion
Bring the group back to order when necessary
Help clarify the meaning of certain interventions when they appear confused
From time to time, summarise what has been said or done
Ensure the group is involved in deciding tasks and task division
Without preventing people from expressing their differences or possible conflicts, direct discussion
towards the objectives of the meeting or check that it doesnt jeopardize the flow of the meeting
Make sure the meeting moves along at a good pace
Summarise the meeting, make a short evaluation at the end of the meeting
my challenge is to gain the acceptance of young people and so be invited into their world. Its also challenging
3.5
Challenges on the Road

Challenges and problems occuring throughout the project and the coaching process at the time
could be seen as the biggest disaster ever. It is only through reflection and evaluation that these
disasters can help in identifying problem solving techniques and highlighting personal development and learning.
Imagine that there is a book on your book-shelf Answers to all possible problems young people can
have in their Youth Initiatives: a guide for the coach. Whenever an obstacle would arise in a project, the
right solution would just be at your finger tipsit would be boring, right? Anyway, this is impossible!
Still, again, in this section we try to offer some support and guidance on the possible challenges
that you could face.
So the solutions to obstacles would still need to be found by the project group itself with your support and good coaching, adapted to the very specific project conditions. Indeed, it is evident that
as young people, their experiences, skills and competencies as well as environment in which they
implement their project are very varied, so are the needs and obstacles related to their projects.
Nevertheless in rather generalised terms it could be said that difficulties in projects are associated
either with the core group itself (i.e. motivation, awareness, skills, interpersonal relationships) or
external conditions (i.e. conditions in which the project is implemented, changes and required
adjustments, the need for public relations, lobbying and financial resources). Both of these are
surely also influential to each other. So below we take a further look into what could be the possible
obstacles.
Setting the scene for the project... needs analysis, objectives
In many project management handbooks it is stressed that a project starts with an idea. This is
important, to the extent that we must remember and ensure that ideas still come from the young
people first. In a Youth Initiative project everything starts from the young people (the core group),
their motivation and ideas, and one of the first obstacles young people might face is that there are
simply not enough people to start to realise their Youth Initiative project.
The ways for finding new group members are as creative and varied as young people themselves.
There are examples where advertisements have been put in local newspapers or street performances
done to attract the attention of other local young people, among others. Sometimes the reward
and attraction can be taking part in the first place, other times you may want to be clear about the
advantages of getting involved.
What tends to be difficult for young people though is the formation of a group with a common
understanding of the projects roots and purpose, its aim and objectives. It is so often the case in
to build a common perspective of communication where I can be myself and they can be themselves
the planning process that we tend to jump to defining activities (which are much more concrete
and easy to think of) rather than having finished the needs analysis first. Yet it is important to avoid
that the people in the group have different understandings of what the project aims are and how to
achieve them and thus avoid misunderstandings in later phases of the project. First of all, the whole
group should take the time to set the basis of the project. Part of it is to follow that the motivations
of the young people who become part of the project core group are shared and are similar.
Identifying resources
When all kinds of resources needed for the project are being identified, human resources (including those within the youth group) are of the greatest importance and are the first ones to be put
forward. We then look for external means needed to implement the project.
But lets reflect for a second what do young people consider as obstacles?
Lack of knowledge, especially about financial issues Baiba (18), Latvia

Indeed if there are some issues in project management that young people fear it is mostly the
financial aspects of the project: how to know all the prices and calculate the budget, how to find
sufficient funding from other different sources, how to report on expenses and how to be legally
accountable for the funding.
It is clear that some knowledge is required to be able to identify financial issues of the project and
you, as a coach, might have already some skills gained through previous experiences that could
be helpful to support young people in this matter. Besides that, for finding support for a project it
is important to introduce the idea, so you might be a valuable resource in identifying targets and
channels for public relations, marketing and (why not) lobbying for additional financial assistance
and management.
One of the greatest problems is the lack

of money. It is possible to ask support
from different foundations, but usually
all the projects require own finance too
Mari (18), Estonia
Moreover young people might need support and advice in some juridical aspects. Indeed the project
may require renting some very expensive material or hiring a professional service. In these cases a
signature of contracts might be needed with all the juridical responsibilities that it implies.
Group and time management
Initially when the idea is fresh and motivation is high the task division should not be difficult in the
project group. Experience shows though that in many projects it becomes a great challenge to keep
to the agreed task division and schedule when the project progresses. Threfore taking this touch
of reality into account, during the initial planning of the task division and of the timetable, could
There is an overall lack of time in todays society and the reality is that very often those young people
who decide to start up a Youth Initiative project are also involved in, and busy with, other youth
activities, their studies or work. Besides the motivation the exact role division is often a determining
factor for how much time and effort we are ready to dedicate to the project... So the group and time
management become important issues in the realisation of the project.
be helpful. Or why not identify possible risks that could happen so as to be ready to adjust to the
changing conditions?
The tasks should be delegated

so that I would not have to do everything
on my own. But when everybody has
some kind of a task then its still important
that the team would feel a team.
That everybody would know their roles.
So if I was a leader of that project the
problem for me would be how to organise
the group and how to be a good leader
Kadri (18), Estonia
It might also be helpful for the group if, on the one hand, the calendar of project activities is not
planned too tight and busy (because despite of good will, in reality it can become rather difficult
to find a time to meet and dedicate yourself to the project once a week, for example) and, on the
other hand, the meeting times are set already at the project preparation stage so that everybody
can plan their agendas well in advance.
The longer the project process is, the more varied activities are or the bigger the core group is, the
more important it becomes to have good co-ordination for the project as a whole. Preferably the
co-ordination should be done by some member(s) of the youth group. Similarly, leadership is another
sensitive and rather challenging issue. That could also be a topic where support and feedback from
the coach is needed and appreciated all through the project process.
There is an obstacle in our way... so what do we do now?
A problem that we met in my

second project was that one person takes
all the work to him or herself and does
not share any information or duties with
others. The most difficult is that this
person is starsick, does not want to
listen to what others think and does all
the things as he or she likes.
Jaana (18), Estonia
The understanding behind this guide is that a youth project can bring a valuable experience for
young people even if it was not a smooth and problem-free process. It might happen for instance
that the tasks agreed are not performed as it was agreed by the group members and then tensions
arise.
Or maybe some people decide to withdraw from the project and there are not then sufficient human resources to continue with the project. Or it could be that new people join in in the middle of
the process and the project starts to take a new direction which is not appreciated by those people
involved from the beginning.
In reality the project is planned initially without considering potential changes that might occur
during the project process. So it can be the case that in some situations the tension is rather high
and the group would need you to act as a mediator to help to facilitate the evaluation of the current
situation and the planning of further steps.
But dont panic! Remember that obstacles are often good experiences that can bring groups closer
and that will challenge their problem solving capabilities.
Looking at the issues so far it might sound like setting up a Youth Initiative is a rather risky business...
well, luckily in reality a project is also much more, as it is reflected in this guide. Having brought
forward some of the issues which seem to challenge the process in many Youth Initiative projects,
it is evident that no tailor-made solutions exist. Again the solutions are often based on the values
and attitudes of the people involved. So it might be that through your experience, through different
projects as a coach, you decide to create your own compilation of good and not-so-good practices
and problem solving tools. Then, keep them on your book-shelf as reference to what you have
learned out of your past experience for whenever needed in the future
76
4 . I N C R E A S I N G T H E V E LO C I T Y
F O R Y O U T H PA R T I C I PAT I O N
participation
active participation
The European Commissions motivation to choose

as a priority
in Youth Initiatives clearly identifies the value of this action in enabling young people to become
active citizens and therefore answers concretely one of the main topics of the White Paper on
Youth Policy. Through this action, a new approach to youth activities has been introduced to
guarantee the widest possible youth participation at both local and international level.
77
When speaking about youth participation we use different terms: participation, involvement,
active participation, proactive participation, etc. In this text you will not find any new definition
for participation but rather some thoughts and approaches related to the topic. How can you as
a coach contribute to increase the active participation of each young person in the activities run
through a Youth Initiative project? How can you encourage young people to involve their local
community in the realisation of their project? This chapter will help you to identify the personal
and social dimensions of youth participation and what you can do, as a coach, to manage the
participation process of a Youth Initiative.
4.1
Learning to Participate
When talking about youth participation in Youth Initiatives we should refer to two different dimensions of participation: participation at personal level and participation at community level.
The first dimension, participation at personal level, refers to the potential of young people for taking decisions at each stage of the project. It is about encouraging young people to take responsibility for their actions and, in time, their own lives. It is therefore related to young peoples personal
development.
As for the second dimension, participation at community level, it refers to the contribution of
young people, in terms of ideas and energies, towards the community (local, regional, national or
international). It is about giving young people a voice, and hence some kind of empowerment in
society. It is therefore related to the young peoples social development.
To ensure active participation of young people in Youth Initiatives it is important to take into consideration both dimensions of youth participation and this is where your role of coach providing
support to a concrete Youth Initiative (both at individual and group level) plays a decisive role.
4.1.1
Personal Development through Progressive Participation

Young peoples personal development is clearly encouraged through participation in Youth Initiatives in terms of learning how to take decisions and be autonomous.
78
John Huskins () describes different degrees of participation in decision making which entail
different levels of personal involvement of young people in youth activities. This approach entitled
Curriculum Development Model (CDM) can be applied to the process of progressive involvement of
young people in the management of a Youth Initiative, from dependence to independence of the
group in the realisation of the project (towards decision making, responsibility, autonomy).
We will represent the participation of young people through the picture of a shell which is divided
into seven progressive stages (see picture on the left). Every circle of the spiral corresponds to this
progression in seven stages, meaning that the process will be repeated and repeated through
a non-ending coaching spiral. As seen by Huskins, during stages to you, as a coach, are essentially
acting for young people, stage is the significant change when you start acting with them, stage
is when activities are run by young people, and stage is through them taking on a leadership
or peer education role. Furthermore, we would add another stage to Huskins model: stage would
be when young people, after doing a Youth Initiative, become coaches themselves for other young
people developing projects.
To explain the different steps of this model, lets take the example of an art gallery being organised
in a local community within a Youth Initiative project.
example of Curriculum Development Model

Stage 1
first contact
Young people are testing their future coach out: what has this adult to offer us? Can he or
she be trusted? Example: the group present to you their idea of organising an art gallery; they
wonder how you would help them, to which extent you would be involved in the project.
Stage 2
familiarising
Both the group and the coach are gradually getting to know each other, getting to know
more about the project idea, engaging with each other: trust and sharing begins! Example:
you and the group start meeting regularly to discuss the details of the project, sharing what you
have to offer to each other
Stage 3
socialising
The group and the coach are building the relationship, clarifying expectations from both
sides, agreeing about roles and responsibilities, setting some rules for cooperation and communication. Example: you have regular discussions with the group based on trust; you tell the
group that you expect them to be responsible for the project and for themselves, the group tell
you that they expect you to advise them when there are different possibilities or ways to follow
and be available if problems appear but not take over the project as a leader. Young people begin
to express opinions about how to set up the gallery, test ideas and seek your responses
taking part
Young people are introduced to a participation process by taking part in the project activities developed out of their interests and needs. Example: the opening of the gallery is mainly
organised by you but based on the ideas and opinions of the group. Young people participate in
the opening and start collecting ideas for further development of the gallery
Stage 5
being involved
Young people begin to take an active part in planning and running activities, the coach stays
behind the scenes but is always available in case he or she is asked for advice or support. Example: the group is responsible for planning and organising the next exhibitions, they set the agenda
for the following months, they discuss with you the themes of the next exhibitions and make the final
decision themselves, they ask your help to seek for contacts of young artists in the neighbourhood,
they collect ideas about how to advertise the next opening and share them with you
within Youth Initiatives?

Consultations with people who have
already done a Youth Initiative would have
helped me and my group to realise our
project even better
Gintaras (20), Lithuania
Peer education, that is learning by

ones peers or fellows of the same
age, is an important tool to be used in
Youth Initiatives in order to develop
an effective coaching system without
the youth workers influence. Young
people leading the project from the
beginning till the end and benefiting
from their experienced peers support
is what could be called peer coaching. Promoting peer coaching and
using it as an educational approach is
interesting for different reasons: it is
cost-effective, it helps to foster youth
participation in non-formal education
and it reduces the barriers between
coaches and young people in terms of
facilitating understanding and communication through proximity.
If you went throughout the process
of a Youth Initiative project, you can
offer, as a peer, a coaching support
that would be close to and familiar
to young people since you know
the Youth Initiative process
Increasing the velocity for youth participation 79
Stage 4
Why Peer Coaching
from your own experience.

Other young people would learn
from your experience. Your role
would not be to tell the group how
to do their project but to listen to
them, to share experiences, and to
see how you can contribute to the
group with your experience.
Stage 6
Becoming a peer coach can be

a challenge and at the same time
a great opportunity for you to continue
learning and sharing. Supporting
a Youth Initiative project can become
a process of learning a great deal about
life and about yourself. Based on your
experience you could coach your peers
in a kind of invisible way, leaving the
group to their own devices as much
as possible; precisely what you would
have wanted when you were coached
yourself!
Stage 7
As any on-going process you might face

unexpected obstacles and difficulties
during any of the stages described
above, but as an empowerment experience you will be proud to have put into
practice what you have learned while
doing your project so as to help
organising
Young people take responsibility for planning and running activities, they organise the activities themselves; the coach is progressively distancing him or herself from the group but
is still there if needed. Example: the group carries out a research on the local community to find
potential artists to be involved in following exhibitions, they design invitations for the next opening and distribute them in the neighbourhood, they prepare the settings of the gallery (scenery,
lights, etc), they are responsible for the budget (buying materials, reporting invoices)
leading
Young people are fully independent in their decisions and their actions, they take the
leadership role or resort to peer education: the coach is not needed any more! Example: the
group takes full responsibility for the preparation and opening of the following exhibitions (tasks
division, contact with artists, contact with the local community, management of the budget,
supporting each other) as well as for the evaluation of the whole project and the writing of
the final report. They take responsibility for others as well as themselves; you say good-bye to
the group!
Stage 8
peer coaching
After the leading stage young people are ready to take over a peer coaching role, based
on their knowledge, skills and experience gained during the process of participating in the
Youth Initiative. That is the reason for including this important next stage in the model and
in the circular process of the shell. Example: during the last exhibition some young visitors suggested that it would be good to involve older people in their activities so as to show them current
art and compare points of view from different ages, and through that, promote inter-generations
understanding. The young leaders of the art gallery encourage them to develop further their idea
and apply for Youth Initiatives to get funding. They offer themselves to help the new youth group
in the application process as well as in preparing and running their Youth Initiative if needed.
80 Increasing the velocity for youth participation
(Model adapted from CDM, John Huskin, 1996)
We believe in this progressive participation process within a decision making approach as it ensures the
development of young peoples autonomy. But above all we believe in the principle of young peoples
involvement from the start. You should involve the group throughout the whole process, from the
very beginning till the end, in order to give them a sense of ownership. Stages to do not necessarily
need to be considered as acting for young people (as stated by Huskins) but with young people,
if they are encouraged progressively to take responsibilities. The approach should never be to carry
out a project for young people, and not even with young people, but rather by young people.
This model can be used to provide evidence of young peoples learning and behavioural change
resulting from running a Youth Initiative. Nevertheless it should not be seen as a rigid and unique
model of progressive participation in a youth project. Not all the groups running a Youth Initiative
need to follow all the stages in the order presented above. While stages to (first meeting to
socialisation) apply to most groups of young people, stages to (taking part to leading) differ
not only according to particular groups but also to specific individuals within the group.
For example, one group as a whole could jump from socialising to being involved (since they are
in general independent enough to plan and organise the project activities) but inside the group it
could be one or several person(s) who still need(s) to go through the stage of taking part while others could go directly to organising or even leading (for instance, a youth leader very experienced
in project management).
Obviously starting at one or another stage of the progression depends on the level of dependence/
independence of the young people about an actual Youth Initiative. You should keep an eye on each
person individually to ensure that everybody progresses within his or her own level of participation.
The aim is not that all the groups actively participate at the same level but that everyone progresses
according to his or her personal situation as a starting point. Every group is a unique universe and
should be coached taking into consideration the particularities of its unique members.
a new group to realise their own

