GEYC RESOURCES CENTER

HANDBOOK

http://resources.geyc.ro/

https://www.facebook.com/resources.geyc.ro

@GEYCRomania

office@geyc.ro

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WHAT?

The Resources Center is aimed to help both individuals and organizations in their

work, by offering free online tools and a platform for international cooperation

and networking. It is coordinated by the Group of the European Youth for Change

– GEYC.

Do you need online tools in order to get more involved in online activism? Since its

launch, the Center has developed and has now about 250 resources. The

numbers are growing and anyone can contribute to its improvement by filling in an online form. The

activity on the website is totally safe. Each resource has a short description and the external link to its

official source. There is also a section with tool reviews. The page does not request downloading or

registring nor redirects to suspicious websites.

WHO?

Group of the European Youth for Change - GEYC is a Romanian

youth group founded in 2010. Its mission is to empower young people

to change their community. We are young people working with young

people through both peer-to-peer education and mass communication

supported by leaders. GEYC is a member of Advisory Council on

Youth of the Ministry of Youth and Sport of the Romanian Government.

Fields of action:

● Education;

● Social media;

● Human rights protection;

● Corporate social responsibility;

● Entrepreneurship;

Activities:

● Educational projects (seminars,

conferences, training, summer schools);

● Intercultural projects (youth exchanges,

study visits, networking events);

● Research projects;

● Challenges;

● Raising awareness campaigns;

WHEN?

The Resources Center was launched on the 21st

of March 2013 - the International Day for the

Elimination of Racial Discrimination-, together with the official launch of the Young People Combating

Hate Speech On-line campaign1 of Council of Europe. It was the first Romanian initiative to support it.

1 Young People Combating Hate Speech On-line is a project of the Council of Europe’s youth sector to be run

between 2012 and 2014. The project aims to combat racism and discrimination in their online expression of hate

speech by equipping young people and youth organisations with the competences necessary to recognize and act

against such human rights violations.

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WHY?

AIM: to digitally empower young people all over the world to create a positive change in their

communities by offering access to tools, free education and networking.

OBJECTIVES:

● offering free access to new media education;

● providing online resources for youth and non profit work;

● encouraging the sharing of good practices among non profit organisations at European and

international level;

● stimulating networking between non profit organisations at European and international level;

TESTIMONIALS

GEYC Center of resources is your place of

simple, free and ready to use resources. You

can find here various tutorials, articles or tools to

download just to make your professional and

personal life easier. Enjoy!

[Gabriel Brezoiu - General Manager at GEYC,

Romania]

GEYC Resources Center is a great idea! We

need to develop some New Media training

programs together for Romanian young people.

[Nicolae Bǎnicioiu, Minister of Your and Sport,

Romania]

Well done! The resources center is a great tool

to confront. I will take it for my work.

[Dr. Angelica Caspanello - Europe Office,

Municipality of Roccalumera, Italy]

As a school partnership project coordinator and

a youth leader I think such a resources center

would be very practical and serviceable for

individuals and organizations. I am sure I will

use it whenever I need a free multimedia tool in

my work.

[Esra Atay, Teacher and Project coordinator at

Ministry of National Education, Turkey]

I think it's a good idea, well done!

[Maria Andolfo, Eurodesk reprezentative at

Comune di Ali Terme, Italy]

A user friendly website for both individuals and

NGOs which can foster the organizational

capacity. Also love the idea of supporting the

campaign against hate speech on-line!

[Saide Bozoclu, EVS at AMSED, France]

Great idea ! This website provide useful tools,

that allow to gain time spent to search tools on

the net including the documentation. Stop

racism, be like a panda, he's black, he's white,

he's Asian...

[Walid Benghabrit, University of Montpellier II,

France]

Good idea! I am a supporter of the network ... it

would be interesting to collaborate.

