June-September 2012 : Projects

We are always busy writing project but during this period we were extra busy. Also it helped that we had addition to our team : 1 august arrived a new volunteer Alina Vlasa from Romania who is staying until the end of November.

So I will give a short overview of things we applied and did :

1.       Project 2014- EP for Young Women – Youth in Action 1.3 (Astrid)

2014- EP for Young Women is a democracy project with main focus on raising awareness and sharing information about European Parliament elections in 2014 and gender issues among young women. Lead applicant organisation is European Federation of Mentoring for Girls and Women (WoMentor). NGO Öökull (Estonia) will host an International meeting where there will be sent participants from Romania, Austria, Greece and Latvia (Partners and project activities national implementers).  Duration of the project is 18 months. Project will involve actively over 500 young people. Project activities create an open environment for discussion and dialogue between young women and policy makers. As a project result, young women participating in this project will present a list of claims to national parties and politicians about their needs and wishes for European Parliament candidates- so that the list could be considered in developing the election platforms for European Parliament 2014. Results will be also introduced at a meeting with European Youth Forum. Activities encourage young people to recognize their role as European citizens and participate in policy making discussions and go voting to express their opinion.  Variety of methods for participation is offered- workshops, focus groups, discussions in Social media, video interviews, leading activities, filling in questionnaires.

2.       Project YES-Young Entrepreneurs Start – Youth in Action 4.4 (Astrid)

Develop a mentoring European Handbook and Training for Estonia, Austria, Romania, Greece and Latvia. Train 25 mentors/staff members  in the field of mentoring and sustainable entrepreneurship possibilities in youth work and implementing mentoring cycles in their organisations to support young girls and women in sustainable entrepreneurship. Test the developed Handbook and Training at national level. All the administrative issues will be organised by national staff members and expert advice and material will be provided by WoMentor network. All phases of projects will be evaluated internationally and internally. There will be 1 international meeting for sharing experience and good practise; train the mentors and adapt the European Guidelines and Training. Furthermore, there will be 6 national meetings between mentors and mentees to monitor mentoring process, reflect on it and evaluate its effectiveness.  Existence of European Handbook and Training for implementing sustainable entrepreneurship mentoring  programs in organisations working with youth in Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Greece and Austria. Each participating country will have 5 staff members/mentors, who are experienced and skilled and capable to implement a mentoring programs to promote girl’s participation in entrepreneurial activities and sustainable entrepreneurship in general  in their  countries. Raised awareness of gender equality and sustainable entrepreneurship in youth work.  Continuation of similar mentoring relationships in organisations that participated in the project and start of them in other youth organisations.

3.       Social Entrepreneurship Award for We:Mentor (Astrid, Alina)

We nominated Gerlinde Hacker, Managing Director of Projektbüro für innovative Sozialpolitik (Projectoffice for Innovative Social Policy acronym “Projectoffice”) with the project of “We:Mentor” for the Social Entrepreneurship award.

 More information : http://europa.eu/ey2012/ey2012main.jsp?catId=1026&langId=en

4.       Life Story Award for Gerlinde Hacker (Astrid)

I nominated Gerlinde Hacker also for Life Challange Award. You can see and read her story here :

Life Story of Gerlinde Hacker

5.       Article for Youth Forum (Alina)

We were invited you to contribute with an article to the development of a “Guidebook for mentoring young women in Europe” by European Youth Forum (www.youthforum.org). WoMentor sent the article „Mentoring Programmes with a Special Focus on Mentoring for Girls and Young Women – WoMentor approach” and if it is approved it will be published in the Guidebook mentioned above.

6.       Gender Equality Through EVS (Alina)

The project is an initiative of WoMentor  in cooperation with 4 sending partners from Germany, Spain, Estonia and Ukraine.

The partnership is based on common interest  for the themes  focused on Gender Equality , aiming to share good practice , create tools for information and to raise the level of autonomy and the chances of employment of young girls , trying to motivate them to help their self esteem grow and also to  be active citizens in their communities.

The project will give to three young volunteers the opportunity to work in Graz, Austria for twelve months: from January, 1st 2013 to June, 30th 2014.

Volunteering through our EVS project will provide a real-life international learning experience, encouraging social integration, increasing employability and offering opportunities to gain knowledge at a professional level. Among many benefits, the partner organizations and the local communities are strengthened by the experience of European partnerships who exchange cultural knowledge and good practice, increasing awareness and understanding of the Gender Equality issue

7.       International Management and Mentoring Course (Astrid)

WoMentor has developed a curriculum for pilot project to be implemented for a 3 month Training Course of International Management and Mentoring.

Purpose and methods: Participants to gain theoretical knowledge and practical skills in International NPO Management and Mentoring. This course will provide an introduction to concepts and skills needed to effectively manage projects and mentoring programs in international NPO-s. 

Through simulations, case studies, sharing experience, discussion and practical work, the course will explore several organisational management challenges facing international NPOs.  The focus of our training courses is on gaining a thorough understanding of key concepts of International NPO management and mentoring, sharpening practical skills and developing strategies that participants can immediately use in their work. We address real-life problems in a participatory and interactive learning environment to help participants enhance their international management capacity. 

Target Group: 8 - 12 participants in one module

NPO-s working or wanting to work at international level

NPO-s with international team members

International project and program writers and managers

International mentors

Study language: English (Business English)

Venue: Graz, Austria

Course duration:  12 weeks (3 months)

8.       Grant application to Land Steiermark, Austria (Astrid, Gerlinde)

Asking for operating support for 2013

9.       Grant application to Stadt Graz, Austria ( Astrid, Gerlinde)

Asking for operating support for 2013

So we have really done quite a lot. In between I also do the communication with members, research (at the moment working on a article about quotas). Writing Grant applications to Land Steiermark and Stad Graz , which we did in GERMAN( talk about challanges ...). Finishing We:Mentor project report etc. 
I also had my Mid-Term Training in August!