ENG: The project ORGANIC GOVERNANCE AND QUALITY DEVELOPMENT focuses on needs of youth organisations and associations to respond to changing paradigm of emerging youth cultures, more fluid and ever changing, based more on emotions and informal networks - a new cultural shift. We would like to empower local youth associations of various levels and forms (from informal youth groups to complex community centres) through activities and tools for improving Quality and Governance of youth associations in mainly Slovakia, Czech republic and other interested youth movements from Europe with cooperation of experienced partners from Czech republic (YMCA in Czech republic), Scotland-UK (Scottish National Council of YMCAs) and other European countries (European Alliance of YMCAs) and their associated organisations and partners in order to: - increase their outreach and potential for young people (widen their scopes) - help them to focus on quality of their systems, processes to become more relevant within their contexts - make these systems available, easy to use and accessible within their personal and financial limits - raising awareness of systematic and long term development of youth work among youth workers - raising status of youth work and youth organisations as equal and relevant partners to public and private sector, to take youth NGOs and associations as relevant partner for long term solutions for young people by raising our quality, impact and visibility There are 2 project Outputs with more outcomes in each for various use: Organic governance: New ways, process oriented governance merging formal and informal structures into new forms of cooperation on local or national level Quality Health Checks: easy to use and accessible tools for local / national youth organisations to use for regular evaluation of their work, processes, engagement, cooperation etc. Activities have been designed so they are realistic, achievable, consequential, building up information, relationships, knowledge of many interest groups within and outside our partnership to produce common outcomes that will serve many in the future. We want to create a working fellowships and relationships that would enable discussion, think tanks, sharing that would transform into innovation in youth work methodology. People are the most important element in this project, their experience, knowledge, interaction. All activities such as meetings, seminars, visits, work in expert groups, observations and research on local / national level are there to support them to maximise their efforts and engagement.There will be at least 80 participants directly involved in the project process and its activities, contributing towards the outcomes not only form partner countries but form other countries of Europe through our pan-European partner. Other 200 people will be involved indirectly through research in local/national youth association. This project is only a start for further work and development of youth work on local or national level in Slovakia, Czech republic, Scotland and other European countries not only at YMCA associations. We would like to serve as example and share it further to other youth organisations through other platforms such as Youth Councils, Youth Institutes etc. for the maximum benefit of young people engagement and their involvement in society on all levels.Further benefits will be in raising the quality of youth work and its structures to benefit young people on local, national and even European level. All results of the project will be further maintained by all direct project partners as they are based on their needs and as such are available for other organisations to use them or change them for their contexts. SK: Projekt Organic governance and Quality development je zameraný na zvyšovanie kvality procesov, formálnych a neformálnych vzťahov a štruktúr s cieľom posilniť prácu s mládežou na lokálnej a národnej úrovni. YMCA na Slovennsku chce spolu s partnermi z Českej republiky, Škótska a viacerých európskych krajín cez nášho pan-európskeho partnera vytvoriť nástroje, dostupné a ľahko použiteľné v náročnej a rôznorodej praxi mládežníckych vedúcich, lokálnych kooordinátorov a pracovníkov s mládežou v oblasti Kontroly kvality a Organizačnej supervízie. V projekte bude zapojených asi 80 účastníkov priamo cez aktivity ako nadnárodné stretnutia, návštevy, prácu v expertných tímoch, semináre a väčšie plenárne stretnutia či existujúce platformy a asi ďalších 200 účastníkov nepriamo cez prieskum na lokálnej či národnej úrovni. Širším cieľom je zvýšiť povedomenie a uznanie práce s mládežou a mládežníckych organizácií ako relevantných partnerov voči privátnemu a verejnému sektoru a tým zlepšiť ich spoluprácu, sieťovanie a celkový dopad na kvalitu života mladých ľudí na Slovensku, v Čechách a Európe. Projekt je len začiatkom tohto procesu, všetky výstupy budú slúžiť ďalej nielen v YMCA ale aj v ďalších podobných organizáciách.
We perceived different needs and complexity of youth work. Therefore, within the framework of this project we tried to focus on tools for improving the quality and governance of youth associations mainly in Slovakia, Czech Republic and other interested youth movements from Europe in cooperation with experienced partners in order to - increase their outreach and potential towards young people (widen their scope) - help them to focus on the quality of their systems and processes in order to become more relevant in their local/regional context - make these systems available, easy to use and accessible, as there are not enough resources for professional development, especially in the Czech or Slovak context. - raising awareness of systematic and long-term development of youth work - to raise the status of youth work and youth organisations as equal and relevant partners to the public and private sector, so that they perceive youth NGOs and associations as relevant partners for long term solutions for young people by increasing our quality, impact and visibility.
Governance in our organisations is under pressure - especially in countries where the democratic system is still young and fragile. The culture of civil society organisations is influenced by global but also local factors. We are struggling with the quality and sustainability of governance structures with an emerging generation of young people with a generally much less structured approach, no or low succession of new leaders. The Organic Governance and Quality Development project aimed to rethink how and why we are organised in certain ways as YMCAs - what is valuable to keep and what new opportunities and new approaches can we develop together with the YMCA Europe family of national associations.