ZING - Advancing the scalability of evaluation!
This year, the measurement of ZING’s impact indicators on employability makes an important leap in its professionalisation. With the incorporation of the personalised chatbot ORIEN, we have transformed the management of youth data collection from a slow, human resources intensive process with difficulties of accessibility to young people, to one that is:
- Fast and effective management
- Fully automated
- And with high accessibility thanks to the direct WhatsApp channel.
ORIEN has taken a further step towards innovation and professionalisation in the area of data collection to achieve impact indicators for job placement.
The chatbot, apart from providing guidance on insertion issues, transforms the management of data collection from young people through a fast, effective and fully automated management, thus systematising this task, which is sometimes complex due to the multiple variables to be taken into account.
How does it do it? Through the direct WhatsApp channel, which means high accessibility and optimisation of time and resources, which translates into a user experience that is highly valued by the entire group of participants.
It is clear to us that ORIEN has come a long way to stay and to set a trend in the sector, not only because of its content and its wide field of action, but also because of its great capacity to design a structure, to collect and manage data in an agile way, which allows us to provide value and rigour within the world of employability.
Call for social innovation projects in Senegal
The Nous Cims Foundation is launching a call to receive proposals of social innovation projects in Senegal. This call is only open to local, non-profit Senegalese organizations and entities, and to young social entrepreneurs of the country. The selected parties will receive expert backing from Nous Cims, to transform their ideas into projects of impact. The deadline for presenting proposals is 7 April 2020.
Since 2013, Nous Cims has been creating, developing and financing social transformation projects in Spain and in a dozen countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, including Senegal. It is precisely in this country where the foundation opened its first local branch in Dakar.
In this first call in Senegal, Nous Cims is seeking projects that meet today’s challenges of the local community, in the fields of financial empowerment of women, professional training, the employability of young people and emotional well-being.
All projects presented will be thoroughly examined by the evaluation council. Selection criteria will, above all, value innovation, effective impact, durability and reproducibility of the proposals presented.
Once the first assessment has been made, the individuals and organizations, which have presented proposals that best suit the foundational goals of Nous Cims, will be invited to an exploratory meeting in Dakar in May. The projects that pass the final evaluation will have to be expanded. It is expected that the Nous Cims board of directors approve the projects and they will finally be developed in October 2020.
The Nous Cims Foundation is involved in the European Mentoring Summit 2020 of Barcelona
Barcelona will be the European capital of Social Mentoring. It is holding the European Mentoring Summit 2020, the major event for chief academics, professionals and expert entities in social mentoring in the world. The host will be the Coordinator of Social Mentoring, a benchmark entity at state level. The Summit will be sponsored by Nous Cims, which is also participating in the Philanthropic Track jury, where it will be represented by Miquel Antonijuan, director of the Employability Area and the Zing programme.
The 2020 Summit is the third biannual congress on social mentoring held in Europe. The event aims to connect people and projects from Europe and all over the world, which work in the field of mentoring, to establish connections and align academic research and practical experience.
The Summit has hence been conceived as a place where participants can explore new lines of action and research. Under the title “Mentoring for social inclusion”, the main topics of the 2020 edition are the association between academic and practical research, sociocultural diversity, mentoring with a gender perspective, and methods and ethics in the field of mentoring. Speakers will include internationally renowned experts. Academic and practical workshops will also be organized during the congress, along with various areas, designed for exchanging knowledge and tools.
One of the highlighted activities of the 2020 Summit is the Philanthropic Track. This is an area in which ten European entities will present their projects in social mentoring to companies and foundations, including Nous Cims. Economic recognition will be given to the best presentation.
The European Mentoring Summit 2020 is held at an excellent time for mentoring, which has increased exponentially throughout Europe, to become public policy in favour of the inclusion of vulnerable people. It is also an opportunity for the city of Barcelona to become a forerunner in promoting this method, aligned with the principles of equal opportunities and social cohesion, and be a benchmark in social mentoring in southern Europe.
