The EVSification project was implemented over a period of 20 months by Centrul de Voluntariat Cluj-Napoca, Romania in partnership with FERSO, Poland and Centrum dobrovolnictva, Slovakia, under the Strategic Partnerships (Youth) of the Erasmus+ Programme.The partnership was focused on creating relevant tools for organizations involved or interested in implementing EVS projects. The process started from a needs assessment phase, during which the three partners consulted 60 accredited organizations and 15 former EVS volunteers. The focus of the needs assessment phase was to underline the needs and interests of the organizations that are involved in EVs projects, the main conclusions being integrated in the three intellectual outputs created by the EVSification partners:1.EVSification manual - The manual aims at creating a complex document on volunteer management in EVS projects, addressed to all organizations and coordinators involved in EVS. The manual will guide you through the nine steps management cycle in EVS projects. This comprehensive text shows how to involve EVS volunteers in an organisation, and covers all the basic information plus special features on supervision in EVS projects, conflict management and motivation. There is a large reference section, tools and real study cases presented. The manual is available in printed version in English and in digital version, both in English and in the native languages of the three partners - Romanian, Slovak and Polish.2.EVSification training design - Based on the manual the training design is dedicated to all organisations and individuals who have the motivation and capacity to organize trainings or workshops on EVS management topics. It contains the training timetable and a substantial collection of exercises and tools designed to cover each one of the nine steps of the EVS management cycle. It can be used as a whole training design, but also you can choose to use just some sections or methods from it. It can be also adjusted for the training in volunteer management in general and for different target groups: NGO representatives, youth workers, volunteer coordinators in social services, health care, culture, etc. The training design is based on non-formal education methodology, making it an effective and fun learning tool! The design is available in digital format and will be sent upon request to any organization and youth workers interested.3.Webinars - The partners organized 3 webinars on topics related to EVS, open to all participants interested in these. The webinars will give you a closer view on 3 key topics in EVS volunteer management: motivation in EVS projects, conflict management, project/personal development evaluation. The webinars come as an answer to what various European organizations identified, during the research we conducted, as being the most challenging areas in volunteer management. The facilitators will guide you through the most relevant theoretical parts connected to these topics but, most important, will offer you a down-to-earth perspective, coming from their extensive experience in managing volunteers.In addition, the three partners organized in cooperation with ANPCDEFP, a 3 days multiplier event (EVS Camp) and a one day multiplier event (EVS River) in cooperation with Team for Youth, Baia Mare. EVS Camp was based on Open Space Technology, and included 130 participants (120 local and 10 internationals), while for EVS River, the organizations gather 43 participants. Besides the two multiplier events, a 6 days international training course on volunteer management in EVS was organized for 21 participants from the three countries (Romania, Slovakia, Poland).

<< Background >>We, the 3 partner organisations (Graal from Portugal, Cazalla Intercultural from Spain and Cluj-Napoca Volunteer Centre from Romania) look at our project idea from three directions:-we observed during our hundreds of youth programs that gender inequalities exist at different levels: individual (from beneficiary to beneficiary/ volunteer to volunteer), organizational (from the entity to the beneficiaries and staff members, since the organisations lack clear procedures in the sense of being gender-sensitive and dealing with situation of gender-based discrimination).-we read the Programme Guide and understood that the European Commission aims to build a European Education Area, which can be created through strategic partnerships aligned with the Union Youth Strategy 2019–2027. Therefore, we have seen that it is a fact that at EU level, gender equality and youth work are relevant goals for the European youth. We want to contribute to this aim, by teaching youth that gender equality is for all, and this goes hand in hand with the fact that millions of young people are engaged in youth organisations. We want to reach organisations, give them the tools to provide a safe and inclusive place, transferring a European Goal to grass root impact.-we, all partners, are passioned and motivated to advocate for GE, whilst we have complementary competences: Graal (celebrating this year 100 years of existence and promotion of gender equality) has expertise on the topic of gender equality and in tackling it in direct work with beneficiaries, Cazalla Intercultural is an active organization in the field of youth work, developing relevant, engaging programs (eg. using gamification) for to cover educational needs of youth, CVCN, as a volunteer centre, brings the expertise in training, consultancy, resource creation and project management within the nonformal education framework.Gender-based discrimination is met in youth work. In these situations the youth worker is the one to act, but does not have the tools to do it (very few are capable to address it, some try to promote gender equality but lack competences, some don’t see it relevant since they have other organizational issues: staff fluctuations, lack of funding). Looking at these, we aim to equip organizations and youth workers with competences to tackle gender equality in youth work. The more professionals in the field become aware of the gender equality dimension by getting knowledge on the topic, skills to deliver inclusive educational programs and proper attitudes to manage situations of discrimination, the bigger the impact. With OBLIO, organisations from all over Europe would benefit from supporting materials (a guide), increased competences (MOOC and training design), changed attitudes through digital learning opportunities (VR game).