[Dr. Angelica Caspanello, Projects Manager

Organization for the development of the territory

"New Projects", Italy]

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PROJECT DIMENSIONS

Context: Nowadays, technology is changing very fast and it influences many fields of our life. Digital gap is affecting people at all ages. Young people are mostly affected when they need to enter the labour market or to face its challenges. GEYC Resources Center is an innovative model of European and international cooperation in the youth field.

Innovation The educational process is structured in 3 parts: Informing, offering tools and training. Its innovative approach comes first at system level: the 3 parts are not necessary separated, but done simultaneously and with a synergic effect. On the other side, each structure is innovative itself: the informing and raising awareness part is done continuously by involving an intercultural team of New Media Ambassadors and have a wide range of content from new resources, news in the field to questions and entertainment for our audiences; the resources are provided on 7 different categories, the selection criteria being quite simple: should be free, available online and having a specific utility. The content we provide is filtered and simply explained (3-5 lines only) in order to facilitate a quick understanding. Regarding the training part, the design is innovative in the sense of its flexibility of content and methods: being planned for an intercultural group with very diverse backgrounds and expectations is challenging and you need to be ready to adapt.

Equal opportunities Offering equal opportunities and having a special focus on vulnerable groups are one of the key concerns of GEYC and GEYC Resources Center. Every person understanding English and connected to Internet could access the tools we offer without any prior registration. As for more complex opportunities such as ”New Media Ambassadors” and other training programs there is always an application process where we take a look at people background and motivation. However, are aware that despite its quite wide range approach it is still restrictive in certain ways: not everybody has a regular access to Internet (that's why we plan to open a Digital Youth Center) and not everybody understands English (we are planning to translate it in the near future in French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian etc.). However, it is important to mention that we manage to involve people from African and European developing countries, but also from post-conflict countries such as Iraq or Bosnia and Herzegovina. In those places social media importance is crucial in order to get well informed and to spread a message to a wide audience. Relevance and quality Speaking about the resources we offer: - Relevance: we are currently introducing a review section where users could give a more detailed feedback for certain resources. So far, the feedback role was held by the Like Facebook button; - Quality: is our major concern to offer useful resources. Therefore, all NMA interns are required to provide a feedback on this regard are we are periodically updating our categories descriptions and policies. The content we offer is original ; Speaking about the training programs we offer (NMA and other): - Relevance: in the application forms we always ask people about their expectations and trying to adapt the format to their needs, the main directions being to make it more specific, not include some particular areas of interest or give more space to sharing and networking;

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- Quality: the training programs are designed to offer 3 categories of skills: social media and communication, in order to become opinion leaders in their contexts; new media tools, so that they could create their own content easily and sharing & networking in order to capacitate them to further develop the work done in this frame; Social transformation GEYC Resources Center is transforming the way we understand education as it enhance the role of informal part. Any users can easily search for the content they are interested in and auto-educate themselves. The foreseen impact is intense as we believe that people searching to solve a specific issue are running out of time so that we support them to find a quick solution through a clear a simple description and keywords. This part is done on a large scale as any Internet user can take benefit. On the other side, regarding training activities we believe the impact is much more intense because we are spending more time on the learning process and the trainees tend to develop a wide range of skills. By now, we had 40 graduates in the NMA internship program and over 50 in 2 other training programs. For example, one NMA alumni said: ”When I was applying for the internship in GEYC Resources Center I hoped to gain hands-on experience online, promoting social media and new tools for young people. My expectations came true. With my colleagues who are very enthusiastic people we added new useful resources to the website, developed new ideas and started new exciting programs! I always felt that any contribution from me or from my colleagues will be appreciated by many people afterwards.” (Ekaterina Shishkina, New Media Ambassador 1, Germany). Other such testimonials are available here: http://resources.geyc.ro/p/testimonials.html. Community involvement ”Think global, act local” corresponds to the project philosophy. For example, NMA interns are strongly encouraged to take advantage of their local contexts and to present the Resources Center over there, to create debates and to upload new resources which are more relevant for their local communities. Moreover, NMAs are our voice at local level. They help us to shape, implement and evaluate the center. In this way, locals feedback is heard at international level. On the other side, when we organize specific initiative in the frame of GEYC RC (for example, SMYLE European youth exchange on the topic of how digital skills improve young people employment), we do partnerships with the government, local authorities, companies, other NGOs and media in order to support these projects. According to their mission and to the public policies available we adapt our initiative to be more relevant for their needs as well. Continuous development During their practical stage, NMAs are required to monitor what is happening to the

