Peers to Peace

December 2016 - August 2018

The idea

The project explored peer learning as a tool to share expertise and strengthen the SCI branches worldwide mainly in the fields of volunteers’ management, project management, knowledge management, financial management and fundraising.

It worked towards the following aims:

1

Increase capacities of SCI Member Organizations internally and the movement as a whole, share the existing knowledge on key topics relevant such as project, volunteer and knowledge management, fundraising.

2

Foster (intercontinental) cooperation between organizations

3

Improve the quality of international volunteer and youth activities.

4

Enhance organizational management (innovative capacity and efficiency).

5

Increase peer-learning (knowledge transfer and exchange of best practice) and peer-supporting (identifying each other needs and methods and tools to fulfil them).

6

Support peer-learning online (foster cooperation and dialogue beyond events).

7

In Peers to Peace we aim to learn from each other and support each other (peer-learning and peer-support).

There is a lot of expertise within the SCI movement and the project aimed at sharing this expertise as much as possible in order to create mutual benefit for branches and by this strengthen the movement as a whole.

The activities

The project consisted of 8 key activities:

Preparatory Meeting

Gelsenkirchen (Germany), 5 – 8 January 2017

The Peers to Peace project steering-team met for four days to plan the launch and implementation of Peers to Peace: Peer learning and Peer support for Capacity Building in international volunteer work.

 Online Kick-Off Meetings

Online, February 2017

We organised 3 Kick-off meetings where we discussed Peers to Peace project with 20 branches. These online Skype meetings gave us a chance to collect and understand better partners’ expectations of Peers to Peace project, and we received positive feedback.

Online Focus Group

Online, 16 March 2017

A small Focus group with different key SCI representatives to ask feedback on the Olives Platform – an online tool that was used during the Peers to Peace project. The aims of this platform were to facilitate knowledge flow in SCI, to speed up the learning curve of new people, to retain the experience of old members and to stimulate cooperation between organizations.

 Peer University

Mikoszewo (Poland), 27 May – 2 June 2017

The event gathered key-representatives of SCI branches who were motivated to share their experience and learn from others: experienced SCI volunteers, board members, office coordinators, staff members and activists.

Learning Seminar

Penang (Malaysia), 13 – 20 July 2017

The learning seminar brought together 26 participants of SCI branches, networks and current members of the IEC to exchange good practices in the topics of knowledge management and fundraising.

Tech meeting

Edinburgh (United Kingdom), 16 – 19 November 2017

The tech meeting gathered the Peers to Peace handbook team and the tech team of SCI in order to stream the results and outcomes of the training in terms of peer-learning and peer-support into an online platform tool. The team discussed the results collected from the survey on the peer learning platform and suggested possible improvements.

Peers to peace seminar on project management

Kryoneri (Greece), 10 – 17 March 2018

The seminar brought together 24 participants from different SCI branches from all over the world.

Final Event

Belgium, 6 – 9 June 2018

The final event of Peers to Peace focused on dissemination of the project outcomes and evaluation of the whole project. The team also took some time to discuss ideas for the next capacity building project.

Resources

SCI Moving Forward

The handbook is addressed mainly to volunteers and staff members in SCI Branches and Groups who are interested in (re)discovering the international level of SCI. This book will make it easier for you to understand how SCI works internationally, in what ways you can get involved, have a say, and shape our Movement from within.

SCI Moving Forward – Handbook [4 MB]

Tips and tricks for a successful crowdfunding campaign

An inspiring and easy read for everyone who is considering to run a crowdfunding campaign.

Tips and tricks for a successful crowdfunding – Article [719 KB]

Peace run

Read fundraising tips and tricks from an example of best practice by SCI Malaysia. Peace Run is a charity run organized in the last 30 years by SCI Malaysia in Penang. It attracts 1500 – 2000 runners (and walkers) every year. Next to promotion of peace and solidarity, the purpose is to raise funds for the organization to support other voluntary activities.

Peace run – Case study [455 KB]

Fundraising workshop

A presentation summarizing three session outlines for a day-long fundraising workshop run by SCI at the Project Management Seminar in Greece.

Fundraising workshop – Presentation [939 KB]

Results

The Handbook SCI Moving Forward, The online peer learning platform better integrated in the existing SCI’s Members Area, improved by new features that support interaction and engagement of users, an article on tips and tricks for a successful crowdfunding campaign.

Read all the results in the project results report.

Supporters

Partners

The main actors are the 26 partners within the project worldwide.

In Asia: IVPI Indonesia,  SCI Bangladesh, SCI India, SCI Sri Lanka, SCI Malaysia, SCI Hong Kong, SCI Nepal and NVDA (Vietnam).

In Europe: SCI Italy, SCI Hellas, OWA Poland, Utilapu Hungary, CVS Bulgaria, SCI Slovenia, IAL Sweden, SCI Germany, VCZ Croatia, IVS Great Britain, SCI France, SCI Catalonia and CCIVS (France).

Others: VWAN Nigeria, SVI Mauritius and IVP Australia.

Teams and peers

The team

The project was managed by a steering team and coordinated by Alena, project officer at the International Secretariat.

The team included the following members: Alena, International Secretariat; Bhupender, SCI-India; Paolo, IVS Great Britain; Steffi, SCI Germany; Sky, International Secretariat; Rita, IEC; Vera, CVS-Bulgaria; Wojtek, OWA-Poland; Wilbert, IVPI Indonesia.

Peers

See how SCI impacted our participants’ lives and what they think of volunteering in the 21st century.

Supporter

The Peers to Peace project was supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.