Interested in organising a seminar on the CRISISS tools for volunteers in Spain? Please contact our Spanish partner ALDAIMA for further information. The following report on a former seminar might inspire you:
The Spanish partner ALDAIMA offered an event on June 2nd 2022 for their stakeholders in Granada in order to present the CRISISS tools. 26 participants joined the event which was organised by María Mohammad-Akeel Serrano from ALDAIMA.
Profile of participants
The majority of participants attending the event were professionals working in the social care, health or education sector. The main group (44%) were representing NGOs and educational workers (psychologists, social workers, adult educators working with vulnerable families and young people at risk of social exclusion). Other participants were workers in service companies (32%) such as health services or consultancies, public social or health services. There were also some students of social research, self-employed, and administration professionals (24%).
Recruitment of participants
Participants were mainly recruited via e-mail, social media and word of mouth. Aldaima sent to its contacts (professionals, social organisations, schools, healthcare centres, University of Granada, etc.) an e-mail with a registration form (created by Google Forms) to be filled in two weeks before the event. We reached approximately 700 people.
Confirmation and reminder e-mails were sent during the previous week to make sure all registered participants attended the event. Also, ALDAIMA announced and promoted the event on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and blogged on the CRISISS project website.
Planning and organization of the Event
To carry out the multiplier event, Aldaima applied for a space in the auditorium of the CajaGranada cultural centre of the CajaGranada Foundation (Avenida de la Ciencia, nº2 – 18006 Granada), whose aim is to disseminate culture and knowledge in a unique, multidisciplinary and open space. The event took place on Thursday 2 June 2022, from 10:30am to 12:30am CET. The event was held presenting the project and its aims, the partnership, and the intellectual outputs, the platform and the mobile application. A sample of the Alexa audio assistant (Amazon app) which gives access via voice commands to the 22 audio files/podcasts describing the evaluated softskills was also presented. The technical partner GUNET worked intensively to implement the translated and usable the project e-platform for the Multiplier Event.
During the presentation of the project, and mainly of the competences assessed by the Identification Tool, the participants were asked with open and direct questions connecting with their professional experience to stimulate their interest and reflect on the applicability of the resources provided by the project. At the end of the project presentation, a short activity was carried out presenting different items of the Identification Tool to participants, who had to assign to which type of soft skills they consider they are assessing. The aim was to illustrate the type and diversity of questions they will find in the questionnaires to help them identify soft skills when working with volunteers. Finally, ALDAIMA offered a Q & A round to collect feedback from the participants.
Summary of feedback from participants
Based on the feedback from the participants during and after the event, we can conclude that the project materials are considered a great tool for the organisations and for the volunteers. The materials can serve as a basis for professionals to assess and train in the competences addressed by the project, and that their use can be adapted according to the needs of the volunteers.
The identification tool was considered comprehensive and very useful, and the focus on competences and not only on the functions performed during volunteering was considered a practical and applicable approach. The audio files supporting the description of the competences and the Alexa assistant were considered as an innovative and useful resource, mainly for those with disabilities or reading difficulties. The certificate provided by the Identification Tool is also considered a great resource as it provides a document, which although not official, makes the competences obtained visible. Beyond project´s aims, the participants suggested that they could use the project as a support to develop, based on the softskills descriptions and the Mediateca, training actions with volunteers to acquire or develop certain competences.
Author: María Mohammad-Akeel Serrano
Partner: ALDAIMA
Date: July 15th, 2022