Find more information about the ESC Traineeships and Jobs ending and its consequences too.

In the present article you will find some qualitative assessments with respect to the new functioning of the European Solidarity Corps for the seven-year period 2021-2027.

Relevant Changes of European Solidarity Corps

Surely the most relevant change is the end of single projects with its substitute, the multi-annual plans. We can identify as consequences:

• The increase of initial work to act as a lead body, upon the new accreditation, which includes a three-year plan and a description of management and organisational aspects of the applicant;
• The end of the process of sending ESC funding applications (commonly “ESC projects”) as we have known it so far: it will no longer be necessary to send specific projects;
• Both of these changes lead to a greater weighting of the substantive elements of quality and, on the other hand, to a decrease in the weighting of the “cosmetic” skills of the project developer, in hiding reality behind nice words.
• Another consequence of these changes is the restructuring of activity monitoring. The decrease of design work and the streamlining of the writing part in the projects should lighten up the work of the National Agency, which already faces an increase in mobility. We hope that this streamlining of formal monitoring (invoices, long descriptive texts, etc.) will see a balancing toward a greater attention on the part of the National Agencies to the most effective evaluation and monitoring: the initial accreditation phase and the ongoing monitoring.

Evaluation: First Step

The initial accreditation goes through a telephone or face-to-face on-site interview. This method allows a dialogue between the agency and the volunteer, and is also useful in improving the volunteer project. It is therefore not just an evaluation, but also a collaboration. The rejection of the accreditation in this sense goes often with a description of the parts to improve and can become an important training moment for the organisations themselves.

Evaluation: Second Step

The second moment of evaluation is the training and evaluation cycle (the training on arrival and the mid-term evaluation). In these meetings, the representatives of the National Agency meet the volunteers face-to-face and can check with them how things are actually going in the project, if they receive training support, what the practical conditions are and whether the organisations are complying with the ESC rules. This, more than filling cold online questionnaires like the mobility tool, is a very effective monitoring moment. It allows to collect elements that can also lead to serious consequences for organisations with big gaps. Indeed, if an organisation, as a Lead Organisation, had a high number of bad feedbacks from volunteers, it would run the real risk of losing its qualification.

Final considerations

This greater focus on the concrete management of the projects and not on the ability to write nice words when applying for grants seems to us an extremely positive aspect. Many times we have seen organisations that were very good at writing but not in carrying out activities, which nevertheless managed to receive large grants. From now on such organisations will have to pay more attention to the real quality of the activities they propose. And instead organisations that work with care and professionalism will have less work to do in planning and will be able to concentrate their efforts on what really counts, namely the quality of the volunteering experiences.

Read also

ESC Traineeship and Jobs ended. Which Consequences?

L'articolo New Features of European Solidarity Corps 2021-2027 proviene da Youth Networks.

The new EACEA website has gone live early at the beginning of February 2021.

EACEA 2021-2027

EACEA’s new generation of funding programmes for the period 2021-2027 will be:

• Erasmus+
• Creative Europe
• the European Solidary Corps
• the Citizenship, Equality, Rights and Values programme (CERV).

The last one replacing what has been known as Europe for Citizens.

New EACEA Website Live

The new website contains:

• information on our programmes for the period 2021-2027; 
• information on our activities and legal background; 
• beneficiaries spaces relating to ongoing projects from 2014-2020; 
• general information about our previous programmes;
• and plenty of other useful information for anyone interested in EACEA.

To make it easier to find funding opportunities, calls for proposals are no longer being available on the EACEA website. From now on, all future calls will be on the European Commission’s Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal (F&TP). Also note that currently no calls are available, but we hope to see funding opportunities soon, as we have already mentioned in previous articles.

Of important notice to point out that no information from the previous website has been lost. In fact, you can still access the previous EACEA website in these archives.

You can find the new EACEA website here.

Reas also

BREAKING NEWS: The First 2021-27 Erasmus+ Deadline Expected on May 2021

L'articolo The New EACEA Website Is Live proviene da Youth Networks.

The information hasn’t yet received confirmation, neither by the official channels of Erasmus+ nor by other National Agencies. However, the source is trustworthy, and the timing appears to be plausible. Insiders were already aware of the delays, due to the need of setting legal basis for a new program period. But so far official sources haven’t yet publish further rumours.

Erasmus+ Guidelines

Some of the expected news are about to go public. According to the Croatian National Agency, in fact, the program guidelines will be published in March 2021.

