FINAL REPORT

ABOUT US

Uluslararası Gençlik Aktiviteleri Merkezi Derneği - International Youth Activities Center Association (IYACA) is a youth NGO which was founded in 2012 and actively working in youth field in Ankara. It was founded to arrange activities that support youth’s personal development and to contribute to the development of a youth, that can generate a solution for the problems around them, are self-confident, promoter and sensitive.

Our objectives:

• To contribute to social, cultural, artistic, athletic, scientific and professional development of youth

• To increase the participation of youth to social and economic life actively

• To support them to make their own decisions

• To improve the sustainable youth policies

• To improve the participation of youth in long life learning and labour market

• To reinforce the empathy among youth, develop cooperation and tolerance

The organization serves to youth as an active member of Turkish Youth Federation. Moreover, our organization is authorized to inform the youth about European mobility and opportunities as an Eurodesk Contact Point with the accreditation be EU Ministry of Turkey. Our organization is also accredited to be an EVS hosting, sending and coordinating organization be EU Ministry of Turkey.

Working Topics:

• Social, Cultural, Artistic, Environmental and Sport activities

• Youth Participation

• Youth Policies

• Entrepreneurship and employment

• Cultural Diversity

• Intercultural learning

• Human Rights,

• Volunteering

• Informing Youth

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Project name: Let’s Get Organized for ESC

Activity date: 03-10 December 2019

Place: Istanbul, Turkey

Partner Countries: Turkey, United Kingdom (UK), Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Poland, Greece, Hungary and Portugal.

Partner Organizations: Bulgarian Youth Forum (Bulgaria), Social-educational initiatives centre PLUS (Lithuania), Asociatia pentru tineret SAKURA (Romania), Asociacion Juvenil Intercambia (Spain), Internationale Arbeidsvereniging (Netherlands), ProAtlântico – Associação Juvenil (Portugal), Uluslararası Gençlik Aktiviteleri Merkezi Derneği (Turkey), M.K.O. Civis Plus (Greece), Suncokret Centre for Community Development (Croatia), Nucleo Educativo per la Formazione Europea al Lavoro Internazionale (NEFELI) (Italy), Fresh Juice (Latvia), Seiklejate Vennaskond (Estonia), Stowarzyszenie Morena (Poland), Kulturalis Kapcsolatokert Alapitvany (Hungary), Opportunity Global (United Kingdom).

Project’s aim: The main aim of the project is improving the international co-operation by gathering the potential and the current partners together, learning new ESC programme and sharing knowledge, consequently increasing the quality of ESC projects.

Training course will be for representatives of organisations among EU countries in order to strengthen the cooperation regions that work with youngsters with fewer opportunities (rural areas, disabled, cultural social and economic difficulties) under Erasmus+, European Solidarity Corps (ESC) programme.

Project’s Objectives:

• To get a better understanding of the concept of ESC

• To improve the ability for co-operation and working in international partnership

• To reflect on the roles, responsibilities and challenges within the ESC volunteer support system

• To raise awareness of the learning dimension in ESC and provide tools for learning support

• To support the recognition of non-formal learning in ESC

• To provide new information about the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) programme

• To establish long partnership among partner organizations

• To develop youth workers’ knowledge, skills and attitudes and improve their experience and provide them with sharing those experience on European Solidarity Corps (ESC) projects.

• To create solid networks of contacts and partnerships.

This report is a summary of the training course which took place in Istanbul, Turkey from 3rd December to 10th December 2019. All the methodologies and methods used in this training course were non-formal education based. The course methodology is based on the concept of experiential learning, in an atmosphere where participants can learn a lot from each other and have a lot of fun! The methodologies and methods in the project will be non-formal education based. We used non-formal training methods during the project activities such as group works, discussions, statement exercise, lectures, simulation, individual and groups’ reflections, interactive workshops, and participative presentations, consultations, exercises and self-assessment, etc.

