Epic Fail

Young people are often encouraged to take initiative, express their opinions and actively participate in their communities. But meaningful participation also means taking risks, making decisions and sometimes getting things wrong.

Fear of failure can stop young people from speaking up, trying new ideas or taking responsibility. Youth workers therefore have an important role in creating spaces where young people feel safe to experiment, reflect on what happened and try again.

Our training course (TC), Epic Fail, explores failure, risk-taking and experimentation as valuable parts of non-formal learning and youth participation.

The main goal of this TC is to empower youth workers to create participatory and safe-to-fail learning environments where young people feel confident to take initiative, make decisions and learn from experience.

The specific objectives are to:

• Develop understanding of failure, risk-taking and experimentation as important elements of non-formal learning.

• Strengthen youth workers’ skills in creating supportive environments for initiative, reflection and learning from mistakes.

• Explore participatory methods that give young people greater ownership and responsibility in youth work.