Contact-Making Event Con-Act For Future

Following the vision "Gateway to the world, a bridge towards home" CET Platform Society works hand in hand with the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 by developing and promoting the opportunities for Youth, looking for the opportunities abroad and enables their competence development in the fields of Human Rights, Social Economy, Media Literacy, Responsible Tourism and Youth Work. Strong partnership with organisations where our members could serve the European Solidarity Corps or participate in Erasmus+ activity is of great importance for CET, as well as for its partners. CET strategically fosters cross-sectoral partnerships to connect organisations and boost collaboration. After careful talks across Europe, the next logical step is the network of organisations, which encourages presentations of NGOs, identification of interest - common fields and exchange of contacts for collaborations.

Objectives of the project:

Objective 1: Enrichment of the contact base among partner organisations
Objective 2: Setting up the partnership of organisations in the field of competence development and integration into the (non-)formal education
Objective 3: Raised number of submitted projects among the partnership organisations
Objective 4: Long-term raise of sustainable employments in the NGO sector and Social Economy
Objective 5: Opening of small local environments towards Europe and the world.

Within this Contact Making Event, CET aims to implement activities that boost the exchange of contacts, experience and knowledge, and boost the cross-sectoral collaboration. Invited participants are the directors, presidents, project managers, youth workers, policymakers, researchers and trainers who work with the Youth. Mobility is good for the decision-makers and those professionally engaged in the work of NGOs, and/or with youth to be able to effectively strengthen partnerships.

Profile of participants is diverse: nonformal education, youth, entrepreneurship, NGO sector, public sector, culture. It is common to all that they speak English, are above 18 and work in the international field. 

Participants will:
- practice how to effectively represent their organisation in a networking setting,
- strengthen ties among the organisations within the partnership and in Ptuj,
- meet the possibilities of sustainable employment in the NGO sector and social economy,
- develop cross-cultural competencies and build the ability to operate in diverse cultural setting through active participation,
- develop a design mindset through the work on future projects,
- develop social intelligence through connecting with others, meeting experts from various fields, socialising with locals,
- develop trans-disciplinarity and understanding concepts from different disciplines,
- meet the opportunities of NGO sector and social economy for the youth work

Youth work plays a key role in the development of entrecomp with youth, and those influence their further development. Like Dunja Potočnik wrote in the Study Employability Revisited, 2019, "The value of Youth Work in the areas of employment and entrepreneurship lies in its ability to simultaneously improve both wellbeing and employability." Potočnik continues that the youth work has transformed in recent years and has developed from leisure activities to nonformal education and often serves even as a career centre. This is the key reason for youth workers to regularly network and connect with colleagues also outside of their sector. Contact making events are the platform for the exchange of practices and ideas, and also for the development and training of competencies required for their work. Project is based on skills named by the Study which are key in 2020: Cross-cultural competence, Design mindset and Social Intelligence.

Activities within this mobility are set to enable individual work and learning, as well as in groups, smaller - focused, 1 on 1 meetings, and also meeting with representatives of local organisations from the public and private not-for-profit sectors and social economy, who strive toward international collaboration.

Impact 1: Raised number of contacts from organisations raises the number of international collaborations and opportunities for youngsters from NGO to participate in European Solidarity Corps and Erasmus+. Potential sustainable impact is a lifechanging moment that happens every now and then.
Impact 2: Network of partner organisations in the field of development of entrecomp and integration into the education will enable participation in educational activities to participants, as well as to youth workers.
Impact 3: A higher amount of submitted projects included organisations will be seen at the autumn deadline. More project also means more impact on workload and financial flow and thus sustainable employments.
Impact 4: Sustainable raise of workload as a consequence of good partnership also impacts the number of newly opened employments in NGO sector and social economy.
Impact 5: Opening of small local environments towards Europe and world impacts the raise of international collaborations among partners, a voluntary service at home or abroad, on a long term as well can be beneficial for the small communities to meet the foreigners who can help to switch the mindset and open heads.