ACTIVITY PLAN

DAY 1. 3rd DECEMBER 2019

First day of the project consisted of participants’ arrival to Istanbul from their home countries represented by United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Poland, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Turkey. They met at Kadıköy and had the transfer to hotel. They were welcomed by IYACA’s team and they have been asked to introduce themselves. Also, brief information about project, activities, food and accommodation was provided to them by organizers with the aim of helping them to get ready for the upcoming days.

Day 2. 4th December 2019

The day started with the session called Opening the programme. Expectation and Fears Erasmus+ and Youthpass Presentation. During this part of the first activity day the program was opened shortly by our trainers explaining the necessity of having such a project, why we gathered together and what are we going to do. We played team building games with the participants (silent castles, name-gesture, etc.) In our project, we were also interested in determining the expectations and fears of the participants with colourful sticky notes in order to increase the motivation of the participants and to find out their expectations and fear regarding the program. We informed the participants about the Youthpass processes and key competences. Then we answered the questions of the participants about the project. Wish Box and Feelings Chart were installed, and a space was created for these activities in a corner of the meeting room. Day 2. 4th December 2019

The second session named Team Building Games consisted of different activities aimed to warm up the participants. Participants were divided into 4 groups, each group received pencils, paper, balloons, glue, and rope. We asked groups to form parts of a person using these materials. The first group had to form the head with the materials, the 2nd group formed the body, the 3rd group the arms and the last group the legs. Groups worked in places where they were not able to see each other. The groups were reunited together in the open session to be asked to assemble all the pieces. They were asked if they are satisfied with the result, what would they have done differently if they were given the same task again. Feedback was received with questions such as those previously mentioned.

After the panel regarding Intercultural Learning was delivered to participants firstly by explaining the iceberg model (while a small part of the iceberg is on the surface of the water, most of it is under water, there are visible parts in culture. Art, food, music, language etc. However, culture has basic assumptions about norms, values, history, place, nature and time. which express the invisible parts of the iceberg). At the same time, the difficulty of understanding people with different cultural backgrounds was explained with the iceberg model. At the same time, Egg-a-run activity was conducted as follows: We divided the participants into 5 groups and for each small group, we hanged the raw egg on the ceiling with a height of 2 meters from the floor. We gave scraps of paper, scissors and glue to small groups. The task of the teams was to build something that will prevent the egg from breaking. We put some special obstacles on the teams. The rules set for Group 4 to ignore the time and for Group 5 not to accept any leadership. After 30 minutes we cut the facilitating thread and observed if the egg is broken. For the debriefing part we asked questions as:

1. Did they find it difficult to communicate with each other and then move on to the evaluation section?

2. How did your group barriers affect teamwork, what issues you had when working with people from different cultures, and what you sacrificed?

3. We discussed about the possibilities and limits of intercultural cooperation.

4. In this application, the educational guide "" Intercultural learning "" was used.

Going to know each other better a section named Who Am I and My NGO was necessary. Participants shared their projects, their future plans, if any, their experiences during presentations. Participants also shared their duties and responsibilities in the organization they represent as well. Since this project is a partnership building seminar, this study directly served the purpose. It enabled organizations to have detailed information about each other. They received information about who is doing what in which concerns participants.

Daily Evaluation is part of the program too. Each day reports of monitoring daily activities are supplied. Participants did the evaluation within groups deciding together what are the things they have learned during activities and how do they appreciate, in a positive or negative way the process overall. The daily evaluation session is aimed to listen the feedback from participants and improve following days’ activities according to recommendations received.

InterCultural evening (Croatia, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Netherlands). Participants exhibit their cultural elements that are unique to their own country. The participants introduced their culture and country to other participants (food, drinks, dance performances, history and videos of their country). Thus, all participants had the chance to learn new information about each other's cultures.

Day 3. 5th December 2019

The second activity day started with the panel dedicated to ESC objectives and priorities. We used the Learning Desks Method in our activity, in which we aimed to increase the knowledge of the participants about the European Solidarity Program (ESC) and to identify aspects that match their organizational needs. At the desks where the objectives and priorities of the ESC program were written, participants were provided with detailed learning by discussing and sharing ideas. Our facilitators asked questions to participants and completed the session interactively.

