Planning Learning Processes: From Context to Exercise
This toolkit offers a wide range of exercises and formats for working with young people in sensitive social contexts. However, one core principle underpins all of them: no exercise exists in isolation.
The impact, safety, and relevance of any activity depend not on the exercise itself, but on how, when, and for whom it is used.
For this reason, the toolkit emphasizes that planning and preparation are as important as the activities themselves — especially in contexts shaped by war, displacement, loss, identity, polarization, or inequality.
Why We Do Not Start with an Exercise
A common approach in educational and training settings is to begin with the question:
“Which exercise should I use?”
In sensitive contexts, this approach can be ineffective or even harmful. The same exercise may:
feel supportive to one group,
trigger resistance in another,
or activate vulnerability that the group is not ready to process.
Therefore, this toolkit follows a reverse planning logic, where exercises are selected only after the broader context and purpose are clearly understood.
A Core Principle of This Toolkit
Start with context, needs, and purpose. Then choose methods. Only then select exercises. This approach helps to:
Reduce the risk of harm
Increase relevance and impact
Create learning processes that support dignity, agency, and wellbeing rather than exhaustion or overload