Youth Initiative. You will want the
project to become a success because
their success is a bit of your success too!
If I would like to start and realise a Youth
Initiative the kind of support I would need
is concrete and practical examples. Just
someone who have done a Youth Initiative
and could tell us what they did, how much
paper work it was and how much time they
spent on it. Someone who could tell us if our
project is good or not and how practically to
work with it.
Pia (20), Finland
Social Development through Community Participation
4.1. 2
Youth Initiatives open channels for active participation not only within the group running the Youth
Initiative but also within the local community or even at a more international level.
There are indeed different levels of participation in the local community. The following scale will
help us to understand the steps of the communitys participation in society through a Youth Initiative.
ACTIVE PARTICIPATION
ADVISORY PARTICIPATION
PARTICIPATION
MANIPULATIVE PARTICIPATION
NON PARTICIPATION
levels of
participation
Young peoples social development can be reinforced through participating in a Youth Initiative
in terms of their involvement in, and the recognition they can get from, the local community.
A Youth Initiative can be developed within a small or large community: at local level among citizens in
a town, at national level among citizens from several regions, or at European level connecting communities from different countries. In each context we can identify the level of social participation
by using different indicators which help to measure the degree of young peoples involvement in
the given community.
Lets take the example of a Youth Initiative organised by a students youth organisation for other
young people in the local community. The project idea is to organise a theatre performance about
the topic all different all equal aimed at young people to promote tolerance and European awareness.
It is non participative when young people do not take part in the activities which have social and cultural impact in the community. Example: young people from the local community do not
participate in the theatre performance organised by the students youth organisation because they are
not informed about it or because they are not interested in theatre, or because they cannot afford the
entrance fee.
The manipulative participation occurs when the participation of young people is used by
someone else (association, youth workers, coaches) to reach personal purposes, which often are
hidden behind other objectives. Example: several immigrants from the neighbourhood are invited to
perform within the theater play all equal all different. The director from the local school who recently has
not accepted the application of one Muslim girl to enter the school, is also invited. In reality the leaders
of the theatre would prefer to see the director to be fired and their aim is thus to bring attention to this
case through the theatre play. In this situation young immigrants are participating in the activity without
being aware of the hidden purpose of it.
The level of participation is when young people decide to participate at a concrete activity by
being present. Example: during the theatre performance all equal all different a group of young people
from the neighbourhood decide to participate as audience. In this case the young audience participated
in the performance but was neither involved in the preparation nor the implementation of the show.
The advisory participation step is when young people contribute to an activity by offering
opinions to the organisers but without any decisional responsibility. Example: a group of young people
from the neighbourhood suggests to the organisers of the theatre performance some ideas concerning
the setting designs which will be taken into consideration in preparing the stage. Besides they will participate as audience.
The active participation step happens when young people from the community contribute
to the project with their own ideas and decide by themselves, they are involved in decision making
and in taking responsibilities towards the project and other members of the group. Example: a group
of young people from the neighbourhood organises together with the students youth organisation the
theatre performance by sharing responsibilities in terms of preparation, implementation and evaluation
of the success of the performance in the given community.
It is generally the case that the higher the participative levels, the bigger the motivation of the community to contribute to the project. No matter which target group from the neigbourhood participates in achieving a Youth Initiative, they should be given the possibility to decide by themselves
and contribute with their knowledge, experiences and competences to the project activities.
When coaching a Youth Initiative you should keep in mind that there is a constant need to find out
the needs and competences both of the core group (youth leaders) and the target group (community), and to review your own position towards the young peoples involvement, depending on the
degree of autonomy reached step by step by the group and the community. What matters is not to
replace the core group or target group when they are not competent but to help them to be aware
of what is needed at each step of the project and support them in the development of new skills.
Route Planning from Local to European
4.1. 3
Participation: local or European? Certainly not all young people have the same opportunities and
abilities to participate at the same level. Your role as a coach would be to identify the maximum
individual participative levels and support their development progressively. It does not matter if
young people reach the higher leading or peer education stage (as identified in stage of our
shell model), neither if they reach the higher European impact, but what matters is to facilitate a
self-confident learning space for each young person and for each group.
Both the personal and social contexts of participation presented in this chapter are needed for
young peoples active participation in society. The personal development is about learning the skills
needed to participate and to take decisions within a group initiative itself. The social development is
about participating and taking responsibility within the community. A good balance between both
aspects, on the one hand the learning experience of the young person as an individual and of the
young people as a team and, on the other hand the impact of the project in the community, would
contribute to a high quality Youth Initiative.
Learning to be citizens through a local Youth Initiative, but especially through an international experience, is the first step to progressively internalise the common responsibility of becoming citizens
not only of our region or our country but also citizens of Europe and citizens of the World.
Leading a Youth Initiative gives young people the experience of being active by acting and reacting on common European concerns at local level, the feeling of pride in having achieved something
positive at local level and as a possible consequence of that, the feeling of wanting new challenges
like starting co-operation at international level.
4. 2
Travel Conditions for Participation

Think about a Youth Initiative as a journey through the road of participation. You are a coach and
are riding the coaching bi-cycle with a group of young people doing a Youth Initiative project. You
are riding behind them, not too close but not too far. Far enough not to be too present on their trip
but close enough to be there whenever is needed. Along the side of the road you will have at your
disposal different pit stops. The trip could be quite long and therefore you can decide when and
where to stop in order to build up energy for the rest of the way. To support the group you are riding
with, energy could be given in terms of increasing competences required to move forward
(knowledge about the road to follow, social skills to communicate with people along the way, etc),
in terms of opportunities or resources needed for the way (drink and food, a map, etc), or in
terms of motivation to continue till the end (challenges, enthusiasm, etc).
These three elements are indeed seen as the main conditions for participation within a Youth Initiative:
Competences: knowledge, skills and attitudes to participate and take decisions.
Opportunities: power to make decisions and resources available.
Motivation: willingness to take an active role in their community life.
Active participation is when

all the young people participate
and are active in the project.
If I had an idea I wouldnt like my
coach to give me his back and not
listen or understand me.
Miriam (17), Malta
In Youth Initiative projects the combination of all the mentioned conditions differs in each phase
of the process. Because of that, it is worth seeing youth participation as a long-term process where
young people gain participation experience, develop capacity to participate and their motivation
to participate further is growing. Your role as a coach should aim at increasing the level of youth
participation by working in three directions: accompany the young peoples personal development
process, open different opportunities to gain participation experiences and encourage young people to take an active stance in their life.
Coming back to the model of participative levels, meaning different involvement of people in making and undertaking decisions affecting their life, Youth Initiatives should be at the top level of
participation because those projects are prepared, run and evaluated by young people themselves.
In reality young people are not, usually, at the same level of participation from the beginning to the
end of the process of a Youth Initiative. But still there is a way for you as a coach to support every
group, no matter the participation level they feel more comfortable with, towards autonomy and
youth participation. Again an individual approach adapted to a given group in a concrete situation
will need to be adopted.
5.
BE
ST
86
PR
A
C
TI
C
E
A
N
D
BE
YO
practice
kaleidoscope
In this chapter you will find a European

of seven different project examples from seven
European countries. These stories will tell you about diverse projects and coaching realities. You will get to
know very different groups of young people from different backgrounds, with very different ideas and also very
different needs. This small compilation of examples shows the really wide variety of project possibilities and of
possible coaching situations.
The people who gave advice and support to the following groups met the young people at certain stages during
their project. They had different roles and resources they could offer to the young people. In those presented
cases, where the support was rather sporadic, you will find the description of the example is outlined from an
outsiders view and also written in the third person, so as to comment on possible successes but also mistakes
and failures. In other cases where the coach of the group was accompanying them throughout the whole
process, the example is described from the perspective of the coaching person.
87
Before you start reading the examples now, we would suggest you keep in mind the different models of
participation we introduced in the last chapter. Based on them you may reflect at what point the aim to support
the highest level of participation, young people leading the project and coach supporting the group as a mere
adviser, is reached.
5.1
Postcard from Poland: Our Few Minutes

by Milena Butt-Ponik
The project idea

A group of young people from a small town in south east Poland prepared a project called our few
minutes. The title refers to the feeling they had, that as a group they had a very short time left before
they could do something together, before they start becoming adults, busy with work, responsibilities and personal obligations for life.
The town they live in does not offer many possibilities for spending free time out of home and
school. The unemployment rate is very high and the families of young people who prepared this
project suffer from economic and social difficulties. All of the initiators were students of the same
high school where they created the Students Club of Independent Arts. The main aim of this club
was to create a space for self development and some activities which could compete with TV and
doing nothing.
As they said, everybody can be a member of their club: loved or not, too slim or too fat, big and
small, talented or not, happy or unhappy, hard working student or lazy one. They wanted to create a
world of alternatives where they could express themselves. The idea of the Youth Initiative project
came as a need to develop further their Club and so motivate other young people to discover their
talents and deeper wishes. To get people out from their life corners.
The initiators
88 Best practice and beyond
The most active members of the Club of Independent Arts came up with the idea of the Youth
Initiative. In total nine young people, aged between and , created the project. Since they did
not have any experience with preparing projects and applying for money, the librarian from their
high school offered them support and help in creating and writing the project. The school library
was a gathering point where most of the group meetings took place.
These young people were already known in their local community since they organised poetry
evenings, exhibitions, Valentine Days and common activities with disabled young people from the
town. The director of their school together with the teachers helped the group to create and submit
their project to the YOUTH National Agency in Poland. They had meetings together before the
application was ready to be sent in.
The timetable and methodology

The project was planned for five months, but later on it was extended due to changes in the programme and within the group of young people.
During the first month, preparation and first activities started. A questionnaire aiming to identify the
most common needs and interest of youngsters, which couldnt be realised due to lack of money, was
created and distributed to young people from the town. According to responses, four main areas of
working were put forward: art, architecture, electronic and computer and foreign languages.
The first phase of the project was very enthusiastic. Young peple were very motivated and happy that
they managed to receive a grant. Co-operation with the school was very good as well as within the
group of initiators. The advisor from the school, who took the role of coach for the young people, was
doing a great deal for the group, as well as being the contact person with the National Agency.
During the second month, implementation started. And then, the first problems appeared: conflict
between the co-ordinator of the project and the advisor. The role of co-ordinating the project was
given by the group of initiators to a young poet. One day the co-ordinator called the National
Agency with a complaint that the advisor was influencing the project too much and did not allow
the young people to act freely as it should be by the principles of Youth Initiatives. The first phone
call with the advisor and other group members, made by the National Agency, showed a different
understanding of the problem. The group promised to first discuss the issue together and then find
a common solution.
As for the coaching system provided by the National Agency, three steps were implemented.
First step: e-mails and telephone talks

In a few days the National Agency received a letter from the group informing about a change of the
project co-ordinator. The same day the National Agency received a letter from the co-ordinator that
due to manipulation by the advisor the group was forced to reject her as the co-ordinator of the
project. Talking to both sides by phone and mediating between them did not bring total clarification.
At this stage the main reason for conflict was recognised in the advisors involvement.
Second step: meeting with the whole group at the National Agency office
Third step: meeting with the whole group in their town

The co-ordinator did not fulfil what was agreed in the compromise and the group asked for further
support. A first talk with the co-ordinator showed that she felt a huge pressure from being observed
Best practice and beyond 89
Since the information was contradictory, we invited the whole group to the National Agency for a
meeting to discuss possible solutions. The group was very united against the co-ordinator who was
seen as a betrayer since she informed the National Agency about the conflict. Different methods
were used to identify the source of conflict within the group and to reach possible solutions. We
discussed the motivation of team members to work together and projected the results of a possible
solution. At the end the group agreed to compromise so that they would give one more chance to
the co-ordinator. At this stage the main reason of conflict was recognised as the relationship between
the group and the co-ordinator, the group did not want to be co-ordinated by a person they did
not respect and did not trust. The advisor was not present during this meeting. All members of the
group had very good opinion about the role of the advisor and the importance of the help given
by the advisor in their action plan.
and lack of trust by members of the group. The group decided that since communication was so
difficult and so many emotions were involved, it would be much better if the actual co-ordinator
would take over the responsibility for co-ordination of one section instead of the whole project. The
advisor was not present during our meeting.
The project results

The project met its aim: young people created space for their talents and creativity. The town became more and more a place where young people could spend their free time. All activities which
were planned in the timetable were realised. However the initial project co-ordinator dropped out
of the group and never came back. So the principle of the Club that every person can be an active
member was not accomplished.
The coaching approach

From my reflection, the strong points of the coaching approach were: taking problems seriously,
showing boundaries, ensuring young people take decisions by themselves, suggesting to young
people alternatives for solutions and common analysis of benefits and disadvantages of given strategies, jointly confronting the core of the conflict and leaving the final decision in young people hands,
create safe space for mutual exchange of opinions and needs. As for the weak points of coaching,
I would identify: not understanding the local context and the importance of an adults presence in
recognition of the group by local authorities, not properly identifying roles within the group and
not appreciating the crucial position of the advisor for the young people.
From the very beginning this group of young people was supported by different adults: teachers,
librarian and parents, and at the end, officers of the National Agency. What was the most problematic
area was linked more with them as a group than any external problem. The main field of needed
coaching concerned conflict management, communication, group dynamics and team building.
The project itself brought new and unknown challenges to the young people: how to work in a
group together? How to reach their ambitious aims and objectives and still like each other? How to
manage communication within the group? How to deal with group members who dont obey group
rules? How to communicate with adults? Whose side to take in case of conflict among advisors or
group members? How to deal with personal confrontation and crisis of friendships? How to clarify
misunderstanding and doubts?
I think that it would have been very good for this group to have had have some team building and
group working exercises which would have helped them to know each other better from the perspective of working together within a team for many months. Moreover it would have been helpful
for young people to have had one coach external to their group or support organisation. The young
people lacked support from somebody who was not involved into the project.
Postcard from Lithuania: Video Book of Recipes
5. 2
by Nerijus Kriauciunas
The project idea

The main idea of the Youth Initiative Yellow-Green-Red was to create a video recipe book. Young
people wanted to gather cooking recipes of traditional meals prepared by people from different
cultures living in Lithuania and put that on video.
What was driving young people during this project was the possibility of travelling around the
country, meeting people from other cultures, playing with the video, trying new and interesting
meals and having a good time during the summer holidays. In fact they were motivated by a classical formula: new experience, challenge and fun. But also the project gave the opportunity to show
other young people that it is possible to do something interesting whilst drawing their attention to
the cultural diversity around them. Moreover the possibility of experiencing non-formal education
was also important even if they were not totally aware of it.
All participating people were living in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania, which is often celebrating
cultural diversity, but not necessarily paying a lot of attention to it or valuing it in daily life.
The initiators
Around young people participated in this Youth Initiative and - of them were the main people
who carried it out. The ages differed from to years old and their experiences were also varied.
For almost all of them this was the first contact with the YOUTH programme. Until this experience
the young people knew each other as friends with whom it was good to party. Youth Initiatives gave
them the possibility of knowing themselves as colleagues in work and that turned out as a totally
different experience. For some of them participation in the project built their confidence, others
were convinced they would rather stay as friends rather than as project co-leaders.
After finding the idea and planning concrete steps, the young people started to fill in the application
form. They had meetings where they were discussing parts of the application form, then sharing
responsibilities out and filling it in. I was doing proof reading of the application and sending my
feedback via email.
The starting point of the project was the search for a common idea. During this stage I, as coach,
was using some creative thinking techniques that helped to find enough original and innovative
ideas. After finding a common idea it was important to put in order all main actions and tasks to be
undertaken during the project. It helped then to plan concrete steps of the project, using participatory techniques.
After getting the grant the young people had meetings to plan project activities, share the tasks
and responsibilities. It was important to firstly plan all the visits in different regions where people
from other cultures live, agree with them on meetings, and identify resources available and needed.
Everything was planned and decided by the young people with some consultation with me via
phone calls. During consultation I was trying to clarify the options, but the final decision was made
by the young people themselves.
During the first weekend visit we tried to combine group building activities and shooting the film.
For the group building I used several methods based on experiential learning principles. Activities
showed some disagreements within the group and weak points in their common work. The negative side was that some people from the group did not know a lot about the project as they were
invited to join it just before the first visit. During that visit I participated in the first shooting of the
film as well. (Although I did not participate in the rest of the shooting, I was positively surprised
when, during the last presentation of the movie, I saw how many people from different cultures
they managed to place on the video!)
During some of the following weekend visits I used experiential learning as a way of answering
the concrete needs of the young people in the group. In one of the first stages of the project we
went on a night trip in order to get to know each other better. In the middle stage of the project we
went on a boat trip to discuss gender issues as it was appearing as one of the important topics in
the group. In both cases I made suggestions after identifying the group needs and young people
were deciding to take the challenge or not.
One of the main barriers for some group members participation of some members of the group
was money. As the project funding was delayed the young people had to pay their participation
to the visits from their own money and in few cases they paid extra money to cover the costs of
other people involved in the project. As a learning point from this they took more time to work on
co-funding.
The most difficult stage was in the autumn when they had to finish the preparation of the video
book and organise its presentation. The main problems were the starting of the school year, participation in other after school activities and lack of motivation. My role here was more to put questions
trying to clarify their interest and wish to continue the project.
During the final stage of the project young people participated in two weekend seminars. One was
focusing more on intercultural learning and the other one on generating ideas and planning. During
the intercultural learning weekend I prepared workshops and worked with them more as a trainer.
For the second one I helped them to find two trainers who worked with them.
During the evaluation stage of the project we had two evaluation meetings. The young people
used some evaluation tools to reflect on the Youth Initiative experience and evaluate the outcomes.
During the evaluation meetings they prepared the final presentation of the project. I was participating as a guest.
It is worth mentioning that due to the over run of the last stage of the project, it was necessary to
extend the end date of the project. The final version of the movie was cut by professionals in cooperation with the young people which gave them the opportunity to learn new skills. I did not use
the video film as a source for evaluation but it could be a very good tool for this purpose.
During the reporting time I advised the leader of the group on how to prepare the financial and
activity parts of the report. As we were submitting the final report to the National Agency together,
it was important to agree the changes in the project.
The project results

