LEAD from inside out Erasmus Project

Project Title

LEAD from inside out

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

Through the “LEAD from inside out” project, we gave youth workers the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to become quality leaders with high moral values. In the modern world, organizations need leaders and leadership developed according to the vision and needs of all their members. A leader motivates, inspires people to engage and builds a team so it is more effective at achieving a common vision. When organizations can’t achieve their vision, they remain without a fundamental function – they can’t contribute to the development of the community and have a long term impact on society. This is particularly important in the case of youth workers who work or volunteer in non-profit organizations because they need strong motivation and continuous support to work efficiently. Moreover, good leaders ensure the development of a strategy according to the vision of the organization which results in its sustainability in the fields of finances, human resources and impact in society.

By implementing this project, the objectives we were trying to achieve were: building the capacities of youth organizations; fostering our transnational network of organizations active in youth work; strengthening the international project capacities of the participating organizations and youth workers; improving and professionalizing youth work and key competences of participating youth workers (managerial skills, communication skills, ICT skills etc.); educating youth workers in leadership skills which will help them deal with day-to-day work; starting a global network of youth leaders who would be promoting the concept of Joyful Leadership worldwide. The target group of the project were youth workers – who were directly participating in the training activities (online course, training course), and a large number of those participating in dissemination activities and reading the Manual.
During the project, an innovative and interactive educational cycle was developed and branded – the Joyful Leadership. The educational cycle consists of the educational manual theoretically covering different aspects of leadership in a user-friendly, colourful, practical and summarized way. Then, the online course was developed including 56 lectures, assignments and quizzes and 5 hours of video materials. The online course is based on the manual and provides a deeper insight into the topics described in the manual as well as exercises and practical assignments. Last but not least, the most motivated participants of the online course attended the training course in Croatia – a 7-day course during which the knowledge and skills introduced in the previous stages of the educational cycle were enriched with personal experience and guidance from the trainers. Thanks to the training course, youth workers had an opportunity to learn how to implement the Joyful Leadership concept in their organizations thus becoming its multipliers. During the educational cycle Joyful Leadership, the participants learned how to improve their leadership skills, how to become good youth worker leaders and how to lead and live holistically. This way, by combining the manual, quality youth workers as multipliers of the concept and the online course which educated many of youth workers, and will continue to be open for years, we ensured the project’s long-term impact and sustainability of its results.
An additional aspect of the project was its high level of gamification via the Habitica app. Different daily tasks and challenges were carefully created which helped the participants implement leadership principles in their life. We used exercises, daily tasks, daily habits, real-time monitoring of the results, competition aspect etc. to increase the participants’ motivation and enjoyment in the process. It also increased the assimilation of knowledge and skills.
Another important element of the project included the creation and maintenance of the online community – a Facebook group that allowed the participants to share their leadership experiences, resources and insights, fostering networking and cooperation.
The 2 main methodologies used were: 1. non-formal learning guided by a formal curriculum and led by qualified educators with vast experience using different methods such as presentations, exercises, lectures, games, debates, practical assignments, IT tools, writing assignments, simulations, demonstrations and any other method that shows to be the most suited for transfer of certain knowledge, tool or skill.; 2. non-formal learning through sharing knowledge, experiences and good practice examples between the participants themselves (as well as experts and trainers).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 168596 Eur

Project Coordinator

O.A.ZA. – ODRZIVA ALTERNATIVA ZAJEDNICI & Country: HR

Project Partners

• Laboratory of Social Psychology
• The Lotus Trust
• Öko-völgy Alapítvány az Alkalmazott Fenntarthatóságért