Call for applications: Conflictual Potentials Training Courses on Conflict Transformation and Combating Othering

Opportunity Description

Are you concerned about growing polarization, discrimination, and hostility in our societies? Have you witnessed how stereotypes and “othering” can divide communities and fuel conflicts? Are you motivated to promote dialogue, empathy, and nonviolent ways of addressing tensions in your community? Then join us!

planIMPACT e.V., together with the Youth Peace Ambassadors Network, invites you to participate in our project “Conflictual Potentials — Training Courses on Conflict Transformation and Combating Othering”.

Can you tell me more about the “Conflictual Potentials” project?

Despite important progress in promoting tolerance, dignity, and peace across Europe, many young people continue to experience discrimination, exclusion, and conflicts connected to identity, culture, religion, ethnicity, gender, nationality, and political differences. Across Europe and beyond, increasing polarization, harmful stereotypes, hate speech, and “othering” continue to deepen divisions between communities and individuals.

At the same time, conflicts — whether interpersonal, social, or political — are often seen only as destructive. Yet conflicts also carry the potential for transformation, growth, dialogue, and social change when approached constructively and nonviolently.

With this in mind, we asked ourselves: how can we support young leaders, youth workers and educators in transforming conflicts peacefully while challenging prejudice and exclusion? How can we create educational spaces where people learn from one another’s identities, experiences, and perspectives while building empathy and mutual understanding?

Through this project, we aim to equip youth workers, leaders, educators, and activists with practical competencies in nonviolent conflict transformation, intercultural understanding, and combating othering so they can act as multipliers and contribute to building more peaceful, inclusive, and democratic communities.

The project consists of two interconnected training courses:

• Training Course on Combating Othering
• Training Course on Conflict Transformation

Both activities will combine non-formal education, experiential learning, intercultural dialogue, peer-to-peer exchange, and practical tools that participants can later apply in their own communities and organizations.

Project Aim:

With this project, we aim to empower 25 youth workers, leaders, and activists with the skills, knowledge, competencies, and tools in nonviolent conflict transformation, intercultural understanding, and combating othering in order to act as multipliers on the local level and promote a culture of peace.

OBJECTIVES:

• To equip participants with knowledge on concepts of peace, peacebuilding, violence, conflict, nonviolence, and culture of peace;
• To foster understanding of conflict transformation in theory and practice;
• To introduce participants to conflict transformation tools such as Nonviolent Communication, empathy, active listening, and alternative narratives;
• To explore conflict analysis tools and examine local realities and narratives in participants’ communities;
• To challenge stereotypes, prejudices, and “othering” through intercultural learning and open dialogue;
• To explore the relationship between personal and social identities and conflict transformation;
• To analyze the consequences of othering on individuals and communities and its role in conflicts;
• To foster understanding of cultural diversity and its role in building peaceful and inclusive societies;
• To support participants in planning follow-up activities addressing local conflicts and promoting their transformation;
• To facilitate the creation of a booklet of transformative narratives as educational material for combating othering and fostering a culture of peace;
• To establish a safe and inclusive environment for dialogue, exchange, and future cooperation among participants across Europe.

Training details?

What: Two 6-day in-person training courses + follow-up activities

When:

• September 1st–6th, 2026 (+2 travel days); &
• November 17th–22nd, 2026 (+2 travel days).

Where: Pullach/Munich, Germany

Training language: All communication will be in English

Financial support: Under Erasmus+, participation in this project is free of charge! Accommodation, food (3 meals per day + coffee breaks), and travel costs will be covered according to Erasmus+ regulations. Visa costs for participants requiring visas will also be reimbursed.

Who can apply?

You must be residing in: Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Serbia, Türkiye, Bosnia & Herzegovina, or Kosovo

Aged: 18+ at the time of application

Have at least a B2 level of English

Be motivated and active in meaningful work with and for young people. We are looking for:

• Youth workers from youth organisations dedicated to peacebuilding and/or human rights,
• Staff from organizations, associations, and NGOs focusing on peace education,
• Youth leaders, changemakers, and activists,
• Youth coaches and mentors,
• Teachers, facilitators and educators motivated to include non-formal education methods and peace education in their curriculum,
• Young people actively working with minority groups and experiencing difficulties in breaking stigmas and othering,
• Young people facing othering and/or actively involved in combating othering,
• Young people and youth leaders aspiring to create change in their communities, with an idea to promote critical thinking and challenge existing harmful structures and thought patterns,

…who are actively engaged in or interested in fields such as:

• Peacebuilding and conflict transformation
• Human rights education
• Diversity and inclusion
• Intercultural dialogue
• Non-formal education
• Youth participation
• Combating discrimination and prejudice
• Community building and social cohesion
• Combating stigmas and othering
• Conflict Transformation

We especially encourage applications from people working with diverse or marginalized communities, as well as those interested in creating safer, more inclusive, and more empathetic spaces in their local contexts.

Experience in peacebuilding or conflict transformation is welcome, but not necessary. What matters most is your motivation, openness to learning, and willingness to use the learning outcomes in your work with and for youth.

Diversity: We encourage everyone to apply regardless of gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation, racial, ethnic, or social origin, and we aim to create a diverse and inclusive group.

If I am accepted, what am I committing to?

Commitment to participate fully in both training courses (September and November) and all programme sessions;

Commitment to actively contribute to a safe, respectful, and inclusive learning environment;

Commitment to developing follow-up activities after the trainings, including local or cross-border initiatives developed together with other participants.

Deadline for application: June 19th, 2026

The application link is at the end of this page.

What should I expect from the training?

Non-formal education:
be ready for a structured but flexible learning approach that will rely on holistic learning methods, engagement and participation, peer-to-peer learning, creativity, fun, gamified approaches, and intentional learning

Learner-centered and participatory approach:
This project invites participants to reflect critically on themselves and the societies around them. Be prepared to learn, unlearn, question assumptions, engage in dialogue across differences, and challenge yourself and others respectfully and constructively.

Who is organizing this training and project?

The “Conflictual Potentials” project is designed and implemented by planIMPACT — Verein für Menschenrechte, Frieden und Entwicklung e.V. and the Youth Peace Ambassadors Network with the support of the German National Agency of the Erasmus+ Programme.

planIMPACT e.V. — Verein für Menschenrechte, Frieden und Entwicklung is a Germany-based non-profit, non-governmental organization. At planIMPACT, we are committed to fostering a culture of peace and human rights by enabling young people to shape the decisions and futures that affect them and create sustainable, just, and resilient societies.

We bring this mission to life by empowering and equipping individuals, particularly youth, with the skills, values, attitudes, and knowledge to lead change, prevent violence, protect human rights, participate meaningfully in decision-making, and build inclusive partnerships for a positive peace. Through transformative education, advocacy, capacity building, cross-sector collaboration and linking local efforts with regional and global movements for lasting impact, we empower agents of change to create a world where dignity, diversity, and justice thrive.

Youth Peace Ambassadors Network (YPAN) is an informal network of 160+ young peacebuilders from across Europe and beyond who work with and in conflict-affected communities. The majority of the members of the network are trained in human rights, non-formal education, and conflict transformation by the Council of Europe in the long-term project (2011–2014).

The YPA Network wants to develop a culture of peace by empowering young people and promoting human rights, dignity, equality, and respect for diversity through education, advocacy, and other non-violent actions through projects at the local and international levels.

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