To a great extent the main aim of the project was achieved as it was supposed to be beneficial to the
initiators of the project themselves. Thats how it happened. Maybe the product of this Youth Initiative, a video book of recipes, is not of the best quality, but the process was valuable for the personal
development of the young people. Through this project they strengthened their motivation to keep
an interest in other cultures and actively participate in similar activities in future.
The year after finishing this Youth Initiative project several of the young people hosted a multilateral
Youth Exchange project with the main theme Culture. The local community was involved in some
activities of that international project and participated in the final presentation of the project.
This Youth Initiative was beneficial not only for the young people directly involved in the project
but for other people too. During one of the first visits to a small town a new Youth Initiative was
born to be implemented the year after the project. In that new Youth Initiative some of the young
people from the video recipe book Youth Initiative participated as well. Through participating for
the second time in a Youth Initiative young people were active in advising, inspiring and offering
creative proposals to their peers.

From the methods and techniques I used in coaching this Youth Initiative the best were creative
thinking techniques and experiential learning activities. Quite good was also the working group
building activities and evaluation tools.
I think without my coaching the Youth Initiative would be different, but it is very difficult to say what
it would be, if it would be
My coaching was important at the very early stage of the project when the young people were
searching for an idea and preparing the application form. At the final stage it was important to
motivate the young people to finish the project and to encourage successful reporting so that the
young people could cope with their obligations.
5. 3
Postcard from Italy: Initiative after Initiative

by Mario DAgostino
The project idea

The project Im describing doesnt concern one single Youth Initiative but two of them, one after
another. The idea of these initiatives was to develop young peoples opportunities in a territory
where there were neither youth policy nor youth organisations or youth centres, and therefore
there werent any youth activities.
In I was a social worker responsible for a centre for young people with disabilities and at the
same time I was a young activist of the Youth Express Network, from exclusion to integration.
Thanks to the Youth Express Network I had the opportunity to participate in the Long Term Training
Course held at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg. Participants on this training course came
from all over Europe with an idea of what a youth project could be. The project I had in mind was
to build a youth centre in my mother town Tivoli (. habitants, province of Rome) in order to
offer an opportunity to young people to be creative and active and to promote the culture of youth
participation among young people and politicians.
The initiators
Thanks to the information and skills I acquired during my training in Strasbourg and the support
of the Youth Express Network, I started to spread what I had learned to a group of young people
living in Borgonuovo, a socially disadvantaged suburb of Tivoli. I was enthusiastic to tell the group
that, as young European citizens, we had a chance to express our right to be active and creative and
above all, that we had the opportunity to develop a Youth Initiative project through the Youth for
Europe programme.
So I started meeting at the centre for young people with disabilities where I was working with
a group of - years old young people, who were strongly motivated to realise their own project
with me. This was the beginning of my experience as a coach for a Youth Initiative project.

Initiative after initiative, the different phases of the whole project idea were the following:
First phase : Youth Initiative Letter to Europe

After several meetings in January , the group finally agreed on a common idea for a project. At
this stage I tried to do my best as a coach not to influence their choice, but supporting them to clarify
their idea for the project. Their idea was to produce a film that would show their living situation. Far
from becoming famous actors their aim was to spend some good time together and at the same
time to let the others, such as young people, local politicians and European youth organisations,
know about their reality. We wrote down the project and finally sent the application to the National
Agency of the Youth for Europe programme.
We faced many difficulties because we were informed that the project was approved months after
sending the application, and the financial support arrived to us year later. It was very difficult for me
as a coach to keep their motivation high for such a long time and it was really stressful to support the
group without any tool and without any money. Yet I couldnt leave the group at that moment.
But finally, at the end of the film titled Letter to Europe was ready and subtitled in English and
French. The film was a documentary including a strong denounciation of the social and cultural
situation of the young people living in this suburb.
At this point the group decided to hire a cinema in order to show their film to citizens and politicians. Their intention was also to organise a forum on youth issues with local politicians, as a place
where to ask the politicians to support them in establishing a youth association, in setting up a
youth centre and in developing a youth local council. That day the cinema was full of people (with
exception of politicians). Later on I realised that the need of holding a forum with politicians was
much more mine than the groups.
When the film was over the group told about their experience and invited the other young people
to join them in creating a youth organisation and in claiming a youth centre.
Second phase : Youth Organisation Free Young City

About new strongly motivated young people joined the group after the Youth Initiative Letter to
Europe. In finally they succeeded in establishing their youth organisation called Free Young
City, but a few months later only people were left in the organisation, from which only were
part of the original group. For a long period the group of tried to organise little activities for other
young people and children but it was difficult for them to keep their organisation alive without
recognition and support from the municipality.
Third phase : Youth Initiative From Creativity to Participation

In , after a big crisis among the members of the group, the organisation realised a local Youth
Initiative project entitled From Creativity to Participation supported by the YOUTH National Agency,
and once again with my volunteer support as a coach.
In months throughout this project, a group of young people from the Free Young City organisation realised several activities, such as concerts, movie forums on youth situations, performances
by young artists, round table discussions on youth policy and youth participation and workshops
on theatre, traditional music, intercultural work, clowning and video making. They rented an old
factory that became a self-managed youth centre for the period of the project. This time, I was sure
that the aims of this project such as motivating young people to be active and politicians to support
youth policy were the ones carried out by the group and not by me. My role as a coach was rather to
train the group in project management in order to improve their ability and autonomy to manage
the project by themselves.
The result of this project was a video documentary that has been discussed with the Mayor during
a public conference. Finding inspiration in the White Paper on Youth Policy of the European Commission and the Card of Participation of the Council of Europe, the young people asked the Mayor to
provide them with a youth centre and to support a youth local council. At that moment, the Mayor
took the commitment to pay the rent of the centre for months and to support young people in
order to find a common way to develop youth policy.
Fourth phase: Youth Centre Youth Community of Tivoli

In the youth organisation had young members. The organisation asked me to continue
supporting the group in the research for funds to realise a participative youth centre. By that time
a regional law set aside a fund to increase youth participation. Both the organisation and I were
seeing our initial dream come true. Finally, the organisation received economic support to start
a youth centre aiming to promote active youth participation in the city of Tivoli.
The project results

The fact that today there is a youth centre that fosters participation is a result of a process carried
out during more than years thanks to Youth for Europe and Youth European programmes.
Nowadays, six people aged - belonging to the original group and to the youth organisation
Free Young City are working as youth workers for different organisations in the area. About me,
I am currently coaching a group of young people coming from a town of . habitants in the
south of Italy, where no youth organisation nor youth centres exist.
In the initial phase of the project I worked above all to spread information about the European opportunities and to motivate the group in realising something for themselves and for the local youth
community. In this phase I shared with the group concerns and emotions, taking myself the role of
group and project leader. At that time I was young and probably I was more a social worker and an
activist than a coach. What I am asking myself and what I ask you is, if in your opinion its right that
the aims of a young social worker are to be transferred to a group of younger people. Do you think
I manipulated the group or that I gave them an opportunity?
In the second phase the group was looking for autonomy and identity so that some older members,
unfortunately the more socially and economically disadvantaged ones, left the group while younger
ones entered. It was tough for me not to enter the group in this phase, above all because the young
people whom I thought could bring an important contribution to the group were leaving. I supported the group only when they asked me to do it. Sometimes I ask myself if it would have been
better to be more present as a peer. What do you think?
In the third phase the young people came to me to have some consultation about a problem related
to the participation of young people to the activities they were promoting. They asked me to support
them in realising a local Youth Initiative project. This time as a coach I facilitated communication
among the group members, I shared aims and strategies of the project, I trained them on project
management, I helped them to identify their individual competences and I acted as a mentor. This
was the phase I felt to be more suitable for me, maybe because this is what I was asked for.
The fourth phase meant, to me, the end of my coaching role. I put my knowledge and my competences at the disposal of the youth organisation, as far as fund research to realise a democratic
participative youth centre was concerned. Unfortunately, after receiving the economic support of
the Region the organisation board did not accomplish a participative management of the centre.
The only ones to manage it were the president, the vice president, the treasurer and the secretary
who were all working as youth workers.
So now Im asking myself and to you: is it possible for a coach to be manipulated by a group of
young people?
Two videos document this experience: Letter to Europe filmed in and From Creativity to Participation filmed in . A copy can be requested at the e-mail address riodago@tiscali.it
Postcard from Germany: Participation... Mission (Im)possible
5.4
by Jochen Butt-Ponik
The project idea

In my position of a youth worker for a big youth organisation, I have to find additional funds from
time to time to balance the cutting by the state or district of our regular grants. From research,
I found a grant possibility in a project fund for improving the social participation of young people,
offering a maximum of . for projects that aim at contracts between young people and political representatives, local authorities or even private companies.
The initiators
When I wrote down the application, there was not a clear and expressed need of the young people
themselves that I responded to, but more a feeling that this would be needed and a focus on the
interests of the organisation I work for. I made leaflets and spread info about the project among the
local groups of our association to motivate young people to take part in that project once it was
granted. And it was! We got the approval, my board was happy with the extra money and I had the
For my association, I set up the project idea of Participation Mission (Im)possible to create a frame
for local youth groups to develop such contracts and to realise projects corresponding with their
local needs. Our office would provide a CD-Rom with material and tools on project management
and offer a training course to accompany the local projects; and the local projects would do what
they felt was needed to improve their situation.
extra effect of feeling that I could combine my interest to motivate my target group for project work
with the needs of my organisation. So honestly, the iniator was me and not the young people.

But what happened was that after three months of publicising this grant (including money for local projects), nobody seemed to be interested. What to do? I still found our original idea valid and
good, and had the feeling that the young people should get involved in the planned project. The
benefit for them would be great, at least we thought so. They could get better representation of their
ideas, maybe solve some local problems, learn how to get along with the promises of politicians; all
good results, but somehow the young people didnt seem to be really interested. In addtition, the
benefit to our organisation would be worth the effort: some extra money, better contact with our
young volunteers, and something else, lets call it reputation, a nice success which could be shown
to the public.
Coaching under such circumstances is in danger of becoming a dirty business. You get more and
more fixed on the view that you have to find just anybody to realise your project idea. What are the
young peoples coaching needs? Certainly it is not proposing them to solve their problems through
participation in your project. Of course, you dont sell the idea to everybody. No participation work is
sustainable and has a good involvement of the young people if it does not correspond to their own
interests and needs. So I tried to convince people here, place a comment about the benefits of the
project there, and try to create an atmosphere, where the young people start to think about the opportunities for them if they take part in my project. If they would do it at the end I wasnt sure.
So maybe I would have had to write the project report with a bigger use of my fantasy, or give back
some of the money, or just evaluate that my planned project was not based on needs, but on a (insufficiently estimated) prediction of dynamics. It is hard to reach such a conclusion especially when your
job is connected with the success of such enterprises, but better this way than making the young
people the tool of your ideas. I would not have wanted to be treated like raw material for a youth
workers sake when I was young and this could be a clear point of reference on the question of how
far you can use your role as a coach to fulfil your own ideas with the young people you work with.
The project results

After two more months, all of a sudden participants on one of my seminars started to show an
interest in the project possibilities. Those young people I had previously worked with for some
time created their own ideas and identified needs for this project. Then they sent me a SMS in the
middle of the night asking about funding rules. I guess they would not have done so if I had made
them do the project!
We used a sequence of four seminars to coach and support local projects run by the young volunteers. They were supposed to be based on their needs at a local level, for example the renovation
of a youth room in their associations house or the creation of attractive options for local youth to
spend free time during summer holidays. For their support, my organisation developed a CD-Rom
with checklists and materials for doing local projects and work as a volunteer in the youth boards
of our organisation.
The problems they faced implementing local projects were, and still are, enormous and realistically
it seems that these projects are not really of the highest priority for their work in the association.
Nevertheless, some of them tried out project work, went through experiences with such participation projects and (at least thats my hope) learned a lot. We had the first big public presentation of
the project and it proved how much the young people understood this whole thing as their issue.

I guess that a lot of youth workers are in a similar position: trying to find a balance between their
organisational interests and the interests of the young people themselves. In most of the cases, your
professional success is most likely based on fostering successful youth projects or activities. Getting
public money might need your project ideas on the one hand and young peoples involvement on
the other; but should you try to connect these both by all means necessary?
Where is the boundary where manipulation starts and your coaching support is using the young
people to fulfil the organisations needs? Rather easy to define maybe by a lack of commitment of
the young people and by a bad conscience in you. If you take a realistic look at your role in the group
of young people and you find yourself in a position of being the overall motivator, the only one who
is taking responsibility; if you listen to your words when you coach the young people and you hear
mere attempts to convince... then take a step back and reflect on your role again!
Coaching with an attitude towards active youth participation leads to stunning results and you still
like to look at your face in the mirror
5.5
Postcard from France: Against Violence at School

by Pascal Chaumette
The project idea

R.A.S au bahut is a dramatised debate on the theme of violence at school. The aim of this series of
sketches is to fight against violence in primary schools, secondary schools and high schools. The
innovative aspect of the project is that R.A.S au bahut is an interactive performance, or what is
known as an interactive dramatised debate, meaning that during the performance there are constant
exchanges between spectators, actors and a mediator.
What happens? A scene is first performed by actors playing the role of a monitor or teacher who is the
victim of an act of violence. When the scene comes to an end, the actors freeze, meaning that they
stay fixed in their roles while the mediator invites the audience to find solutions. As ideas take shape,
the mediator gradually identifies two or three perceptive young people and asks them to come up
on stage to act out not just their own role, but also that of the teacher who has been attacked It
will be up to the young people, on stage, to resolve the conflict in the fairest way possible.
Through these sketches, pupils of a secondary school or college can have an open discussion about
subjects like verbal violence, rackets, stealing and similar issues that they can encounter everyday,
and try to find solutions to these problems together.
The initiators
The project was initiated by five young people aged between and , led by a young lady who
played the role of co-ordinator. They were all unemployed but loved acting and theatre. They struggled on getting whatever jobs they could but with this project in mind aimed at young people who
are victims of violence at school every day. The co-ordinator and her friends have witnessed this
type of violence and wanted to perform theatre with purposes.

