Kutayib

Introduction

The aims of Kutayib

Kutayib is a manual created in the framework of the project “Fostering Self-Competences in Tunisian Youth Centers” (short: FOYER). Kutayib is designed to support social workers, animators, trainers and club leaders in youth centers through interactive training and learning activities. Youth centers in Tunisia play a critical role in providing non-formal education, fostering social integration, and nurturing personal development. The manual aims to promote self- and social competences of youth, help them create and manage their clubs, enhance their creativity as well as ability to communicate and think critically. The activities in Kutayib will eventually help the youth to effectively engage in their communities, enhance their participation in and hence also their contribution to the Tunisian society.

The Kutayib contains the essence of the educational intervention delivered through the FOYER-project. With Kutayib we would like to provide social workers, animators and youth club leaders with ideas for workshops in their youth center that have succeeded in the framework of the FOYER-project. The workshop-sessions of Kutayib can be freely chosen by the user of this manual and of course can and should be adapted to the context and the needs of their audiences.

What is the FOYER-project?

The Department of International Projects in Education of the Zurich University of Teacher Education, the Department of Psychology of the University of Tunis, and the NGO International Institute of Debate (iiDebate) have jointly implemented the project “Fostering SelfCompetences in Tunisian Youth Centers – FOYER” from April 2024 to October 2025. They have closely cooperated with the Jedaida Youth Center in FOYER. The FOYER project has been financially supported by the Leading House MENA, coordinated by HES-SO Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale through the Consolidation Grant.

The FOYER project aims at enhancing the capacities of youth centers to foster self- and social competences of young people. These competences are critical for fostering resilience, employability, and social inclusion among young people. The FOYER project is composed of two main components:

  1. An educational intervention to promote the capacities of youth club leaders and animators to provide life skills activities, including through artistic and creative expression.

  2. An accompanying research study that examines how the educational intervention in FOYER has contributed to advancing self-competences, social inclusion, and well-being of the young people at the Jedaida Youth Center.

The Jedaida Youth Center is the ideal partner for the FOYER project. After being closed due to staffing issues from 2019 to 2023, the Jedaida Youth Center has reopened and presents a unique opportunity to pilot innovative educational approaches aimed at youth empowerment. Currently, the Youth Center offers a wide variety of clubs, such as music, theater, chess, radio, TV-Web, sports, cinema, technology, robotic and debate. These clubs are run and organised by the young people themselves.

A documentary film by Ghassan Nahili from the TV Club of the Jedaida Youth Centre about the progress and challenges of the FOYER Project.

The accompanying research study of FOYER has shown that the educational intervention in this project has enhanced the social competences and self-awareness of the involved youth. The intervention at the Jedaida Youth Center can hence serve as a reference for similar educational interventions at other youth centers.

A documentary film by Ghassan Nahili about the results of FOYER and reflections from young people.

Structure of Kutayib

The Kutayib consists of two major parts. The first part concerns the topic “Structure and Management” and the second “Activities and Skills Development”. Each of these parts is composed of 3 to 4 modules that is dedicated to a broader topic (e.g. “Club Foundation”, “Club Management”, “Communication and Critical Thinking”, “Power of Community” etc.). The modules consist of three to four workshop sessions dealing with specific subjects (e.g. the session “Strategic Planning” as part of the module “Club Structure”). Some sessions have additional support material, you can find it at the end of the sessions.

Trainers from iiDebate, lecturers, and students from the Zurich University of Teacher Education have conducted these sessions together with the young people of the Jedaida Youth Center. It usually takes between one and four hours to conduct a session. Users of the manual can pick and choose the sessions they find useful for their youth center or youth club; they do not have to follow a specific order.