Making Waves - have more impact with your youth projects!

• Download it here for free! (in PDF format - right click the link and save to computer).
• Order your paper copy (for a symbolic contribution) from the SALTO Inclusion eBay shop - proceeds will be used for reprinting and updating the SALTO Inclusion booklets
• Making Waves is also available in Turkish, Spanish and Latvian
• Interested to translate this booklet in your language? Click here for more info

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

• ViVa seminar France June 2005, INJEP French NA YiA www.yonet.org/spip.php?rubrique76 & www.injep.fr
• Pass-it-on Training Course 2005 (INJEP, French NA YiA, www.injep.fr) & 2006 (Jint Belgian Flemish NA YiA, www.jint.be)
• Youthpass training course Portugal July 2007
• Publiciteit-kit voor Jongeren en Organisaties 2007, Dutch NA YiA, www.youthinaction.nl
• Dissemination and Valorisation Guidance Notes for Leonardo Projects, UK NA Leonardo www.leonardo.org.uk
• EU Visibility Guidelines for External Actions, EuropeAid, http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/ or http://eu-visibility.ru/guidelines/eng/

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