With a great idea like this, people from the local community didnt need much to be convinced of
the need to develop such a project and the good impact it would have in the schools. It was simply
a matter of setting up the project, for instance telling people about it, emphasising that the skills
already exist in the group, the goodwill is in place, but that there is a lack of means.
When the co-ordinator first came to see me, she presented the project without a single written
word! We needed to work on the drafting and consequently the structuring of the project. Together
we discussed everything in detail, and as I knew nothing about her, she put together her network
map: a practical tool that can be used to identify existing knowledge that could contribute to the
project, whether personal, professional, or others.
We then worked on all aspects of organisation and above all we focused on the ways to find the
necessary funding. We had to deal with setbacks when we got refusals from funding sources; that
was a difficult time when we had to overcome doubts and hesitations.
The project results

This project was set up years ago and still exists! In terms of recognition, the group received the
national first prize for initiatives led by young people.
Today, the co-ordinator and her friends have created an association: TracnArt Thtre. She is its
director and continues to work on this project, among other activities dealing with subjects that
concern young people (AIDS, drugs).
Hundreds of secondary schools and high schools have asked her to perform for them: there is a long
waiting list to get a performance by this group as its results are extraordinary! Thats no surprise because here the ethics do not come from the teachers or the parents or even from the actors on stage.
Because of the way they are involved, the message comes from the young people themselves!

My main aim as the coach of those young people was to get the project going and organise the group,
set up a project management process that would allow us to work through established steps to reach the
objectives. Seeing that they were motivated and convinced about the project but were somewhat lost
when it came to paperwork and administrative details, my role was also to create synergies between the
group and potential partners. This way we were able to share out the responsibilities and each person
was clear about what they needed to do while still remaining within the general framework of setting
up a project. Based on their different skills, the group decided for themselves who would do what.
It was important that the group didnt give up their idea or get discouraged because of the quantity
of paperwork and administrative challenges they had to deal with. The first steps in any project are
absolutely crucial for consolidating the team and should all be noticed, underlined and even celebrated! During our weekly meetings, my objective in terms of team management was to rationalise
what they were doing and hold everything together so that they could have a clear picture of where
they were going with the project. This approach apparently paid off since the group members told
me that they felt as if they were building a jig-saw puzzle and at the same time they were one of
the pieces of the puzzle.
My role mainly was setting out the general procedures. There was no need to review the objectives or
contents, but rather a need to work on the means for developing the project. In fact, the group had already a great capacity to be autonomous as well as the skills required for project management, but there
was a need for a guide to show them the way to structure the project stages. This is the role I took over!
As I know very little about the world of theatre myself, I had to enlist the help of experts for things
like the needs analysis and especially for finding low-cost materials. My idea was to conciliate technical details and teambuilding, since I believe its much easier to concentrate on the human side of
things when the technical issues have been dealt with!
5.6
Postcard from Estonia: Rural Information Network

by lly Enn
The project idea

This Youth Initiative was run by a group of young people from a local youth club in one of the rather
remote areas in Southern Estonia. In principle it was one of those places one could easily moan
about that it is too small, too far away from the centre of the region and thus a rather boring place
for young people to live. With the exception that in this little village the co-operation between
different generations to develop the community worked rather well. For instance, the local youth
club was launched with strong support from local government and the events of the youth club
were very popular among the local population. So in one of the gatherings of the local youth club
a new project idea was raised: a group of young people active in the youth club decided to make
their contribution to raise the youth awareness and interest in active participation in other more
remote villages in their region.
The initiators
The idea of the project was launched by some young people who were active in the local youth club
since its beginning and thus had most experience in local level activities. In order to open up the
group and involve other interested people, an invitation was sent around through the e-mail group
of the youth club and finally young people, most of them aged - started to develop the project
idea further. Since it was a rather small village, all of them knew each other quite well.
The project aimed to involve young people living in different villages of the region so that they would
become more aware of their potential for active participation and starting something on their own
in their home environment. The emphasis of the project was laid on the young people with the idea
that if it succeeds the whole community would benefit in the long term.

The project was planned for months. During its introduction phase, the project idea was presented
in the regional radio for wider publicity (for one week different interviews and interactive games took
place as part of the radio programme to attract the attention of youth) as well as through targeted
mailing towards local governments in the region.
Next stage was organising awareness raising events in different villages. Altogether events took
place involving more than young people. The programme of events included introduction to
the project and to the local youth club, info sessions on how to start up a local youth club, how to
initiate youth projects and where to find financial support for local level youth activities, as well
as a workshop on obstacles to local youth participation and some entertainment (sports games
and disco). During each meeting ideas from local youth for further initiatives were gathered and a
contact list for the regional youth information network consisting of young people from different
villages was started.
The results of the events run in villages as well as the grand finale were forwarded to the heads of
local authorities. Speaking of the project results in terms of products, the following were created: a
web-page with useful material for those interested in local youth participation and an information
booklet about local youth clubs.
Through the project process the group of initiators was supported by a youth worker active in the
co-ordination of the local youth club. In addition in Estonia, all the core groups of Youth Initiatives
grant aided in the frame of the YOUTH programme are also supported by the National Agency by
involving young people in the Mid-Term Evaluation Training. Some coaching was then also provided
by the National Agency itself.
It is a pity that even though normally the training takes place somewhere in the middle of the
project process (to raise the quality of projects through support to their mid-term evaluation and
further phases of project), this project group got involved in training just a month before the end
of their project.
Due to that my coaching, as National Agencys project officer, involved mainly support to the evaluation of the experience during the training (including assistance in management of some misunderstandings between the core group and the local coach, identification of main learning points
together with the young people, etc) as well as some phone and e-mail consultancy after the training
to provide support in the final activities and reporting of the project.
The project results

In general it could be said that the young people reached their main aim: they succeeded raising
awareness of how to start up something at a local level in small villages and as a result several local
youth clubs were formed. Also, through the events of the project, public attention was attracted
to youth issues.
In addition the benefits of the project can also be measured by extensive learning experience for
the core group. The project process was rather long and not very easy and therefore the young
people faced a few challenges:
difficulties in the relationship with the youth worker of the local youth club. It became evident that
the young people and the youth worker had different views on the project realisation. As officially
the youth worker was the person responsible for the project, according to the young people, it had
created quite sensitive discussions on ownership of the project.
a modest interest (and in some project workshops even arrogant and interrupting behaviour)
from the young people in the target group. In general the project was welcomed very warmly by
youth in villages, but in some events it did not work out well in creating contacts with local young
people.
As a result of these difficulties some of the group members lost their motivation to continue the
project. So the actual reality of the project was that in trying to reach their planned objectives and
create a positive local impact on youth participation in rather remote villages using their own personal experience as a good example, they also had to struggle with challenges related to team-work
and influences from local community, among others.

This project was run in an environment where, in principle, the young initiators had many people
and institutions to turn to for coaching: their local youth club, the local authority and the National
Agency. From the example we can see that in some aspects of the project the group had to be ready
to find the best solutions for the project to be realised. This had to be completed rather independently of coaching.
It is a pity that the training organised by the National Agency could only happen so late since it was
evident that it provided the group with a rather safe and comfortable environment to evaluate their
project process, as well as to identify those moments in which they clearly needed some monitoring
and assistance from somebody outside the project process. During the training different methods
were used: creating commercials to bring up the essentials of the project; facilitating group discussions to identify the learning experiences in terms of gained skills, attitudes and knowledge; workshops based on forum theatre to try to identify solutions for problems experienced by the core group
members during their project; individual and group level mapping of achievements and results of
the group initiative. After training the coaching mainly involved phone and e-mail consultations.
So the story ends quite well for this project as the main aims were achieved and the young people
gained a valuable learning experience. Probably, without coaching, the project process would have
been different and maybe not that difficult for the core group. Another way to look at Youth Initiatives though is to admit that a Youth Initiative is a rather safe environment to try out your own abilities and understand your own mistakes in project management and in this light, if all went perfectly
as it was for this particular group in this particular project.
After the project, some of the young people from the core group have also been involved in forming youth groups for new projects in the frame of the YOUTH programme such as another Youth
Initiaitve and several Youth Exchanges.
Postcard from Belgium: Urban Artistic Gallery
5.7
by Henar Conde
The project idea

This is the project story of a group of young artists from different countries and backgrounds who
shared a common dream: create a network of European artists from urban culture and a space for
artistic exchange in an area of Brussels where the partners and the local community could realise
their projects. The idea to create a project came up when this group of young artists had for the
first time the opportunity to set up an exhibition in a youth association in Brussels, capital city of
Belgium. They were in charge of organising the opening, selling the paintings and other artistic
objects, reception of the public... What an enriching experience! Why not create a space where they
could exchange their own artistic expertise, learn from each other, be autonomous, be themselves?
Why not realise their common dream by setting up a project together with other groups of young
people in Europe?
As the group was composed of young people from different countries they had created in each
country a network of local artists. Altogether they decided to set up an art gallery in Brussels where
young artists from different countries could live the experience of creating their own piece of work
and show it to the public.
The initiators
The promoters of the project were from different countries, all residents in Belgium, and aged
between and . They were all passionate about urban art and culture, and because it generally
lacks recognition and is often not understood by the public and the institutions, they decided to set
up a project aiming to make urban art better known and appreciated in the area.
Two of the initiators in Brussels were students at that moment and the rest were unemployed, so
they proposed themselves to co-ordinate the project. On behalf of the network of young artists in
different countries, these young people in Belgium applied for a Networking project (Transnational
Youth Initiative), with partners from France, Spain, Czech Republic and Belgium. They were granted
the funds!
Why did they want to do this project? On the one hand they did it for themselves, to develop their
artistic and personal skills; and on the other hand they did it for their network, to exchange practices
and expertise and gain recognition for their work. Besides, since there is not art gallery dedicated
to urban art in Brussels, they wanted to do this project for the local community (neighbours, local
associations, schools, and community services) to make urban culture more visible and better known
throughout the neighbourhood. From a long term perspective, their final ambition was to become
an autonomous cultural enterprise, so as to be integrated in the labour market.

The project idea was in young peoples mind one year before they were awarded the grant to realise
it. The project itself lasted one year but they were planning to continue afterwards.
The task division was done on the basis of the competences and motivations of each member of the
group: writing the application, creating the Internet website, administrative issues, communication,
graphics, looking for future partners and looking for a place to set up the gallery and organise the
exhibitions. All partners should prepare a folder with a port-folio about their association and their
artistic work. Each member of the group should find the role that suited him or her best but all of
them should have an overall vision of the tasks in order to co-operate better in the project.
The first thing the co-ordinating group did was to find a place for their activities. The next step was
communication related: to create an email address, website related to the activities, name and logo
in order to ensure the recognition and visibility of the project. Then the programme of activities
was implemented: opening of the gallery, production of posters and invitations, contact with the
neighbourhood, promotion of future activities, and so on.
The project results

The project reached its aim: the opening of the first exhibition was crowded with visitors and so were
the following exhibitions! Local partners and new artists from the neighbourhood were present.
Lots of new contacts were created. Short magazines were produced at the end of each exhibition
and a final book including all artists participating in the project was planned to be published as a
follow-up to the project. Several people expressed their interest in buying some pieces of work and
some fresh international artistic atmosphere was spread around the neighbourhood.
The project had a direct benefit on the core group co-ordinating the project in Belgium and on the
partner artists but also on a large number of other artists and non artists who presented their work
in the gallery. Actually the real number of beneficiaries is very difficult to calculate since the impact
reached not only the local community in Brussels but also in the partner countries.

Unfortunately the group did not have a coach providing regular support during the implementation of the project and therefore they received no help when different problems appeared. How to
realise a project? How to put what is written in the application into practice? Writing the application,
working out the budget, these are easy tasks. You can learn it thanks to your studies, but how to
set up a concrete project in the real world? There is a Users Guide about theoretical questions but
there is no guide about how to deal with practical issues, thats what they missed.
Moreover the international aspect of these project brought additional difficulties to the development of the network such as communicating between partner groups, dealing with different
expectations and interests of the groups, tasks and budget division, involvement of partners, and
others. For those questions, a support person would have been very helpful.
Its very likely that having a coach during the preparation and implementation of the project would
have helped to deal with some misunderstandings within the co-ordinating group and with the
partners and probably it would have helped with some technical skills that the group lacked such
as accountancy. Maybe also it would have encouraged the motivation of the group during some
difficult steps when things did not seem to work as initially planned. But even though they had no
support from the coaching side they managed to deal with the difficulties they encountered and
they definitely learnt a lot.
The coach might have avoided the overall frustation felt by the group, yet they gained self-confidence and new artistic skills as well as new competencies on project management, communication,
logistics, administration, designing, publicity, and lots more. And it was a great intercultural experience: learning to work in an international team, sharing practices and ideas Probably, the coaching
here would not have had effect on the outcomes of the project since this was a great success but
would have been very useful in the process itself, as the young beneficiaires easily acknowledged!
Summary and Prospective
5. 8
As you could see above, the presented stories can be hardly called the best examples of our coaching practice. Our idea was to share with you the complexity of each case and possible ways (which
not always were successful and proper!) to support these initiatives. We believe that we can learn
and gain from each others experience, even if its an experience of failure.
These seven examples hopefully show that the coaching support for youth projects is very valuable
not only to raise the quality, improve the process and the success of the projects but also (and above
all) of the young peoples learning experience. We dont know in which way the project results would
have been different without coaching, but for sure we can offer new doors for the young people
who wish to initiate their own project. We can try to motivate them if they are stuck in their process
and provide them with methods to continue and follow their ideas.
Obviously the most important point to remember while coaching is to leave the self initiative and
active participation as much as possible to young people themselves!
tools
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6. BI- C YCLE TOOLS
It is not sufficient for a successful coaching to have its heart in the right place, to ask the right questions
at the right moments and to be able to put oneself in someones place. Coaching means to reach
defined goals and to find solutions together in a common group process. The task is to discover all
existing resources and to make them useable and available to others.
helping you
To create this process you need tools and instruments

to visualise important aspects,
to get to know the group you will work with, to identify your own competences and resources as a
coach, to evaluate the project and the coaching processes, to reflect on skills gained by the young
people or even to unravel confused thoughts and to structure them. There is a need for explanation
models, advisory methodology and intervention technology. In this chapter you will find a variety
of tools and instruments that might help you to ride the Coaching Bi-cycle in the most efficient and
participative way, taking care of the creativity and different ways of expression of each individual.
109
6.1
Coaching Ghost Inventory
BI-CYCLE TOOL 1
Directions:
Read the following
statements and circle your
responses for each statement
on the response form table
provided on the next page.
Responses:
To what extent does
each of the coaching
Inventory statements
describe your behaviours,
values or attitudes?
Circle the appropriate letter
for each statement using the
following key:
A = Always
S = Sometimes
N = Never
110 Bi-cycle tools
Note: you can only circle one

response per statement.
Use this tool as a self-reflective assessment model to guide you in supporting and challenging your
development as a coach. It will help you to explore which coaching style fits you better, as well as
to understand the different roles that a coach can play when supporting youth projects.
Coaching Inventory Statements

. The responsibility for learning and development
always lie with the coach.
. As a coach I like to share my skills and knowledge by being involved.
. Coaching is about showing people the way.
. People learn best when they take responsibility
and get involved.
. People need coaches to facilitate learning and
for directing them to success.
. Learning by doing with others is essential for the
coach and the learners.
. Coaches are essential if expertise and knowledge are to be transferred.
. It is important for everyone to be involved
through the whole process.
. A coach is there to ensure people stay focussed
and on track.
. A coachs participation is an important part of
any team.
. The responsibility for learning is that of the participants, the coach is there just to support.
. The coach has to ensure everyone has the opportunity to fully get involved.
. Coaching is another friendlier term for a manager.
. As a coach I find it difficult not to get involved.
. If people are the vehicles and drivers, the coach
is the map.
. A coach has to be able to creatively engage all
participants.
. The coach reminds the participants of the
agreed aims and objectives.
. The coach can motivate and ensure the group

achieves more through seeing themselves as
part of the group.
. The coach is there to hold the hands of the
participants.
. When a group is functioning effectively the
coach isnt needed.
. A coach will have more experience and knowledge than the participants.
. Being totally part of the group allows the coach
to fully understand the group dynamics and
learning process.
. A coach will encourage and motivate the group
to identify forward strategies.
. A coach should allow the group to review and
evaluate their own activities.
. A coach should not allow the group to deviate
from its goals.
. The coachs input of ideas is as important as the
participants.
. A coach is there to manage the groups dynamic
not the group activities.
. The coach will ensure everyone in the group has
equal opportunity to give their views.
. A coach will make sure meetings move on a
good pace.
. A group cannot meet if the coach isnt there.
. A coach can make suggestions about the process but the group will make the decisions about
the direction and activity.
. The process is more important than the product.
. A coach can firstly show the group how tasks

can be accomplished before allowing them to
attempt them.
. A coachs needs are just as important as the
groups.
. A coach will support the group in reflecting to
ensure the group learns from the experience of
participating.
. The group chooses its own direction and tasks.
. A coach should encourage the group to think

outside of the box, to be creative when approaching a challenge.
. Problem solving is the responsibility of both the
coach and the learners.
. The coach will ensure there is a safe and productive learning environment.
. The role of the coach is to be like a fly on the
wall and just observe.
Coaching Ghost Inventory Response Form

