Resume:
“Dare to Dream, Dare to Learn” program is an international project, founded by Delia Cristiana Stamate, intially in partnership with 5 International NGOs and Associations, having the aim to ensure and increase the quality of the youth projects developed within Europe.
The project started with consistent periodic conferences and trainings in Romania, designed as a continue formation for the participants, supporting the development of basic and transversal skills of youngsters in order to improve their skills and competences in implementing projects, their professionalism on the labor market and opportunities for employment. Now, the educational program has an international approach, one of the project developed being a training in Public Speaking and Leadership, written by Ghiță Petruș, Delia Cristiana Stamate, and Evelyn Bianca Paris, approved and sponsored by Erasmus Plus – Key Action 3.
The conferences/workshops/trainings make young people be aware of the circumstances in which they live with a deeper understanding as to develop leadership skills, common initiatives and projects for assuring a positive prospect for young people in the border regions of Europe.
The conferences/trainings are hold by former leaders and famous speakers in Romania, as well as international trainers that offer an amazing amount of knowledge to the ones that participate and improve their willingness to fight more for a better society.
The conferences/trainings initially started in 2013, but since March 2015 the idea of the program was defined and the exclusive program “Dare to Dream, Dare to Learn” was created.
The workshops/onferences/trainings were:
- Youth active participation and European citizenship (13, 14 December 2013) – 90 participants
- Public Speaking and Leadership Skills (1,2 July 2014) – 70 participants
- Project Management and European Founds (8,9 November 2014) – 120 participants
- The new direction of youth policies: Mediation and Debates (28 February -1 March 2015) – 100 participants
- Hate fighters (25,26 July 2015) – 45 participants
- The academy of leadership and personal development (7, 8 May 2016) – over 200 participants
- Project Management and Business Communication (29,30 October 2016) – 200 participants
An important aspects of the courses is that there is no fee charged, as to give a real chance to people who do not afford to pay for these kind of events, from which they can gain new skills and knowledge. At the end of the conferences, the participants receive international certificates as not only to attest their knowledge, skills, but also to improve their CV.
Currently, in charge of the project is Delia Cristiana Stamate, coordinating a local team in Romania and also working on new projects that can help youngsters to develop new skills in Belgium.
The objectives:
The objectives of the project are:
- To support the development and improvement of basic and transversal skills of youth leaders and youth workers;
- To contribute to the social by fostering young people’s employment, entrepreneurial and management skills;
- To develop basic and important skills of public speaking and leadership, multilingualism in all fields of education and training, using innovation, pedagogical and non-formal education tools
The project gives opportunity to young people and the ones involved in the youth file to develop new skills and competences.
NGOs involved in the project:
Butterfly Dreamer
Butterfly Dreamer’s goal is to prepare, promote and implement community at all levels, projects for the development of educational activities, upgrading local community, youth, social, community development, infrastructure, agriculture and obtain necessary internal and external funding in their progress.
The main objective of the association is targeting the local community in terms of cultural, artistic, religious, infrastructure, education, education, youth, research, physical education, health, environment, economic and social development, defense and promotion of the professional or business.
Butterfly Dreamer has already implemented international youth exchanges and other types of projects supported by Youth in Action , or other Programmes like Europe for Citizens, so the organization has experience and knowledge for the development of the applications for youth projects on the international level as well as implementation of the same. Also, a part of these international projects were closely connected with healthy life styles.
European Civil Resource Center (with CERC România and ECRC Danemarca)
The “European Civil Resource Center “ aims to facilitate the civil organizations and public institutions to take active participation in the processes of forming European policies and decision-making by overcoming the information deficit, providing additional information about the resources and opportunities that the “Europe for citizens” Program offers, and by building stable long-term partnerships on national and European level.
The network of civil resource centres is composed of independent (European and national) virtual and real centers for citizens and NGOs that provide information and expert help on European issues and support the creation of partnerships for joint realization of campaigns of common interest.