<< Objectives >>Our intentions are highlighted through the name of the project. Oblio is a character of a ‘70s animated cartoon, living in a community where everybody except they has literally a pointed head. Oblio demonstrates that differences are valuable, as `you don’t have to be pointed to have a point in life`.We want to bring our contribution towards a more tolerant and gender-sensitive Europe, and we act by doing it in the environment we know best: youth work. For this, we have set the following 4 project objectives:Objective 1- To outline the manner in which organizations, from the 3 countries of the partnership, are leading internal and external processes in relation to gender equality, assessing how they ensure an open and accepting environment for all genders – male, female, non-binary – in the first 4 months.Objective 2- To increase the capacity of over 380 youth organisations from Europe, the users of project’s results, to introduce or develop gender equality dimension in their work, until the end of the project.Objective 3 - To develop competences on managing gender inequalities in youth work of 15 youth workers, trainers or other professionals working with youth from Portugal, Spain and Romania while testing the training design, until July 2023.Objective 4- To increase the organisational capacity of the 3 project partners as service providers for other entities on gender equality topics, by the end of the project.The project is grounded in national, European and international initiatives and for us, as project initiators, is more relevant than ever to do our best to achieve the project objectives and create impact in all areas of focus.<< Implementation >>We are focused on creating internal procedures which will lead to the desired impact. Therefore, we will create tools to monitor, evaluate, assess the quality and impact of the project, and to share and promote the 4 project results: the guide, the training design, the virtual reality educational experience and the Massive Open On-line Course.We will prepare and organize a Learning Teaching Training Activity taking place in Romania, in the shape of a 7-day training for 15 participants (5/ country), as well as various activities to promote and share our project results: city quests, 1 day training sessions, visits in the community/ schools/ events etc.Each partner will organize a Multiplier Event, inviting 20 organisation representatives, interested in making youth work a more gender-sensitive environment.Throughout the project duration of 26 months, will take place 5 Transnational Project Meetings in order to organize and align with each other for a smoother, effective and efficient process.In numbers, within the projects activities we plan to involve:- over 470 organisations which want to introduce the gender equality perspective in their structures (380 beneficiaries of the online shared intellectual outputs, 60 participating in the Multiplier Events, 36 attending the City Quest)- around 560 youth workers, educators, trainers and professionals in the field of youth, and also simply youth (15 participants at Learning/Teaching/Training Activity, 45 participants at the 1-day local training, 100 participants who finish the Massive Open On-line Course (MOOC), 400 young people and youth workers users of the virtual reality experience)We encourage the involvement of participants with fewer opportunities, dealing with economic, geographical, social obstacles or migrant background, who also fulfil the participant’s profile: shortly, youth workers/ organisations representatives who want to tackle the gender-based discrimination in youth work.<< Results >>The project activities involve a joint work on the development of 4 project results:- a step-by-step guide for gender-sensitive organisations- a training design on mainstreaming gender equality- a virtual reality educational experience- a Massive Open On-line Course on gender equality education.All those 4 project results are designed according to the project objectives and the needs of the target groups.At the end of the project we will like to see the following changes, as part of the impact estimated in relation to the expected results:- min. 30 organisations will transform elements of their organization in order to be gender-sensitive and improve the competences of their youth workers- mini. 10 youth workers will create safer and more gender-inclusive educational spaces for young people in their organization by adopting new inclusive methods - over 100 will get aware of the consequences of gender-based discrimination, observed through the after-VR assessment- over 50 young people will be engaged in learning by doing activities on the topic of gender-equality- all partners will expand their reputation in the sector, will attract new partners/ volunteers/ stakeholders and will continue working for gender equality (new partnerships, projects)The longer-term benefits are given by the fact that our entire project is designed around creating and spreading the deliverables in the youth sector, while creating the environment for lifelong inclusive organizations, in order to `leave no one behind`.

