"Special Effects- Simplicity, Depth And Nature-Based Methods In Youth Work " is an innovative 8-day training course for youth workers to develop training and facilitation competence aiming to make your inner „tool box“ richer, special, sparkle with a extra focus given to working in simple rural conditions, using less resources, developing skills for working with youth from rural areas and exploring nature as a tool for empowerment of young people from socially disadvantaged background.The training course will be organised by Play It Big in spring 2016, 13.-22. May 2016 (including travel days) in Prenčov, Slovakia, close to Banská Štiavnica.Objectives of the training are:• To develop skills and get knowledge related to providing effective youth work and training activities with special emphasis on nature-based and community-based approaches.• To experience topics relevant to the course in a variety of interactive methods and participant-centred learning processes, such as Way of Council, Open Space, Threshold walk, reflection time and guided time in nature.• To challenge some of the current clichés in the field of non formal education through examples and reflections on how concepts such as nature, open communication, art, spirituality, ceremonies and rites of passage can be included in contemporary educational and experiential activities.• To create a social experience of community through sharing living and working spaces, participating in common tasks and daily practices, and to valorise this as an opportunity for learning and personal and social growth.• To practise themes of the course in workshops with local community and to reflect on this experience.We aim to host 30 participants from 12 countries and partner organisations, plus 3 trainers and 2 support staff (total number of participants: 35 people).The focus will be put on hands-on activities and practical applications to improve competences based on: communication, creativity and artistic expression, how to deliver information, facilitation techniques, training, how to work with groups, nature based methods - with a few theoretical inputs used mainly to frame the activities and give a backbone to the course. Plus, in this course we want to propose innovative activities and learning processes that are an important part of what we do, founded on the principles of nature based education, deep ecology workshops, Way of Council, individual and group practices for reflection. We will hold the main frame of the course, at the same time leaving a big part of the programme in the hands of participants, who will be free to experiment and try out to learn or improve their skills as trainers and facilitators. The course will have a very strong experiential dimension.We want to boost the quality of youth work and non formal education across Europe, we are involving a very wide network of organisations and our activities will also aim to inspire reflection on topics like sustainability, personal development, sense of initiative, inspiration to change. We assume that after the project our participants will be able to prepare, conduct and evaluate educational activities individually within their organizations. Our aim is to improve the quality of educational activities in the participating organizations and to encourage the creation of an international platform for exchange and sharing of good practice. Thanks to the networking aspect of the training and structured input about Erasmus Plus and project management, we want to encourage the creation of new innovative projects developed by participants of our training. Young people will have increased competences and therefore will be able to offer higher quality educational activities. They will be better equipped for youth work with new innovative methods of youth work and inspiration from nature-based methods.