Sandra, one of our employees in the vocational preparation programme, recently took part in a training course to become a democracy mentor and sacrificed some of her weekends to do so. A great thing, because promoting democracy and anti-discrimination are naturally part of the curriculum when we train young people. Sandra is now looking forward to putting her newly acquired knowledge into practice. Here is what she says about her experiences:

"The training to become a democracy mentor comprised 5 modules in which various key topics were covered. 
At the beginning, we dealt with the definition of 'democracy' in general and democratic negotiation processes. We analysed our own values, attitudes and prejudices in order to be able to react sensitively to our fellow human beings. In the next step, we talked about discrimination, diversity and diversity and reflected on ourselves in the process. It was sometimes very exhausting to deal with anti-democratic attitudes and phenomena and to learn how to counter them in order to take a stand.

The basics of the systemic approach and solution-orientated procedures were developed in order to communicate new findings and methods in the facilities. Communication and questioning techniques were taught to ensure that all colleagues receive good counselling from us. As neutrality is the top priority as a democracy mentor, we also learnt how to deal with prejudiced or anti-democratic slogans. Discrimination-sensitive and racism-critical language was also addressed. We realised that there is still a lot of catching up to do in this area in particular, as many people are unsure how to express themselves in a politically correct way. At the end of the training, we collected ideas on how we can become active as democracy mentors in our organisations. 

There was a lot of inspiration and a lively exchange of ideas. I'm already looking forward to being able to implement some ideas in the near future."

The project "Think! Shaping democracy together" project of the German Red Cross addresses the social challenges of our time against this background of promoting democracy. The topics range from climate change to dealing with conspiracy ideologies, from extremism to diversity and from gender equality to intergenerational dialogue. 
In order to be able to cover these different topics, the project offers, among other things, training to become a democracy mentor. Participants are trained in democracy-specific topics. They acquire the skills and abilities to initiate and moderate democratic processes in their organisations, as well as the necessary knowledge and tools for a reflective culture of discussion.