Transcript Senior European Volunteers Exchange Network Kick

Senior European Volunteers
Exchange Network
Final Network Meeting
Brussels October 10 – 13, 2010
Charlotte Strümpel
Evaluating the SEVEN-Network
Senior European Volunteers
Exchange Network
Final Network Meeting
Brussels October 10 – 13, 2010
WELCOME!
The ongoing evaluation…
• is an integral part of the work
throughout the whole duration of the
network.
• The aim is to monitor and to evaluate
the process, content and the results of
the network.
Evaluation questions
• Have the annual meetings been organised in a useful way?
• Which activities have partners in the network carried out?
• How did participants perceive the networking activities and
products of the network?
• Did they find them useful for running exchanges for older
volunteers?
• Which aspects will they be able to apply to exchanging older
volunteers in the future?
• Are organisations using the material developed within the
network?
• What are the longer term effects of the network?
Evaluation tools
• The open part of the annual conferences are
evaluated by all participants through a meeting
checklist.
• Partners were asked to list their activities regularly
using a prepared form.
• This form also contains questions on the strengths
and weaknesses of the network.
• The website is being monitored via user statistics and
an on-line questionnaire for visitors.
• Evaluation results are discussed in core group
meetings.
Number of questionnaires
•
Partners
•
24
Associated partners
13
•
National agencies
15
Total
52
Number of LLL projects submitted
•
Total
38
•
Accepted
25
•
Rejected
13
Accepted SVP-Projects submitted without
SEVEN?
•
Yes
•
No
12
16
Dissemination
•
Presentation
•
Distributing leaflets
127 (29L)
•
Articles, reports etc.
31 (11L)
90 (20L)
Presentation at meetings – Lunaria
Examples
•
•
•
Grundtvig meetings and national
information days
Conference on the European Year for
Combatting Poverty and Social
Exclusion
Youth on the Move conference
Presentation at meetings – Partners
Examples
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Internal networking meetings related to organisation
Organisation of local meetings (Ferrara, ARC)
Project was presented at the Annual EDYN Meeting in
Washington (EFD; ECEI)
Global Conference of the International Federation on Ageing
in Melbourne, Australia (Seniors Office Graz)
National Grundtvig Meetings (ARC, IBG, Lancaster 2x,
ZAWIW, ISIS)
National and local meetings
Work camp and long-term volunteering meetings
Preparatory meeting for European Year of Volunteering in
Germany (IBG)
Red Cross European Regional Conference – Ageing
workshop
Dissemination: articles
•
Print media connected with
organisation
• Local newspapers
• Seniors Organisations‘ media
• Websites
• National Agency‘s media
Could have been more 
Dissemination: other activities
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Senior volunteers in work camps
Local round table and workshops on senior volunteering
(BRC)
Exchange, preparatory visists with local / national money
(Ferreara, Giessen)
Video on exchange of senior volunteers (ISIS)
Research (Karin Stiehr, ISIS)
Placement as senior volunteer (Dietmar Eisenhammer, ISIS)
Champion for Senior Learners‘ Group at Lancaster
Unviversity (Rory Daly, University of Lancaster)
Founding a Seniors‘ Organisation in Graz (Gertraud Dayé)
Starting national database for senior volunteers exchange
and local activities (Edita Satiene- SIC)
Website: General opinion? (33)
•
•
•
•
Positive
OK
Do not use it
Other
26
3
2
2
Website: General opinion? (33)
•
•
•
•
Clear structure, a lot of useful
information
Well done and easy to navigate
Very useful to show others what we
are doing in the SEVEN-network
Design of the website is very good and
offers a lot of useful information
Website: Beneficial parts (30)
•
•
•
•
Material/tools/information
Partner finding
Other projects
Other
30
13
2
2
Website: Beneficial parts (30)
•
„The website provides all the information
required for organizing good exchangeprogrammes.“
•
„Materials on the website are useful. We
use some of them during training of our
volunteers to go abroad.“
Website: Improvements (14)
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•
•
•
•
•
Regular updates
More material in
national languages
More information
Improve communication
in discussion forum
Other
Nothing / can‘t say
3
6
6
4
3
4
Website: Improvements (14)
•
•
•
•
•
•
„Unfortunately, not used much“
„Several features are strange: language button;
forum is spammed“
„Difficult to find website in search engine due to
Austrialian TV network SEVEN“
„More could have been done“
„Volunteers reports would have been helpful“
