The ImProve your Impact project aims to contribute to measuring the impact and acknowledging the impact of volunteer / youth activities on youth capacity development. NGOs involved - Voluntariat Institute, Inex-SDA and Young Researchers of Serbia (YRS), through our regular work, strive for greater recognition of acquired competences and skills in non-formal learning through participation in various forms of youth work. This is an area we have been dealing with for many years and we have addressed them with previous projects. Through two Erasmus + projects, in partnership with Inex (which has partnered with an IT company, project partner, Inventi Labs as outsourcers), we have developed the online application IM-PROVE, which transforms tangible volunteer experiences into competencies and with the second one we have upgraded the web application to the basic mobile version, linking it to Youthpass, Europass and BadgeCraft training badges. This year we also carried out a Feasibility Visit, which also included YRS, and all three project NGO partners co-designed the project with the help of Inventi Labs via Skype and subsequently co-wrote it. All NGO project partners have also been involved in measuring impact in our organizations for years, but we still have not been able to find a single system that can be implemented for all different types of projects we carry out. Now we have discovered the additional potential of the IM-PROVE application, which will be substantially and technically upgraded and suitable for all three participating international volunteer networks (SCI, Alliance and CCIVS), as well as for a wider range of project-oriented volunteer and youth organizations, now also national level. The intellectual results of the project will be appropriate for national and international contexts, short and long term projects as well as for other activities. The project will greatly contribute to measuring and recognizing the effects of volunteering and youth activities on the development of youth competences. The objectives of the proposed project are: - Upgrade the IM-PROVE application to make it available in national and wider international context and increase the organization's profile by 30% - Increase the number of IMPROVE users for 60% - Make it possible to measure the impact of activities - Improve the recognition of competences among young people and raise awareness of the importance of active citizenship in their personal and professional development - Higher visibility of IMPROVE on national and international level Throughout the project, at least 120 participants will be involved. They will be involved in extending the activity profile within the application and identifying impact measurement filters (research), in pilot testing, multiplicative events and other dissemination activities. We will involve as wide range of stakeholders as possible with a focus on the following profiles: camp leaders, youth workers and volunteers working with young people, users of current applications, national and international stakeholders (local and national decision makers, educational institutions, businesses, volunteer networks, NGOs) , other societies and organizations). The planned activities reflect the desire for an innovative, quality product and are designed according to a tiered approach. The project will begin with an exploration of the impact measurement methods currently used by organizations. In parallel, the needs of potential stakeholders relating to the identification and interpretation of the effects of non-formal education on young people will be explored. The research will lead to the development of relevant content of the mobile application that meets the perceived desires and needs. This will create an app upgrade plan. This is related to the dissemination of the profiles of organizations using the application and the increase in the number of users, which will be given particular attention by project partners. The next activity is the preparation of a manual that will present tools and methods for self-reflection of the competences of young people and volunteers from various youth and volunteer activities. At the same time, it will represent the use of our application and will enable various organizations and individuals to properly use the application and make the best use of its functionality. The manual will greatly help to disseminate project results and promote the application itself. This brings us to multiplicative events where the promotion and further upgrading of the app are paramount. . The spectrum of stakeholders involved will be broader from event to event, as this will only enable us to build a strong core user group, which is crucial for the later integration of the application into everyday lives.
We wanted to achieve the following goals with the project: - Upgrade the IM-PROVE application so that it is also available in a national context and a wider international one, and increase the profile of organizations by 30% - Increase the number of users of the application by at least 60% - Make it possible to measure the effects of activities - Increase the recognition of competences among young people and encourage awareness of the importance of active citizenship in their personal and professional development - Increase the visibility of the application at the national and international level to external stakeholders
We applied for the project because we saw great potential in upgrading our existing IM-PROVE application and because of the gap in our sector and the lack of tools attractive to young people to monitor the learning process and identify competences. The purpose of the ImProve your Impact project was to contribute to the measurement of the effects and recognition of the impact of volunteering/youth activities on the development of youth capacity, and to increase the measurement of the effects of non-governmental organizations on their (youth) participants. Involved NGOs - Zavod Voluntariat, Inex-SDA and Young Researchers of Serbia (YRS) strive with their regular work for greater recognition of acquired competencies and skills in informal learning through participation in various forms of youth work. All of the NGO project partners have also been dealing with impact measurement in our organizations for years, but we still haven't managed to find a single system that would allow us to be more consistent. With this project, we supported the potential of the IM-PROVE application. It has been upgraded in terms of content and technology and is suitable for all three participating international volunteer networks (SCI, Alliance and CCIVS), as well as for a wider range of project-oriented volunteer and youth organizations, now also at the national level.