| Open Space Foundation

MOLA training in Sofia

The first weekend of the New Year there met us at the STEM Training Base of the Ministry of Education and Culture in Sofia with interesting young people. Two days “MOLA” or a program to activate public opinion leaders was the focus of our attention. Participants from Sofia, Plovdiv, Smolyan … entered our third pilot group, with whom we will work in the next 3 months. MOLA is a training program that our colleagues from HESED (Bulgaria) are working on for compatibility with the ACTion project. One of the aims of the project is to improve critical thinking and media literacy among learners, parents and educational staff. The approach is highly innovative: and invites the participation of adolescents and young people from socially disadvantaged regions, ethnic minority / Roma youth and young migrants / refugees, experiencing the greatest barriers in terms of social in the field of health and general education, the labor market and public life. Here is what the participants shared after the training:

“I learned how to distinguish between fact and opinion, how to separate the news, and unexpectedly very useful tricks for searching on Google.”

“..a lot about security and safety on the Internet”

“I learned how we can unintentionally influence how others don’t see, we really need to know what to post. I saw another side in myself and I have to develop in a proper way”.

In the coming weeks, we will see what youngsters will share on their social profiles. What topics will they discuss with their circle of friends. If you are interested in such programs, you can contact us for a selection group. Write to us at e-mail: info@openspacebg.com.

About the project

ACTIon uses:

Good Practice: Popular Opinion Leader (POL), a community-based intervention and prevention approach using youth role models to influence educational and behavioral change in the community. Adapting it to an online environment and aligning it with digital competence, citizenship and civic education will help to address disadvantaged youth groups and their social environment in a new way.
Tools for digital online participation and education: using F.I.R.E. – (From Idea to Rreality & Execution), a smartphone application that the Open Space Foundation team developed and launched in the summer of 2020 on e-platforms: Android and iOs (www.studyathome.eu ), will be implemented both at the individual and community level. As well as the OPIN.ME platform (https://opin.me/en/ ), for gathering and researching public opinion on important topics affecting the community. The aim is to combine online and offline education to complement each other and encourage the active participation of youth groups.

On the project page: https://www.erasmus-action.eu/ you can follow the achievements of the project, download training materials (here) or stay informed and meet people from our team to learn how to apply our training programs MOLA and DigiPack in your work. The materials have been translated and adapted into several languages: English, Bulgarian, German, Greek and North Macedonian. In April 2023 there is a meeting with the people who have already piloted the models in their countries and can share their experience with you.

Be active, learn and develop wherever you are! The world can be a better place for all of us, but it depends on your work, mine, our work.