A
S
N
A
S
N
A
S
N
A
S
N
A
S
N
A
S
N
A
S
N
A
S
N
A
S
N
10
A
S
N
11
A
S
N
12
A
S
N
13
A
S
N
14
A
S
N
15
A
S
N
16
A
S
N
17
A
S
N
18
A
S
N
19
A
S
N
20
A
S
N
21
A
S
N
22
A
S
N
23
A
S
N
24
A
S
N
25
A
S
N
26
A
S
N
27
A
S
N
28
A
S
N
29
A
S
N
30
A
S
N
31
A
S
N
32
A
S
N
33
A
S
N
34
A
S
N
35
A
S
N
36
A
S
N
37
A
S
N
38
A
S
N
39
A
S
N
40
A
S
N
Bi-cycle tools 111
112 Bi-cycle tools
Circle your scores

corresponding to the
Response Form. The circles on
your Response Form should
be in exactly the same place
on the Scoring Form.
Directions:
Add each column (down)
and place totals in the
boxes provided. Then
also add all the columns
together to give you
your grand total.
Coaching Ghost Inventory Scoring Form

1
2
3
1
3
2
1
3
2
1
3
2
1
2
3
1
3
2
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
1
3
2
10
1
2
3
11
3
2
1
12
2
3
1
13
3
2
1
14
3
2
1
15
2
3
1
16
2
3
1
17
2
3
1
18
2
3
1
19
1
3
2
20
1
2
3
21
1
3
2
22
1
2
3
23
3
2
1
24
3
2
1
25
2
3
1
26
1
2
3
27
2
3
1
28
2
3
1
29
2
3
1
30
1
2
3
31
3
2
1
32
3
2
1
33
2
3
1
34
1
2
3
35
2
3
1
36
3
2
1
37
3
2
1
38
2
3
1
39
3
2
1
40
2
3
1
TOTAL
TOTAL
TOTAL
TOTAL
Directive
Involved
Guiding
Participative
GRAND TOTAL:
Plotting Your Results

To obtain a more graphic illustration of your Coaching Ghost results, transfer your column totals
from the scoring form to the table below. Maybe use different colours and fill the columns to create
a graph like illustration.
30
25
20
15
10
5
Directive
Involved
Guiding
Participative
Coaching Ghost Interpretation

The Coaching Ghost Inventory is a self reflective assessment model to be used as a guide for supporting and challenging your development as a Coach.
The maximum score on this Coaching Ghost Inventory is points. Any score above will usually mean that you use a balanced combination of coaching method styles and have a broad and
advanced understanding of coaching methods and techniques. You are aware of the importance
of coaching and that different learners and groups can have different learning needs and approaches.
If your score is in the range of , this could mean you have a good understanding of coaching
methods and techniques and you may be slightly experienced but not a regular coaching practitioner. In time with some self reflection, training and further experiences of coaching you are well
on your way to improving your practice and understanding of coaching.
If your score is below this could mean that you are a coaching novice. Your understanding of the
term and your experience of coaching might be relatively new. Completing the Coaching Ghost
Inventory could be your first positive step to becoming a coach and understanding its roles.
Remember a good coach will always use a variety of techniques and methods depending on needs.
A well balanced coach will have column scores that are close and similar.
Bi-cycle tools 113
The column with the highest score can mean it is this approach you feel most comfortable and
familiar with. However it is important to look closer at those areas where you reach a low score to
identify possible learning and development areas for you as a coach.
Directive
This style and method of coaching is very much based on the coach offering direction and sometimes steering the group in a certain or desired way. The coach acts as a sign post through identifying possible routes and opportunities and occasionally will try and persuade the group to choose
a particular route. The coach clearly and fully understands that this slightly manipulative approach
is necessary at that particular time.
Involved
This style and method is where the coach feels being a member and part of the group. This is more
aligned to a peer approach. The coach will usually feel he or she has the same amount of investment as the group and therefore deserves the same amount of the reward. This is where the coach
is immersed in the whole group process; he or she is involved yet at the same time he or she is the
coach. The coach here may only be identified by having more skills in, experience and understanding of, the topic area.
Guiding
This style and method is where the coach focuses on supporting the group or individuals. The coach
is there to ensure the participants well being by ensuring a safe learning environment and that the
group process is well managed. This is where the coach supports the group at every level, almost
handholding the group and making sure they dont experience potential hazards.
Participative
This style and method are where the coach allows the group to find its own way and individuals are
self directive. The coach will ensure the group has ownership and autonomy of the projects and
activities. The coach here acts more as a sounding board and can offer suggestions but the participants ultimately make the final decision and choose their own direction.
Coaching Action Plan

Based on your scores of the Coaching Ghost Inventory which coaching method and style do you
most strongly align yourself with (this will be the column with the highest score)?
..................................................................................................................
114 Bi-cycle tools
...................................................................................................................
Based on your scores of the Coaching Ghost Inventory which coaching method and style do you
have the weakest connection with (this will be the column with the lowest score)?
..................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
Which coaching style and method do you believe best fits with your understanding of Youth Initiatives?
..................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
What strategies can you implement to explore further the coaching method and style you scored
lowest on?
..................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
What strategies can you implement to develop a more balanced approach to coaching?
..................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
What opportunities in terms of support, training, resources, consultation does your support organisation, your National Agency, SALTO-YOUTH network, other peer colleagues, etc can offer in
improving your coaching awareness and skills?
..................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
What opportunities do supporting Youth Initiatives offer in improving your coaching awareness
and skills?
..................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
My commitment to my own development and that of others:

Throughout the next months I will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
...................................................................................................................
Through supporting Youth Initiatives I will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
wishes are ok, but intentions are for real
Bi-cycle tools 115
...................................................................................................................
6. 2
Visualisation Methods
BI-CYCLE TOOL 2
Here you will find two creative open methods that might help you to see where the group stands
in the beginning. Moreover we introduce you to different methods of visualisation for practical use
during the coaching process.
The mirror
For the first contact with a new group you could bring a rectangular mirror with you. After the first
getting to know each other you bring out the mirror (first with the back side in front of the group)
and ask the group, what do you think, what do I have here in my hands? Because the participants of
the group are sitting in different positions and therefore they have different points of sight, you will
get a variety of suggestions like picture-frame, painting, blackboard or also mirror.
After a short reflection on the fact that things can change if you look at them out of different perspectives, you turn the mirror in the right position (horizontally) and invite the group to place themselves
in front of the mirror, so that they can see themselves and all other members of the group. If they
succeed, its possible to turn the mirror again in the vertical position and to ask them to solve the
same task to place themselves in front of the mirror, watching themselves and the others. Because
the mirror gives them less space when its in the vertical position than when it was horizontal, the
group will squeeze in to have an external look on themselves.
The bicycle
116 Bi-cycle tools
You draw a bicycle on a flip-chart and explain: For the beginning I like to invite you for a short experiment of thoughts and explain at the same time how I work Imagine that this bicycle is standing here
in our room. It is stabilised at the handlebar, so that it cant fall on the right or left side. Forwards and
backwards it is moveable. The pedals are vertical, so one is turned up and the other is turned down. The
one which is turned down is turned to your sight. Imagine further on, that I fix a string on the pedal which
is turned down and that I pull with the string in a angle towards the back of the bicycle. Then draw
a string on your bicycle on the flip-chart and ask to the group: in which direction is the bicycle moving?
Please discuss shortly with each other and tell me your result!
The group will put their heads together and discuss for a while Unanimously they should agree
that the bicycle will move forwards. Now you bring out a hidden bicycle and fix like in theory
a string on the pedal. One participant is now asked to hold the bicycle and another one should pull
the string. As a surprise for the whole group the bike is moving backwards.
You can use this astonished atmosphere to offer the group some new glasses. What I like to show
with this experiment is the relationship between theory and practice. There are many different theories
existing concerning the topic working in teams and groups. But practically speaking the reality often looks
completely different like we just experienced some minutes ago! With regard to this fact I suggest
also to try to change perspectives and positions sometimes during our future co-operation. This will help
us to look at the different things from different sides...
The most common and standard method of visualising thoughts, perceptions and solutions is to
write the contents on cards. Topics and Goals are written individually on cards to sort them out and
to bring them finally in a new structure.
Similarly we are used to create schematically presentations on a flip-chart helping us to understand
the context in a better way. In these cases its helpful to ask the participants to draw their own
presentations, because then it is easier for externals to understand the thoughts of somebody else
and often it also helps the person who is visualising his/her own ideas and thoughts to clarify them
meanwhile.
Another convenient method of visualisation is to create moveable pictures out of different materials. Therefore you can use for example wooden figures or also postcards with different subjects,
characters or situational atmospheres. To work on the floor offers the advantage to better play with
the distances. The overview from above supports a distanced perspective especially if the people
are strongly involved in the topic.
Following the motto one picture tells more than thousand words, visualisations can help during
the coaching process to clarify and structure some elements of the project. The pictures answer the
purpose to mediate in communication. Visualisation offers the possibility to get more distance and
also sometimes to reflect with a bit of humour.
But above all, the heart of coaching is an open and constructive dialogue involving active listening
and questions which support the self reflection of participants. A possible danger of visualisation
is that you loose real contact with the group for example if you concentrate more on the aesthetic
of the pictures than on the content!
Bi-cycle tools 117
6. 3
Analysis of Coaching Needs
BI-CYCLE TOOL 3
When it comes to coach a new group you will first need to get some general information about the
group such as contact details, group structure, group interests and activity profile. Besides that, it
might be helpful to analyse the coaching needs in a systematic way, including motivation for the
coaching and specific role you will play as well as identification of challenges and resources for every
coaching process.
Hereby you will find a complete check list to formalise a bit the getting to know phase and analysis
of coaching needs. It will help you to keep the history of all Youth Initiatives you will support during
your coaching practice experience.
a. General information
Name of the group/initiative: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Name of a contact person: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Address: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
E-mail: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Phone: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
What is their favourite medium to keep in contact? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Supporting organisation (if any): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Names of group members: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Other general information: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
118 Bi-cycle tools
b. Group structure
How many people are involved? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
What type of group is it? (Informal group/ branch of youth organisation/ association/)
..................................................................................................................
Who is leading the group? (Youth worker/ somebody from the group itself/)
..................................................................................................................
How do they make decisions? What are their formal regulations? (Board/Chairman/collective)
..................................................................................................................
What is the age range?

..................................................................................................................
How many young men, how many young women are involved?
..................................................................................................................
What are the group members doing? Are they working? (Pupils, students, apprenticeship, jobs,
unemployed)
..................................................................................................................
Are all members volunteers or is there any professional worker involved?

..................................................................................................................
How often do they meet?

..................................................................................................................
Have they established the group themselves or do they belong to an existing structure?
Obviously, there are
some structural reasons for

group problems, such as too
small or too big group (and
contradictory wishes), a wide
age range or an unequal
division of sexes could lead
to unsatisfactory situations
for some group members.
You should as well be able to
identify the environment of
a Youth Initiative: how much
stress might come from their
social or work situation, etc.
Dissatisfaction could also arise
from a mismatch of an official
structure and the group, such
as a rigid hierarchy going
against the group interests.
c. Groups interests and activity profile

What are the main activities?
..................................................................................................................
What interests (cultural or social interest/leisure time/friendship/outer force) keep the group
together?
..................................................................................................................
What do they want to do (Youth Initiative project)?

..................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................
Other relevant information concerning the activity profile:

.................................................................................................................
Bi-cycle tools 119
What is the time range of their activities or planned project?
Any coaching activity

needs the voluntary will of the
young people to be coached,
for example why it would be
good to be coached and why it
should be done by you.
If these minimal conditions
are not fulfilled, the coaching
will not lead to desirable and
constructive results. Especially
the motivations of external
elements such as organisations
and youth workers (We want
them to do a good project for
the benefit of our organisation)
have to be clearly identified.
Normally, there is no such
d. Analysis of coaching need I Voluntarism and motivation

Who made the first step to do this coaching? The group itself, their supporting organisations, youth
workers or was it you?
.................................................................................................................
Is your role as a coach clearly expressed? Or do you have a different function?

.................................................................................................................
Does the youth group want to be coached? Do they want you to coach them?
.................................................................................................................
Will you be paid to coach? Will you coach them as part of your current job? Will you coach them on
a voluntary basis?
.................................................................................................................
e. Analysis of coaching need II Identifying Challenges

What is the coaching need in the eyes of the young people themselves? Why do they think they
need your coaching support?
As coaching is a limited
process in terms of time and
impact, your influence is and
should be limited as well. Thus,
the overall aim in coaching
youth projects is to make your
support unnecessary at the end.
Resource orientation helps to
identify the strengths they
can use without permanent
support from you or any
other coach.
In what of the issues mentioned before (e.g. group structure, group interests) you see additional
obstacles which might influence substantially the coaching process? How far can they be included
in your coaching strategy?
120 Bi-cycle tools
thing as the one reason for a

coaching need. Your problem
identification should be able to
identify a number of elements
and their connections to give
successful support.
..................................................................................................................
What do they want to achieve, develop with your support?

..................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................
f. Analysis of coaching need III Identifying Resources

What kind of strengths, abilities and resources can you (as a coach) identify that would allow to take
up the challenges linked to the coaching process?
..................................................................................................................
What abilities do you think the group already have or should further develop to progress without
you or the help of any other coach?
................................................................................................................
Group Behaviours
Building the relationship during a Youth Initiative project is generally a never ending process. Young
people, as human beings with different backgrounds and experiences, are, feel and behave different
when interacting in a group of people. Use this tool to identify some group behaviours that may
appear during the process of a Youth Initiative project and to find coaching approaches to increase
the group cohesion.
Group dynamic
Co-operation
Competition
Withdrawal
Scapegoat
Rejection
Flight
BI-CYCLE TOOL 4
Advice for the coach
Collaboration of one or more

members of the group. Positive
attitude.
Give positive recognition, use it as a

reference. The project itself is a form of
co-operation.
One or more group members

compete with each other.
Put things in proportion. Identify

the difficulty and encourage people
to talk about the issues. It can be a
positive stimulus for the group.
Someone withdraws from the

rest of the group.
Set up some kind of teambuilding

exercise. Speak to the person
individually (away from the group).
One person is blamed for all

the real or imaginary things
that go wrong. This allows the
group to overcome the feeling of
insecurity.
Identify the real problems and find

out why they are happening. Get the
group to talk about it in one-to-one or
group meetings.
The group adopts a judgemental

position and rejects one of its
members.
Analyse the problem and offer

to mediate. Create a space when
everybody has a say and is listened to
by others.
The group gives up or some

members drop out.
Suggest a mid-term evaluation

to discuss the coaching and the
viability of the project. Work on their
motivation.
Advanced sub-group dynamic

that allows some people to move
forward and others to stay in the
background.
Encourge the ones doing a lot to

delegate and the ones not being
active to take more initiative in order
to reach a better balance.
Bi-cycle tools 121
Alliance
Description
6.4
Coalition
Off the subject
Leadership
6.5
An alliance between members

directed against a specific target.
Encourage open discussions with the

aim of reducing tensions.
People chatting about other

things (during meetings).
Remind them what they agreed

initially (rules decided all together).
Focus the groups attention on the
subject.
A leader emerges, a group

member perceives a need and
tries to answer it.
Dont intervene directly.

