M.E.E.T. the youth -Mentoring & Educating by Evolutionary Tools
SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT
The Covid-19 epidemic has pushed the biggest part of the world, including youngsters and youth
workers, into a state of confinement for a long period, revealing thus an unpleasant reality: the
agents of the non-formal education in most countries are not ready to ensure a quick and efficient
transition from the traditional practices towards distance education which requires youth workers to
adapt their services (assistance, mentoring) to online environment and tools. It is urgent to further
promote the use of digital means within online environment in non-formal education. This entails
operating on 2 levels:
1- Reinforcing the digital competences of the non-formal youth educators, then innovate the
pedagogical methods which apply from distance. Raising empathy and ability to ring the changes
on their assisting and educating approach in order to adapt to unpredictable and variable situations
and preserve the active role of these educators in the various social, geographical and seasonal
contexts and in contingent situations of crisis which require immediate intervention from youth
workers.
2- modernizing the non-formal educational tools addressing the youth and youth workers as prime
movers of social-educational projects. Most of the existing tools need update in terms of content
and design, as well as interactivity and innovations, if they are to answer to the real needs of the
target groups.
In order to act on the aforementioned areas,we wish to launch 2 training courses which will involve
29 participants, including one young leader with fewer opportunity per country, from 12 NGO in
Europe. These courses will last 10 days each and take place at Lefkas (Gr) and St.Etienne(Fr).
This project is assort of follow-up to lots of European projects launched by the members of the
consortium, which have trained several youth workers on non-formal distance education and
worked out some on-line an off-line pedagogical tools, which had a notable impact on a big number
of beneficiaries (youth, youth workers etc.).
OBJECTIVES
Our project aims at modernizing and updating pedagogical tools, so that they can answer to the
actual needs of the target group. It also aims at developing the competences of young people’s
educators in terms of supporting methods applying non-formal education from distance.
Thru this project we want to achieve the following objectives:
1- To detect the needs of the youth and youth workers in terms of services and competences, to get
or offer a proper support, training or mentoring from distance and determine how they conceive the
personal and professional competences which are necessary for them to carry out efficiently their
mission (youth workers) or to well benefit from these services (young people).
2- To share and make common our knowledge, experience and reflection with our partners as
regards the methods of education, escorting, supervising and distance mentoring for youth, with a
view to broaden our educational approaches, improve, modernize and certify new working methods
for our staff & modernize our pedagogical tools.
3- To favor the experimentation and the circulation of good practices among the partner countries
and elsewhere.
4- To improve, update, modernize and digitize our pedagogical tools, putting them to test with a
group which is representative of the public target before disseminating them on a large scale.
5- To create a platform integrating an on-line interactive pedagogical booklet which will facilitate
the self-development of the competences of the youth workers in terms of education, supervision
and online mentoring, as well as tools for learning to support and monitor young people online, that
we are going to improve & modernize for the well-being of young people and their socioprofessional
inclusion.
6- To make broadly visible and enhance the results of the project by collectively piecing together a
strategy of public communication.
At the end of the project, the involved youth workers are expected to have developed some specific
competences and assimilated some educational methods aiming at facilitating on-line learning and
tutoring/mentoring. They will produce and release a wide range of modern educational tools/means
of non-formal education. These tools will be adapted to the needs and capacities of young people
with different background and skills. They will be disseminated among the public-target on a large
scale.
ACTIVITIES
We wish to launch 2 complementary youth workers mobility, one centered on the development of
the beneficiaries’ competences in terms of ICT & on-line education. The second one centered on the
design, improvement and update of pedagogical tools of the on-line non-formal education of
youngsters. In both mobility the same participants will be involved. The activities will mostly rely
on the exchange of information and good practices, the acquisition of up-to-date knowledge,
creativity and experimentation.
The successive phase of the activities’ plan will be as follows:
1- Getting to know each other; presentation of methods and activities: the first day will be devoted
to some actions which encourage the participants to get in touch and for “group building”. They
will express their expectations and contribution for the upcoming program. They will be aware of
the activities’, methods and evaluation and the Youth pass as well. An intercultural evening will take
place to discover the culture of each country and tighten social links.
2- Theoretical approach and exchange of experience & good practices: participants will work in
groups. They will present their research and preparatory work done in order to exchange realities &
good practices. They will determine the needs and competences which are crucial to be developed
regarding to mentorship an especially to support youth online, in times of crises or isolation.
Participants will exchange knowledge and experience in matters of support and adaptation of their
online pedagogical practice towards youngsters (especially those with fewer opportunities). They
will also discuss and reflect on relevant subjects. They will meet professionals to confront their
experiences and develop their knowledge. Another step will be the participants’ familiarization with
various software related to online non-formal education, with role games and reflection sessions
about supporting youngsters by distance.
3- Cultural Discovery & professional network: Participant will visit Lefkas and Saint-Etienne, the
hosting places, and the educational institutes which are involved in the pedagogical assistance of
young people.
4- Collective creativity: participant will design a platform containing:
• pedagogical manual which will operate as resource for developing new on-line methods an
competences for supporting young people.
• update of pedagogical tools for e-learning and e-mentoring, to enhance the well-being of the
youngsters, their social integration and professional success.
5- Putting the new tools into practice /implementation: participants will test the methods and tools
they developed with the public target from distance.
6- Feedback and dissemination: based on their experience on designing and practicing tools related
to non-formal education (including e-mentoring), participants will adjust the the educational tools
thru a platform that they will create. They will determine jointly an efficient strategy for the
exploitation and dissemination of this platform (as free educational material, available online).
7- “Open space” and final evaluation: During the last day of the 1st mobility, an “Open space”
activity will take place with a view to propose ideas about their learning plan’ & schedule for the
2nd mobility. The last phase of the 2nd training course will be devoted to working out and building
new European partnership projects within the frame of the ERASMUS+ program. Reflection and
cooperation will take place, in order for new ideas to arise. This phase will be equally devoted to the
final evaluation of the project. At the end participants will write their Youth Pass, based on their
Diary.
During the training courses, participants will share views and experiences, working in different
environments. We want to stimulate an inclusive dynamic so that these participants can learn by
doing and living in order to more effectively reach the various audiences of young people for whom
they work. This fieldwork with different audiences constitutes the richness of the project during
which the beneficiaries will be able to discuss about other realities and new working methods. The
stake is also to develop suitable support tools for youngsters while eliminating the factor of
distance.
Learning platform: https://e-esc.eu/
Graphic Magazine – Training course I
Graphic Magazine – Training course II