<< Objectives >>CareerGRIT uses best-practices and co-designing methodologies to develop a career management training program for youth workers in Romania and Poland which will be piloted for 24 youth workers from both of the countrie. The final beneficiaries of CareerGRIT are adolescents and young people between the age of 16 and 25, including youth from disadvantaged groups, such as adolescents at risk of school-dropout and youth from families with a low socio-economic status.<< Implementation >>Project management activities;Design and pilot careerGRIT program for 24 youth workers in Romania & Poland, disseminating and multiplying the program.<< Results >>This CareerGRIT project will result in:- 1 end-to-end training program on career guidance for youth workers, including training activities and facilitation guidelines, available in Romanian, Polish and English;- 24 youth workers enrolled and participating in CareerGRIT, from Romania and Poland- 1 best practices catalogue on co-designing interventions for youth with youth, available in Romanian, Polish and English.

"Due to the international crisis and wars, more and more refugees are seeking asylum in Europe. Lots of refugees, especially of families from Syria and a lot of unaccompanied minors, are trying to get into Europe from the Western Balkans. So suddenly border countries like Bulgaria (BG) and Romania (RO) - being among the poorest countries within the EU - had to deal with a rising number of refugees in general, but also with unaccompanied minors and school-aged children. The figures for these atypical host countries are still lower than the EU’s most popular destinations, including Sweden, France, and Germany (DE), but both countries are ill prepared for the impact of suddenly becoming a host country for refugees. They have no experience in managing larger number of refugees and have no tradition of refugee work. In contrary DE has a broad experience in dealing and working with refugees since the 70ies, in absolute numbers it is receiving the highest number of refugees within the EU. Especially volunteers and non profit organisations play a vital role in refugee work: they support refugees in the field of housing, food and clothing, but also provide learning opportunities and leisure time activities for the refugees. For RO and BG volunteering and refugee work are new developments and therefore they can benefit from the experience of a German NPO. So this is the reason, why this strategic partnership involved the volunteer organisations ""Gemeinsam leben & lernen in Europa"" from Germany, ""Tulip Foundation"" from Bulgaria and ""Centrul de Voluntariat Cluj-Napoca"" from Romania.The partners decided to concentrate on one problem most of the refugees in their country face: not being able to understand and speak the language of their host country. While a lot of refugees learned English or French back home or during their flight, usually German, Bulgarian and Romanian are not studied. Therefore most of the refugees arriving in DE, RO and BG do not speak the language. But only if refugees are able to communicate and to understand the language of their host country, they can express themselves directly without depending on translation services of others. Mastering the new language will empower the refugees, and will also help them to understand the cultural differences and requirements of their host country. So failing communication is an essential problem, and makes refugee work even more difficult. And this is where volunteers can help: teaching refugees their own language. The German organisation GLL has developed a good practice model for addressing this problem: it has set up a successful volunteer language mentor programme for kids and adult refugees: trained volunteers help refugees on a 1:1, face-to-face basis to learn the language, being able to communicate and understanding the culture of their new home. Additionally GLL has developed some easy to understand and use learning and teaching material for the volunteer mentors. The goal of this partnership was to transfer this successful volunteer programme and the learning material to BG and RO and to adapt the program to the needs, culture, circumstances in these two countries and through the huge expertise of the two involved volunteer organisations. Additionally partners adapted this program to attract young volunteers becoming language mentors for refugee children and youth. Additionally partners improved - with the support of young refugees and volunteers from all 3 countries - the existing teaching material, to fit the needs of the young volunteers as ""non-professional"" teachers and young mentees. Mentors and mentees collected photos on the topics they are interested in, and based on this partners developed new learning and teaching materials. Together all three partners improved the training and support of young volunteers working with young refugees and produce a freely available manual in English, German, Bulgarian & Romanian for training of young language mentors, information sessions for refugees (parents, youth), and intercultural training of the young volunteers and refugees. The final product is a physical tool box with teaching and learning material (e.g. picture cards, simple grammar book, exercises, games, maps etc.) and a language manual with 10 communication situations, which can be used in the refugee work across Europe. The overall aim of this project is to enhance the European dimension of supporting volunteers in refugee work and to improve the integration of refugees in the different European countries by giving them the opportunity to learn the language of their receiving country - especially in countries, were hosting of refugees is a new development and difficult for NGOs. We hope that our “European” model of a volunteer language mentoring programme is useful for other NGOs and will be copied by many."

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