Community Links
Start date: Sep 1, 2015,
End date: Aug 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The project "Community Links" comes as an answer to a wide variety of needs within scout organizations in Europe which have been developing more and more international activities in the recent years. Seen as a highly important element of the educational method, the international dimension in Scouting and its correct implementations are the key elements to the present project. International activities are the ones that can bring together communities and cultures from across Europe, forging strong links between individuals and groups.
Quality of the international programme, together with the international opportunities offered to young people vary a lot from country to country both in accessibility and in quality. Agreeing that more people should benefit of good quality international experiences, the partners in this projects, coming from 18 European countries, have decided to join forces and work towards this common goal.
The project objectives include:
-Maximizing the impact of the International Dimension in Scouting;
-Providing a meeting and knowledge exchange space for the development and strengthening of European partnerships;
-Ensuring an optimal environment for exchange of best practices
-Encouraging the increase of quality in youth mobilities;
-Developing the concept of "Erascout".
The project will involve 50 participants and experts from 18 European countries. The profile of the participants is that of youth workers and scout leaders who are holding key positions in their sending organizations in relation to international educational activities. This participant profile ensures the dissemination of the project results in the sending organizations and will hopefully affect in a positive way the access to international activities to the members of these organizations (more that 1 million young people at European level).
The project consists of two activities: a one day planning meeting and a three days seminar. The main project activity is the seminar, which will take place in Dublin, Ireland between 10-13 of March 2016. The focus points of the seminar will be: educational value of international activities in scouting, international projects management and mobility opportunities at European level. The methods used in implementing the seminar will be non-formal education methods, such as: team-tasks, workshops, case studies, peer to peer learning, audio-visual presentations, a resource center, educational games, role-play and others.
In what concerns the foreseen results and impact of the project, they comprise of: enhancing the knowledge and skills of the project participants (and partner organizations) in the fields of international projects and partnerships, international project management and e-learning tools, create new partnerships and future international projects at European level between scout organizations, increase the quality and accessibility to international activities for over 1 million young people in Europe.
We expect that the project will also generate important follow-up activities, such as:
development of the "Erascout" programme and increase in the quality of student mobilities in Europe
development and use of e-learning tools for better preparing international activities
increasing the impact of the international dimension of scouting in the educational proposal to young people.
Regarding the potential long-term benefits of the project, the following aspects can be underlined:
increasing youth employability at European level through the development of important soft-skills.
better academic results and study exchange experience for young European people through the development of the "Erascout" programme.
increased tolerance and awareness for young people involved in international activities and their local communities;
increased quality in international activities developed by youth organizations in Europe (both scout and non-scout, as the results will be disseminated to a large network of European youth NGOs).