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ERASMUS+ project activities

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  • Project management - project organisation.

  • Networking and experience sharing - this activity included online meetings, an initial (25 October 2023, Czech Republic) and a final (30 August 2024) workshop focused on international sharing of experience and good practice, networking and complemented by excursions and familiarisation with practices in the country of the coordinator (Czech Republic) and the partner (IT). See also outputs and further information on individual events.

  • Development of a good practice guide for working with families of convicts in VTOS.

  • Sharing and dissemination of project outputs.

Changes in project implementation:

Modification of dissemination activity: from conference to national webinars

 


During the implementation of the project, we encountered significant language barriers, especially between partners and participating organisations. The current interpretation proved to be insufficient and often impractical. To ensure clarity and accessibility while being cost-effective, we have agreed with our partner to replace the final dissemination conference with national online seminars. Each partner will organise its own local webinar to present the project results and the developed manual in localised versions (CZ/ENG/IT). This format allows better reaching target groups, especially those who prefer events organised in their own language and country.

 

We are aware that this change may appear to be financially motivated, as webinars are more economical than physical conferences. However, our decision is based on practical and substantive reasons. Based on the activities and results achieved so far, it is clear that we have underestimated the overall demands of the project - professional, organisational and financial. Factors such as rising inflation and the underestimation of language differences between EU partners have significantly increased costs, especially for localisation, translation and interpretation.

Overview of project costs:

 

 

  1. Moving the project management budget

    We have moved part of the project management budget (as part of the first amendment) to Activity 2 - Networking and exchange of experience. The transferred amount of approx. € 4,000 was covered by our own overhead resources.
     

  2. Budget overrun for Activity 2

    Despite the increase in the budget for Activity 2, we exceeded it and covered approximately € 1 500 from our own resources. This was due to the costs of interpreting and organising two workshops that were not originally budgeted for. Our priority has always been the meaningful implementation of activities, not the strict adherence to individual budget items.

    It is worth mentioning that we supported a valuable collaboration between our partner organisation Yellow Ribbon Run (aimed at raising awareness and destigmatising people with criminal backgrounds) and Italian partners and prisons. These actors have shown interest in implementing or replicating the initiative.
     

  3. Challenges in the preparation of the manual

    The preparation of the manual was more challenging than expected due to the complexity of the topic and the language coordination. Most of the translation and coordination was done in-house. In the end, we decided to create three language versions (CZ/ENG/IT) instead of the originally planned English-only version, incurring an additional cost of approximately €2,000, again covered by overhead.
     

  4. Increase in costs per output

    With the creation of three localised versions of the handbook, we are effectively delivering three products instead of one, which means higher costs for translation, proofreading, graphic design and production.

 

Conclusion:


Replacing the joint dissemination conference with national webinars was a practical and financially responsible decision. It increases accessibility and relevance for the target groups, promotes better understanding of the results presented and avoids further budget overruns. Moreover, feedback suggests that, especially for our Italian partners, this format will lead to higher participation and greater impact.

 

Dissemination

 

 

In order to inform about the progress, interim achievements, activities and events as well as the actual outputs of the project, we have communicated through our website and the partner's website (Erasmus+ blog tag section: https://www.volonte.cz/blog, on the project website: https://www.volonte.cz/erasmus-plus; https://lentamente.wixsite.com/odvgramigna/copia-di-diverural), as well as through our and our partner's FB (https://www.facebook.com/volonteczech/; https://www.facebook.com/GramignaODV) and Instagram(https://www.instagram.com/volonteczechops/).

 

At the same time, we also used the newsletters of both organizations and mutual communication, including stakeholder meetings, here and in other projects, in which work with convicts also addressed work with their families - before and after release and in the context of mentoring.

 

Within the professional working community, we and the partner then also disseminated outputs and information directly in communication with these relevant partners and also in individual final dissemination events (i.e. national webinars, workshops and seminars).

 

We target the wider public mainly through our activities and social networks, but also through our anti-stigma and awareness-raising activities, where we cooperate with the Yellow Ribbon Run (https://www.yellowribbon.cz/).

 

The main target groups were de facto two, namely workers with convicts and their families and the convicts themselves in and out of prison and their families. The main channels for reaching the target group of workers with convicts and their families were de facto their direct involvement in the project, participation in national workshops and in the implementation of the survey among the target groups, participation in focus groups and preparation of documents for the preparation of the manual. The final communication channel was then the holding of the final dissemination events mentioned above.

 

The target group of convicts and their families was then, also due to their limited possibilities, informed mainly through the staff themselves and our leaflets, both prison and our own, as well as, for example, school teachers who approached us, or individual cooperating OSPODs, with whom we often cooperate in our work with convicts and their families after release. But otherwise, this target group also practically falls into the "secondary" target group, which is the public, which we reach mainly through social networks and events like the Yellow Ribbon Run.

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