„To be honest we do not use website a lot“
Benefits of being a member / being
associated with SEVEN-network (33)
•
•
•
•
•
Contacts
Information and material
Knowledge/experience 13
Training programme
Motivation for exchange
20
15
1
2
Benefits of being a member / being
associated with SEVEN-network (33)
„Some member organisations gave very good examples of their work
and were very inspiring for me“
„Finding comptetnet partners to discuss any topic concerning the
exchange of senior volunteers“
„I have made new contacts which have led to new projects“
“Having the chance to encounter people interested in working together
for other projects”
„In Alliance some member organisations are really inspired by SEVEN
and have started senior exchanges in work camps, organised special
senior work camps and are more open for new projects.“
„I got many new ideas“
Strengths of SEVEN-network (32)
See benefits +
•
•
•
Professional team
Lobbying
Involving seniors
7
2
3
Strengths of SEVEN-network (32)
“Great team, pushing the whole initiative forward as well
as a good mix of educational institutions, municipalities,
NGOs and other stakeholders”
“Working together for several years with representatives of
organisations from other countries having very different
structures but the same interests”
“The network did a great work in lobbying for the idea of
senior volunteering in Europe, also owing to its variety of
different types of organisations, connections and
experience”
Weaknesses of SEVEN (27)
•
•
•
•
Nothing / hard to say
Difficult managing it
Diversity of members
Lack of communication
13
3
2
3
Weaknesses of SEVEN (27)
•
•
•
•
•
Nothing / hard to say
Difficult managing it
Diversity of members
Lack of communication
Not enough funding
13
3
2
3
1
Challenges encountered (15)
•
•
•
•
•
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•
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•
•
To motivate seniors to volunteer
To find suitable accommodation at a reasonable price
Lack of funding
Problems with visa
Finding suitable placements
To find enough partners for learning partnership
To get questionnaires for research
Introducing the idea of senior volunteer exchanges in
Lithuania
Not being able to put together an exchange project
To promote senior volunteering among our member
organisations [no tool provided for this by network]
Challenges encountered by Lunaria
•
“To keep all the pieces together was the most
important challenge and also to deal with many
different actors required the development of an
ability to work at different levels: from the
Senior volunteers to the Civil Servants of the
European Commission, from the Small
associations to the local governments you
always have to find the correct “register”...so to
speak.”
Lessons learned – Organisational
perspective
•
•
•
“The most important lesson learned is that the
information is a power and such kind of networks gives a
lot of possibilities for different activities and exchange
visits.”
“It is worthwhile to follow a good idea, also if it takes a
couple of years to get it realized. The opportunity to
support the creation of the SVP was worth the efforts of
the prior pilot projects.”
“That more resources than forecast are needed and that
the allocation of staff resources are important. Also that
a major involvement of the media is necessary, while we
didn’t do much in this sense.”
Lessons learned – Individual perspective
•
•
•
“I gained a lot of experience and now I have a very good
relationship with a lot of people. “
“That social problems cannot be resolved without
personal involvement of citizens, that networking is a
powerful tool helping to reach the goal, that many good
foreign practices can be adapted and introduced in home
location. “
“One of my most important lesson was, that the systems,
especially the social system, are very different in
Europe, and it was very interesting to me to learn a lot
from the systems of the other countries.”
Summary - partners
•
•
“We are very happy that now we are implementing a
project and our volunteers acquire a lot of skills from the
foreign volunteers and also they can transfer their
knowledge and skills to the foreign volunteers.”
“The activities of SEVEN-network must continue. I think
we can find a way of keeping in touch maybe through
proposed topics for discussion in website forum through
the mailing list and put all efforts to improve the DIVAS
project application in order to get funding for future
activities.”
Improving working relationship with NA (19)
•
•
•
Yes
Maybe
No or no relationship
•
Yes, the idea of trans-national
exchanges as a tool for intercultrual
learning is now much more accepted.
