Despite the high level of difficulty caused by pandemics, we have managed to fulfil the objectives of the Work plan. The participants raised their level of knowledge in numerous topics in the areas of youth participation, CSOs, project management, governance and advocacy.
26 young people, aged 18-35 years old, from 16 European countries have graduated from the course.
Most of them voice that the knowledge they received is useful for them and their CSOs and they are going to utilse this information further. Most of the participants found education engaging and interesting.
It is a big success that the project allowed the participants to apply the gained knowledge to practice. As a result we have:
- 13 mini-projects implemented by 16 participants
- the working teams included 48 young leaders and targeted 615 direct beneficiaries
- 80% of whom are young people 14-30 years old
- The estimated number of vulnerable people targeted is 490. They are: victims of the war between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, persecutions in Belarus, refugees, youth with mental health issues, youth with fewer oportunities, youth from not full families, people with disabilities
- The number of indirect beneficiaries is not less than 5,000 people and continue growing
Such level of engagement in a difficult pandemic situation proves a high level of motivation and involvement.
In total we have organised 14 online workshops (45 hours), elaborated and guided participants through 19 lessons at the online educational platform (near 50 hours).
Generally, we are very much satisfied with the whole project as we have reached the planned results. As the main effect we have built an online educational platform. We are going to make revision and improvements later so to open it to the wider public. It means that we can use it in our further projects as a solid basement of theoretical inputs; and to give opportunity to other youth to receive “ABC” knowledge about a civil society organisation and youth participation.
Choosing both ways (syncronised and unsynchronised) was the strong point of the project and the right decision. Engaging interactive methods of education during online meeting worked really well and proved that non-formal education online can work.
The project is organised by YMCA Europe with financial support of European Youth Foundation and co-funding by the NGO Co-Financing Fund supported by the Ministry for Inclusion and Social Wellbeing, the Parliamentary Secretariat for Sports, Recreation and Voluntary Organisations and the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sectors.
See key highlights, descriptions of mini-projects implemented by the participants and the testimonials of the young leaders in the below.