The third and final mobility of “Skills Development for Sports Volunteering Trainers” project was a coordination meeting and conference  that took place on October 5^th– 7^th 2021 in Rybnik (Poland). The main results of the project, the activities carried out in each country, as well as the personal and professional experiences of participants and the impact of the participation in a European project have been presented and evaluated during an internal meeting among project organisations held in Rybnik.

In order to give visibility to the project among the local population, a public event was organised, in the form of a cycling competition. Apart from the presentation of our project among competitors and invited people, we conducted an internal competition for the GoBikePro bicycle team. It was also a chance to further validate the training manual and the competences acquired by the local sports volunteering trainers throughout the project, as the international final conference participants assumed the roles of volunteers during the competition and were previously trained by the local volunteering trainers that participated in the OTC and second phase of local activities in Rybnik.

You can find the main results of the project in the tab “RESOURCES” of this webpage: Training Manual, eBook of the project, Video Summary of the project and Visual resources.

 

The second international activity of this project was a transnational coordination meeting/seminar that took place in Malaga (Spain) from 26^th – 29^th July 2021.

The participants for this meeting were three members per partner organisation. The participants must have had participated in the OTC.

Objectives of the seminar:

• • To validate and evaluate the acquired competences by sports volunteering trainers during the OTC.
  • To validate and evaluate the training manual created for volunteers and sports volunteering trainers applied during the second phase of local activities.
  • Strengthen networks between organisations in the 5 partner countries that work on sports volunteering and share experiences.
  • To prepare the Final Conference.

During the Seminar we carried out a visibility activity in a local sports centre. We attended a weekly training session of the “Boquerones a Motor”, which is a powerchair sports club that has been receiving the support of sports volunteers from Iniciativa Internacional Joven trained using the training manual created in the framework of this project. We had the opportunity to meet with all the players, their trainer and the president of the sports club and hear about their experience with the team and learn about their needs when it comes to sports volunteers. We also presented the project to them and discussed future collaboration.

Now that our trainers have been trained during the Online Training Course and we have created a Training Manual to be used when preparing a sports event with the collaboration of volunteers, it was time to validate this manual and the competences gained by our trainers!

To do this, the trainers of each partner organisation used the material of the manual to train sports volunteers to support specific sports activities and events at a local level. This way, the competences acquired by the volunteers where validated during the sports activities they were supporting.

 

Covid restrictions are still making it difficult to carry out mobilities in certain European countries, including in some of the project partner countries. This is why we are ressorting to digital tools to continue the coordination of the project with all international partners.

Las May 5th we carried out an online meeting amongst partners to discuss feedback from the participants of the Online Training Course and to plan the remaining activities of the project.

After our coordination meeting in Marsciano, Italy, at the end of January, we entered our first phase of local activities (LA1), which consisted on creating the contents of our training manual and presenting the project to the local population of each partner country.

For the first part of the LA1, each partner country had to develop the contents of the modules of the “Training Programme Proposal” validated the year before during Vol4Life (a prequel project with the same partners) according to their local realities and needs.

To do this, the coordinating organisation of the project created and shared a tool with the proposal validated in each country the year, for each partner country to fill in with contents based from local experience, the research carried out during Vol4life, the tools and methods they already use to train your volunteers, etc.

For the second part of LA1, the COVID-19 pandemic had already started to spread, which meant that local presentations of the project and meetings with stakeholders became more difficult. However, this did not stop us from moving forward with the project activities; it simply meant we had to re-invent our approach and adapt! Some of us carried out these meetings and presentations on an online format via different digital tools for communication, and others waited for lockdown to be over and still carried out in person activities with all the safety requirements by our national health departments (reduced amounts of people, use of masks and hand sanitazers, outdor activities, etc.).

We will continue updating you on our next activities shortly!

After we were finished with our Local Activities I phase, we were originally supposed to carry out an international seminar in Poland. However, due to the COVID-19 restrictions, it was impossible for us to travel and gather in large groups of people.

Therefore, in order to continue advancing with the project, we created an online Training Course for Trainers (OTC) of volunteers in the field of sports that started yesterday (6th July 2020) with the participation of 15 sports volunteering trainers (3 participants from each aprtner countries, thoroughly selected by each apartner organisation) and will continue until the en of the month, with the same learning objectives as the original International Seminar.

The main purpose of this OTC is to develop key competences of volunteering trainers/supervisors and anyone who wishes to train, prepare and manage sports volunteering actions in the field of sports, by giving them the necessary knowledge and pedagogical tools to carry out an efficient training for volunteers in the field of sports.

Learning objectives:

-Reflect about the knowledge in the field of volunteering (definition, legislation, actors, obligations and rights, etc.) at local level and in the 5 other partners countries.
-Learn to develop an environment where volunteers can carry out their activities in a responsible, committed, efficient and safe way.
-Provide participants with pedagogical tools in the framework of non-formal education, in order to organize their own training for sports volunteers.
-Strengthen networks between organizations in the 5 partner countries through the exchange of methodologies and tools used by four different countries to train volunteers in the field of sports.

Stay tuned to read more about the final evaluation of the OTC when it is finished!

After our First Coordination Meeting in January, where all the project coordinators from the different partner organisations/countries for this project met face to face, the first task to start the implementation of this project was to design the logo, image, and graphic line, in order to give visibility to and to disseminate the different activities of the “Skills Development for Sport Volunteering Trainers” project.

As this project is the natural continuation of a previous Small Collaborative Partnership project with the same partners, “Volunteering for Sporty and Healthy Life” (Vol4Life), that was implement throughout 2019, the partners wanted to keep a similar image that would reflect this continuity between both projects. Therefore, we decided to keep the same colouring (shades of red, as red is the color of volunteering) and the same central image.

With this in mind, Iniciativa Internacional Joven, as general coordinator of the project, proposed several versions for the logo. After several attempts we finally arrived at a logo that encapsulates the essence of the project: training volunteering trainers! 

Here are some photos of the work process and shared ideas that led to our final logo and graphic image for our “Skills Development for Sport Volunteering Trainers” project.

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On the 20th and 21st January 2020, the five partner organisations held their First Transnational Coordination Meeting in order to specify strategies, working methodology and details for future activities. The meeting took place in San Venanzo, Italy, and it was an essential part of the project as it was the first face to face encounter with all the coordinators from each partner country. 
The main objectives of the meeting were:

• To plan the phases of local and international activities: objectives, contents, methodology and creation of the tools;
• To specify dissemination and visibility activities, including logo, webpage, social networks, etc. of the project;
• To discuss the tools to be used to measure the impact and to evaluate different phases of the project;
• To make appropriate internal arrangements between partner organizations.

Among the main results of the meeting, we can underline:

• Participants/organisations knew the details of the project and its activities;
• Every participant/organisation can implement the project in the arranged way;
• Organisations established appropriate internal agreements;
• Logo, webpage and social networks have been set up and participants/organisations know how to utilise them.

During this trip, we also had the opportunity to visit San Venanzo’s Communal Stadium and we got to present the project to the community Sports Councillor.

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