Senior European Volunteers Exchange Network Final Network Meeting Brussels October 10 – 13, 2010

1. Charlotte Strümpel Evaluating the SEVEN-Network Senior European VolunteersExchange NetworkFinal Network MeetingBrussels October 10 – 13, 2010

2. WELCOME! Senior European VolunteersExchange NetworkFinal Network Meeting Brussels October 10 – 13, 2010

3. The ongoing evaluation… • is an integral part of the work throughout the whole duration of the network. • The aim is to monitor and to evaluate the process, content and the results of the network.

4. Evaluation questions • Have the annual meetings been organised in a useful way? • Which activities have partners in the network carried out? • How did participants perceive the networking activities and products of the network? • Did they find them useful for running exchanges for older volunteers? • Which aspects will they be able to apply to exchanging older volunteers in the future? • Are organisations using the material developed within the network? • What are the longer term effects of the network?

5. Evaluation tools • The open part of the annual conferences are evaluated by all participants through a meeting checklist. • Partners were asked to list their activities regularly using a prepared form. • This form also contains questions on the strengths and weaknesses of the network. • The website is being monitored viauser statistics and an on-line questionnaire for visitors. • Evaluation results are discussed in core group meetings.

6. Number of questionnaires • Partners 24 • Associated partners 13 • National agencies 15 Total 52

7. Number of LLL projects submitted • Total 38 • Accepted 25 • Rejected 13

8. Accepted SVP-Projects submitted without SEVEN? • Yes 12 • No 16

9. Dissemination • Presentation 90 (20L) • Distributing leaflets 127 (29L) • Articles, reports etc. 31 (11L)

10. Presentation at meetings – LunariaExamples • Grundtvig meetings and national information days • Conference on the European Year for Combatting Poverty and Social Exclusion • Youth on the Move conference

11. Presentation at meetings – PartnersExamples • Internal networking meetings related to organisation • Organisation of local meetings (Ferrara, ARC) • Project was presented at the Annual EDYN Meeting in Washington (EFD; ECEI) • Global Conference of the International Federation on Ageing in Melbourne, Australia (Seniors Office Graz) • National Grundtvig Meetings (ARC, IBG, Lancaster 2x, ZAWIW, ISIS) • National and local meetings • Work camp and long-term volunteering meetings • Preparatory meeting for European Year of Volunteering in Germany (IBG) • Red Cross European Regional Conference – Ageing workshop

12. Dissemination: articles • Print media connected with organisation • Local newspapers • Seniors Organisations‘ media • Websites • National Agency‘s media Could have been more 

13. Dissemination: other activities • Senior volunteers in work camps • Local round table and workshops on senior volunteering (BRC) • Exchange, preparatory visists with local / national money (Ferreara, Giessen) • Video on exchange of senior volunteers (ISIS) • Research (Karin Stiehr, ISIS) • Placement as senior volunteer (Dietmar Eisenhammer, ISIS) • Champion for Senior Learners‘ Group at Lancaster Unviversity (Rory Daly, University of Lancaster) • Founding a Seniors‘ Organisation in Graz (Gertraud Dayé) • Starting national database for senior volunteers exchange and local activities (Edita Satiene- SIC)

14. Website: General opinion? (33) • Positive 26 • OK 3 • Do not use it 2 • Other 2

15. Website: General opinion? (33) • Clear structure, a lot of useful information • Well done and easy to navigate • Very useful to show others what we are doing in the SEVEN-network • Design of the website is very good and offers a lot of useful information

16. Website: Beneficial parts (30) • Material/tools/information 30 • Partner finding 13 • Other projects 2 • Other 2

17. Website: Beneficial parts (30) • „The website provides all the information required for organizing good exchange-programmes.“ • „Materials on the website are useful. We use some of them during training of our volunteers to go abroad.“

18. Website: Improvements (14) • Regular updates 3 • More material in national languages 6 • More information 6 • Improve communication in discussion forum 4 • Other 3 • Nothing / can‘t say 4

19. Website: Improvements (14) • „Unfortunately, not used much“ • „Several features are strange: language button; forum is spammed“ • „Difficult to find website in search engine due to Austrialian TV network SEVEN“ • „More could have been done“ • „Volunteers reports would have been helpful“ • „To be honest we do not use website a lot“

20. Benefits of being a member / being associated with SEVEN-network (33) • Contacts 20 • Information and material 15 • Knowledge/experience 13 • Training programme 1 • Motivation for exchange 2