European Solidarity Corps Programme

It is still not clear, however, how many Erasmus+ deadlines we can expect to happen this year. Another rumour, coming from the same source, and that needs further in-depth analysis, refers to the European Solidarity Corps programme: apparently we will not find the action Jobs and Traineeships in it.

Official Source on Erasmus+ Deadline: Croatian National Agency

Read also
European Solidarity Corps 2021-2027: Political Agreement Reached

L'articolo BREAKING NEWS: The First 2021-27 Erasmus+ Deadline Expected on May 2021 proviene da Youth Networks.

This guide provides participating organisations and individuals a comprehensive list of opportunities supported by the programme. No matter if you are an association thinking of developing projects, or an individual who would like to know more regarding this field, this guide is essential for understanding Erasmus+.

For most Actions, all the rules and conditions for receiving a grant from the Programme are specified in this Programme Guide. For some other Actions, which are only mentioned in this Programme Guide, stay tuned! In Youthnetworks we will post specific calls for proposals published by or on behalf of the European Commission, and the rules and conditions for receiving a grant.

Even if the core of the guide remains similar to 2019’s one, we recommend you to check details and potential changes before subbmitting your project!

If you want to know more, you can now download the 2020 guide HERE!

L'articolo New Erasmus+ Programme Guide! proviene da Youth Networks.

This immediately caught the eye of the Joint Association, as it deviates from the previous versions. In fact, such a change of plan implies that the process of managing the grant application for a Capacity Building should have been anticipated too; but, as it is the case of most of the associations and actors that usually take part in these Key Actions, the process is often long and therefore should have required a different kind of timing.    

The only other major change relates to the distribution of the points in the evaluation table. While in 2018 the Relevance of the project accounted for 20 points, in 2019 it is 30 points worthy. On the other side, in 2018 the Quality of Project Team and Cooperation arrangements accounted for 30 points while in 2019 it is only 20 points worthy (see page 183 of the 2019 Guide). As for the rest, the points given for the Quality of the project design and implementation stayed the same (for a maximum of 30), as well as the points for the Impact and dissemination of the project (for a maximum of 20).

Moreover, it results from the 2019 annual work programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport that the total budget has been distributed slightly differently: 9 billion (one less than in 2018) for the Capacity Buildings in the field of youth, but over 117 million for the one in the field of higher education – two more than the previous year, when the amount accounted for nearly 115 million. Eligibility and award criteria stayed the same, even though an additional award criterion has been added: the feasibility of the project in the targeted regions (see pages 56 – 58 of the programme). In fact, European delegations will assess the feasibility of the projects together with the evaluation committee, taking into account the local context where it shall take place, the geographical representation of the countries taking part to the program and the proportion of the number of projects per country.

Sharing updates like the one mentioned above perfectly falls within the purpose of Youthnetworks: spreading news and, at the same time, keeping a network of the organizations operating in the field of international programs, may be the key to a wider concept of cooperation. So if you get to know about similar news please share them with us!

L'articolo Capacity Building, deadline anticipated to the 24th of January proviene da Youth Networks.

The ILGA-Europe Documentation and Advocacy Fund started in 2006 as a pilot project. Since then it has grown to collect valuable evidence about LGBTI human rights violations on a systematic basis. First of all, it supports small grant applications from member organisations. Besides that, ILGA-Europe and its members use this evidence strategically for advocacy purposes.

Therefore, their goal is to promote documentation of cases of discrimination, hate crimes and other human rights violations against LGBTI people according to international human rights standards.

How can be achieved the goal?

1. Work  towards LGBTI equality by gathering evidence of human rights violations
2. Support evidence-based advocacy throughout Europe
3. Build capacity of LGBTI organisations in Europe. Likewise, monitor and document human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression
4. Enable the use of well-documented information for advocacy purposes at the national level
5. Develop methodology and tools that can be replicated in other European countries
6. Promote documentation of cases of discrimination, hate crimes and other human rights violations against LGBTI people. Furthermore, these should be according to international human rights documentation standards.

Open calls for grants

Calls for proposals are announced once or twice a year, with almost 5 to 10 grantees per call. There are two types of grants – a documentation grant and an advocacy grant.

About ILGA Europe and human rights

ILGA-Europe are an independent, international non-governmental umbrella organisation bringing together 490 organisations from 45 European countries. ILGA-Europe are a driving force for political, legal and social change in Europe and Central Asia. Therefore, their vision is of a world where dignity, freedoms and full enjoyment of human rights are protected and ensured to everyone regardless of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.

More info here.

L'articolo Grants up to 10.000 euro for LGBTI non-profits proviene da Youth Networks.