16
1
2
National Agencies
NA (15): Strengths of SEVEN
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•
•
•
•
Experience in senior volunteering (8)
Network meetings (3)
Products/tools developed and made
available (5)
Intermediary for partner search (3)
Website
NA: Strengths of SEVEN
“The SEVEN-network produced relevant information for
the implementation of senior volunteering projects. Most of
the Grundtvig-projects are carried out by young and well
educated adults. International matters are often treated by
young adults because they have better foreign language
skills and educational pathways included international
themes and activities. Seniors are a wide and special target
group and often this generation could not travel as much
as young people today do. Therefore NA's have
to reorganize their information and support for this new
project target group.” (NA Austria)
NA: Strengths of SEVEN
“The meetings I experienced were very open and inviting,
they encouraged new organisations to join or to start
working with senior volunteers. At the same time very
professional and a great personal experience too.” (NA
Hungary)
“Project involves participants from many EU countries
and provides the tools for new participants. Handbooks
created by the SEVEN-network for the Organizations of the
Civil Society, for volunteers, for coordinators and local
governments are of significant importance.” (NA
Lithuania)
NA: Weaknesses / possible improvements
•
No weakness
8
•
Risk of not continuing
2
•
Regular training courses
1
•
No answer
4
NA: Help with implementation of SVP General
•
Yes
12
•
No answer
5
NA: Help with implementation of SVP General
“The SEVEN-network has created preconditions
for the development of Senior Volunteering
processes in EU.” (NA Lithuania)
“Absolutely. The knowledge of senior
volunteering in the Commission and the NAs
was very poor, because the thematic is a bit
outside of the usual acitivities of Grundtvig
programme. The NA staff had had even more
difficulties to touch the thematic and target
groups without SEVEN.” (NA Finland)
NA: Help with implementation of SVP in your
country
•
Yes
8
•
Not directly
5
•
No answer
2
NA: Help with success of SVP in your
country
•
Yes
8
•
Not directly
5
•
No answer
2
NA: Help with success of SVP in your
country - Yes
“The Seven-network has been fundamental for the implementation of the
Grundtvig SVP action in the Italian LLP National Agency. The Network and
its website has been, and still is, our first reference point for getting
acquainted with a new reality that the Agency was not properly aware of about
such as international volunteering activities with seniors. The SVP Partner
Finder page has been and still is a truly useful tools for Italian and European
associations looking for partners. So far, this is still the only space available
finding partners, since there are no similar tools available. It’s very clearly
presented, it’s easy to use, very functional, constantly updated. The manuals
Still active! Manuals for Volunteers, Still active! Training course for senior
volunteers, Still active! A guidebook for local governments interested in
international exchange programmes for senior volunteers (available in Italian,
English, French and German) are regularly used as guidelines during our
Grundtvig Svp info days in Italy. These documents are also constantly
downloaded from our website by dozens of people every month. .” (NA Italy)
NA: Help with success of SVP in your
country – Not directly
“It is difficult to see a direct relationship between the network and the
success of SVP implementation in my country. In Austria the best
project proposals have been proposed by partners of the SEVENnetwork. What has been positive that the partners which are big
institutions in the social sector motivated smaller organisations in
remote areas to take the opportunity and apply for the new project
action. I think it will need some time that the SVP action will become
well known. Another problem is that the Grundtvig-programme does
not have so much money to fund a lot of projects.” NA Austria
“Unfortunately we cannot speak about the success yet (four
applications in each year). SEVEN network helped us in familiarizing
in the senior volunteer theme which is quite new in Finland.“ NA
Finland
NA: Website good model?
•
Yes
8
•
Not directly
5
•
No answer
2
NA: Website good model?
•
“Yes, the website has a lot of useful
functions and is full of vital information
for those starting to work with senior
volunteers. It is a good starting point for
the social aspects of active ageing and
volunteering, the links are very inspiring.
The site offers a lot to learn and do for
seniors themselves, which is also
appealing.” (NA Hungary)
NA: Website improvements
•
•
•
•
•
Add best practices
List SVP funded projects
More visibility for on-going projects
Link to other Grundtvig-activities
Update regularly
Improving working relationship with NA (19)
•
Yes that was an unexpected, at the
beginning, but absolutely positive
outcome. As a coordinator I also improved
the relationship with almost one half of
the LLP National Agencies and for sure
with the Grundtvig Unit of the European
Commission.
Further comments
•
•
•
Creating exchange opportunities for
individual volunteers
Voluntary financial contribution (of
NAs?) to maintain website
Further cooperation between SEVENpartners and NAs
Summary
“Well done! Thank you for this important
contribution.” (NA Italy)
“SEVEN is a good model of international
networking to promote senior volunteer
exchanges.” (NA-Slovenia)
Further comments
•
“Seven has opened a lot of opportunities to the
civil society to participate in the process of
societal change. The opening of the Eastern
countries is also a very big chance and
challenge at the same time. It is very fortunate to
be able to build projects with groups of people
with so different horizons and different
backgrounds. It is big fun to be part of the
SEVEN-CLUB!“ (NA Belgium – German
speaking)
Final comments by coordinator
•
•
I believe all this work should be continued: I
personally have believed very much in it (and
still do) and in the potentiality of senior
exchanges as a powerful educational tool for
active citizenship, social cohesion and fighting
against racism and xenophobia.
Finally I have no words to express my
gratitude to the member partners and the
many, many, friends I have collected during
the way!