“E-tick: platform on ethical communication for Young Volunteers” is a 18 month project launched by Zavod Volontariat to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes based in critical thinking and intercultural awareness among the youth, especially youth volunteers. The project speaks to the importance that volunteering has acquired in Europe and its potential benefit for global and European society. Several youth international volunteering programmes have been launched so far, such as the EVS, the National Civic Services, the EU Aid Volunteers Initiative and the new European Solidarity Corps. This volunteering experience is seen as a means to express common values and develop the capabilities we need to meet the challenges Europe is facing, linked to globalization and to growing inequalities within and between countries. In this scenario, young volunteers may play an active role in building human connections based on solidarity and mutual respect and drawing attention to society’s disadvantaged. The project aims at supporting young volunteers to effectively harness and communicate their experiences of overseas volunteering, through an online interactive training platform on common Global education related modules, in particular “ethical communication”. The more that volunteers are prepared for their international experience, the more likely they are to positively impact on the lives others and the more likely they are to stay engaged in democratic and civic life once they return home to build a more inclusive and equal EU society, where cultural diversities are welcomed and seen as a richness. Currently, there is no common approach to or content on ethical communication across the EU, despite the core role of volunteering agreed in European policy. Rather, each volunteering organization prepares volunteers for departure according to its own standards and awareness of the topics. In order to fill this gap, FOCSIV, INEX-SDA, Zavod Voluntariat, and Comhlamh, 4 European organizations experienced in Youth international volunteering and Humanitas, entity with long term experience in Global education relating issue, cooperate at the present project. All the intellectual outputs will be open source and freely accessible to possible stakeholders. The action foresees an initial short term joint staff training involving 9 experts on Global education and youth volunteering to establish a common understanding on the topic. At a later time two outputs will be developed in parallel: a common module on ethical communication tailored to youth volunteers and an interactive online platform where the common module can be attended using different learning inputs (i.e. case-studies, simulations, presentations…). Once the E-tick platform is ready, a sample of 50 former young volunteers will test it and enrich it with their feedback. The dissemination phase foresees national multiplier events and a relevant communication campaign through social media. The methodology used is needs-based and inspired by the intent to value partner expertises, enhancing their collaboration in each project phase. The overall project methodology is inspired by the “waterfall methodology”, with a clear timing and set of tasks that must be completed before the next one begins. In particular the non formal approach will be used to create the content module through active collaboration among partners and a real understanding through experiential learning (i.e. brainstorming, focus groups, case studies..). This methodology will characterize the outputs too and in order to facilitate the target group learning, promote more interaction and to promote peer-learning among the youth on the issue of ethical communication. The present project will significantly impact on youth volunteers, attested by the Youthpass: they will increase awareness of their role as actor for change and from a Global education perspective; engagement will boost their sensibility to communicate ethically during and at the end of their volunteering experience and will improve their critically thinking and their understanding of and responsiveness to global and European inclusion challenges. Ultimately it will reinforce their experience as a valuable and relevant contribution for the construction of a more inclusive society. In the long term, European youth workers and similar international volunteering organizations will join in the platform and use it in the volunteers’ pre-departure regular trainings. The project aims to enrich the debate with National and European institutions around the recognition of returned volunteers and their potential to contribute to addressing current challenges (i.e. political polarization, deep pockets of social and economic exclusion) and to work against all forms of - ism (i.e. racism, anti-semitism).
»E-tick: is an ethical communication platform for young volunteers«. It was initially an 18- month project created by Zavod Voluntariat and other partners to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes based on critical thinking, ethical communication and intercultural awareness among young people, with the main focus being on volunteers. Due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, we were forced to temporarily postpone certain dissemination activities so we extended the project to 33 months. Five non-governmental organization from four countries and in the field of international volunteering and global learning participated in the project: Zavod Voluntariat from Slovenia as the project leader and Association Humanitas from Slovenia, Comhlamh from Ireland, INEX SDA from Czech Republic and FOCSIV from Italy as partner organizations. The aim of the project was to support young volunteers and other young people interested in global learning and understanding the importance of ethical communication and its application in their contexts (experience in international volunteering or non-formal learning experience in global learning contexts through: seminars, workshops, etc.), through an online interactive platform on global learning topics with an emphasis on ethical communication. The more prepared the volunteers are for their international experience the more likely they are to have a positive impact on the lives of others and to remain engaged in democratic and civic field after returning back home. We decided to do this project because at the level of the non-governmental sector in European countries there is no single tool for preparing young people for international volunteer projects in the countries of the global south, with an emphasis on ethical communication with the focus on equal treatment of all people. We also found out during the preparation of young people that they need this in depth knowledge to better prepare for the experience in the global learning context while not having the time to participate in multi-day trainings. The online course thus allows them to schedule their time and learn independently from home from their screens. As part of the project, we carried out the following activities: - Conducting a partnership meeting and training in Brno in the Czech Republic, where we agreed on partnership roles, reviewed administrative matters, created a common understanding of the concepts of ethical communication and related topics such as critical thinking as the basis for international volunteer projects, and prepared the basis for preparing an online course (content and graphics); - The intellectual output 1: Content preparation of the four online modules on global learning and ethical communication. Module 1: Expanding our awareness, Module 2: The power we experience in everyday communication, Module 3: Global development and volunteering, Module 4: Navigating the new age media. - The intellectual output 2: Preparation of an online training platform and a pilot phase of training testing in this phase we set the online course on its feet and included 50 people to test it and give feedback, based on which we corrected and improved the online course. The online course is available here: www.ethicalcommunication.org - Implementation of five multiplicative events for different target groups by each organization; - Carrying out other dissemination activities across all partner countries in different form and through different channels; - Interim and final reporting and project administration and management. The project and the online course received many positive responses from users (both, volunteers, young people as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations in the field of international volunteering and global learning). Positive responses were related to the extremely elaborate and quality content of the course and the learning effect and potentials for further use in learning processes of non-formal learning. Let us also be proud of the fact that the online course e-tick received the GENE (Global Education Network Europe) award – “Certificate Exemplifying Quality in Global Education”.