Lifelong learning has an extraordinary empowering potential, contributing to personal growth and opening up new opportunities. A potential that can be life-changing for persons from disadvantaged backgrounds, fostering their full participation in society. How can adult education become more accessible, inclusive and empowering? Non-formal education creates safe and free spaces with equal chances of participation, presenting an alternative, inclusive society.  

Join Syrine Rekhis and Zara Lavchyan in this workshop to reflect on the empowering role of non-formal education, discover different experiences of working with vulnerable groups, share practices and discuss how to enhance adult learning practices to make them as inclusive as possible.

Speakers

Syrine Rekhis is a freelance civic education, human rights and advocacy educator. In the past 10 years she has delivered more than 3000 hours of training and workshops with SALTO, UNESCO, Goethe Institute, CAP Munich, New Tactics in Human Rights, AEGEE Europe and others. Active in civil society in the fields of human rights and democracy since 2011, Syrine co-founded and led a human rights youth-led association, Inno-PEACE. She is currently the President of VOICIFY-European Forum for Youth with Lived Migration Experiences that advocates for inclusion and political participation. Passionate about research, she digs into health, neuroscience and cognition.

Zara is an educator and expert in the field of non-formal education. With a background in youth work and policy, she has been involved in supporting the development of non-formal education and youth policy in Armenia, post-Soviet countries and wider Europe. She has authored educational activities, games, manuals, online courses for educators on learning, training trainers, participation, youth policy, youth work, community development projects, transversal skills, and social entrepreneurship. She is president of the Innovative Educational Solutions’ Laboratory NGO.

Moderator

Aleksandra Kozyra graduated in Applied Linguistics from the University of Warsaw. She is a qualified teacher who spent a few years working as a language trainer in Poland, teaching different target groups, especially young migrants and intergenerational groups. She has several years of experience in membership capacity building and event management of conferences with 100+ participants, online and face-to-face events, seminars and training courses, and expert working groups.