Qualification of 3rd Sector in Europe

The content of this page is displayed in standardized format to serve as quick reference; and facilitate its use during preparation of new applications. Do not change the content of this page without consulting with the project coordinator. For encyclopedic details about the project, please refer to its main page. Description 3rd Sector, Social Economy or Not-for-Private-Profit Organisations have an increasingly important role and visibility in people’s and communities’ lives. This happens because of the changes in public policies (transference of competences from the State to these organisations), the economic crisis, unemployment rise, poverty and the consequent need to provide more support in different areas. Nowadays 3rd Sector faces challenges that create the need for new spaces of collaboration, learning and sharing. For that it is necessary to enlarge networking and promote a European framework of discussion about the theme. The main discussion topics of this Grundtvig Partnership are about conceptual and legal frameworks, financing and training models, successful practices, evaluation methods, competences recognition and other major results. Social innovation will arise from the contact and collaboration between different partners, working in indifferent contexts and facing a wide range of problems, practices and solutions. HERE can have a better understanding about the project framework, objectives and steps. Partners come from Cyprus, Italy, Germany and Portugal (coordinator); they are all different social economy enterprises/organizations. Within this project, there are 6 learning journeys organised in all partner countries and hosted by partners. This partnership is committed to Social Economy development is several dimensions, at an European Level. For this, the main result of this project will be a POSITION PAPER. Project Framework The 3rd Sector, Social Economy or Not for Profit Organisation have an increasingly important role and visibility in people’s and communities’ lives. This happens because of the changes in public policies (transference of competences from the State to these organisations), the economic crisis, unemployment raise, poverty, and the consequent need to provide more support in different areas. The fact that many of these organisations were born in contexts of “solidarity”, “good will”, “charity” and support to specific communities, coupled with the fact that they have had a great growth in the last years, has created new and great challenges, among which we highlight the following three: high dependence from State financial support, which tends to be shorter and shorter; need to respect mandatory criteria and rules imposed by the State, as a condition to maintain public support, in areas like staff training, quality and safety systems, certification and accountability; and need to be sustainable and economically efficient in a context of economic crisis, with high probability of seeing reduced public support, increase and diversification of social problems and need create new answers and balance out incomes and expenses. These challenges create the need for new spaces of collaboration, learning and sharing, making essential to develop networking and promote an European framework of discussion about the theme. Social innovation arises from the contact and collaboration between different partners, working in indifferent contexts, facing a wide range of problems and experiencing a variety of practices and solutions. The project Q3.eu will identify and exchange 3rd Sector qualification experiences at an European level, involving partners whose experience may create an added-value towards the deepness and improvement of 3rd Sector qualification activities. Main discussion topics will be: conceptual and legal frameworks, financing and training models, successful practices, evaluation methods, competences recognition and other major results, generating a new cycle of creativity, learning, networking and innovation. Objectives The project main objective is to identify and exchange 3rd Sector qualification experiences at an European level, involving partners who's experience may create an added-value towards the deepness and improvement of 3rd Sector qualification activities. - OBJECTIVE 1: Share 3rd Sector qualification experiences, debating conceptual and legal framework, financing and training models, successful practices, evaluation methods, competences recognition and other major results. - OBJECTIVE 2: Identify innovative solutions and practices for management and working models problems in 3rd Sector organisations and perspective their possible integration as 3rd Sector qualification tools. - OBJECTIVE 3: Define joint training and consultancy standards, in result of partnership experience/results integration. - OBJECTIVE 4: Propose new European project proposals. o OBJECTIVE 5: Create and enlarge the network of European partners, as a resource for these and other European partnership projects Steps STEP 1.1-Get to know all partners organisations, contexts and activities, specially those related with 3rd Sector organisation qualification STEP 1.2-Get to know, gather and share documentation about each country “state-of-the-art” o STEP 2: Define the networking tools to be used for communication and collaborative work, monitor and update it’s use according to partners evaluation results. STEP 3: Establish a dissemination plan STEP 4: Share information and debate the major topics of discussion: conceptual and legal framework, financing and training models, successful practices, evaluation methods, competences recognition and other major results STEP 5: Search European programmes that can support the development of new tools and new training and consultancy courses for 3rd Sector Qualification and elaborate a sequence project plan STEP 6: Map, characterize, classify and integrate innovative solutions and practices for management and working models problems in 3rd Sector organisations, creating a typology of new tools for 3rd sector qualification STEP 7: Map, characterize, classify and integrate 3rd sector training and consultancy experiences, defining joint standards STEP 8: Create a network of European partners committed with 3rd Sector qualification, by establishing a cooperation protoco

Formal Project Description Contract Title Qualification of 3rd Sector in Europe Lead Partner FENACERCI (coordinator) Agreement n° CY-GRU-MULPART-2011-25 Partners Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute; European Center for Quality Ltd - ECQ; Technologie-Netzwerk Berlin e.V - BTECNET; Ente per la ricerca e formazione - E.RI.FO; Federação Nacional de Cooperativas de Solidariedade Social, FCRL; AEP – Associação Empresarial de Portugal; CPCCRD - Confederação Portuguesa das Colectividades de Cultura, Recreio e Desporto; FMT-Federação Portuguesa de Associações de Desenvolvimento Local; IEBA - Centro de Iniciativas Empresariais e Sociais; IN LOCO - Associação de Desenvolvimento Local; UTAD - Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro Grant €16.000 Dates 01/08/2011 - 31/07/2013 About Project Q3.eu Project

Overall objective(s) Share 3rd Sector qualification experiences, debating conceptual and legal framework, financing and training models, successful practices, evaluation methods, competences recognition and other major results; Identify innovative solutions and practices for management and working models problems in 3rd Sector organisations and perspective their possible integration as 3rd Sector qualification tools; Define joint training and consultancy standards, in result of partnership experience/results integration; Propose new European project proposals; Create and enlarge the network of European partners, as a resource for these and other European partnership projects.

Expected Results Development of relationships and networking activities among the participating persons and institutions, contributing to the development of synergies and mutual enrichment; Better understanding of the history, nature, diversity, roles, problems and challenges faced by nonprofit organizations in the participating countries and regions; Dissemination of knowledge about different models, practices and materials used across Europe to qualify nonprofit organization and to develop their human resources; New personal and institutional competences to assess the training needs within nonprofit organizations and to plan participatory training projects and initiatives; More creative and innovative approaches to solve management problems and other situations related to the performance of nonprofit organizations; Design of joint training-consulting and/or research-training-action projects and initiatives, combining the experiences of the involved persons and institutions.