Program continued with a session aimed to encourage Learning the components of ESC. A detailed learning of the content and components of the European Solidarity Program (ESC) namely Quality Accreditation, Volunteering, Solidarity, Internship and Business. Our trainers explained the ESC project types in detail with an interactive presentation to the participants. It was determined at the beginning of the program which project type or types of partnership will be established by the participants when establishing a partnership under ESC.

Getting more into details and gaining more knowledge together motivated us to add a panel about the Learning dimension of ESC. We debated in detail the objectives of learning ESC and how to recognize these learning outcomes. Participants in the ESC programs receive Youthpass, Europass and ESC participation certificates. We did an interactive presentation on what these certificates do and how they will be created, and then a group work.

For better understanding and remembering the information we previously transmitted a session named ESC Quiz – Passaparola was schedule. In order to measure the extent to which our participants grasp the content of our activities and to eliminate the missing points, we made a fun test for our participants about the ESC in a contest format called Passaparola.

Daily Evaluation. Each day reports of monitoring daily activities are supplied. Participants did the evaluation within groups deciding together what are the things they have learned during activities and how do they appreciate, in a positive or negative way the process overall. The daily evaluation session is aimed to listen the feedback from participants and improve following days’ activities according to recommendations received.

InterCultural evening (Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland) Participants exhibit their cultural elements that are unique to their own country. The participants introduced their culture and country to other participants (food, drinks, dance performances, history and videos of their country). Thus, all participants had the chance to learn new information about each other's cultures.

Day 4. 6th December 2019

Getting deeper into the topic led us to a panel aim to make us talk about Roles and collaboration in ESC. Our participants generally discussed about the quality of ESC projects. Then we reviewed all the actors (volunteer, organization, mentor, tutor, etc.) involved in individual ESC projects. We debated the roles and responsibilities of these actors and how they should cooperate to improve the quality of the ESC. Our trainers gave feedback at the end of the session.

After, we considered important to talk about Crisis and Risk management in ESC projects as an essential part for each organization involved in the field. They learned how to manage crises and possible risks that the participants can face in ESC projects. Our trainers offered to the participants examples of crisis cases experienced in the projects. In groups, participants tried to solve this crisis. Then, in the plenary session, each group were presenting the crisis and their solution. Later, trainers asked participants questions as:

• What kind of risk management would you eliminate before these crises started?

In the same groups, the participants created measures to prevent risks. Risk prevention methods created in the plenary session will be discussed. Our trainers provided feedback and shared information about crisis and risk management. Then the data generated by the groups were transferred to the PC.

Mixing the normative of Erasmus+ program with Local Needs Presentation is useful for each side. Our participants presented their needs (disadvantaged groups, social participation, culture, entrepreneurship, eco-life, eco-village, etc.) as a result of the surveys they conducted during the preparatory activities of our project. Thus, they create project ideas for the needs of the local communities for projects that all participants will develop jointly.

Another aspect that we considered important to discuss is the one referring to Needs and solution analysis. Our participants formed mixed groups based on the information they have acquired about each other in the organization and local needs presentation sessions on the first day of the main activities. And they analysed these needs and discuss solutions on how to meet the needs and how EVS projects can play a role in this analysis. Thus, the matched partners had the opportunity to work with each other for new partnership and follow-up projects to be created within the project.

InterCultural evening (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, UK) Participants exhibit their cultural elements that are unique to their own country. The participants introduced their culture and country to other participants (food, drinks, dance performances, history and videos of their country). Thus, all participants had the chance to learn new information about each other's cultures.

Day 5. 7th December 2019

City Tour

We will enable the participants to discover the historical and natural beauties of Istanbul. We will arrange a vehicle and an English-speaking guide for the participants. We will tour the Sultanahmet Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Grand Bazaar, Galata tower and Eminönü. They will increase the communication and interaction of the participants with the local people and they will perceive that people with different cultural backgrounds live together in Istanbul.

