Youth work and volunteering projects involving young people have a tremendous value to foster better societies, including the ones under European funding framework. On the one hand, throughout community work, transnational volunteering, etc. youth work increases young people’s educational and training opportunities. On the other hand, it can improve life conditions of people from local communities where projects take place. However, prior desk research, based on European studies, papers and reports, and common needs of participating organisations have showed that there is a huge gap when organisations working in youth field and with volunteering projects (camps, volunteering, exchanges, etc.) try to assess their impact on local communities. There is a need to promote evidence-based practice when assessing the impact of youth work on local communities (“Study on the impact of transnational volunteering through the European Voluntary Service” -EC, 2014). Thus, youth workers need: - To develop tailor-made methods and tools to assess the impact of their work on local communities, thereby providing evidences of their influences - To build their capacity of evaluate how their actions work at local communities so they can design and implement more effective projects Therefore, Y-EUTH-PACT! has the aim to contribute to increase the quality of youth work by increasing the capacity of youth practitioners to assess the impact of youth work on local communities, through the creation of new tools and the improvement of youth practitioners’ competences. The specific objectives are: - To standardise good practices for assessing impact on local communities of youth work and volunteering projects; - To create a methodology, guidelines and tools for youth workers to assess the impact of youth work on local communities - To develop a framework of competences for youth practitioners to become impact assessors; - To develop a training programme with e-modules to train youth practitioners on impact assessment practices; and - To equip organisations’ staff with tailor-made mechanisms to improve the way they assess the impact on local communities Main target group: youth workers. Indirect target groups: young people, teachers, high school educators, HEI staff, adults, local organisations/institutions involved in youth sector, NGOs and other third sector entities. “Y-EUTH-PACT!” will thus create and test innovate, open sources (OER) and interactive tools and methods that support youth practitioners in assessing impact of their work on their local communities so increasing the quality of youth work. Results of the project are: 1. A comparative report of impact assessment of youth work on local communities in represented countries (NL, ES, IT, UK and BG) (O1) 2. An e-manual for youth practitioners to assess the impact on local (O2) 3. A framework of competences for youth practitioners to become impact assessors of youth work on local communities (O3) 4. An e-game: “e-Game 4 Impact!” (e-learning) for youth practitioners belonging to youth-centred and less professional organisations (O4) 5. A training programme with e-modules for youth practitioners about assessing impact on local communities (O5) 6. 20 trained youth workers on impact assessment, practices and innovative tools to train and apply in their local communities (C1) 7. 5 events share project results and to promote the impact of youth work on local communities and evidence-based practices (E1-5) Due to youth work background and new transnational volunteering framework (e.g. European Solidarity Corps -ESC), Y-EUTH-PACT! results can become very useful when assessing the impact of youth and volunteering projects on local communities by promoting evidence-based practices. By doing so, it is possible to increase the recognition of youth work as a social engine for a better European society.
The project Yeuthpact! started with the consideration that Youth work and projects involving young people, including the ones working in European funding framework (international camps, European volunteering projects, etc.), have a tremendous value to foster better societies. On the one hand, throughout events, exchanges, camps, community work and transnational volunteering, youth work increases young people’s educational and training opportunities. On the other hand, it can improve life conditions of people from local communities where projects take place. Both dimensions encompass the impact, which can be defined as “the changes resulting from organisation’s activities” (Charities Evaluation Service’s quote, mentioned at “How do we know it’s working?”-Conference organised by National Youth Council of Ireland, 2011) Whilst European Commission (2017) has recently considered European Voluntary Service a highly valuable programme with a significant impact on volunteers and organisations involved, such impact is mitigated on local communities where projects take place due to different reasons. One of the reasons is the “lack of tools to measure impact on local community”. As a result, plenty of studies and papers show the difficulties to find data or evidence about youth work’s social impact: Pwell and Bratović (2007), Lough, Moore McBride and Sherraden (2009), European Youth Forum-YFJ (2016), European Commission (2016; 2017), among others. A gap thus exists when assessing the social impact of youth work so youth practitioners, in terms of local community-wise, struggle to answer the question “What difference does my work make?” (Dr. Bamber, Centre for Effective Services, “How do we know it’s working?”-Conference, National Youth Council of Ireland, 2011). There is current a need to promote evidence-based practice when assessing the impact of youth work on local communities (“Study on the impact of transnational volunteering through the European Voluntary Service” -EC, 2014). Thus, youth workers needed: - To develop tailor-made methods and tools to assess the impact of their work on local communities, thereby providing evidences of their influences - To build their capacity of evaluate how their actions work at local communities so they can design and implement more effective projects Y-EUTH-PACT! had the aim to contribute to increase the quality of youth work by improving the capacity of youth practitioners to assess the impact of youth work on local communities, through the creation of new tools and the improvement of youth practitioners’ competences. The specific objectives were: - To standardise good practices for assessing impact on local communities of youth work and volunteering projects; - To create a methodology, guidelines and tools for youth workers to assess the impact of youth work on local communities - To develop a framework of competences for youth practitioners to become impact assessors; - To develop a training programme with e-modules to train youth practitioners on impact assessment practices; and - To equip organisations’ staff with tailor-made methodologies to improve the way they assess the impact on local communities Main project target group: youth workers. Indirect target groups were (among others): young people, teachers, high school educators, HEI staff, adults, local organisations/institutions involved in youth sector, NGOs and other third sector entities. Y-EUTH-PACT! was aligned with Erasmus+ objective of fostering quality improvements in youth work, in particular through enhanced cooperation between organisations in the youth field and/or other stakeholders. Moreover the project results can become very useful when assessing the impact of new ESC projects on local communities, thereby increasing the transferability of project’s outputs. Even beyond Erasmus+, the project addressed the recommendation adopted by European countries, represented in this project as well (NL, ES, IT, UK, and BG), of “supporting the development of appropriate forms of review and evaluation of the impact and outcomes of youth work” (Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)4, Council of Europe, 2017). Finally, given the difficulties and restriction brought in by the Covid-19 Pandemic, it is worth mentioning that Partners during the 2nd half of project implementation, have constantly adapted ongoing to the situation, by intensifying and improving the general online communication, dissemination and also online training activities, in order to overcome such situation. This resulted in an additional (and unforeseeable) capacity building for the partners and staff involved, when it comes to work and communicate effective online and general upgrade of digital skills.