Resources Center so that they could give their input in the end and make their activitiy more

relevant. In the final report they provide, they evaluate the logistics, communication and

educational parts, but also they come with specific ideas that could contribute to the project

development.

For example, when we launched the center we had only 2 categories of resources, social media and multimedia. The next 5 were opened after their feedback. The same with the Facebook page and so on. For a clear timeline of the developments please check this link: http://resources.geyc.ro/p/project.html.

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HOW?

There are seven (7) different categories of free online resources:

HUMAN RIGHTS

Human rights are rights inherent

to all human beings, whatever

our nationality, place of

residence, sex, national or

ethnic origin, colour, religion,

language, or any other status.

We are all equally entitled to our human rights

without discrimination. These rights are all

interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. In

HR category, you can find many interesting tools

that raise awareness on this topic.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Is everything related to social

networks (Facebook, Twitter,

Google plus, Youtube, Linkedin

etc.). How can you use it for

different purposes, tutorials, tips

and tricks, pros and cons, effects of social

media, changes it produces in our life, in our

society and so on, sharing stuff among your

friends and colleagues – these are some of the

things you can find in SM category.

MULTIMEDIA

Is related to audio, video,

painting, photos, online

illustrations and any mix of these

ones. Multimedia tools can

include tutorials, software, tips

and tricks on how to do it (how

to record an audio etc.), how to edit (e.g. an

audio that you just recorded) and how to share it

(publish it online, send it by e-mail, export it

etc.).

COMMUNICATION

It deals with transferring a

message from somebody to

somebody else. It could be

tutorials, explanations, study

cases, methods, tips and

tricks about communication in our personal

and/or professional life (business

communication). Methods, articles, case studies

and books are also welcome.

MANAGEMENT & MARKETING

The resources in this category can be about the

management and marketing

of any sector of activity:

companies, NGOs or public

institutions. It can include

methods, theories, practices, case studies, pros

and cons and anything that could bring an added

value in these fields.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

The resources in this

category are related to

"activities that improve

awareness and identity,

develop talents and

potential, build human capital and facilitate

employability, enhance quality of life and

contribute to the realization of dreams and

aspirations. The concept is not limited to self-

help but includes formal and informal activities

for developing others in roles such as teacher,

guide, counselor, manager, life coach or mentor"

(Wikipedia).

EDUCATION

"Education in its general sense

is a form of learning in which the

knowledge, skills, and habits of

a group of people are

transferred from one generation to the next

through teaching, training, or research. Any

experience that has a formative effect on the

way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered

educational" (Wikipedia). Therefore, there can

be tools related to learning, teaching for any

target group, in any setting, in both formal and

non-formal education.

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ACTIVITIES

NEW MEDIA AMBASSADORS (NMA)

NMAs are volunteers all around the world entitled to represent, develop and promote the Resources

Center at local and national level in compliance with GEYC team guidelines.

Objectives

NMA is a complex practical online training with both professional and personal objectives as following:

Obj. Professional

(aimed for GEYC Resources Center)

Personal

(aimed for New Media Ambassadors)

O1 Developing the content of GEYC Resources

Center (http://resources.geyc.ro/)

Raising new media skills (find out about other new

media resources, testing them, sharing them)

O2 Promoting GEYC Resources Center Raising communication, PR and social media skills

O3 Increasing the efficiency of GEYC Resources

Center team

Developing sense of initiative and creativity skills

PROJECTS

- January - October 2014: SMARTER - Social Media Academy: Raise Teen Employability Resources

(YiA, 4.3), a training course in Bucharest, Romania gathering 40 youth workers from 14 countries.

