The project targets local communities in Italy, Turkey, Greece, Kenya, Senegal, Zambia, Ghana, South Africa and Togo. In all Sub-Saharan and
South African countries involved, young people are affected dramatically by poverty, poor health status (many are HIV positive, orphans), exploitation, violence, including poor opportunities for education & professional development, stigmatization, social exclusion & deviance. According to UNHCR, in 2019, over 30,000 unaccompanied children & young migrants were hosted in GR & IT, about 2.5 million only in Turkey, exposed to criminality, sexual & labour exploitation, trafficking, and extremism, unable to access their rights to education, basic services, health care, legal protections. Youth unemployment is extremely high both in Greece, Italy &Turkey.
NEED’S ANALYSIS;
The project focuses on community-based organizations (CBOs) that are young people-driven & work with/for vulnerable young people & children in marginalized areas in Africa & EU. CBOs play a crucial role to enable young people to play a meaningful role in pursuing community development social, volunteering in the society & facing to their own needs. However, a preliminary needs analysis carried by all partner organizations in their community contexts show that most CBOs:
– are exclusively run by not professional community members & young people;
– take an impromptu approach on project management, fundraising & community development in general;
– Not have the technical & management capacity to respond to the multidimensional problems
Affecting young people they work with /for;
– have a limited capacity to establish cooperation with local & international donors;
– have rare occasions to exchange good practices within an intercultural/international context;
– Routinely lack access to financial resources to make their projects more sustainable.
In line with above, well-planned capacity-building actions are needed to increase the capacity & key competences of youth-based CBOs to respond successfully to the current challenges affecting youth in their local communities in Africa & EU. As a result of the socio-professional development of their young leaders, CBOs can function more efficiently and effectively.
TARGET GROUPS;
– Young leaders who work with / for vulnerable and disadvantaged young people and children that are engaged in youth-CBOs operating in the targeted areas in EU & Africa.
OVERALL OBJECTIVE;
– To engage youth-community based organizations and young leaders to become change agents and play a constructive role in marginalized areas in EU and Africa.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE;
– To enhance the capacity of youth community-based organizations and young leaders to work with and for vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in marginalized areas in EU & Africa.
EXPECTED RESULTS;
– Launched, tested & developed a capacity building program on “youth work, project management, leadership and community development”.
– Increased socio-professional development of N.66 young leaders involved in TCs and N.36
Involved in job shadowing activities, that are equipped with knowledge, key competences & Employable tools to be applied in their daily work with/for vulnerable young people & children.
– Enhanced international cooperation, exchange of good practices & capacity building between 102 young leaders, 11 community-based organizations & local stakeholders working in the field of youth & community development in EU and Africa.
EU POLICIES;
The project contributes to the EU2020, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development & the Africa-EU Partnership (Abidjan Declaration, 2017).
In order to achieve the project objectives and produce the foreseen deliverables, the project structure includes several Working Packages (WPs). A work package (WP) describe the work each team member is Responsible for. Each partner organization will be responsible of specific WP according to its own expertise.
All Partners will perform work package activities on national level. The WP leader will monitor and evaluate the progress of activities carried out by each partner to make sure that the aims of the WP are achieved on time and according to quality standards.
IMPACT, DISSEMINATION. EXPLOITATION AND SUSTAINABLITY;
IMPACT ON PARTICIPANTS;
Increased socio-professional development of N.102 young leaders involved: specifically N.66 in TCs and N.33 young leaders involved in the job shadowing activities that are equipped with knowledge, key Competences and employable tools that can be integrated in their community work in EU and Africa Long term impact:
– Young leaders engaged in CBOs have improved their key competences and technical capacity to design, coordinate and evaluate community-based projects targeting vulnerable and
Disadvantaged young people and children (through PCM, Theory of change, Child rights-based
Approach); Have improved their key competences in non-formal education, leadership, coaching, International volunteering, and active participation in the local community; have improved their key Competences in fundraising, storytelling and digital communication…
IMPACT ON PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS & LOCAL COMMUNITIES;
Increased transnational cooperation, exchange of good practices and capacity building between 102 Young leaders, 11 youth community-based organizations and local stakeholders working with and for Vulnerable and disadvantaged in marginalized and peripherical areas in EU and Africa Long term impact:
– As a result of the socio-professional development of their young leaders, partner organizations in the targeted communities can function more efficiently and effectively.
– Young leaders and partner organizations successfully respond to the ongoing socio-economic
Challenges and emergencies affecting youth in the targeted community contexts in Africa and EU; have improved their access to funding to ensure sustainability to the implementation of their
Programs /projects successful on a larger scale.
– Integrated strategies and cooperation are strengthened in order to foster youth and community
Development in EU and Africa.
– New community projects and services serving a larger audience of vulnerable young people and Children in the targeted communities are developed and implemented (EU solidarity corps, capacity building projects within the Erasmus+ programme, local/international community-based Initiatives funded by other international / national donors, development of fundraising campaigning, strategic actions on social corporate responsibility, other).
– Knowledge and awareness of the Erasmus+ programme and its opportunities for international cooperation in the youth field is increased in all target local communities.
DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION;
The project will ensure dissemination & exploitation as an integral part of an effective communication Strategy at every stage of the project. All dissemination & exploitation activities will be elaborated in detail in the dissemination & exploitation strategy within the first 3 months of the project, showing the concrete aims & activities of each partner organization.
The purposes of the dissemination strategy are:
– Raise awareness – let others know what we are doing
– Inform & engage stakeholders & a wider youth community
– Engage – get feedback from the community
– Promote – spread outputs & results
Target audiences:
– Youth workers, young people, & other potential end-users such us educators, social workers, researcher & other staff from both public & private organizations active in the youth field in order to transfer & Replicate the project results.
– Local, national & international stakeholders to inform them about results & outputs of the project.
The dissemination & exploitation activities will be managed by the COMMUNICATION COMMITTEE. The COMMUNICATION COMMITTEE includes: N.1 Dissemination & Exploitation Leader (DL), N. 1 Open
Learning Platform Leader (OL). It works under the coordination of the STEERING COMMITTEE.
Here below the communication, dissemination & exploitation activities we intend to carry out:
Month 1-3
– Development of a common visibility, dissemination & exploitation plan by all partners including international/national/local target-users & stake holders to identify broader target groups.
– Design of the project logo, digital leaflet & other digital promotional materials
– Publication of a project page in all partner websites.
– Development the social media strategy (facebook, Instagram, youtube).
– Local kick off conference in all participating country in order to introduce the project to the local communities (including distribution of promotional material).
Month 2-19
– N. 3 newsletters to spread by all partners within the project in EN / national language.
– Social media campaigning (facebook, Instagram, youtube).
Month 19-24
– Dissemination of the final results/outputs through partner organizations websites, Facebook, other social networks & mailing
– Dissemination of OERs in EU / international platform for non-formal education and youth work.
– Social media campaigning: Dissemination of OERs at both local and international level.