YADA Foundation

Yaşama Dair Vakıf (YADA Foundation)

Yaşama Dair Vakıf (henceforth YADA) was established in 2005 in Ankara by a group of social scientists and project managers. The founder team of YADA had participated in many research and implementation projects under the name of “YADA Project Group” before the foundation.

YADA aims to produce knowledge and information on each aspect of life and to transmit them into practical and feasible implementation projects serving for the common good. In this sense, the basic mission of the foundation can be defined as bridging the gap between the academic world and the daily life, i.e. between “theory” and “everyday life.” Apart from its scientific character, the foundation is an implementation center which is designed to produce feasible and sustainable policies/projects.

YADA designs and conducts research, implementation and monitoring-evaluation projects on diverse fields of activity including civil society, environment, youth, active living, development and agriculture, corporate social responsibility, etc. In all studies it conducts or takes part in, YADA adopts a comprehensive approach that takes into account the complicated and multi-dimensional natures of social phenomena.

Some of the Projects of YADA Foundation

“Civil Society Culture in the Voluntary Organizations in Turkey” (2007-2009)
By leaning upon its experience in civil society research and monitoring, in 2007 YADA started to implement the most comprehensive research study in Turkey, concerning the general characteristics of Turkey’s civil society.

“Triangle of Corporate Social Responsibility in Turkey: Corporations, Society and Civil Society Organizations” (2007-2008):
YADA was responsible for the population survey phase of the project, where a sample representative of the Turkish population was interviewed in order to measure citizens’ level of awareness about and attitudes towards corporate social responsibility.

“Monitoring and Evaluation of the ‘Supporting Civil Society Development and Dialogue in Turkey’ Project” (2007-2009):
A project designed in order to provide capacity-building services for local NGOs to increase their involvement in decision making processes and to encourage communication and cooperation among themselves as well as with their counterparts in the EU. YADA was responsible for conducting the monitoring and evaluation of the project.

“Social Impact Assessment of Environmental Projects” (2008-2009)
The project aimed to integrate social impact goals into the designation and implementation periods of the environmental projects by creating awareness and increasing capacity among environmental NGOs and environmental projects designers and executives.

Life Plus Youth Program (2005-Ongoing)
"Life Plus" focused its activities on supporting youth aged 18-30 from across Turkey, both in thinking about Turkey’s environmental and societal problems and in creating projects that will assist in the solution of these problems. Ranking as Turkey’s oldest and longest-running environmental youth program, "Life Plus" not only provides financial support to youth-led environmental projects, but also acts as a mentor in helping youth in conducting their projects

Kids’ Orchards Project (2009-Ongoing)
The project aims to form fruit gardens in the schoolyards of primary schools and by this way to develop the relationship of children with natural environment by planting and growing trees and to build habit of ecological living and agricultural production experience among children.

Aegean Rivers Project (2009-Ongoing)
The main objective of this ongoing project is protecting the two crucial river basins of Aegean Region of Turkey (Gediz Basin and B. Menderes Basin) which are heavily contaminated due to industrial, agricultural and individual unprocessed wastes. The project aims to raise awareness regarding the threats to the basins and to encourage authorities for the actualization and implementation of the management plans for Aegean River Basins.

“Stakeholder Analysis and Adaptive Capacity Assessment in the Seyhan River Basin” (2008-2009)
This project was funded by the United Nations Joint Programme (UNJP) and aimed to lay out the stakeholder network in the Seyhan River Basin, in order to help manage a future grants program which will finance projects related to climate change adaptation in the Basin.

“Cluster Analysis for Improving Co-operation between the NGOs and the Public Sector in Turkey” (January 2006- February 2006):
The objective of the project was to establish an environment in which Public Sector institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could further develop cooperation; and to promote the participation of civil society in the democratic processes. The object of the cluster analysis project was to examine and identify the obstacles and potentials for the development of partnerships between NGOs and public sector in the medium term.

“The State of the Youth Survey” (May 2007- July 2007)
The survey was conducted by YADA within the context of the 2007 National Human Development Report of Turkey, which was prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The aim of the survey was to identify the socio-demographic and socio-economic conditions of young people in Turkey, the opportunities, obstacles and constraints, as well as discriminatory practices the young people encounter in their lives—within their family, their social environment, workplace and in educational institutions. The survey was conducted among 3,322 people aged 16-24 in 12 provinces of Turkey.

“Reading Clubs for Adult Learning Communities – READCOM” (2006-2008)
Project was conducted in partnership with five countries, Poland, Belgium Austria, Turkey and Portugal, was selected among the best 20 projects supported by Socrates Program within 5 years.
The aim of the project was to ensure the participation of adults to the social life as active citizens through reading clubs. At the end of the project, a module for mentors of the reading clubs was published.

PUBLICATIONS
“Civil Society Culture in the Voluntary Organizations” (2007-2009)
“Cluster Analysis for Improving Co-operation Between the NGOs and the Public Sector in Turkey” (2006):
“An Analysis: Needs of the NGOs” (2005)
“Triangle of Corporate Social Responsibility in Turkey: Corporations, Society and NGOs” (2007-2008)
“Youth of Turkey Speaks: Youth’s Ideas on Turkey’s EU Accession and Membership Process” (2004-2005)
“The State of the Youth Survey” (2007)
“Stakeholder Analysis of Seyhan River Basin” (2008-2009)
“Survey of the NGOs in Lüleburgaz” (2008)
"Socio-economic Status of the Private Sector Mineworkers” (2005)
"Social Impact Assessment of Environmental Projects” (2008)
"Social Impact Assessment of SGP Projects" (2007)
"Guidebook for Facilitators of Reading Clubs" (2007)