The Centers are located in eight European countries and function as informal civil representations led by the International Development Alliance – Bulgaria, European Federation of Mentoring for Girls and Women – Austria, Association of Local Democracy Agencies – Italy, Hellenic Regional Development Center – Greece, Solis Tuvak – Latvia, Butterfly Dreamer Association – Romania, Association for rural development – Slovenia and Denmark- Europæiske civile ressourcer center.
http://ecrc-eu.com, https://www.facebook.com/CercRomania,
Participants:
The participants were chosen after a selection process in order to assure that they responded to our requirements (academic awards, higher education) and they were motivated enough to participate actively as to contribute to the success of the conference.
Moreover, at the events were able to attend people from different fields of study and research, teachers, professors from all the country, that were interested to learn more information and to acquire new skills as well as people that belong to small communities and minorities.
The schedule of the conferences:
The schedule includes two days, which consist of three main parts: preparation, implementation and evaluation. All the participants received a map, which included the conference’ schedule and an info pack. The info pack is elaborated by the coordinators and contained the most important information, detailed instructions with what to expect and what to be prepared for. All the materials are free and are supported by the organizers.
The training is made by the official represents of European Civil Resources Centers and also by prestigious members of the community, entrepreneurs, certified trainers and people with a lot of leadership skills that positively influence the participants.
Main activities:
All project partners take an active role in each phase in order to ensure a smooth and successful process. The main activities of the project are: team-building activities, familiarizing with Erasmus+ program and its rules for application, introduction to project design, project cycle management, project writing, preparation of project applications, follow-up activities, dissemination of project results, public speaking skills, leadership, opportunities for youngsters etc. All the partners take an active part in all the phases.
The methodology of the training course is based on the principles of non-formal education. The main focus is placed on the participants, fostering their active participation, mutual learning, discussing and sharing of experience and good practices.
The following working methods and approaches used are: working in small groups, facilitated and self-facilitated discussions, thematic workshops, practical simulations, interactive presentations, case studies, role-playing, debates, and skills development activities.
Impact:
The conferences have undoubtedly a strong impact on the participants. They gain experience, knowledge on project management, coordination and implementation. The methodological tools learned will be used by the participants in their future activities and will be disseminated among their partner’s networks and members.
The project will have impact on local, regional, national, European and international levels.
Local level: the project will allow the young people from the local community to participate in the project and to improve their basic and transversal skills, to develop analytic and project writing skills, to explore the opportunities that Erasmus+ provides in order to encourage the personal and professional capacity building of the learners.
Regional level: the project will be an opportunity for the young people to learn about the Youth programs available and in particular about Erasmus+ and the opportunities for the education, training, youth related activities and sport that it offers. This will enhance their professional and personal development and their active participation in Europe.
European impact: the project will have impact also on the local communities in each partner country due to the fact the organizations and the participants will disseminate the project and its results among its members and partners. Due to the media publications, the project will be disseminated at regional and national level in each partner country. In this way the project will have European-wide impact and will reach greater public. The project will contribute to strengthening of the partnership and cooperation between the organizations at European level.
International level: The project will have also international impact due to the fact that some of the partners work on international level. The gain knowledge, skills and experience will be shared with the organizations’ international partners. In this way the project and its impact will go even broader, on an international level.
Evaluation:
The project evaluation will consist of three phases: ongoing evaluation process during the training course, evaluation at the end of the project and evaluation after the project. The ongoing evaluation will be trainers’ responsibility. The aim is to receive daily feedback from the participants in order to know what they liked, what could be improved, if the program corresponds to their learning needs and interests. The results of the daily evaluation will be discussed at the project team meetings which will take place at the end of each working day. The project team will also make an evaluation of each day, will discuss the process of the day and will assess if the project contributes to the achievement of the stated aims and objectives and will draw conclusions of what could be improved.
