Best practices in organisations are methods or techniques that have been
accepted to achieve greater results in youth work.
JECI-MIEC best practices were gathered during the Training Session
“Today’s Students = Tomorrow’s Responsables; Capacity Building for
Students NGO’s in Europe” that was held in Malta from 5 to 12 September
2021 and was supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council
of Europe.
Student members of Catholic Youth NGO’s gathered for a week in Malta
and selected best practices based on the content on the pillars of the activity:
mental well being, communication, organisation and project planning.
The criteria in order to select best practices were efficiency, ethicality and
sustainability.
*This publication was produced by European Coordination JECI-MIEC
with the support of the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.
It does not necessarily reflect the official position of the Council of Europe.
The existence of a permanent psychologist
Destigmatisation:
- Training on how to prevent mental health issues
Burnout Prevention:
- Setting boundaries
- Not taking the fails of other people
- Normalize saying no
- Accepting own mistakes and not picking up the slack all the time
- Prioritize the important tasks
- Good Team work
- Prioritizing tasks
- Don’t lose hope, “Sessions/ knowledges adapted to the age of members”
Mental Health Awareness:
- Raise awareness activities
- Contact with National Psychological Health Service
- Focus on bonding within the board
- Accept a “NO”
- Don’t lose hope
Mental Health (Personal Best Practices):
- SLOW method
take notice of those around you
actively listen
- General discussion about feeling before/during the meeting
- Being transparent with people to create safe spaces
- Talking about your mood at the beginning
Know my audience,have feedback from target audience
Internal (between movements)
- Keep personal contact with responsible from each national team
- One unified communication structure (Microsoft teams, slack etc)
External (partners, social media...)
- Have a key message (Visual) balanced structure, not so many text, maximum 3
colors, have some visual information, use of different font to capture attention
- Communication (Digital):
- moderate use of colour - limit text - apply standard
graphic guidelines
- Use of shorter texts Use of visual communication
Example: JECI MIEC Instagram campaign on ways to get involved in IYCS/
IMCS
PROJECT WRITING:
- Ask help for fundraising, contact the partners and the funders for advice.
Example: EYF is very helpful
Tips:
follow document and the eligibility criteria, be concise while writing, take
ownership of your project co-financing by development projects with other youth
organisations at EU level.
Suggestion:
Apply for activities at the European Youth Centers in Budapest
or Strasbourg
TRAINING:
- Trainings of how to express mental health issues
- Doing best practices activities more times
- Training for new leaders before they take their position
- Training Session for leaders
- Training session/study session linked to a way to get involved in IYCS/IMCS
- Training members of the movements to learn to look for quality info
TIPS FOR ACTIVITIES:
- Make committee groups with the participants
- Establish ground and house rules
- Brainstorming
- Teamwork
- Encourage participants to use sustainable ways of traveling for less than
750km
- Respect the time
- Include buffer time between sessions and meals
- Coffee breaks
- Ensuring that the games or sessions are not discriminative against any gender
- Use of Manuals and Handbooks of the Council of Europe (Manuals and
handbooks (coe.int))
- Use of the Online Youth Portfolio of the Council of Europe to assess the
competences of the Youth Worker and of the organisation and to plan activities
in a “quality assurance framework” https://www.coe.int/en/web/youthportfolio)
- Collect each movements information to see what is left in each reality, in a
scientific and objective way (like a little investigation)
- Membership database management
- Accessible databases for every local/national organisation for a better
communication/identification of national key stakeholders
- Review the objectives of the movement periodically to see if they need to change
- Make long term campaigns - revise their content
- Policies and code of conduct: child protection policies, institutional protection
concept in every movement
- Have a base material and draw content
- Development of management tools (policy, finances)
- Having a database of materials
- Alternate renew of leaders
- Ask for advice from experienced people and keep in touch with organization ex
leaders
- Decentralisation of responsibilities
- Hire a part time employee or professional auditor to manage the administrative/
financial tasks
- Time management
- Make a good transmission of memory between two teams
- Precise budget
- Frequently check of goals, proposals, deadlines
Methods:
- See Judge Act
- SWOT Analysis
- SLOW method mental health
- 4MAT
- Smart objectives
- following the steps: identifying the problem, analyze the needs, objectives of
the activities, result an impact, dissemination plan, focus on the impact.
Tips and tricks:
- Eye contact * Non-distracting movements with hands *Position: Face to Face,
relaxed and natural
- Not to interrupt *Empathy *Assertiveness *Truth, honesty *Not being
invasive while asking *Speak audible and clear
- Maintaining an open posture *Avoiding distractions, like looking at your phone
- Being an active listener: Showing that you are paying attention, asking open
questions, asking and inquiring the other person for reassurance
- Meaningful interactive games to share and adapt between movements
·Good preparation ·Make jokes ·Be sensible to atmosphere ·Make a summary
·Use body language ·How to say it ·Involving an audience ·Be excited
·Be present ·Smile ·Make pause ·Know where you have a speech
·Be simple ·Know your message ·Write yourself brief notes ·Adapt your speech
·Train as much as you can.
Appropriate use of digital tools:
Communication (presenting): - have a clear message - clear diction and
projection -engage audience - vocal modulation - open body language - don’t
over rely on visuals - don’t rote learn / read speech - don’t bore the audience
Communication (in person): - open posture - clear speech - active listening
- don’t play with your phone (give undivided attention) “jingel” (song after break)
·Ice breakers ·Pillow game ·Embarrassing games ·2 truths one lie ·Quick game
·Check in ·Chair in the middle ·Food salad ·Intercultural dinner ··Eye catching
·Looking into eyes ·Commission groups