Evaluate the leadership style
(charismatic, authoritarian,
democratic) and check if the others
are happy with this new role or if they
are just resigned.
My Competences as a Coach
BI-CYCLE TOOL 5
Before designing a coaching strategy for a given group of young people you should identify your
own competences (strengths and weaknesses) related to the needs of coaching for this specific
group. Try to complete this table through identifying the knowledge, skills and attitudes you have
and those you can develop to support a specific Youth Initiative group according to their needs
and demands.
AS A COACH
I have already
I have to develop
My knowledge
My skills
122 Bi-cycle tools
My attitudes
The following tool can help you to reflect on your skills and abilities linked to the main specific
tasks and roles of a coach and openly share with the group how you can support them and how
you cannot.
AS A COACH
I am good at
I have difficulties in
I am not able to
Informing
Suggesting
Facilitating
Training
Others; e.g. mediating,
challenging, team
working, animating, etc
SWOT Analysis
SWOT stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
6.6
BI-CYCLE TOOL 6
Use this method with young people to enable them to identify their Strengths and Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats they might face during a Youth Initiative project. Through this tool you
might help them to focus their activities into areas where they are strong and where the greatest
opportunities lie. It is important to examine both the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) environments as to find out the factors that will have an influence
on their project.
Negative
Internal
Strengths
Weaknesses
External
Opportunites
Threats
Bi-cycle tools 123
Positive
Write down answers to the following questions:

Strengths:
What do you do well? What are your best skills/ abilities?
What relevant resources do you have access to in your town/ city?
What advantages do you have comparing to other projects/ organisations in the same town/
city?
What do other people see as your unique strengths?
Weaknesses:
What do you do badly? What could you improve?
What resources are you missing in your town/ city?
What disadvantages do you have comparing to other projects/ organisation in the same town/
city?
What do other people see as your biggest limits?
Opportunities:
Where are the good opportunities that you face?
What are the interesting developments in youth work in your town/ city?
Threats:
What obstacles do you face in your organisation/ in your town/ in your city?
Is the local community sceptical or rejecting your project idea (neigbourhood, municipality,
youth councils, schools)?
Is time going to be a factor to endange the success of the project? Are you, all members of the
group, available to contribute equally to the project?
Do you, all members of the group/ organisation, have the same understanding of the project
idea? Do you want to reach the same objectives?
Do you have all the funding needed to set up your project or you are still looking for co-funding?
Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your project?
Consider this from your own point of view and from the point of view of the people you deal with.
Dont be modest. Be realistic. If you are having any difficulty with this, try writing down a list of your
characteristics and abilities.
124 Bi-cycle tools
Carrying out this analysis will often be illuminating, both in terms of pointing out what needs to be
done, and in putting problems into perspective.
6.7
Assessment of Qualitative Criteria
BI-CYCLE TOOL 7
You can use the following analysis grid at different moments of the coaching process to assess
a series of quality criteria related to the particularity of Youth Initiatives. Of course you can adapt
the assesment criteria below to a given group and a given project. It might be useful for measuring
the progress of the group concerning a number of indicators that you consider essential for high
quality Youth Initiative projects.
Project Title
............................................................................................................................................................................
Date ........................................................................
Assesment criteria
+
+
Active participation: How involved are young people in the project? Are they contributing
to the project with their own ideas? Are they making decisions by themselves? Are they taking
responsibilities towards the project and other members of the group?
Local impact: How is the project involving, or beneficial for, the local community? To what extent
does the project incorporate awareness of other people and social commitment? Are the project
activities related to or including other young people from the community?
Innovation: How can this project be a new experience for the young people or/and for the local
community? How are the project process and project activities being a new learning experience for
the group?
European dimension: How are the young people becoming aware of the European culture
heritage? Is the theme of the project of European interest? Is it easily transferable to other young
people in other countries? Is it contributing to European citizenship?
Budget: How is the budget balanced? Are all the costs related to the project activities?
Are all expenditures clearly justified? Is the total grant amount sufficient to realise the project
as originally planned?
Bi-cycle tools 125
Partnership (if any): How is the involvement of different partner groups in the project?
Are all partners sharing a common vision and contributing equally to the project?
Are they all realising activities related to a common purpose? Are they communicating regularly?
Feasibility of the project: How can the project be accomplished according to the original plans?
Does the project meet an identified need? Are the objectives set at the beginning being reached?
Personal/ group challenge: Have the young people challenged themselves according to their
potential at the start of the project? What are the level of motivation and the degree of personal
and group efforts invested in order to accomplish the project?
Group dynamic: How are the young people building a relationship within the group? Are they
getting on together? Are they working well as a team? Are they communicating effectively?
Learning outcomes: How is the experience contributing to improve or gain new skills?
What professional aims does the project have? To what extent will it bring new skills for the young
people involved?
Peer learning: How are the young people learning from each other? Are the young people sharing
experiences, knowledge and skills within the group? Are they helping each other? Are new abilities
being developed by individuals through sharing experiences?
Evaluation: is the group able to undertake self-evaluation? Are the young people reflecting on what
is being achieved? Are they identifying what still needs to be done? Are they adapting the project
according to results of the evaluation process?
Follow-up: How could the project be continued after the contractual period? What are the expected
developments of the project from a long term perspective?
126 Bi-cycle tools
Assesment criteria
+
+
Mid-term Evaluation Questionnaire

When it comes to evaluate the project and group processes, there is always the possibility to use an
individual questionnaire at any moment of the coaching bi-cycle. Below you can find one example
of questionnaire for Mid-Term Evaluation, including questions dealing with important elements
inherent in the functioning of any group. They may seem obvious or repetitive sometimes but they
allow you to make everyone aware of the different phases of the project and to understand the
process. The answers should bring out issues relating to the degree of group cohesion.
6. 8
BI-CYCLE TOOL 8
Questionnaire for Mid Term Evaluation

GROUP WORK
Aims and tasks
Did you set objectives for building your project?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Do you think that all of you agreed with the group objectives for building the project?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Do you think that any of you had different understandings of these objectives?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Has the group achieved its objectives?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
What role have you played yourself in achieving these objectives?
................................................................................................................
Has the group accomplished its tasks?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Bi-cycle tools 127
................................................................................................................
Do you think you could have done better? How and in what conditions?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Working methods
What method did you use to build your project?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
How did you find this method? Who suggested it?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Did this way of working help you to accomplish your tasks?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Participation
Has everyone contributed to the project?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
If people didnt participate equally, was that felt as a problem for you or for the group?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
What kind of atmosphere is there in the group?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Do you think that this atmosphere is good for cooperation and mutual understanding?
................................................................................................................
128 Bi-cycle tools
................................................................................................................
How the group works and adapts itself

Did your group have some kind of structure or organisation?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Did you discuss about each others tasks before launching your project?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Did you feel any tensions? Any barriers? Why?
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Incomplete Sentences
Use this tool to start a discussion with a group aiming to evaluate different aspects of the coaching
process. It is an informal way of getting to know thoughts and feelings of the young people you
are supporting related to your coaching approach: what they like, what they dont like, what they
would like to change.
I feel
I am happy
I dont have
I dont like
I would like
I suggest
6.9
BI-CYCLE TOOL 9
How to proceed
1. Use a diagram or an overhead projector, write or incomplete phrases (see example in table
above). You should change or adapt them according to your needs. What is important is to allow
the young people to look back at what has happened before and to put forward suggestions
for the future.
2. Explain to them that this exercise is important for the success of the activity and that all their
ideas and suggestions will be taken seriously.
4. Ask all of them to read two of the complete sentences aloud, giving each person a maximum of
one minute each. (In the case of small groups have them read out all the sentences).
5. Start a discussion about the points to be taken into account, set up a two-way communication
with them avoiding recriminations and justifications.
Bi-cycle tools 129
3. Give them minutes to write down possible endings for the phrases. This is to help those who
dont feel confident about speaking or who are shy.
6.10
Best Liked / Least Liked
BI-CYCLE TOOL 10
Use this tool to assess young peoples satisfaction with the coaching process. You will get to know
about the best and least liked aspects of your coaching, through the eyes of young people themselves.
The three things you best liked about the coaching experience:
1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
2. ..............................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
3. ..............................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Tool adapted from: Foundation for

Young Australians and Dr Colin Sharp,
Flinders Institute of Public Policy and
Management. (2000) Start do it
yourself evaluation manual. Australia.
The three things you least liked about the coaching experience:
1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
2. ..............................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
3. ..............................................................................................................
130 Bi-cycle tools
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
Young people should be given about ten minutes thinking and writing (off the top of their head),
then they are asked to share their comments. The following steps might help you to use this tool
in practice.
How to proceed
1. Ask young people to express how they understand their role and contribution in the project.
2. Provide them with the worksheet above and ask them to write notes (privately) about what are
their initial opinions about the coaching experience, specifying three things they best liked and
three things they least liked.
3. Ask them to share their comments about the best liked items in a round-robin fashion amongst
the group.
4. Facilitate a general discussion of priority items to summarise the key points best liked.
5. Count the number of times each item appears to find out which were the most common and so
probably the most important items. These are then re-listed starting with the items having more
responses, then the next most frequent and so on down the list.
6. Repeat steps three, four and five with the least liked responses.
7. The evaluation can now be brought to the point by comparing the best liked and worst liked
aspects of the coaching process under review.
8. Quantitative analysis can be done (optional).
You can use this tool to collect information about how the coaching process was felt by the group
coached and whether the coaching system helped or helps the implementation of the project
without affecting the integrity of the group. It is helpful to encourage you and the young people to
express yourselves about the subject that brought you together: the project and the coaching.
Bi-cycle tools 131
6.11
Observation Indicators
BI-CYCLE TOOL 11
The indicators above are based

on Etudes VVVSI (1995): Sitelle,
Rigault-Villi Consultant, France
In order to evaluate the achievement of concrete learning objectives it is necessary to set some
indicators, long term and medium term, which will help you to observe the group accordingly or
create suitable adapted questionnaires. Here you can find an example of an objectives-indicators
table for practical use. However we recommend you to adapt it according to the specific group with
whom this method will be used.
Objectives
Indicators
Mobilise, motivate, encourage pro-active

participation of the group
Degree of motivation for the project

Ability to get involved in an action
Level of participation (active/passive) in an action
Empower ownership
Ability to take decisions and accept responsibility

Respect for terms of contract and commitment
Degree of initiative
Develop autonomy
Ability to make choices

Ability to take responsibility
Build self-esteem
Self confidence
Awareness of own potential
Assertiveness (expressing opinion)
Develop teamwork skills
Develop communication skills
Ability to speak in public, to communicate with other
Ability to form part of a group (integration/ isolation)

Team spirit
Attitude to others (aggressive/ friendly)
Tolerance, self-discipline, self control
people
132 Bi-cycle tools
Oral fluency, ability to analyse
Give meaning to certain values
Solidarity with others
Transferable skills for work and

employment
Ability to learn new techniques

Ability to identify technical skills and knowledge
gained during the project

Encourage young people to think about
their professional future
Attitude to the future (passive/ active)

Ideas about what they want to do next (are they
actively looking for work or for training?)
Self-Esteem Questionnaire
If your aim is to work on the personal development of the young people you might use the following
tool. It is a self-esteem questionnaire and should be done times at month intervals. Through reflecting on, and filling in, the grid below, every young person can evaluate him or herself by identifying
their weak and strong points related to two categories: own personality and relation with others.
6.12
BI-CYCLE TOOL 12
How would you describe yourself on the following characteristics?

For each description, put a tick in the column that best describes you.
I am Very much
Pretty much
Not much
Not at all
MY OWN PERSONALITY
Confident
Unreliable
Happy
Easy going
Moody
Friendly
Get angry quickly
Take responsibility
Intelligent and bright
Lazy
Forgetful
Always on time
Shy
Courageous
Sympathetic
Always the joker
Get bored quickly
Avoid hard work
Practical minded
Bi-cycle tools 133
Have good ideas
Calm
Energetic
Trustworthy
Creative
MY RELATION WITH OTHERS
Open minded
Make friends easily
Find it easy to get on with adults
Cooperative
A good leader
Good at organising self and others
Good listener
Work well in a team
Talk a lot
Look out for others
Make put down comments
I am Very much
6.13
Not much
Not at all
Personal Record of Achievement (PRA)
BI-CYCLE TOOL 13
134 Bi-cycle tools
Pretty much
You can use this tool to help young people to track and provide evidence of their experiences and
development gained (knowledge, skills and understanding) from their participation in a Youth Initiative. This method has been developed by Connect Youth (British Council, UK) and is used as a tool
for recognition and accreditation.
It is available at http://www.britishcouncil.org/connectyouth-youth-initiatives-record-cards.pdf
The PRA for Youth Initiatives highlights that all projects should entail participants using and
developing certain skills which are considered base skill areas. There are six of these base skill
areas. Besides, there are also eight optional skill areas identified. Participants are encouraged and
expected to show development evidence in all six base skill areas as well as two choices from the
optional skill areas. Those are the following:
Personal Record
Working with others
Base
Skills
of Achievement (PRA)
Self-awareness
Intercultural and global awareness
Communication skills
Review and evaluation
Problem solving
Citizenship
Equal opportunities
Each skill area has then a variety of learning

outcomes to be measured and evidence
provided as well as some notes, guiding
questions and suggestions, for how to reflect with the group on the different skill
areas. We will present below a summary of
the guiding notes for the base skills, you
can find respective notes for the optional
skills in the PRA folder available at the
website indicated above.
Optional
Skills
Health and safety

Number and information
technology
Political awareness
Analytical skills
Project theme skills
Working with others

How the others react to you?
How decisions are made in the group? Can the process be improved?
How you involve others in developing the part of the project for which you have responsibility?
What approaches do people respond best to and why?

How do you respond to direct instructions?
Think about how you

work in the group...
Bi-cycle tools 135
How do others behave in the group? What could you do to try to make things more effective?
Improving learning
and performance
Think about your feelings
Self-awareness
Are you feeling nervous about working with your colleagues? What is that you actually feel nerv
Think about how your

project reflects a European
dimension
ous about?
If you dont feel nervous, do you feel anything else? What you feel and how it affects your behaviour?
Can you identify your own strengths and areas where you are not so strong?
How you behave in the group and how your behaviour affects others in the group?
How the others see you?
Intercultural and global awareness

Which ways you can find out how young people in other countries tackle the issue you have
chosen for your project?

If you think about other ways of tackling the same issue, how cultural differences may have af-
fected those various approaches?

Are you keeping a list of what information you inform your partner about? How do you do it and
what response, if any, you receive? How did these match your previous thoughts?
Think about the variety of
different people who you will
talk with both before and
during your project
Think about problems you may

encounter during the project
Communication skills
How do you communicate in your own group and with your partner group (if you have one)?
What reports you will need to write in connection with your project and what information you
want to pass on about it? What skills do you need to have so that others fully understand the
purpose and value of your project?
Problem solving
How will you deal with these problems if they occur?
Which skills do you have that can help to solve problems?
What new skills you learn so that you can help to solve other problems you have not dealt with
before in other areas of your life?

Can you identify at least three problems, with which you were directly concerned, while the
136 Bi-cycle tools
project was taking place and the role you played in enabling these to be overcome?
Think about ways
you can make regular
reviewing
Review and evaluation

When you set out to develop the project, are you sure that you have clear targets about what you
personally want to get from it and why?

How you can involve your partner group, if you have one, in the evaluation and what you will do
with the information you get?