Day 6. 8th December 2019

This activity day started with a session dedicated to Volunteering recognition in EU-European Youth Charter. Our participants formed mixed groups based on the information they have acquired about each other in the organization and local needs presentation sessions on the first day of activities. They analysed these needs and discussed solutions on how to meet the needs and how EVS projects can play a role in this analysis. Thus, the matched partners had the opportunity to work with each other for new partnership and follow-up projects to be created within the project.

We delivered a panel for Sharing experience and good practices among participants. We aimed to establish new partnerships by sharing partners' experience and good practices. We learned what partners have done in youth work before, examples of good practices. The method we followed is to divide participants into groups and give each group one poster paper and transfer their previous experiences to these posters. Then each group made a presentation and after all the presentations were completed, the session continued in the format of questions and answers.

After it was organized a simulation called Volunteer Management Cycle. In order to realize quality works in ESC volunteering projects, we developed the knowledge and skills of the participants in volunteer management and adopt the common management model. Our instructors prepared simulations for the participants, involving international volunteers/ multicultural environment/ all actors. All details of the event were shared with the participants. In simulation, they performed volunteer selection, job matching, orientation, training, implementation, evaluation and recognition in line with their roles. In accordance with the simulation conditions, a meeting room, different office rooms of the hotel and 1 accommodation room were asked and prepared. Feedback was received from the participants at the end of the simulation.

We assumed that it is important for each organization to enforce a Successful Partnership and Communication. All participants were asked to draw a metaphor representative for the partnership. This representation showed their expectations from the partnership. All participants drew their shapes on the flipchart and all participants were asked why they draw this shape and what they understand from a partnership. Trainers paid attention to what should be in a good partnership by further expanding and colouring the thoughts of the participants. We did this work for the purpose of establishing new partnerships in our project. We finished the session by watching a video about balance between partnership and communication.

Day 7. 9th December 2019

The last activity days brought to participants’ attention the tools necessary for better management. This led us to the session named Create ESC tools having the format of Round tables. Different tools and human resources are needed to create effective support systems for ESC projects. By dividing the participants into groups, they will conduct group work on different topics as Budget Documents, Official Documents, Activity and Learning Agreement, Calls, Application Forms, Interviews, Mentorship, Follow-up and Evaluation Forms. With the rotating tables technique, the groups moved to the other table and all participants were provided to express their opinions about all tools. The last group left at the table was in charge with the written documents on PC.

To enforce creativity and ensure sustainability we delivered a session to improve Development and development of project ideas. Our participants created project ideas using historical information about ESC. They took the initial action of their collaboration with the partners they met in our project. They developed their project ideas. We printed each project's ESC application form and asked them to write their project ideas on the project form. Thus, our participants started to write the projects and made their projects ready for application or close. The participants briefly presented their projects to the general group and shared their details on the project's facebook group by transferring them to the PC.

Coming to an end was not easy for our participants because they were interested in always getting deeper on each topic. We tried to sum it up during the session Preparation of Project Result Document and Blog Page. We asked our participants to think about the knowledge and skills they have acquired as a result of the group activities in our project, and then to determine what results / outcomes have occurred in our project. The groups presented their work in the plenary session, and then we will post the work of each group on the blog page of our project.

General Evaluation We evaluated our project both verbally and in writing with our participants. A general debriefing of activities was conducted by trainers also the form for general evaluation was supplied to participants. They filled in the form containing the following questions:

1. What are your general views of the contact making seminar?

2. Technical evaluation of the contact making event (1: very bad, 2: not bad, 3: middle, 4: good, 5: perfect) for accommodation, food, meeting rooms, activities, trainers.

3. How were the activities and methods of the contact making event?

4. How do you evaluate the participation of the participants and your own participation in the contact making event?

5. What did you learn? What skills, knowledge and competences of yours did you improve during the contact making event?

6. Would you like to involve in a follow up project with this group or others? If yes, please explain?

7. Do you think this contact making event reach its objectives? In what ways it was successful or not? What changes should be made for the future?

We obtained data about the overall success of our project and the learning processes of the participants.

