This project responds to a strategic priority of YMCA Romania Federation – Advocacy & National Youth Policy Influencer, strategy that was drafted by the member organizations and their leaders in 2017 and adopted by the General Assembly in March 2018.
Developing collaborative public policies will lead to increased cohesion within the non-profit youth sector in Romania, which at this point it is reduced. It will also inspire other similar actions and, above all, will bring credibility and legitimacy to the action of formulating alternative public policies.
Creating a public policy of standardizing youth work will increase the quality of "youth work" in Romania, bringing a structure, but also a role of counselling and guidance for the organizations who want to start such activities. It will also provide a reference system for NGOs active in the youth work which in time will lead to coagulation and coordination that will increase the positive impact on young people. In this way the young people will have their chance to go through a process with clear and documented stages, and with the help of a professional team, in our case the youth workers, will benefit from a personalized intervention in relation to his real needs of personal and professional development.
This project is innovative for Romania and will be a milestone in the field of youth work in this country.
The project aims to:
- formulate, through public participation of NGOs, using the contribution and experience of public institutions, quality standards in youth work;
- create a training system and a tool for formulating, monitoring and evaluating policies in the field of youth work, dedicated to both NGOs and staff in public institutions;
- professional training of NGO representatives to monitor how public authorities and institutions implement policies and standards in the field of youth work and formulate useful, concrete and feasible recommendations to these authorities and institutions in the field of interest.
The project responds to identified needs in three different and complementary ways:
- developing the quality assurance tool needed to work with young people;
- increasing the capacity to implement this tool in working with young people;
- providing a body of civic activists in the field to ensure the external monitoring and accountability of the authorities, institutions and public services, and NGOs working with young people.
Project activities will have as main target group:
- NGO staff, employed or volunteer, involved in work with young people (minimum 100 people);
- Execution and management staff from public institutions with youth attributions (Ministry of Youth and Sports, County Sports and Youth Directorates, Ministry of National Education, Education and Youth Departments of Town Halls and County Councils, Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, County Directions for Child Protection and Social Assistance, public libraries- minimum 25 people);
Main Activities
- Creation of a National Working Group with NGO representatives and authorities` representatives who will elaborate public policies in the field of standardization work with young people. (5 meetings -1 at 3 months)
- Developing a training methodology for formulating, monitoring and evaluating the public policies in the field of youth work ( 100 people trained in 6 sessions, each session 3 days)
- Creating an educational tool for formulating, monitoring and evaluating public policies such as MOOC (Masive Open Online Course) – minimum 250 participants/subscribers
- Meetings with authorities in order to endorse the public policy proposal.
Timetable
- July 2018 – start of project
- July-August 2018 – Creating the National Working Group and hiring the trainers and experts
- September 2018- April 2019: –official Launching Conference – Baia Mare, research, 5 meetings of National Group, creating the curricula/methodology, 6 training sessions, creating the MOOC materials (meetings all over Romania, in big cities)
- June 2019 – Lauching the Public Policy Proposal/White Paper Conference – Bucharest
- June 2019- Lauching the MOOC educational tool- Bucharest
- June – August 2019 – meetings with authorities that could support in a concrete way the alternative policies created.
- September-October 2019- Project Closing Conference – Baia Mare
- September-October 2019 – evaluation and closing of project activities.
Expected results
- 1 alternative public policy/White Paper endorsed by a National Authority (eg Ministry of Sports and Youth)
- 1 National Working group (15 people from NGOS and authorities) that will be a concrete platform to support structured dialogue in the field of youth work
- 100 people from NGOs and public authorities trained in formulating, monitoring and evaluation of a public policy
- 1 educational tool – MOOC format – with at least 250 subscribers
Project leader: YMCA Romania Federation
Partners: Young Initiative Association Bucharest (Member of YMCA Romania Federation) and Sustainable Community Development Centre Craiova.
More details and information
Alina Pop – Executive director
alina.ymca[at]gmail.com
Tel: +40723278437
