TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Grigor Yeritsyan
The project aimed to strengthen cooperation among EVS experienced organizations in order to promote the development of new projects related to the topic.
The objectives of the project were the following ones:
• To promote cooperation among new organizations working on EVS with experienced ones,
• To strengthen mutual understanding between partners, improve communication and mutual trust;
• To share methodologies and best practices (planning, implementation and project management of EVS projects);
• improve the quality of cooperation, facilitate the implementation of joint strategies for problem solving;
• To compare the consistency and compatibility from a qualitative point of view of the methods and tools among the organizations having a perspective for future cooperation.
Partnership-building activity entitled as "EVS for all" brought together EVS experienced organizations from EU and non-EU countries. The project gathered 32 youth workers and youth leaders from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Czeck Republic, Italy, Turkey, Slovenia, Croatia. The main focus was on improving the quality of EVS projects among EU and Eastern Europe and Caucasus partners. Therefore, the target group mainly consisted of youth workers experienced in EVS, such as EVS program coordinators, job supervisors and mentors.
Participants of “EVS for all” project had the opportunity to improve their theoretical and practical knowledge on EVS through sharing their experience and possessed skills of EVS networking and management. They had a better understanding of the bureaucratic aspects, management, possible problems and possible response strategies of the EVS and became aware of techniques and tools used to improve the quality of EVS projects.
In order to facilitate the process of partnership-building only in 6 working days, the participants were engaged in more interactive sessions such as discussions, debates, role plays, city game, small group discussions and brainstorming. Overall, we wanted to build not only partnership but also friendship and mutual trust among the participants which could lead towards the successful implementation of future EVS projects.
Having in mind to improve and contribute to the development of support systems for European Voluntary Service projects as well as foster European cooperation among promoter organizations, we designed the project in a way to introduce participants and deepen their knowledge on specific aspects of EVS. In particular, the participants increased their awareness of EVS procedure and regulations, EVS crisis management, Intercultural communication and cultural shock and finally discussed the main aspects of Activity Agreement. In addition, we created an open space for the participants to freely discuss EVS realities in their organizations and share the methods and best practices of EVS management adopted in their NGO's.
The process of hot discussions revealed the participants concerns on the main challenges which usually occur in EVS projects and developed their ability of problem solving and crisis management. Most important was to hear the real experinces of promoter organizations, which gave a possiblity to have an overall picture of EVS possibilities offered to future volunteers. Finally, the last 2 days of the project was too practical, giving the participants a chance to work fully on the follow-up projects, assisting them in filling the application forms and giving them hints and suggestions for further improvemts of newly designed projects.
Full Time Trainer.