Description
Funding is the biggest challenge for organisations and informal groups, particularly those managed by people under 25. How to raise funds, how to manage the organisation's accounts, how to influence local policy to attract funding from local government? The project is trying to address these questions by offering to improve the expertise and conduct specific activities by 40 youth groups (approx. 200 people) aged 25 or less in the following provinces: Podkarpacie, Lower Silesia, Łód, Masovia, and Pomerania. Supported by a partner from Iceland, the project will organise promotions, workshops, a study visit to Iceland, tutored activities organised by youth groups applying the newly acquired knowledge and skills, regional seminars with the participation of the partner and e-guidebook.The main outcome will be 120 people in NGOs trained to manage finance and to influence the availability of local government funding.
Summary of project results
"The research on “Scouts Voluntary Service"" conducted in December 2013 and proceedings of the 6th Congress on Civic Participation show that young people under 25 do not have knowledge on how to manage funds in non-governmental organizations on the local level and in informal groups. There is a huge gap in the financial education of young people. Neither do they have skills and knowledge necessary for cooperating with local authorities in developing youth policy and in getting and spending funds from the local government budgets. The aim of the project was to increase the youth participation in and their impact on activities of local governments and also improve the young people's abilities to manage their organizations. During the project implementation, 221 young people from 5 voivodships were prepared to managing finance in their organizations and to cooperate with local governments. Young people participated in training sessions on managing financing, developing and implementing social activities and on cooperation with local authorities. 37 youth community initiatives were implemented. The project beneficiaries were groups of young people under 25 from the following voivodships: Mazovian, Podkarpackie, Lower Silesian, Łódzkie and Pomeranian. Bandalag Islenslra Skata, the project partner, shared their knowledge on how to fundraise for the activities of young people."
Summary of bilateral results
All project activities planned with the partner were completed even though the relationship was not smooth at the beginning. We had approached Projekt Polska from Iceland prior to signing the grant agreement with a view to replacing the scouting organisation as a project partner. We maintained email communication with the partner organisation; In January 2016, we had direct contacts during the visit of the foreign commissioner of Bandalag Islenslra Skata to Poland. We exchanged youth project ideas but mainly spent time arranging the visits. The group who visited Iceland met with the leaders of the partner organisation, made a tour of the headquarters, visited a local waste segregation facility run by scouts and met with an event company. Then, our partners invited us to visit the National Agency for the Erasmus programme. Moreover, we met with local city officials in Reykjavik and Polish organisations in Iceland. This helped us have a better understanding of the day-to-day realities of our partner's organisation. The visit to Poland included a presentation of the project and our organisation. Our guests met with the leaders of our organisation to discuss issues faced by our organisations and our planned joint activities: the World Scout Moot in Iceland in 2017 and in Poland in 2023. While our organisations have much in common the operating environments differ greatly between Poland and Iceland. Much effort will be required to replicate and disseminate the Icelandic experience in Poland.