Making Waves - have more impact with your youth projects!

A practical booklet about how to make most out of your youth (in action) project: it takes you on a journey of raising the visibility of your project and it helps you consciously develop a plan to get your project results out to the people. With lots of practical tips and tricks to get you started. Make Waves - Have Impact !

What is the Making Waves booklet about?

Are you one of the thousands of youth project organisers in Europe? Trying to make a little change with the youth work you do? Maybe you want to have some bigger impact? It only takes a little bit more effort and strategic thinking!

Your youth project is like a stone thrown in the water: it creates some ripples or waves on the water, your youth work intends to have some impact. This booklet helps you think and plan how you can make the biggest possible waves with your project

  • Be proud of your work! 'Making Waves' gives you some practical suggestions to increase the visibility your project. The more people know about your work, the better.
  • Surely your project generates some wonderful results or products: new methods, a CD-rom, learning, a theatre-play, recommendations to decision-makers,...
  • Don't sit on your project results - share them with others! 'Making Waves' lists some tips and tricks about you to disseminate your results.
  • But it would even be better if your project results were actually also USED. 'Making Waves' guides you through the exploitation of your project results.

Visibility, dissemination and exploitation of results (sometimes called 'valorisation') are important features of the Youth in Action programme. SALTO-YOUTH pro-actively took up its 'support role' within the YiA programme and developed this practical publication for youth workers faced with these visibility, dissemination and exploitation requests in their projects.

'Making Waves' hopes to give you inspiration about how to make the most out of your project and create the best waves possible!

Who's behind the Making Waves booklet?

The Making Waves booklet has been developed by Tony Geudens of the SALTO Inclusion Resource Centre, based on contributions from different NAs, SALTO, NGOs and Commission colleagues. SALTO has the advantage of being in the middle of different stakeholders. It has good contacts to the National Agencies, and can draw on their previous experiences. This booklet draws on different NA activities about multiplying, valorisation and increasing impact of youth projects. SALTO also liaised with the European Commission, for guidance in this matter and links were made with the DG Education & Culture's unit that works specifically on 'dissemination & exploitation of project results'.

The SALTO Resource Centres themselves, working for the whole of Europe with limited resources, always had to do as much as possible with their limited resources, so lots of 'valorisation' (dissemination & exploitation) of the SALTO work has been done in the past, before the term Valorisation or 'Dissemination & Exploitation of project Results' even popped up its head.


Many thanks to the different commentors from NAs, SALTO, COM and NGOs for their valuable contributions, examples and feedback.

The following activities and publications inspired this booklet

Comments and feedback welcome at tony(a)salto-youth.net


The following downloads are available:

Making Waves - have more impact with your youth projects! - 2007 (4016.6 kB)
Making Waves takes you on a journey to have the biggest possible impact with your projects: make it visible to the outside world and document your project results and make them USED by others. Make Waves - Have Impact ! (Rightclick & download to your PC)


Author: Ann Hendriks - Tony Geudens / Contact: / Last modified: 2008-07-18

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