Can you identify at least four ways in which the aims of the project were met and describe your
role in achieving these?
Evidence of the above skills can be provided in many formats such as: written, audio recording,
drawings, multi media or simply orally. The important thing to remember is that it should be recorded in some way to allow creativity and expression of a given group of young people, taking into
consideration their preferences and abilities to express themselves.
The evidence is then usually validated or assessed by a youth worker or coach supporting the group.
There may also be an opportunity to involve the whole group in the assessment, as more of a peer approach. On completion the individual receives a certificate and has a portfolio of learning evidence.
The portfolio should be the property of the young person completing it. Therefore if you as a coach
wish to monitor each individuals learning process and completion of the PRA, keeping a coaching
record will be essential. This can be done for each individual or tracking their progress as a group.
On the completion of the final assessment it can be extremely beneficial to celebrate the learning
achievements of participants. This can be done through holding a presentation evening or award
ceremony to present the final certificates, including the local community involved in the project,
the neighbourhood, friends, family and even the media!
Using the PRA can introduce a new dynamic to the coaching process: it encourages and allows you
to focus more on the participants learning rather than the task or activity. Nevertheless, you should
be aware that completing the PRA process requires a huge amount of dedication, support and time.
In addition to the actual project the PRA can sometimes also present itself as a difficult and time consuming tasks which comes in addition to an already challenging experience. In this case you should
use your creativity in highlighting the importance of the PRA and maintaining the motivation of the
group to come to the end of the process. If embarking on the PRA with a group, as a coach you will
also need to be aware of the additional time and commitment required from your side.
Last but not least, you should keep in mind that choosing the PRA as an assessment and evaluation
tool has to be a decision taken together with the group, and of course individuals within the group
should be given the choice not to work on it.
Bi-cycle tools 137
THE COACHING SCENERY FROM ANOTHER VIEW POINT
So finally... what does it mean coaching in practice? Hopefully most of you have found (at least)
some answers to this question through the pages of this book, whether it was thanks to the theoretical and practical inputs, the tools and methods to use, the sayings from the young people and
coaches or the concrete examples.
As a last contribution from the grass roots, this section will offer you another view point of coaching.
A list of practical tips on project coaching methods will bring you a new perspective to look out to
the coaching scenery.
So... we invite you to follow us through this new coaching adventure. Directly coming from practice.
You just cannot miss it!
Interview of Marie Rouxel,
a professional coach, France
Coaching stages of a Youth Initiative

A method, me?
Each project has its own style of coaching: its the empirical method where you adapt yourself to actual
needs. Yet, I have been able to identify stages in coaching, the roles of the coach during each stage and
some tools or tricks that I often use.
138
Project coaching methods

Listener stage
1. Clarify what the request involves

The first thing to do is to listen. Ask questions, then listen to the young people express themselves and try
to discover what is behind their request. Sometimes when the young people talk about a project what
they really want is a work placement
Pen stage
2. Help to reformulate, write down the objectives

For some people it seems impossible to go through this very formal written stage. Without doing it for
them, you have to reformulate, translate the project into clear language, and help them get it down on
paper.
Probing stage
3. Checking up the personal motivations and talents or skills

It is important to find out exactly what they expect from their project. A simple verification of skills will
allow you to suggest training options where appropriate.
Cooking stage
4. Evaluation of means to be put into practice: human, material and financial

The experience of the coach will be useful to help to draw up a complete list of what is needed to carry out
the project. I remember a young man who wanted to set up an organisation providing a home delivery
service in a rural area but had not given any thought to transport costs!
Mirror stage
6. Identification of people who can help and creation of a skills network

The idea is to put together a local whos who so you can use the network dynamics to get people with
projects into contact with experts.
Head-hunter stage
7. Making a preliminary budget

It is a good idea to draw up an initial fairytale budget, covering all expenditure as fully as possible. Then,
move on to an ideal budget they should be aiming for. And finally do an optimistic budget, which is likely
to happen if all goes well. The last step consists in drawing up a pessimistic or hyper-realistic budget,
which shows what they might get if things do not go according to plans. According to the progress of the
project, they may refer to one or other of these budgets (fairytale for files to be presented to sponsors,
for example).
Calculator stage
8. Search for resources

When they present their project, young people often only have a partial or inaccurate concept of possible
sources of financing. It is the role of the coach to help them find their way through the jungle of funding
mechanisms.
Gold digger stage
9. Setting up a schedule
First of all the coach has to avoid getting carried away by the urgency syndrome. You have to be able to
tell people who want to submit a Youth Initiatives application in two days that they need to be thinking
more of three or four months. In addition, you will need to help them set up an action plan, with regular
meetings to check how the activities go ahead.
Timer stage
10. Test period

To avoid major failures, particularly concerning large projects, it is useful to provide test periods (depending on projects) to see how things are working out and, if necessary, to allow the group to review the
situation and take a reality check.
Safeguard stage
11. Communication
Facilitate contacts with the media for example by holding a meeting with a journalist. They could, for
example, get a student in communication to work on how to promote the project (in particular, make
their project known to sponsors).
Spokesperson stage
139
5. Study of similar projects

The project holder is always convinced he or shes doing something innovative. The knowledge that the
coach has of the local area could help to set up meetings with other people who have similar projects.
Beware of the inward-looking reaction: they are going to steal my project idea or yes I know, but they
dont know anything about this topic
Blah blah blah stage
12. Implementation
Although it is best to keep your distance when the project is under way, and avoid any temptation to take
over, the project group may like to have you around, if only for reassurance, during this implementation
phase. It is also important to let them go at some stage when you feel that the group can manage on
their own.
Godmother stage
13. Evaluation
For project groups, making a report is often considered as useless. However, whether carried out internally
or with external partners, this stage is essential. The coach must ensure that any gaps between what was
originally planned at the start of the project, and what actually happened, are evaluated. This stage may
be extended as some kind of follow-up if the project goes on for a certain length of time.
A few tricks
The coach is not God
Whether its a question of being available, having the necessary skills or simply recognising that several
heads are better than one, the coach needs to know when to hand on to someone else or call on others
for support.
Contacts
I have an address book full of names of people I know and who will be ready to give a friendly ear to people
doing projects. It is not a good idea to try to take the experts place; the project group may well hold it
against you if you do. A coach can also use his/her address book to evaluate their own coaching.
The whats in it for me? test
There is an old missionary trick where you look at whoever initiated the project, check that it really is their
project and that they expect to get something out of it for themselves (and not just for parents, friends,
etc.). What is their personal project within the collective one?
The contract
You need to reach an agreement with the group about their goals and the way they intend to achieve
them. In practical terms, no one leaves my office without having some kind of task. In return, at the end
of a meeting I try to make sure my visitors leave with some specific information or a commitment about
what I will do at our next meeting.
140
The conference
This is about bringing a third person into the coach/coached partnership to get an outside opinion about
the way the project is going ahead and examine any problematic issues.
Emergency exits
This is a guidance counselling technique. When you can see that the original project may not be feasible,
you look for alternative solutions with the group to avoid ending up with a failure. This may simply mean
postponing the project, making it less ambitious or finding another interim solution.
Y O U N G P E O P L E H A V E T H E I R S AY : A P E R F E C T C O A C H I S
Young people who were interviewed for this guide also gave their reflection about ideal coaching
by answering the question: For me a perfect coach is
Enjoy the collection of some of the answers hereby and hopefully you will feel that this could be
you indeed! So, for me the perfect coach is
somebody that has enough empathy to understand the different personalities, giving confidence,
coming up with constructive criticism. One that finds the perfect balance between authority and neutrality,
between observation and participation
someone who has clear vision of how he/she can help me, motivates me, is easy to contact with
supportive, sensitive, with lots of knowledge and fun
respectful towards the participants, expert on his or her topic, able to help in logistics and organisational
work on spot during the activities, discrete and full of energy
Palmir (), Danemark
Jacek (), Poland

Monica (), Portugal
Karen (), Estonia
a person that always helps me to realise my idea, not to change it!
Tomasz (), Poland
someone who would always be helpful, available and prepared for giving his/her hand whenever is needed
Rasa (), Lithuania
someone who have knowledge, experiences, vision and energy to finish the project with us, someone
who wants to share all he/she knows
Martin (), Czech Republic
giving advice and practical hints, giving contacts, sharing difficulties and mistakes, having good humor,
positive thinking
Sonia (), Portugal
someone who shows the way
Krzystof (), Poland
not only a coach but a good friend

a person who is open minded, good listener, flexible (but not too much), calm and energetic
Gianluca (), Italy

Pia (), Finland
a person who helps to concretise needs and feelings, and helps with project planning and management,
and always is near in order to give support, advice
Marcin (), Poland
supporting, advising, wise, experienced, skilfull
Vytas () Lithuania
a guiding light in the middle of the dark forest!
Andy (), Malta
professional, neutral, diplomatic and nice person whom I trust
Ilja (), Estonia
person who knows what to say and when to say it
Anna (), Poland
141
a map, not the driver!
Gintaras (), Lithuania
REFLECTION OF THE JOURNEY
What do we leave you with now, dear reader? With just

another handbook on the book shelf? With a bundle of
question marks in your head, replaced by new ones? As stated
in different parts of this handbook, we did not find ourselves
in the position to just collect all possible wisdom which lays
undiscovered in European youth work, mix it thoroughly, and
voil: we proudly present you the miracle coaching strategy
for active youth participation!
The coaching strategy for Youth Initiatives being under
construction, it made the writing of this guide a difficult job.
Using coaching for youth projects is a relatively new field,
with a number of differing approaches and experiences
developed so far. In this context we, as an international team
of people who are active at different levels of European youth
work, tried to cover a wide spectrum of this area. You will have
to decide whether we succeeded or not.
142
Nevertheless, not being able to give the best solutions ever

does not mean not to be able to present you a position
towards values, strategies and techniques of coaching Youth
Initiatives. At least we tried to convince you to follow us in
one elementary point: that coaching Youth Initiatives should
lead young people to greater autonomy, not to greater
dependence on coaching support. We see your (and our)
task as eventually making your coaching unnecessary for the
young people; this is when you have done a good job as a
coach! Furthermore, we believe in what we called progressive
participation and we believe that coaches can play a decisive
role in its development.
So are we at the starting point of creating a new professional
sphere of youth coaches, with European budget to be spent
on, job possibilities for unemployed youth workers and a
number of handbooks like this one to be published? Not
really. It is not without reason that peer-to-peer education
is one of the most recommended ways of coaching and
supporting Youth Initiatives and is promoted by the European
Commission, SALTO-YOUTH network and National Agencies

of the YOUTH programme. Of course this does not mean that
if you are not young any more you should not coach Youth
Initiatives!
What came out as one of the most valuable findings during
the work on this handbook is that coaching Youth Initiatives
takes place under a certain inner tension between two
poles: the strive for the increase of active participation
and qualitative aspects of being a good and helpful coach.
Doing a Youth Initiative means having the right to discover
new ways, learning by doing and learning by mistakes. Being
a good coach means reaching a compromise between these
two poles. This might not be easy but lets work at it!
If you feel encouraged, by what you read in this handbook, to
share your views with the authors, as well as to suggest further
reading, resources or materials... please do not hesitate to get
in touch with us using the e-mail youthinitiatives@salto-youth.net
or the post card to editors on the last page.
Currently, the first training courses on Coaching Youth
Initiatives are being set up in Europe by SALTO Youth
Initiatives Resource Centre, National Agencies of the YOUTH
programme and some of the authors of this guide (www.saltoyouth.net/a3courses/). If you would like to co-operate with us to
organise further seminars and training on this issue, please
get in touch with us.
We hope you enjoyed our work and wish you good

luck in future coaching!
The editorial team:
Buzz, Heike, Henar, Jochen, Mario, Milena, Nerijus, Pascal and lly
BI- CYCLE DIC TIONARY
All through this guide we have been reflecting on coaching as a way to support young people in
their Youth Initiative projects. Therefore in this guide somebody called coach is in the key position.
The reality of Youth Initiatives is much more complex though and there are people that might help
young people in one or another moment during the project process in various roles.
Below we take a brief look at some of these roles in order to create a basis for further discussions on
who, and how, could be a help for young people in their initiatives. And in doing so, there is no point
to re-invent the wheel, so we take the advantage of what has already been developed by European
colleagues and fits well with our understandings.
Coach
is a commonly used term in various fields (probably in sports and business) to describe someone
whose task is to support the quality of performance of a certain group of people or individuals. Traditional coaching is focused at a behavioural level, involving the process of helping another person to
achieve or improve a particular behavioural performance. Coaching methods at this level derive primarily from a sports training model, promoting conscious awareness of resources and abilities, and
the development of conscious competence. They involve drawing out and strengthening peoples
abilitites through careful observation and feedback, and then facilitating then to act in co-ordination
with other team members. An effective coaching of this type observes peoples behaviour and gives
them tips and guidance about how to improve in specific contexts and situations.
In the context of Youth Initiatives it refers to the person who develops a relationship of mutual respect and trust with a Youth Initiative core group in order to help young people to work effectively
as a team to reach their project goals. Coaching in Youth Initiatives means supporting a groupwork
process, through the cycle of dialogue and activities, that aims at encouraging the group to realise its potential through autonomy, learning and change. In its activities the coach can therefore
choose to inform, suggest, facilitate, train, motivate but all in the dialogue with young people
since whatever the methods used or length of the coaching period in the project process, in Youth
Initiatives the activities undertaken by the coach should always lead to greater autonomy and active
participation of young people.
143
Differently from other forms, coaching young people during a Youth Initiative does not necessarily
take place all through the project process but could be called upon or proposed to young people
as response to their respective needs. The role of the coach can be undertaken by people who
otherwise have different roles, for example some young person with extensive Youth Initiatives
experiences can decide to start coaching his/her peers, but it could also be done by youth work
professionals.
Mentor
ing is a structured process for providing personal guidance and support to someone who is younger, less
experienced or new to the game- whatever the context may be, but most commonly in education, training and
employment contexts. Mentors act as critical but non-judgemental friends, provide a role model and a source
of useful information and advice, and can take on a coaching task (helping to improve performance).
Lynne Chisholm (in Bridges for Recognition. Promoting Recognition of Youth Work across Europe, Leuven -
January , p.)
Mentoring is the process of dealing with individiuals in terms of their total personality in order to advise,
counsel and /or guide them through particular life challenges. It involves guiding someone to discover
his or her own unconscious competences and overcome internal resistances and interferences, through
believing in the person and validating his or her positive intentions. Mentors help to shape or influence
a persons beliefs and values in a postive way by resonating with, releasing, or unveiling that persons
inner wisdom, frequently through the mentors own example. This type of mentoring often becomes
internalised as part of a person, so that the external presence of the mentor is no longer necessary. People
are able to carry inner mentors as counsellors and guides for their lives in many situations.
Peer supporter
in the context of Youth Initiatives is a young person who takes a role to support other young people
with his/her experiences, knowledge, motivation The activities of peer supporter can take various
forms depending on the specific context, the needs of young people and the skills of the peer supporter:
reflection on his/her own experiences as input for further discussions, use of training methods supporting
the non-formal learning of project group, etc.
Support person
is the more general term often used to describe anyone who has the relationship to the youth group
implementing the Youth Initiative and assists with information and guidance. One could say that coaches,
mentors, peers, trainers... can all have their supportive role towards young people implementing the
Youth Initiative project and therefore can be referred to as support persons.
Teacher
is the word traditionally used to refer to those who shape, guide and accompany learning processes in
schools, colleges and - to some extent higher education.
144
January , p.)
Teaching relates to helping a person develop cognitive skills and capabilities. The goal of teaching is generally to assist people to increase competencies and thinking skills relevant to an area of learning. Teaching
focuses on the acquisition of general cognitive abilities, rather than on particular performances in specific
situations. A teacher helps a person to develop new strategies for thinking and acting. The emphasis of teaching is more on new learning than on refining ones pervious performance (as it is the case in coaching).
It goes without saying that in case young people have a good relationship with some teacher from their
school, the teacher might be asked to get involved in the Youth Initiative project in a supportive role or
teach young people a specific subject related to the project theme or implementation.
Trainer
is the word traditionally used to refer to those who shape, guide and accompany learning processes in the
initial and continuing vocational education and training sectors.
January , p.)
Trainer is usually seen as an instructor of techniques or skills on a specific subject. In Youth Initiatives it
may happen that the coach or the youth worker takes a role of the trainer and runs a training activity at
certain point in the project where development of specific skills or attitudes seems to be a need. Otherwise it can also happen that the coach assists young people in finding the contact with some trainer if
the group seems to be in the need or has communicated the need to develop their performance through
participation in the training activity.
Youth Workers
are people who work with young people in a wide variety of non-formal and informal contexts, typically
focusing on personal and social development through one-to-one relationships and in group-based activities. Being learning facilitators may be their main tasks but it is at least likely that youth workers take a social
pedagogic or directly social work based approach. In many cases, these roles and functions are combined
with each other.
January , p.)
A youth worker creates voluntary opportunities for young people to establish relationships, relationships
within which youth workers seek to engage with young people in the deliberate and purposeful process
of experience, reflection and learning. On the contrary, coaches do not create the voluntary opportunities, they already exist through the YOUTH programme and initially the coach does not seek to engage
as this is led and done by the young people.
145
Although the idea for a Youth Initiative comes from the young people themselves, they may often turn to,
or be proposed to turn to, some professional for further help and guidance a youth worker. Sometimes
the need to start co-operation with some youth worker could also be motivated by legislative or financial regulations such as the need to engage adults in book-keeping or contractual procedures related to
project implementation. Depending on the local/national youth work practice, type of the institution, etc.,
the youth worker can be involved in a Youth Initiative on professional or volunteer basis, yet it is normally
the practice to be involved with the group all through the project process, often even considered as one
of the project actors with specific role all through different phases.
B I - C Y C L E PA R T S S U P P L I E R S
Bibliography
APEL, Heino; DERNBACH, Dorothee; KDELPETER, Thomas; WEINBRENNER, Peter; (): Wege zur
Zukunftsfhigkeit - Ein Methodenhandbuch. Stiftung Mitarbeit, Bonn.

