Improwing the competences of NGO educators for social inclusion

"<< Background >>The project was applied with the aim of solving the issue of increasing the capacity of NGOs with the involvement of educators and increasing the knowledge of these educators to strengthen adult training, which is supported by the ""Erasmus"" program. Partners as NGO networks (including a total of at least 112 NGOs) needed to expand the circle of educators with this project, because only in rare cases these associated organizations by themselves were able to prepare the applications to the funders.The target group - employees of NGO networks from Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Italy and Greece, engaged experts and volunteer specialists was interested in social rights and social inclusion, gender equality, innovations in training, access to the digital environment and advocacy, which relates to the areas of activity of these networks in general. All five partners for the last 7-30 years had dedicated their activities to increasing the knowledge and skills of NGO employees and strengthening their networks. The unsatisfactory socio-economic situation of the NGO members in Europe in the last two years encouraged the demand for new knowledge that can be provided by educated workers. The partner motivation - international inclusion policy.<< Objectives >>The project partners wanted to achieve the following: 1) to strengthen their capacity by providing a network with educators, incl. those with limited opportunities, who have gained access to international non-formal adult education programs; 2) to promote their networks' educators' inclusion in local and international training activities, thus actively strengthening the European dimension.By implementing the project the partners intended to significantly meet the needs of NGOs of their networks for educated staff who are able to provide knowledge and support to NGOs; through trainings the knowledge and skills of NGO educators to increase the awareness in areas where they have insufficient knowledge (social inclusion, etc.); to be able to promote the NGO participation in Erasmus+ programs and the introduction of the European dimension, which will increase the opportunities of NGO networks to promote social security both in their own countries and throughout Europe, as well as provide an opportunity to attract an adequate funding.It was also expected that through mutual cooperation the partners' capacity will be strengthened and will positively affect the achievement of the planned objectives in raising the competencies of NGOs.<< Implementation >>During the project, 5 partners implemented a total of 32 activities: 2 management meetings, 25 local workshops and 5 international meetings for educators of disadvantaged groups from NGOs.In the management meetings, project leaders from each NGO network agreed on communication, material preparation and information dissemination measures, on evaluation surveys for each activity, on conducting surveys in connection with innovative courses and collecting the results of these surveys, as well as analyzed the results achieved in the first ten months.In local workshops (5 in each country), training and experience exchange were organized to increase the competence of NGO educators on the topics planned in the project: social inclusion, gender equality, innovative courses for vulnerable groups, awareness of the digital environment and advocacy of the interests of vulnerable groups. In parallel, partners in their countries conducted a survey of local workshop participants on their training needs and topics covered.At the international meetings (1 in each country), the partners presented their experiences to the NGO educators, summarized the results achieved and the proposals received, which related to one of the mentioned topics.<< Results >>The results:1) increased quality of NGO networks' work and methods by attracting trained educators, provided by the opportunity to involve 628 participants in training (53% with higher education, 20% with professional education), incl. 69% persons with limited opportunities;2) developed capacity of the networks' inexperienced NGOs for operating at the international level and in the field related to their objectives, provided by the opportunity for 98 educators to gain experience in international meetings, incl. 69% persons with limited opportunities;3) increased the knowledge of NGO networks' inexperienced organizations' 628 participants about social inclusion, gender equality, innovations in training, access to the digital environment and advocacy provided by the opportunity to be included in the target group - women 66%, men 44 %, different ages, incl. 30-70 88%, other nationalities 16%, with a lower level of education 27%, with disabilities 10%, immigrants 8% and homeless 1%;4) promoted changes in the understanding and experience of 726 participants of less experienced organizations of NGO networks (women 66%, men 44%, people with disabilities 9%), aged 18-82, with different levels of education 100%) about Erasmus+ tasks."