21. Benefits of being a member / being associated with SEVEN-network (33) • „Some member organisations gave very good examples of their work and were very inspiring for me“ • „Finding comptetnet partners to discuss any topic concerning the exchange of senior volunteers“ • „I have made new contacts which have led to new projects“ • “Having the chance to encounter people interested in working together for other projects” • „In Alliance some member organisations are really inspired by SEVEN and have started senior exchanges in work camps, organised special senior work camps and are more open for new projects.“ • „I got many new ideas“

22. Strengths of SEVEN-network (32) • See benefits + • Professional team 7 • Lobbying 2 • Involving seniors 3

23. Strengths of SEVEN-network (32) • “Great team, pushing the whole initiative forward as well as a good mix of educational institutions, municipalities, NGOs and other stakeholders” • “Working together for several years with representatives of organisations from other countries having very different structures but the same interests” • “The network did a great work in lobbying for the idea of senior volunteering in Europe, also owing to its variety of different types of organisations, connections and experience”

24. Weaknesses of SEVEN (27) • Nothing / hard to say 13 • Difficult managing it 3 • Diversity of members 2 • Lack of communication 3

25. Weaknesses of SEVEN (27) • Nothing / hard to say 13 • Difficult managing it 3 • Diversity of members 2 • Lack of communication 3 • Not enough funding 1

26. Challenges encountered (15) • To motivate seniors to volunteer • To find suitable accommodation at a reasonable price • Lack of funding • Problems with visa • Finding suitable placements • To find enough partners for learning partnership • To get questionnaires for research • Introducing the idea of senior volunteer exchanges in Lithuania • Not being able to put together an exchange project • To promote senior volunteering among our member organisations [no tool provided for this by network]

27. Challenges encountered by Lunaria • “To keep all the pieces together was the most important challenge and also to deal with many different actors required the development of an ability to work at different levels: from the Senior volunteers to the Civil Servants of the European Commission, from the Small associations to the local governments you always have to find the correct “register”...so to speak.”

28. Lessons learned – Organisational perspective • “The most important lesson learned is that the information is a power and such kind of networks gives a lot of possibilities for different activities and exchange visits.” • “It is worthwhile to follow a good idea, also if it takes a couple of years to get it realized. The opportunity to support the creation of the SVP was worth the efforts of the prior pilot projects.” • “That more resources than forecast are needed and that the allocation of staff resources are important. Also that a major involvement of the media is necessary, while we didn’t do much in this sense.”

29. Lessons learned – Individual perspective • “I gained a lot of experience and now I have a very good relationship with a lot of people. “ • “That social problems cannot be resolved without personal involvement of citizens, that networking is a powerful tool helping to reach the goal, that many good foreign practices can be adapted and introduced in home location. “ • “One of my most important lesson was, that the systems, especially the social system, are very different in Europe, and it was very interesting to me to learn a lot from the systems of the other countries.”

30. Summary - partners • “We are very happy that now we are implementing a project and our volunteers acquire a lot of skills from the foreign volunteers and also they can transfer their knowledge and skills to the foreign volunteers.” • “The activities of SEVEN-network must continue. I think we can find a way of keeping in touch maybe through proposed topics for discussion in website forum through the mailing list and put all efforts to improve the DIVAS project application in order to get funding for future activities.”

31. Improving working relationship with NA (19) • Yes 16 • Maybe 1 • No or no relationship 2 • Yes, the idea of trans-national exchanges as a tool for intercultrual learning is now much more accepted.

32. National Agencies

33. NA (15): Strengths of SEVEN • Experience in senior volunteering (8) • Network meetings (3) • Products/tools developed and made available (5) • Intermediary for partner search (3) • Website

34. NA: Strengths of SEVEN • “The SEVEN-network produced relevant information for the implementation of senior volunteering projects. Most of the Grundtvig-projects are carried out by young and well educated adults. International matters are often treated by young adults because they have better foreign language skills and educational pathways included international themes and activities. Seniors are a wide and special target group and often this generation could not travel as much as young people today do. Therefore NA's have to reorganize their information and support for this new project target group.” (NA Austria)

