After reading and analyzing all the evaluations of the activities of “Youth Leadership for Advocacy”, written by hand by the group on the last day, we can report that it has achieved the objectives, defined exactly two years ago, a few months before the start of the pandemic.
If we pay attention to the comments and scores of the group of anonymous participants, the general and specific objectives (GO and SO) of the activity have been achieved with a noteworthy high.
Specifically, of the 4 general objectives, the last two have achieved the lowest mark of all, with a ‘good’ OG3: “to identify the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to carry out these actions successfully”, with a 6 out of 10, and OG4: “to collect valid tools to develop and recognize this specific competence”, with a 6.5 out of 10.
The two first GO, however, have had a notable note: OG1: “to understand that advocacy is part of our role as non-profit and youth organizations”, with a 7.6 out of 10, and OG2: “to learn how to support young people to take leadership in organizing new advocacy actions, actively participating in all phases”, with a 7.5 out of 10.
If we analyze the specific objectives, the assessment equal and exceeds 8 with respect to the first 2 specific objectives: SO 1 (8,16): “share stories, practices and experiences, successful or not, about advocacy actions carried out by the promoting organizations at a local, regional, national, European and international scale”. SO2 (8): “Jointly define a framework of competencies “so that young people assume leadership by carrying out public advocacy actions” that we can use in each promoting organization”. The other two, OE3 and OE4, were rated somewhat lower; with 6.6 and 7 out of 10, respectively, these being “develop the 4 key skills during the same activity”, and “learn to design, implement and evaluate a campaign”.
The very personal assessment of each one in terms of the perception of the level of achievement of these objectives results in an average value of remarkable (7.17 out of 10), despite the fact that they are certainly ambitious objectives for a 6-day activity, more taking into account the enormous diversity of contexts and origins of the group and the very different degree of experiences and knowledge on the subject of the activity itself.
We want to highlight here that throughout the entire preparation process, we have exchanged emails and held online conversations with the coordinators of the promoter organizations and with the participants and that the objectives have remained valid throughout that time.
As usual in the FCV, we have asked about logistical aspects (venue, accommodation, meals and coffee-breaks), with an average remarkable mark (7.65 out of 10).
Regarding the degree of development of the 4 specific content-wise skills with which we wanted to focus, due to their close relationship with carrying out successful advocacy initiatives, the average score of all the assessments made, again anonymously and individually by the entire group of participants, when asked if the activities were useful to develop them, the results are as follows (again, with a value out of 10): networking: 8,4; effective communication 8.2; campaigning 8 and leadership 7.2, being the average score of 8.
The seminar “Youth Leadership for Advocacy” has achieved its objectives thanks to an organizing team assembled by Théo, Sia, Ioanna and Zuhair, under the coordination of Lluc (FCV program coordinator) in one hand, as well as thanks to the international team of facilitators, assembled by Nikos, from Greece; Aleksandra, from Turkey and the coordinator himself, responsible for a program of activities where practically the entire group became the protagonist (and if not during the program, at least in the free time); Bóroka, given his experience, presented a method and facilitated a session; Kate, from North Macedonia, and Mihaela, from Bulgaria, held a workshop, dedicated to non-verbal communication and digital marketing, respectively; Ola and Kasper from Poland and Marian from Romania shared their experience, the first two as organizers of a local awareness-raising action, and the second as director of two advocacy initiatives creating new local and regional infrastructures, or Lorenzo, from Portugal, who helped us start the day with energy by proposing games.
The activity has been possible thanks to the entire group and, also, to the support of the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission and the Spanish National Agency, who relied on the association promoted by the FCV with youth and non-governmental organizations from these countries, with which we hope to continue collaborating in future activities this year.