To offer everyone a staying memory and a recognition of their attendance to the Training Course we handed certificates during YouthPass Ceremony and sum up the project informally during the Goodbye Party. We offered our participants Youthpass certificates, they will have documented their one-week learning outcomes based on this certificate. The participants also expressed verbally their views on the project. On the last day of our project, we will organize a goodbye party for both having fun and celebrating what we do.

Day 8. 10th December 2019

Departure had place according to plane ticket schedule.

PROJECT EVALUATION

There were three different ways of evalution during the project “Let’s Get Organized for ESC”.

First of them is the daily evaluation realized each activity day within groups, participants being asked to talk and write down the things they have learned during the activities and which were the positive and negative aspects of the day. Participants appreciate a lot the fact that there were used non-formal tools to enhance knowledge and share experiences. They were also happy to work in groups and discover themselves and others while doing this. When it comes to project topic, they received information in a well structured way and it was easier to visualize the key-concepts ESC works with. According to their daily evaluation form transcripts participants were happty with the opportunity of exchanging contacts with other NGOs in Europe, sicovering similarities in matters of goals and objectives, also brainstorming about common future projects and activities, strenghting so the civil society at European level. In the same time, matching their daily evaluations with the Expactation and Fears shared during the first session, it appears that the fear of being shy has been solved through the mechanisms aimed to improve communication and cooperation between participants.

As a conclusion to the daily evaluation, the general appreciation to the information transmitted and the way in which the program was scheduled is a favourable one, the participants being content with the abilities and skilles they improved during the training course in terms of communication, cooperation, teamwork, non-formal methods, blog writing, delivering presentations, listening and understand, asking questions and pro-active attitudes.

The second way to evaluate the training course was the Cycling method of positive/ negative appreciation to various affirnations regarding activites. This method is useful to measure the tendency of positive of negative satisfaction of participants to activites, tools and organizational aspects related to the project. The conclusions we can extract from this evaluation method are very relevant in terms of understading in a measurable way our capacity to please the group. The diversity of participants coming from various countries was highly appreciated, also the energetic people, other participants and organization. They learned about ESC, Qapp, to cope with people coming from different backgrounds without any problems in sharing with strangers personal space or group activites. They metioned that writing a project was challenging but they did not face difficulties in formulationg ideas because of the amazing people they interact with.

The third evaluation way is the one realized through the General evaluation form at the end of the training course. . They filled in the form containing the following questions:

1. What are your general views of the contact making seminar?

2. Technical evaluation of the contact making event (1: very bad, 2: not bad, 3: middle, 4: good, 5: perfect) for accommodation, food, meeting rooms, activities, trainers.

3. How were the activities and methods of the contact making event?

4. How do you evaluate the participation of the participants and your own participation in the contact making event?

5. What did you learn? What skills, knowledge and competences of yours did you improve during the contact making event?

6. Would you like to involve in a follow up project with this group or others? If yes, please explain?

7. Do you think this contact making event reach its objectives? In what ways it was successful or not? What changes should be made for the future?

Summing up the answers, the overall view is a positive one. The training course was appreciated as a great learning experience with amazing participats, lovely participants and interesting activities. Even if the information could have present difficulties in being transmitted the informal methods used made the work easier and helped participants to get new ideas and more information, also now contacts in Europan NGOs. They improved both their knowledge (Erasmus+, ESC, etc.) and their skills (as communication, discourse, English, interpersonal interaction, etc/). It was very useful to improve the network and make partnerships.

CONTACT

ULUSLARARASI GENÇLİK AKTİVİTELERİ MERKEZİ DERNEĞİ - IYACA

Web : http://www.iyaca.org

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/iyaca

Twitter : https://twitter.com/iyacaorg

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iyacaorg

E-mail : project@iyaca.org

Phone : +90 544 344 2012

Address: Korkutreis Mah. Necatibey Cad. 26/80 PK06430 Çankaya/ Ankara, Turkey

Blogpage of the Project : https://getorganizedforesc.blogspot.com

Project Movies : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TDiqpx4MqM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0FPUei1_NU