Name of the project and Sub-Objective of the PEOPLE project

KORBA PROJECT

Social & E-inclusion (SO4)

Objectives of the project (1)Goal: creating a complex system of non-formal education for young leaders from Silesia

Region Objectives:1) Providing 120 young people in skills and competences allowing for full participation in civil

society;2) Creating the first (online) platform for communication and cooperation of young leaders

from all over the region;3) Creation in Silesia Region the first intersectoral network for supporting development of

young leaders;4) Integration of young leaders from all over Silesia Region.

Objectives of the project (2)The idea of the project was to find young people with a leadership potential, gather them at 3 days long workshops (focusing on leadership, team building skills, project management, time

management and presentation skills) and then let them use the skills in practical realisation of their own local project.

When realising the project the young leaders were helped by tutors, who were available online and via mobile. All the participants joined the online platform located on Ning network, where

they could contact/be contacted by their tutors, they could also discuss among one another various problems they met in the project realisation, share pictures, movies, read and upload files

helping them in the project organisation. The platform was also a communication tool that was used for simple chatting with friends and having fun.

Objectives of the project (3)

At the end of the project young leaders produced visual reports from their projects (photo or movie presentations), which, together with the tutors' opinions, were considered when

choosing the participants who performed the best in their local undertaking. Korba Project was finalised and summarised at a big event gathering all the participants and various

stakeholders. The event was to present the results of the local youth projects and to reward the most active participants.

Beneficiaries (involved & concerned) Young people aged 12-19 (participants); Schools (junior high and high schools); Local communities of Silesia Region;

Marshall's Office of Silesia Region (patronage); So-called ´ambasadors of the Korba project´ (Magdalena Piekorz - film/theatre director; Piotr Gutkowski -

vocalist of the Indios Bravos band); Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (donation/grant);

Havre Barbara (sponsor);Foundation for Social Development DEMOS (partner);

Gazeta Wyborcza - newspaper (articles about the project).

Results of the project (1)• 70 participants;

•190,5 workshop hours;• Increased active participation in the society of the project participants: 51 realised local youth projects(including among others: beating the Guinness record; organisation of photo exhibitions; workshop for

teenagers and mentally disabled inhabitants of two of Silesian towns; ecological course for childrenfrom kindergarten; graffitti festival; animation of groups of children in small towns; aviation course; first

aid workshops etc.);• Around 5000 beneficiaries of the local youth projects;

• 917 posts on the Ning networking portal;• 30 active young people taking actions even after the end of the project (at the moment 20 of them are

preparing to become volunteers in the second edition of the project);

Results of the project (2)

• 7 media relations;• Development of young people's social and civil competences (significantly better results in post-testquestionnaires (after the project) in comparison to pre-test questionnaires (before) - evaluation report

in Polish is available when needed;• High level of participants' satisfaction (97% claimed that they would decide to participate in the projectagain; 100% of participants claimed they would recommend the project to their friends; additionally we

received feedback like: "Through Korba I've learnt more than throughout all ten yearsof school“).

Innovative approach - combining offline and online activities; using online tools to support activitiesundertaken in the real life (in Poland using social software in work with young people is still rare); thisapproach allowed for active participation of young people even from very small villages; if not theKorba Project and its online network, they would not have had a chance to let the world know about thethings they do in their local community and to share experience with other active young people;Use the idea of creating young leaders taken from the method of U Siemachy Association - basedamong others on the idea of giving the responsibility to the youngsters and making them the decisionmakers in the learning process;Active methods of work - task oriented communication online; active techinques at the offline Workshops; Professional and committed team (project coordinator, facilitators, tutors, even designers, photographers etc.);

Strengths of the project (1)

Strengths of the project (2) Celebrities involved - the ambasadors of the project are well known in Poland. The idea is to get asambasadors famous people who were born or live in the region. In this way we get people, who canbecome exemplary persons for young leaders from Silesia; Use of best practices from the INCLUSO project - the research project focused on the use of socialsoftware in work with marginalised youngsters; the idea of using the free to use Ning platfom wasone of those best practices; Use of the best practices of the project titled Young Leaders of Malopolska realised by "U Siemachy" - it was a fully offline from Malopolska; Agata Otrebska, the cooridnator of the Korba Project, was also the projectcoordinator of several editions of YLoM in the years 2005-2007).

o Combination of online and offline activities - if not supported offline, the online activities are not joinedthat willingly (ex. the young leaders who had not had a chance to meet their tutors in real life,

performed worse than the leaders who had this opportunity and participated in the online network lesswillingly);

o Good recruitment process - ability to find neither too skilled, nor too weak participants; they must bepeople with leadership potential, but not "overtrained“;

o Using a right online network - Ning allows for creating safe, closed networks, which is important whenworking with minors (for instance Facebook does not give that opportunity), but at the same time is

attractive enough to get young people interested;o Providing the atmosphere of exclusiveness - closed online network (only for invited people), limited

number of participants, ambasadors' involvement (celebrities involved in the project make youngpeople feel important).

Success factors of the project

The major problem we experienced was the problem with the recruitment process. It was due to theconflict of the project timeline, which could not be changed, and the school life. As the result we had to

organise the whole recruitment process within a month only. As the result we had to limit the number ofparticipants to be recruited. However, this problem may be easily avoided in the next editions of the

project.The only problem regarding the online activities was the problem with the Internet connection in themountain areas of the region. Normally all youngsters do have access to the Internet at school, andmost of them at home. However, in the mountain areas there are problems in the winter time (thesnowfalls can break the Internet connection for several days). This risk can be also easily managed.

Problems encountered

Conclusions (for the future) I

Korba Project can be easily implemented in other regions. At the moment the Project Coordinator is planning to realise the project also in regions of Swietokrzyskie and

Malopolska;Definitely all the participants need to have a chance to meet their tutor in the real life, in

order to make them participate in the online life more willingly;More workshop sessions are needed - the youngsters do lack active methods of work at

school and they can get a lot from longer sessions;At least 2 months are needed for the recruitment process;

Conclusions (for the future) II

A bigger number of ambasadors is recommended. In the edition 2010 the project has got the third ambasador - the theatre group called Mumio, very popular in Poland. We are

planning to invite also Adam Malysz (ski jumper) as an ambasador;There is a need to connect participants from different editions. At the moment we have got

an online network for the participants of the first edition of the project (2009) and we are preparing the other network for the participants of the second edition (2010). We need to

plan how to create a network, which could gather participants of all the editions (past, present and future).

Continuation of the project

In 2010 the project is being continued (see www.projektkorba.pl . The project is financed mostly from the NGO Fund (EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial

Mechanism). The project will last for a year and will include more learning opportunities. This year we expect 90 participants. 20 participants of the first edition joined as volunteers. The

online Ning platform for the participants of the first edition is still actively used.

Replication of the project

Any region in Poland (at the moment Agata Otrebska, the project coordinator, is planning an edition in regions of Malopolska and Swietokrzyskie). Any regions in

European Countries.