“Peers to Peace: Peer learning and Peer support for Capacity Building in international volunteer work” is a worldwide project that involves 26 different partners in 25 countries, mainly from Europe and Asia, but also from Africa and North America. The key focus of the project is the peer approach: through peer-learning and peer-supporting the capacity of each organization will be upgraded to the best present in the consortium. This will apply on small scale in the single events and in on a large scale with the OLIVES online tool for peer-support to be created. Such a tool envisages an easier access to information and capacity building for the members of the consortium and the opening up of a totally new potential that will free up energies and resources of the members while enhancing innovation capacities of youth organizations.The project aims at building capacities within SCI and in the International Voluntary Service movement as a whole, focusing on the areas of expertise producing the longest lasting impact: knowledge management, volunteer management, project management and fundraising.The project spans over 21 months and, besides a steering team meeting that will take place in Germany, it includes 3 main events: a peer university in Sweden, a learning seminar in Greece, a training on project management in India. There will also be an evaluation meeting combined with a final event in Belgium and a Technical Meeting in UK. Moreover, exchange of EVS volunteers takes place between Europe and Asia (3 volunteers from Asia hosted in Belgium and Greece; and 1 European volunteer hosted in India), promoting transnational non-formal learning mobility between Programme and Partner Countries. The main target group of the project are youth leaders, youth workers, volunteers and activists, for a total of 100 people directly involved, who will contribute to the setting up and implementation of the peer learning system thanks to their experience and act as multipliers within their sending organizations. Participants come from a great variety of countries and this will increase the intercultural dimension of the project and its impact, guaranteeing a real exchange and strengthening the networking capacities of the organizations. The project is designed to have a long lasting, sustainable and consolidated impact on the consortium members.Projects results, including the OLIVES platform, will be shared among partners and within the networks they belong. Particularly interesting is the participation, besides SCI, of other major IVSO networks, such as CCIVS and NVDA, as well as WVAN (central NGO in Africa). Their inputs on volunteering, non-formal education and youth work will benefit the project, while project results and the methodology used will contribute to the development of the work they are realizing and inspire them with new ideas that could further grow in follow up activities.
“Peers to Peace: Peer learning and Peer support for Capacity Building in international volunteer work” was a worldwide project that involved 25 different partners in 24 countries from Asia, Africa, Australia, and Europe. The key focus of the project was the peer approach. Through peer-learning and peer-supporting in the following areas of expertise: knowledge management, volunteer management, project management and fundraising the capacity of project partners was improved. This applied on small scale in the single events and on a large scale with upgrading the online tool for peer-support. This tool facilitates an easier access to resources and (exchange of) information and further stimulates possibilities for innovation and capacity building of project partners and International Voluntary Service movement as a whole. The project spanned over 21 months and included 3 main mobility events: a Peer university on volunteer and knowledge management in May 2017 in Poland, a Learning seminar on knowledge management and fundraising in July 2017 in Malaysia, and Training on project management in March 2018 in Greece. Besides these mobility activities, 3 capacity building events were organized as part of the project: 1) a steering team meeting in January 2017 in Germany, 2) a crucial Technical Meeting in November 2017 in the UK, as well as 3) an Evaluation meeting combined with a final event in June 2018 in Belgium. Moreover, exchange of EVS volunteers took place between Europe and Asia (3 volunteers from Asia hosted in Belgium and Greece; and 1 European volunteer hosted in Malaysia), promoting transnational non-formal learning mobility and supporting an exchange of experiences between Program and Partner Countries. The main target group of the project were youth leaders, youth workers, volunteers and activists, for a total of more than 100 people directly involved, who acted as multipliers within their sending organizations and contributed to the setting up and implementation of the peer learning system thanks to their experience. Participants came from a great variety of countries and this increased the intercultural dimension of the project and its impact, guaranteeing a real exchange and strengthening the networking capacities of the organizations. Projects results were shared among partners and within the networks they belong to. These included: 1) SCI-Moving Forward - a handbook for volunteers and staff members in SCI and partner organizations focusing on increasing the understanding of how SCI works internationally intended to support greater participation and knowledge transfer among International Volunteering Service organizations, including important chapters on finances, knowledge management and volunteering within SCI; and 2) innovative online peer- learning platform that has been newly integrated in SCI’s Members Area allowing for direct exchange of knowledge and experience among SCI members. The participation of other major IVSO networks, such as Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), Network for Voluntary Development in Asia (NVDA), and Voluntary Workcamps Association in Nigeria (VWAN, central NGO in Africa) enriched the project with diverse inputs on volunteering and youth work in their context.