COLLEY, H. (): Righting re-writings of the miyth of mentor: a critical perspective on career guidance
mentoring. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, () -.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE (): Keys to participation A practitioners guide. Council of Europe, Stras-
bourg.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE (): Keys to youth participation in Eastern Europe. Council of Europe, Stras-
bourg.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE () : Participation and citizenship Training for minority Youth projects in
Europe. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE (): Youth cultures, lifestyles and citizenship. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE (): Youth research in Europe: the next generation Perspectives on transitions,
identities and citizenship. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE (): Can youth make a difference? Youth policy facing diversity and change.
Council of Europe, Strasbourg.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE (): T-Kit n. Social Inclusion. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE (): T-Kit n. Project Management. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE (): T-Kit n. Intercultural Learning. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE (): Domino A manual to use peer group education as a means to fight racism,
xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE (): Revisiting youth political participation. Challenges for research and demo-
cratic practice in Europe. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.

DILTS, Robert (): From Coach to Awakener. Meta, California.
DUBOIS, David L.; KARCHER, Michael J. ( ): Handbook of Youth Mentoring. Sage, USA.
EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT UNIT (): Mentoring young people: lessons from Youthstart. ESU, Birming-
ham.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION (): A new impetus for European youth. White Paper. Office for Official
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Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION (): Including all with the Youth programme. An inspirational booklet. Of-
fice for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.
FISCHER-EPE, Maren (): Coaching: Miteinander Ziele erreichen. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Re-
inbek bei Hamburg.

GAY, B. and STEPHENSON, J. (): The mentoring dilemma: guidance and/or direction? Mentoring
and Tutoring, () -.
HABERLEITNER, Elisabeth; DEISTLER, Elisabeth; UNGVARI, Robert; (): Fhren, Frdern, Coachen: so
entwickeln sie die potentiale ihrer mitarbeiter. Ueberreuter, Wien.

HERZBERG, Frederick (): The motivation to work, Transaction, New Brunswick.
MASLOW, Abraham () : Motivation and personality, Longman, New York.
PORTER, Lyman (): Human Relations. Dartmouth, USA.
SCHULZ VON THUN, Friedemann (): Das innere team in aktion. Praktische arbeit mit dem modell.
Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg.

SKINNER, A. and FLEMING, J. (): Mentoring socially excluded young people: lessons from practice.
National Mentoring Network, Machester.

WILCOX, David (): The guide to effective participation. Delta Press, Brighton.
YOUNG, Kerry (): The art of youth work. Russel House Publishing, Dorset.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/youth/index_en.html
Youth site of the European Commission contains information in the area of youth (also youth work and
youth policy) in the Union, including youth policy issues and documents, information of Youth programme, calls for proposals etc
Online Resources
http://www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_Co-operation/Youth/TXT_charter_participation.pdf
European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life (revised version since
) is divided into three sections. The first provides local and regional authorities with guidelines for
how to conduct policies affecting young people in a number of areas. The second part provides the
tools for furthering the participation of young people. Finally, the third section provides advice on how
to provide institutional conditions for participation of young people.
http://europa.eu.int/constitution/futurum/documents/offtext/doc_en.htm
Declaration on the Future of Europe known also as the Laeken declaration was adopted by the European
Council on .. and is recognized as having opened the way to major reform for the future in the
European Union.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/youth/whitepaper/index_en.html
The White Paper on Youth (adopted in November ) has been initiated by the European Commission in
order to deepen the Community co-operation to the benefit and with the involvement of young people.
The White Paper covers not only the situation of young people but also studies their concerns and desires.
It also attempts to draw the action lines in order to further develop the youth field.
Analysis of Member States replies to the European Commission questionnaires on youth participation
147
http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/cha/c.htm
and information (since ) presents the basic information on the legislation in force in each country,
outlines the current policies with examples of best practice as well as describes the expectations at European level. The questionnaires were initiated by the European Commission in application of the open
method of coordination (OMC) as result of the White Paper on Youth.
http://www.salto-youth.net
SALTO-YOUTH stands for Support and Advanced Learning and Training Opportunities within the European YOUTH programme. Started in , it is today a network of Resource Centres working on
European priority areas within the youth field: providing youth work and training resources, organising
training and contact-making activities to support organisations and National Agencies within the frame
of the European Commissions YOUTH programme and beyond.
http://www.salto-youth.net/acompedium
Here you will find many examples of Youth Initiatives projects done all around Europe in . Take a
look if you are a young person between and and are looking for European partners to set up an
international Youth Initiative or just need some inspiration for project ideas.
http://www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_Co-operation/Youth/
Youth site of the Council of Europe contains important information in the area of youth of the institution, including its youth sector priorities, calls for applications for financial support, training and other
support materials, etc.
http://www.leargas.ie/youth/dwl/gi-guide.pdf
A guide that provides information and guidelines to youth groups and young people about how to take
part in and run a Youth Initiative project. It explains what group initiatives and networking projects are,
as well as providing tools for project management and higlighting supports available to help you. This
guide has been created by Largas Youth Work Service (YWS), Ireland.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/connectyouth-youth-initiatives-record-cards.pdf
A Record of Achievement to allow young people to provide evidence that they have developed a range
of knowledge, skills and understanding as a result of participanting in a Youth Initiative project. This tool
has been designed by Connect Youth, British Council, UK.
http://europa.eu.int/youth/
European Youth Portal, launched by the European Commission, which offers you information, news and
discussions about Europe. It includes detailed national, regional and local level information presented
under headings such as Studying, Working, Volunteering and Exchanges, Your Rights, Portals for Young
People, Travelling Europe and Info on Europe. In addition, you can submit your own contributions, participate in discussion forums and ask questions to information experts in your own country.
http://www.salto-youth.net/toolbox
148
Report on the SALTO training courses Inclusion and group initiatives which took place in provides
a collection of methods used during the training and proposed as possible tools to encourage inclusion
of young people with fewer opportunities through youth initiative projects. Besides this training report
the toolbox might be an interesting source to discover other inspiring materials and why not to contribute
with your own.
B I - C Y C L E M A N U FA C T U R E S A N D J O U R N E Y N A V I G AT O R S
Henar Conde (Belgium)
EDITOR, CO-ORDINATOR & AUTHOR
Henar has been working for SALTO Youth Initiatives Resource Centre in Belgium since it was created in
until the end of January . She has a background in psycho-pedagogy and she is currently doing
her PhD in the field of Comparative Education. During the time she worked for SALTO-YOUTH she focused
on Youth Initiatives and particularly on promoting youth participation and developing a coaching strategy
for youth projects. She used to organise training courses and was responsible for publications on the
mentioned topics. She participated in the Training of Trainers for European YOUTH projects and since
then she is passionate about training. She is always looking for self-development and new challenges, like
the current publication! Henar is currently working for the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive
Agency of the European Commission.
Contact: henar.conde@ec.europa.eu
lly Enn (Estonia)
AUTHOR
lly has been working for the Estonian National Agency of the YOUTH programme since it was started in
. Through these years her work has been involved with all the actions of the Programme, including
Youth Initiatives. Holding the Magister Artium degree in Social Work on research in the areas of specialised
youth work and young people with fewer opportunities, she is currently responsible for inclusion. She has
also been actively involved in the developments of Estonian youth work field, including the participation
in the development of the Estonian Youth Work Concept and various thematic working groups at national
level but also as lecturer and author of publications. lly is also working as a trainer both in Estonia as
well as at international level, mostly in the areas of inclusion and Youth Initiatives.
Contact: ully@noored.ee
Pascal Chaumette (France)
AUTHOR
Pascal is the head of International Development System (ID), an organisation that works in the field
of training and Europe related issues with universities, schools and youth organisations. Graduated in
Political Sciences and having participated in the Long Term Training Course (LTTC) and other courses of
the Council of Europe, he has several experiences in using the European programmes: structural funds,
Socrates, Youth Pascal is in charge of the European sector of the Mission Locale of Roubaix (France)
which mainly deals with young people with fewer opportunities. He is also the co-ordinator and founder
of the European Youth Opportunities Network (www.yonet.org).
Contact: coripas@wanadoo.fr
149
Mario Dagostino (Italy)
AUTHOR
Being a pedagogue and free thinker, Mario is an expert in the field of non formal education and of social
animation since . His profession as social worker has led him to work with children, young people
and adults coming from different social, cultural and geographical contexts. Since he is member of
the Youth Express Network which he has represented from to as member of the Advisory Council of the Council of Europe in the role of Vice president. At the moment he lives in Latina (Italy) and works
as advisor for institutions and organizations. He is also trainer in cooperation, networking, participation,
human rights education, intercultural learning and leadership issues and works mostly everywhere.
Contact: riodago@tiscali.it
Jochen Butt-Ponik (Germany)
AUTHOR
Jochen Butt-Ponik is a free lance trainer and project manager, mainly active in the fields of youth initiatives, contact making seminars and youth participation. During decades of voluntary work in youth initiatives and youth projects he learned about most of the mistakes possibly happening in such structures. As
founder and project manager of the non-profit association Profondo he is co-operation partner of the
German National Agency of the YOUTH programme and works for a number of other bodies in the field
of national and international youth work. In he published with his association the consulting book
for youth initiatives Was Geht (roughly to be translated as Whats up) unfortunately in German.
Contact: jochen.butt@freenet.de
Milena Butt-Ponik (Poland)
AUTHOR
150
Milena Butt-Ponik has been working for the YOUTH programme in Poland since . She completed
M.A. in sociology. Being raised in a small village, she has close understanding of what does it mean to
have fewer opportunities and how difficult it is for young people to increase them. She tries to use these
experiences and knowledge as the co-ordinator of Youth Initiatives Polish National Agency of the YOUTH
programme. In her work she support and coach young people willing to start or already doing Youth Initiatives and she is involved in developing and facilitating Youth Initiatives training and seminars at national
and international level. She completed the Training of Trainers for European YOUTH projects and national
school of coaches and trainers and wishes to discover more this path of non-formal education.
Contact: milena@wp.pl
Heike Hornig (Germany)
AUTHOR
From until Heike has been working for the German National Agency Youth for Europe in Bonn,
responsible for Youth Initiatives within the YOUTH programme. Since shes working as a free lance
supervisor for the European volunteers in Germany and additionally as a trainer in adventure and experiential learning based projects for young people and adults. Heike is a social worker and outdoor trainer
in the field of international youth work. In the summer Heike generated and published a methods
handbook with the title Mach was draus! (to be translated as Take your chance) for the German National Agency, with tips and tricks for youngsters to plan and develop projects within the frame of Youth
Initiatives. From time to time Heike is still supporting the development of Youth Initiatives in Germany.
Contact: heike@oimi.de
Nerijus Kriauciunas (Lithuania)
AUTHOR
Nerijus has been working as a trainer since . He finished business related studies at Vilnius University and started MA in adult education. Till now he was involved as participant in a Youth Initiative and
as youth worker supported youth groups running Youth Initiatives. While working as a volunteer in the
Lithuanian National Agency of the YOUTH programme he had experience in informing and consulting
young people on Youth Initiatives. In his work with young people his main interests are cultural diversity
and youth participation. By using creative methods, intercultural learning, experiential learning and
outdoor education he supports the groups of young people in creating, running and evaluating their
local and international projects.
Contact: nercas@email.lt
Buzz Bury (United Kingdom)
CONTRIBUTOR, PROOF-READING
Buzz has over years experience as a qualified youth and community worker both at practitioner and
management levels. Experience has come from a wide variety of activities ranging from health promotion,
club and centre based work, training and project development. With years international experience
gained from exchanges, supporting volunteers and particularly supporting Youth Initiatives. Buzz is now
a freelance trainer and education consultant based in the north west of England. His international training
activities are now increasing and he has recently completed participation in the Training of Trainers for
European YOUTH Projects, organised by SALTO-YOUTH Training and Co-operation and Interkulturelles
Zentrum. He is also a very keen cyclist.
Contact: mail@buzzbury.co.uk
151
Editorial Info
Published in May by
SALTO Youth Initiatives Resource Centre
www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/YouthInitiatives/
(Support, Advanced Learning and Training Opportunities within the YOUTH programme)
Bureau International Jeunesse, rue du commerce -, Brussels, Belgium
Tel : + () or + () , fax : + ()
youthinitiatives@SALTO-YOUTH.net
Authors: Mario dAgostino, Jochen Butt-Ponik, Milena Butt-Ponik, Pascal Chaumette,
lly Enn, Heike Hornig, Nerijus Kriauciunas
Contributor: Buzz Bury
Editing & Co-ordination: Henar Conde
Proof-reading: Buzz Bury, Gisele Kirby
Lay out: rzeczyobrazkowe.pl
Printing: CHROMAPRESS
PACo design: Rawthoughts
Pictures: projects beneficiaries, participants in SALTO training courses and YOUTH programme events.
Special thanks to Marcin Kamiski, Bartosz Mielecki, Heike Hornig and Agnieszka Moskwiak for photos.
This document does not necessarily express the official view of the European Commission,
their member states or the organisations co-operating with the institutions.
152
Reproduction and use for non-commercial purposes is permitted provided the source
www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/YouthInitiatives/ is mentioned.
SALTO-YOUTH Youth Initiatives Resource Centre, May
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Coaching

Are you a youth worker, a youth leader, a volunteer in a youth organisation,

Guide for Supporting Youth Participation

A guide that explores the concepts of Coaching,

SALTO-YOUTH Stands for...

Support, Advanced Learning and Training Opportunities

The SALTO YOUTH Initiatives Resource Centre

The SALTO Youth Initiatives Resource Centre (in French

opportunities via the Youth Initiatives Newsletter

1. OPENING THE DOOR FOR TAKING INITIATIVE _

2. THE COACHING MIRROR _

. Between Coaching and Autonomy _

3. THE COACHING BI-CYCLE _

5. BEST PRACTICE AND BEYOND _

Postcard from Poland: Our Few Minutes _

. Challenges on the Road _

4. INCREASING THE VELOCITY FOR YOUTH PARTICIPATION _

. Travel Conditions for Participation _

Bi-cycle parts suppliers

Reflection of the journey

another view point

Welcome to Coaching Youth Initiatives

Feedback is welcome at youthinitiatives@salto-youth.net

Through their actions, Youth Initiatives enable a large

number of young people to become inventive in their daily

A particular fondness is becoming apparent in young

Youth Initiatives: a link for political and social Europe

at taking responsibility, negotiating between themselves

Youth Initiatives: experiential learning

The value of Youth Initiatives experience does not lie solely

By means of Youth Initiatives, young people have

Youth Initiatives: a step-by-step adventure

Why this Coaching Guide?

The term we chose and had a common

Who is it meant for?

What you, as people supporting Youth Initiatives

So how to encourage young people to be active

Your coaching activity might follow diverse

What is it all about?

youth projects: firstly, it should lead to greater

Opening the Door for Taking Initiative in

experiences will be presented in chapter 5 Best

with their opinions, ideas and experiences.

1.1 The Weather Forecast for European Youth Policy

20 Opening the door for taking initiative

Non-Formal Education and Active Participation

Opening the door for taking initiative 21

I understand a Youth Initiative

22 Opening the door for taking initiative

Youth Initiatives and Realising Participation

For me a Youth Initiative is

being responsible forthings

impact on decision-making process

Opening the door for taking initiative 23

nothing about uswithout us

Youth initiatives gives youngsters

When I am part of the workteam

24 Opening the door for taking initiative

For me a Youth Initiative is the