At the end of the project, there is a final evaluation where participants will share their overall impressions of the project. Both non-formal and formal methods will be used in order to receive different perspectives and to encourage participants to share. At the end the project team will also gather to evaluate the training course, to discuss the feedback from the participants, to evaluate the work of the team, to summarize the good practices that could be used when developing and implementing future projects. After going back home each national group will have one evaluation meeting together with the local project coordinator. The aim is to receive direct feedback from the participants, to share what they learnt, how this training course will contribute for their future personal and professional development.
In order to evaluate the results of the project in short term, the project team will prepare an online query and will send it to the participants to fill it in 2-3 months later. In this way the team will receive information about the first direct project results.
Certificates:
At the end of the conferences, the participants receive international certificates, where their contribution is recognized at an European level.
Disemmination of projects’ results
In order to share the results of the project with a greater number of people and to increase the impact, measures on several levels will be undertaken:
– Online platform (website, blog) – all the content created before, during and after the project will be uploaded on the online platform which will be especially created for the purposes of the present project. All information, practical guidance, educational, training and promotional materials, articles, presentations, photos, videos, interviews, collages related to the project, information about partners, the partner countries, all Erasmus+ visibility tools, the results of the project will be available online. There will be published ideas, follow-up plans and suggestions for future cooperation created during the training course. In this way the project and the projects results will be spread among a wide public. This tool will contribute to the promotion of Erasmus+ and will provide an added value to the Programme and the opportunities it offers in the areas of education, training, youth and sport.
– Media (traditional and new media) both in the hosting and the partner countries will be also involved. The media partners at local level will support the dissemination and promotion of the project and its results. The partners and the media in their communities will also be drawn in spreading the news about the project, its aims, priorities and achieved results. This will ensure the dissemination of the project results both at local and at European level.
– Facebook page – social media are widely used by young people and are a powerful tool to spread information among great number of people. The created page will be one more communication channel used to reach a wider audience especially young people.
– Each partner in the project will prepare and conduct an information event where the project and its results will be presented as well as Erasmus+ Programme and the learning opportunities it offers. The aim is to ensure dissemination at local level.
– Training booklet will be elaborated. It will contain all training and educational materials, methodology, workshops used during the project implementation. It will be disseminated among the participants, the partners and their networks, youth organizations, trainers, youth workers, project managers, coordinators, youth leaders, volunteers, all the interested parties and the wide public. The booklet will be available online so it will easily reach more people.
– CD with presentation of Erasmus+, project presentation and project results, as well as photos and videos will be prepared and distributed.
The target groups of the dissemination strategy are the young people, the partners and their networks, youth organizations, trainers, youth workers, project managers, coordinators, youth leaders, volunteers, representatives of NGOs and networks, all the interested parties and the wide public.
Press releases after the projects:
http://butterflydreamer.eu/tag/romania/
http://butterflydreamer.eu/conferinta-constanta-english-version/
http://www.wherevent.com/detail/Delia-Cristiana-Public-Speaking-Leadership-Skills
http://www.telegrafonline.ro/tinerii-constanteni-invitati-la-cursuri-gratuite-de-leadership
http://observator.ro/cultura-invatamant-academia-de-leadership-si-dezvoltare-personala-374795.html
http://radioconstanta.ro/2016/04/19/academia-de-leadership-si-dezvoltare-personala/
http://observator.ro/elevii-de-la-cnmb-initiati-tainele-managementului-401358.html
http://www.replicaonline.ro/managementul-proiectelor-si-comunicare-in-afaceri-295408/
http://www.ziare-pe-net.ro/stiri/invata-cum-sa-accesezi-fonduri-europene-4813466.html
http://i-ziare.ro/invata-cum-sa-accesezi-fonduri-europene-4612848
http://indexconstanta.ro/invata-cum-sa-accesezi-fonduri-europene/
Dare to Dream, Dare to Learn 