Sustainability

 Project assessment & objectives 

1. Objectives

• The PAPYRUS-project’s cornerstone is that we think of dissemination as an ongoing process, rather than set of events at the end of the project.
• We aim to reach this by creating various access points, through which target groups can engage and find out about the project and its findings.
• At the centre of this is the PAPYRUS open-access website, ensuring anyone can utilise the toolkits, best practices and Learning Log. The website provides an easy access to interested groups across the EU to get involved, makes use of resources and engages people without spending vast sums on travel and so forth.
• Thus, crucial to the sustainability of the project’s results, will be the preserving of the website,the tools, best practices and the learning log.
  • • The website continues to be free, even after the end of the funding.
    • However, updating of the website/portal will cease when the project is over. That’s why we have focused on making the material in the website such, that it doesn’t expire quickly. Moreover, we didn’t want to add a forum to the website as was the original plan, because moderating this forum would not be possible.
• This website and its contents have been widely disseminated to local, national and EU-level audiences. There has been visibility in numerous events, posts in social media and naturally our multiplier events.
• We were also planning to have webinars and live streaming of events, but we didn’t have them.
• We have concentrated to dissemination from early on as word of mouth snowballing will support formal dissemination from practitioner to practitioner.
• We will consider pathways to fund the project, post- ERASMUS+ but one idea that hasalready emerged is to create modestly- funded accreditation of higher or more in depth levels of study for the open resources (with ECTS points).

2. Teamwork

• Teamwork would include problems and obstacles, as well as suggestions and tips / best practices.

3. Target groups

• The main target groups for PAPYRUS are youth workers, organisations that employ them, and youth policy makers.
• We enhance the multi-professional attitude: we can learn from each other and from our different fields and sectors.
• We involved youth practitioners and professionals in related fields to give their expertise to the toolkits. Involvement of grass-root workers and professionals in enabling us to recognise what kind of information we should have in the toolkits and what message to disseminate.
• It is really important to give sufficient time and appreciation for these people to go through the material, as they dedicated their free time to the process.
• It is vital to have good relations to relevant local and preferably also to national networks: youth workers’ associations, adult educators, migrant organisations, municipalities etc.
• As a team, we believe that non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and universities, should be leading in influencing public understandings and opinions on refugee support, and one way to do this is to ensure our own staff groups are furnished with the knowledge from PAPYRUS.
• At regional and national level we want to influence larger NGO’s and larger public authorities to integrate the project tools into social policies about provision of youth work with refugees and asylum seekers and deploy these over a wider geographical area.
  • We use social media and promotion of our free training, and national conferences to disseminate the project findings, outputs and outcomes at regional Level.
  • We invite key players and stakeholders to our dissemination events.
• At EU level, our target groups include NGO’s that work transnationally, European networks of youth workers and youth groups and policy makers at EU level. These groups are targeted particularly through our online webinars and the national conferences, in which findings will be provided and discussed. In particular, we will invite leaders of other projects funded by the EU to our events.

The project learning log will be created as PAPYRUS progresses, to consolidate and present the findings on the methodology of the project. The learning log, which will take the form of a report and chronology of project development, will primarily be targeted at others who may wish to devise and run projects in a similar area to PAPYRUS in future and it will make a strong contribution to the advancement further research. The log will serve as a model to enable others to replicate good practice in the project design and implementation and provide an account of problems that arose, solutions found as well as positives about the project design. Of particular interest will be how the team worked together, across sectors, how examples of best practice were selected and how we enabled the voice of target and beneficiary groups to influence and enhance the project. The target group of the Learning Log with be other project teams under the Erasmus+ and other EU programmes and national policy makers who may be commissioning projects on youth work with refugees and migrants. Other beneficiaries of this output will be the host of other professionals who may wish to carry out projects on professional development and skills in working with refugees and similar vulnerable youth groups, including future EU projects. Once finished, the Learning Log will be available in hard copy, as well as in download from the website to allow maximum use and engagement from target groups, beneficiaries and stakeholders.

TIPS for a good practice in sustainable development:

Good practice here is considered as a practice which will be useful for the practitioners in the field. This means that we will ensure that during the project period 2017-2018 and also after that period. The paradox with this is that projects are usually working outside the normal service system and after the project period there is no money and workers left to do the work.

1. Try to embed the project inside the service system. You can invite workers from the field to work with you. Make sure that they are able to do it in a way that their bosses are also somehow involved.
2. In the beginning of the project make the plan for the sustainable development during the project and after the project.
3. If you are going to continue the project with another project, start trying to find the good idea and funding resource early before the project ends.
4. Make the plan, how these resources are going to be used after the project period.If you are going to continue the project with another project, start trying to find the good idea and funding resources early before the project ends.
5. Try to make sure that somebody will be the owner of the resources created after the project time ends.
6. Keep the timetables you have planned in the team when the project started. If the project period is only two years, it is very important in order to get everything done.