- November - December 2013: New Media Ambassadors (3rd

generation) plan, promote, organize and

judge "Find a resource, test a resource", the very first contest we organized for our Facebook page fans.

- August - December 2013: SMYLE - Social Media & Youth - Learning for Employment (YiA, 1.1),

aimed to raise awareness on the importance of social media for the employability of young people.

- August 2013 - February 2014: New Media Ambassadors Training Course (YiA, 4.3) in Newcastle, UK.

28 young people, youth workers, project managers and youth leaders from 12 countries gather to find out

more about GEYC Resources Center and to enhance their new media skills. Some of them are former or

future NMA interns.

EVENTS

- SMYLE National Conference (Bucharest, Romania) - 17.12.2013. GEYC Resources Center was

presented to SMYLE National Conference participants. We focused on the benefits of using the center

and on the "NMA" internship program which had an open call at that moment.

- Annual meeting of woman's organisations (Jahorina, Bosnia & Herzegovina) - December 2013.

Ivana Stanković (NMA 3) has presented New Media Ambassadors Internship Programme and GEYC

Resources Center during an IT training for annual meeting of woman's organisations sponsored by

Swedish foundation Kvinna till Kvinna.

- Virgil Madgearu Economic College (Ploiesti, Romania) - December 2013. Ana Nedelcu, member of

GEYC Community, presented GEYC Resources Center to a group of high-school students from Virgil

Madgearu Economic College (Ploiesti, Romania). Her initiative was part of a series of non-formal

activities dedicated to the celebration of the days of this college. Ana disseminated information about the

European Voluntary Service programe, using her concrete example and presented some local and

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national resources, meant to help youths to get informed and access various learning opportunities,

focusing on the free online tools that GEYC RC offers;

- Find a resource, test a resource

Contest - November - December 2013.

New Media Ambassadors (3rd

generation)

planned, promoted, organized and judged

an online competition, aimed to challenge

the visitors of the Center to experience its

available tools and to give a feedback to

the online community.

- Gaudeamus Bookfair (Bucharest,

Romania) - 20-24/11/2013. GEYC

Resources Center had an exhibition at

the 9th edition of the "National Salon of

Inventions and Scientific Creativity for

Youth" organized by Romanian Ministry of

Youth and Sport;

- JU Peta gimnazija, (Sarajevo, Bosnia

& Herzegovina) - May 2013. Vanja Cakić

& Andrea Dizdarević, two of the GEYC Resources Center's New Media Ambassadors, have started a

promotional campaign at local level and held an informative session in JU Peta gimnazija, Sarajevo,

Bosnia & Herzegovina. The presentation targeted high school students from the second grade (the school

system in Bosnia & Herzegovina: elementary school has 8 grades, while high school has 4. This means

that the audience consisted out of 16/17 year old's).

NO HATE SPEECH MOVEMENT

# 21st

of March 2013

- Official launch of the Resources Center, together with No hate speech movement launch and the

celebration of the International day against racism.

# 1st

of May 2013

- Launch of New Media Ambassadors, a 2-3 months

periodical international internship aimed to build

participants new media skills in order to empower them to

fight hate speech online and to run their own campaigns.

# 9th

of November 2013, support of ”Wipe out online hate”

campaign on the International Day against Fascism and Antisemitism

- Launch of Human Rights category

- Online poster exhibition: The 3rd

generation of NMAs used free online tools from GEYC Resources

Center to create posters on the topic of No Hate Speech. The album was posted online on Facebook

page and promoted by the volunteers.

- Video on the topic of No hate speech: NMA3 had the initiative to create a video, linking various

opinions on “No hate speech” from people around the world. The video was posted online on Facebook,

Youtube and the official website of No hate Speech movement.