Dreamcatcher

The aim of the project is to produce and test an innovative e-mentoring program accessible freely online and available for youth workers and other stakeholders in the participating countries and worldwide. The mentoring program will draw upon the extensive experience and knowledge of the partners in the youth field as well in designing and implementing mentoring programmes which have already confirmed their efficiency. They will be combined with non-formal education methods and training programs in order to increase their results and attractiveness to young people and to make them more easily understood, practiced, adaptive and applied in different settings. The cooperation will also allow the partners to exchange experience and to build on their expertise in the youth work.

The proposal responds to issues identified among young people (i.e. lack of self-confidence and motivation, lack of basic entrepreneurial skills etc.) in the participating countries which are the main target group of the partners. These issues are consequence of factors related to the disadvantaged situation of the young people and lead to different phenomena such as early school leaving, unemployment and in some cases even radicalization.

The proposal is cross-sartorial and innovative as it presents an innovative combination of mentoring program and non-formal education used in youth work settings (youth organizations, youth centers etc.) as well as in the formal education institutions (schools, social educational institutions).

The partnership:

The number of targeted partners is 6-8 and they should be NGOs, educational and/or research institutions, Youth centers, companies, etc.

The partnership will draw upon the extensive experience and knowledge of the partners to produce an innovative e-mentoring program designed to empower students to realize the rewards of staying in school and continue their education to a higher level.

The program will be designed to answer the individual needs of motivation, self-confidence and entrepreneurship skills of high school students (i.e. such from disadvantage environment) and first year university students. It will also develop educational materials and tools for mentees, mentors, teachers and case managers involved in the program, so that at the end of the project a full Service Delivery Manual to be promoted.

The e-mentoring platform will match students with mentors in their career area of choice. The program will incorporate indigenous traditions and values throughout and initiate a process where students can start to take steps to realize their educational and personal dreams. The program will expose youth to the “outside world”, while giving them tangible examples of how to achieve their goals both academically and socially.

Objectives of the partnership:

• to overview situation in partner countries on potential and challenges of implementing of e-mentoring on youth career guidance, ( in particular for youth groups of risk of exclusions, immigrants, minority, etc.);

• to fulfill the comparative analysis of existing mentoring practices in the educational sector and identify the best tool and practices transferable to common e-mentoring model;

• to develop and test experimental educational approach based on innovative integration of e-Learning platform for e-mentoring process 3M-Actors: Manager (Case Manager), Mentor, Mentee;

• to support remote independent and collaborative peer learning in the group via
developed e-mentoring model, ensuring confidentiality of e-mentoring process;

• to develop website/platform and other effective multilingual dissemination materials;

•to organize final international conference to introduce project’s outcomes and to
discuss project’s sustainability;

• to organize national events to convince end-users (decision makers and teachers);

• to apply developed e-mentoring models a part of learning process at their institutions.