BEE DIFFERENT

It often starts in the same way. You take part in a youth exchange, a training course or a workshop, something clicks, and at some point you think: “I’d love to create something like this myself.” Then you go home, and the idea slowly fades, because nobody shows you where to begin.

BEE Different was born to change that. In October 2026, a group of young people from Lithuania, our “new bees”, began a four-month journey to take their first steps from participants to facilitators. Until January/February 2027, they are learning what it really means to guide a group, design an activity and create a space where others can learn.

We believe facilitation is not learned by reading about it, but by doing it. So the journey moves in three steps. First, the bees learn the foundations of facilitation and non-formal learning: how groups work, how to design an activity, how to give feedback, debrief and make learning visible. Then they practise, facilitating small activities, receiving feedback from experienced facilitators and from each other, and reflecting on what they discover about themselves along the way. Finally, they create: each of them designs and runs their own workshop, activity or learning initiative in their local community, whether that is a school, a youth centre, an organisation or a neighbourhood.

They don’t walk this path alone. Along the way they meet online for webinars and reflection, work with learning resources, come together for residential activities and can count on individual mentoring through one-to-one MentorTalks with an experienced facilitator.

By the end of the journey, we hope to see more than a few new workshops. We hope to see a new generation of facilitators, organisers and community builders who create learning opportunities where they live.

You can follow the journey below. Click on each image to read more about the webinars.

ONBOARDING

First stop

16 October 2026

FACILIS

The Journey Begins

22 October 2026

Click on the image to read more about the webinars