35. NA: Strengths of SEVEN • “The meetings I experienced were very open and inviting, they encouraged new organisations to join or to start working with senior volunteers. At the same  time very professional and a great personal experience too.” (NA Hungary) • “Project involves participants from many EU countries and provides the tools for new participants. Handbooks created by the SEVEN-network for the Organizations of the Civil Society, for volunteers, for coordinators and local governments are of significant importance.” (NA Lithuania)

36. NA: Weaknesses / possible improvements • No weakness 8 • Risk of not continuing 2 • Regular training courses 1 • No answer 4

37. NA: Help with implementation of SVP - General • Yes 12 • No answer 5

38. NA: Help with implementation of SVP - General • “The SEVEN-network has created preconditions for the development of Senior Volunteering processes in EU.” (NA Lithuania) • “Absolutely. The knowledge of senior volunteering in the Commission and the NAs was very poor, because the thematic is a bit outside of the usual acitivities of Grundtvig programme. The NA staff had had even more difficulties to touch the thematic and target groups without SEVEN.” (NA Finland)

39. NA: Help with implementation of SVP in your country • Yes 8 • Not directly 5 • No answer 2

40. NA: Help with success of SVP in your country • Yes 8 • Not directly 5 • No answer 2

41. NA: Help with success of SVP in your country - Yes • “The Seven-network has been fundamental for the implementation of the Grundtvig SVP action in the Italian LLP National Agency.  The Network and its website has been, and still is, our first reference point for getting acquainted with a new reality that the Agency was not properly aware of about such as international volunteering activities with seniors.The SVP Partner Finder page has been and still is a truly useful tools for Italian and European associations looking for partners. So far, this is still the only space available finding partners, since there are no similar tools available. It’s very clearly presented, it’s easy to use, very functional, constantly updated.The manuals Still active! Manuals for Volunteers, Still active! Training course for senior volunteers, Still active! A guidebook for local governments interested in international exchange programmes for senior volunteers (available in Italian, English, French and German) are regularly used as guidelines during our Grundtvig Svp info days in Italy. These documents are also constantly downloaded from our website by dozens of people every month. .” (NA Italy)

42. NA: Help with success of SVP in your country – Not directly • “It is difficult to see a direct relationship between the network and the success of SVP implementation in my country. In Austria the best project proposals have been proposed by partners of the SEVEN-network. What has been positive that the partners which are big institutions in the social sector motivated smaller organisations in remote areas to take the opportunity and apply for the new project action. I think it will need some time that the SVP action will become well known. Another problem is that the Grundtvig-programme does not have so much money to fund a lot of projects.” NA Austria • “Unfortunately we cannot speak about the success yet (four applications in each year). SEVEN network helped us in familiarizing in the senior volunteer theme which is quite new in Finland.“ NA Finland

43. NA: Website good model? • Yes 8 • Not directly 5 • No answer 2

44. NA: Website good model? • “Yes, the website has a lot of useful functions and is full of vital information for those starting to work with senior volunteers. It is a good starting point for the social aspects of active ageing and volunteering, the links are very inspiring. The site offers a lot to learn and do for seniors themselves, which is also appealing.” (NA Hungary)

45. NA: Website improvements • Add best practices • List SVP funded projects • More visibility for on-going projects • Link to other Grundtvig-activities • Update regularly

46. Improving working relationship with NA (19) • Yes that was an unexpected, at the beginning, but absolutely positive outcome. As a coordinator I also improved the relationship with almost one half of the LLP National Agencies and for sure with the Grundtvig Unit of the European Commission.

47. Further comments • Creating exchange opportunities for individual volunteers • Voluntary financial contribution (of NAs?) to maintain website • Further cooperation between SEVEN-partners and NAs

48. Summary • “Well done! Thank you for this important contribution.” (NA Italy) “SEVEN is a good model of international networking to promote senior volunteer exchanges.” (NA-Slovenia)

49. Further comments • “Seven has opened a lot of opportunities to the civil society to participate in the process of societal change. The opening of the Eastern countries is also a very big chance and challenge at the same time. It is very fortunate to be able to build projects with groups of people with so different horizons and different backgrounds.  It is big fun to be part of the SEVEN-CLUB!“(NA Belgium – German speaking)

50. Final comments by coordinator • I believe all this work should be continued: I personally have believed very much in it (and still do) and in the potentiality of senior exchanges as a powerful educational tool for active citizenship, social cohesion and fighting against racism and xenophobia. • Finally I have no words to express my gratitude to the member partners and the many, many, friends I have collected during the way!