Reinforcing and professionalizing youth organisations’ tutoring capacity and improving the quality of young volunteers’ tutoring are the main topics of Initiative for an International Qualitative Mentoring (2IQM) project. The project aims at maximize positive impact on the personal and/or professional development of volunteers.
Thus, 2IQM brings together six youth organisations involved in volunteering programs, with complementary experience and expertise in the different aspects of volunteers’ tutoring – hosting, sending, on-site support, training etc – representing France (ADICE), Italy (CESIE), Thailand (Volunteer Spirit Association), United States (Liberty’s Promise) and Vietnam (Vietnam and Friends). The project lasts 2 years, is coordinated by ADICE (France) and co-funded by Erasmus+ Capacity Building in the field of youth.
From 22nd to 26th February 2016, took place in ADICE at Roubaix, France the first phase of the project on Training and definition of common tutoring tools. The partners have identified more precisely, thanks to a survey sent to volunteers and tutors, the main problems encountered in their tutoring and, in the outcome of a specific training, defined common tutoring tools, including a set of technical specifications in view of the production of an Online Mentoring Tool. This OMT will involve at the same time both sending/hosting organisations and the volunteer, to enable and ensure a well-coordinated tutoring process.
Then, the next step of the project are:
- An experimentation phase
These tools will be tested by the partners as part of an exchange of EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteers. Each host organisation will also receive a worker sent by a sending organisation for a job shadowing stage (Mobility of youth workers). CESIE will send 2 EVS volunteers in Vietnam and Friends (Hanoi, Vietnam) for 6 months the next summer 2016 and 1 Youth worker in the same organisation for 8 days.
- A final phase, leading to the production of a “Good tutoring Portfolio”.
It will help youth organisations improving their tutoring, and the presentation of the final version of the Online Mentoring Tool (OMT).
This “Good tutoring Portfolio” will be disseminated on a large scale and will be presented during the Final seminar which will take place in CESIE at Palermo (Italy).
While the implementation of the identified good practices will be supported through the deployment of the OMT, which will improve the coordination of the tutoring process between all involved organisations at every stages, thus optimizing the volunteers’ learning process and, in the end, improving their employability.
If you are interested in the activities of 2IQM’s project, do not hesitate to contact: caroline.dickinson@cesie.org.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
