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Description
The project will serve to connect and strengthen non-profit organizations in the education sector, which are currently neglected with regard to legislation, financial and personal support. This is despite their high potential to enrich society with young people, professionals and educators who are capable of self-directed lifestyle and free democratic decision-making. The project addresses the current isolation of initiatives in the field of free democratic schools by linking these schools in partnership activities, where together with professional assistance, they will develop a strategy to strengthen the capacity and sustainability of independent democratic schools, create a toolkit How to tackle independent education for new and emerging independent democratic schools and a sharing platform for educators. The outputs of the project will be pilot-tested during the project as part of mentoring process for new and newly emerging independent schools. As part of strengthening the financial sustainability of the project of newly introduced activities of the applicant and partners, their employees will be actively involved in fundraising activities with professional support. The dissemination conference of independent and democratic education at the end of the project will present to the general public the outputs of the project as tools for increasing the expertise and improving the experience of employees of all educational institutions . The outputs of the project will be . The project will provide professional support and mentoring to the new founders of independent and democratic schools in the first year of operation, strengthen the capacity of ASDŠ in connecting independent and democratic educational institutions and increase the sustainability of their activities.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to address the insufficient connection of independent schools in the Czech Republic in order to provide them with an effective support they do not get from the government. The Association of free and democratic schools (ASDŠ) was established at the end of 2021 as a volunteer movement of concurrently functioning independent schools (including ZeMěŠkola), aiming to connect and support existing and newly emerging independent schools in the Czech Republic. Since ASDŠ as well as its members are at the beginning of its operation and therefore it is necessary to create not only a strategy but also tools for the effective fulfilment of their visions and goals.
The cooperation of non-profit and private organizations in the project was strengthened and the public''s awareness of their activities and goals was broadened. All partners are strategically located throughout CZ, their involvement strengthened the nationwide impact of the project in connecting FDS. The expertise and experience of not only the beneficiary and its 5 partners,
but also the members of ASDŠ increased, not only in the field of establishing and management of FDS, but also in fulfilling their vision to provide children with the opportunity
to grow in a safe, respectful and stimulating environment, as a basis for self-directed learning. The nonviolent communication course had an effect on improving the school
climate; the created strategies, good practice and useful tools increased personnel stability and strengthened development of FDS;
The created fundraising plans increased the financial sustainability and future capacity of these organizations.ASDŠ gained 5 new members in the project.The project''s long-term ambition to increase the chances of ASDŠ to influence legislation in the field of education is now happening. A working team of the ASDŠ is being created to support their FDS with stability through joint fundraising, advocacy activities and and collecting data on FDS alumni.
All partners participated in all project activities. Their biggest benefits:
CoLibri – preparation of ASDŠ meetings, transfer of experience, creation of strategy, good practice, toolkit tools, mentoring
Donum Felix – the oldest FDS in CZ, experience with FDS in Jerusalem, resources for strategy, good practice and toolkit tools, mentoring and
creation of the conference program and recording
Lunaria – the only non-registered SDŠ in this partnership - setting up strategies and good practice.
Osvobozená škola - organization and technical support of the conference, strategic location in the capital. Prague, securing a foreign guest from Germany.
Starhill – promotion of the Conference, processing of the strategy text and toolkit.
In the project, we managed to complete and pilot test both an updateable strategy for increasing the capacity and sustainability of existing and emerging free democratic schools (FDS)in the Czech Republic, as well as a newly created toolkit How to set up a free and democratic school. We provided mentoring to not only 5 new and 5 newly emerging FDS, but also at least other 6 FDS at the 2 two-day meetings of ASDŠ in spring and autumn 2023, which was attended by at least 80 of the originally planned 50 employees of FDS.
5 employees of the beneficiary attended a 9-month nonviolent communication course that had a very positive effect on improving the school climate.
As part of the ASDŠ, it was also possible at these meetings to approve the new membership of 5 new independent schools.
6 individual fundraising plans for the next year of operation of the beneficiary and 5 partners were created.
At the end of the project (March 2024) we organized an international Conference of Free and Democratic Schools for the Public which was attended by 260 people from the public sector outside of ASDŠ members.
The cooperation of non-profit and private organizations in the project was strengthened and the public''s awareness of their activities and goals was broadened. All partners are strategically located throughout CZ, their involvement strengthened the nationwide impact of the project in connecting FDS (free democratic schools). The expertise and experience of not only the beneficiary and its 5 partners, but also the members of ASDŠ increased, not only in the field of establishing and management of FDS, but also in fulfilling their vision to provide children with the opportunity to grow in a safe, respectful and stimulating environment, as a basis for self-directed learning. The nonviolent communication course had an effect on improving the school climate; the created strategies, good practice and useful tools increased personnel stability and strengthened development of FDS;
The created fundraising plans increased the financial sustainability and future capacity of these organizations. ASDŠ gained 5 new members in the project. In the project, we managed to complete and pilot test both an updateable strategy for increasing the capacity and sustainability of existing and emerging free democratic schools (FDS)in the Czech Republic, as well as a newly created toolkit How to set up a free and democratic school within the framework of mentoring not only 5 new and 5 newly emerging FDSs, but also at least another 6 FDSs at 2 two-day meetings of ASDŠ in spring and autumn 2023, which was attended by at least 80 of the originally planned 50 employees of FDSs.
As part of the ASDŠ, it was also possible at these meetings to approve the new membership of 5 new independent schools, which were also provided with mentoring, thus the project helped to expand the cooperation of ZeMěŠkola and its partners.
Fundraising capabilities of 21 employees of the beneficiary and its 5 partners were strengthened for the purpose of financial sustainability. 6 individual fundraising plans for the next year of operation of the beneficiary and 5 partners were created.
The strategy created in the project together with the toolkit on How to set up a free democratic school were successfully presented at the Conference of Free and Democratic Schools for the Public at the end of the project (March 2024), which was attended by 260 people from the public sector outside of ASDŠ members, and both outputs are now made available not only to other formal and informal educational communities and institutions, but the entire general public on the website of the beneficiary, partners and ASDŠ.