Level Up - Community Development Project

"<< Background >>The motivation for the Level Up project arose from the shared goal of four organisations from Finland, Estonia, Bulgaria, and Spain to elevate their communities and better support young people with fewer opportunities. Each organisation had distinct needs but a common purpose: to enhance youth development through peer-to-peer learning and collaboration.Rooted in the EU Youth Strategy’s pillars—Engage, Connect, Empower—the project aimed to foster meaningful connections and empower youth. The partners identified specific needs:Finland wanted to explore KA1 and KA2 Erasmus+ Youth opportunities and add them to their regular calendar activitiesEstonia wanted to enhance and promote digital youth work opportunities wider in Europe and get experience in KA2Spain aimed to offer more online activities and build partnerships for ESCBulgaria sought to expand opportunities in rural areas and online.By collaborating, the organisations could address these needs while learning from each other. Peer-to-peer learning involved young members at every stage, creating new opportunities for youth engagement and development. The project also provided a chance to expand networks and connect with broader European youth work initiatives.<< Objectives >>During the project, we achieved the following goals: - Learned more about the Community Development principles and adapt the relevant to the work of partners- Levelled up and mentored 4 international NGOs/communities to get to a higher and wider level in their youth activities locally and internationally- Raised the topic of the importance of community development and introduced the tools to youth work networks and umbrella organisations- Raised the quality of the local and international youth work in the communities by adding at least 10 new activities in each of the organisations- Developed a useful digital and print Guide ""101 Ideas for Youth Community Development""- Created online dissemination event with 140 registrations and attendees- Reinforced synergies between partner organisations for future international cooperation- Got the first KA2 Small-Scale experience to broaden work horizons.The small-scale partnership was a great opportunity for our organisations because all partners had complementing experience in youth work, empowerment, coaching, mentorship, facilitation, community management, media and digital tools, and we could learn from each other during the extensive project work.<< Implementation >>During the 20-month-long project, we arranged the following activities: 1. Kick-off and planning meeting in Finland Dates: 4.9 - 6.9.20222. Study visit + training course in SpainDates: 3.10 - 6.10.20223. Ongoing work on the youth community development and levelling up each others organisations, this went throughout the project, and we even managed to fund one of the local activities in each organisation by saving money from the Kick-off and Final Evaluation meetings.3. Work on the guide ""101 Ideas for Community Development"", which included research, editing, interviews, promotion, dissemination stages.This also involved ""Level Up"" online project presentation and networking session on 12.6.20244. Final evaluation meeting in Bulgaria Dates: 15.4 - 17.4.2022<< Results >>Impact measurement of the objectives: - number of offline meetings: 3- number of offline meetings and activities: 25- amount of hours worked on the community development: 400- mentorship and coaching sessions, masterminds: 12- management and development plans assessment in the beginning and at the end: 4 + 4- self-assessment forms created on google and filled in by participants and organisations at the beginning/end of the project: 4 + 4- moderated mid-term and final evaluation reflection sessions results analysis: 2- the number of copies of the Guide, both print and online: 600 print and 1000 online- the number of future ideas, projects and partnerships shaped during the project: at least 40."