Social entities can now register their young people for the Vocational Discovery Workshops of the Zing Programme
Zing Programme is starting up a new edition of the Purpose and Vocation Discovery Programme, which is targeted at young people who are disoriented or demotivated, linked to social entities, and who have decided to take the first step regarding their educational and/or professional future, and who also want to discover their potential and talents (soft skills). The workshops of this programme, which are completely free, will run between the months of January and April 2020, with the aim of providing the young people with tools and motivation when choosing which studies to pre-register for in the 2020-21 academic year.
The programme is open to young people from all of Spain, mainly between 16 and 21 years of age, although it is also possible to participate up to 30 years of age. Participants are invited to join the Zing Programme through their referring teachers. Interested social entities can express their interest and submit registrations via email at vocacio@nouscims.com.
An expedition by young people towards their personal, educational and professional summit
The “Discover your summit” workshops are motivational, inspiring, dynamic and experiential workshops in Spain with their own unique methodology, in which young people are the protagonists of their own lives and paths. Together with their group – the expedition – and accompanied by the workshop facilitator, the “Sherpa”, participants explore the pathway to reaching their educational and professional summit.
The workshops are divided into five sessions of 4 hours each (total of 20 hours), in which the participants work on two parts: one related to self-knowledge, the re-definition of beliefs and empowerment; and the second part that is oriented towards the vocation that is formulated in an action plan, which marks the path to follow, with excitement and enthusiasm. During the “base camp” and the five other camps through which the participants pass, the “Sherpas” provide innovative, creative and fun tools to help them choose the most appropriate pathway applying a personalized approach, given that the Zing Programme considers every young person to be unique.
According to Miquel Antonijuan, Director of the Zing Programme, “when a young person is motivated and commits to their educational pathway, the possibility of successfully completing their studies grows considerably”. Regarding the results of previous editions, after completing the workshops, 76% of the participants go on to study and 90% go on to study and/or work.
About Zing Programme
As of the 2019-20 academic year, nearly 1,000 students from Spain have benefited from the various annual calls for scholarships from the Nous Cims Private Foundation, an initiative that is united under a new concept this year: Zing Programme.
Zing gets its inspiration from Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who accompanied mountain climber Edmund Hilary to reach the summit of Everest for the first time in history. The Zing beneficiaries (boys and girls in a situation of vulnerability and referred by social entities, with the motivation and commitment to continue studying and educating themselves as professionals) follow a complete pathway, which includes the discovery of their vocation, applying for high-impact training scholarships in professional and university education, mentoring and individual support up to labour insertion. Once these young people have reached their summit, the Zing Programme proposes that, through a social return, they help other young people to also fulfil their educational and professional dreams.
The Nous Cims Foundation opens its first local satellite unit in Senegal
Since the end of 2019, Nous Cims has a satellite unit located in Dakar (Senegal) and a permanent professional in this country, Oumar Thiam. Having Thiam as the Nous Cims Project Manager in Senegal will significantly improve the quality of the foundation’s interaction with local partners. From Dakar, Oumar will also supervise the different phases of each of the projects that the Global Development Area of the foundation is implementing in the African country.
Oumar Thiam has acquired over 20 years of experience, with proven technical strengths, in the area of international cooperation while working from Senegal. Oumar has held positions of responsibility in various NGOs, embassies and international organizations. Regarding his education, Thiam earned a State Diploma (Diplôme d’État) from the National School of Applied Economics (École Nationale d’Économie Appliquée) in Senegal.
“We monitor and support local entities from the territory as a way to ensure close integration between Nous Cims and partners in Senegal” explains Thiam.
Regarding the objectives of the Nous Cims satellite unit, “being present in the territory will allow us to better identify the challenges we take on, to conduct a more precise search for the local partners with whom we collaborate, and to set up quality projects”, the Nous Cims Project Manager in Senegal tells us. “We’ll be able to more easily share the lessons learned and, in turn, innovate with the local community”, Thiam adds.
The Nous Cims satellite unit in Dakar is located in a space provided by the Secretariat of the Écoles Pies de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, in the Dieuppeul district. Under the management of David Gervilla, Director of the Global Development Area of Nous Cims, Thiam will manage projects such as the University Scholarships Programme of Écoles Pies or the Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership Project against Malnutrition of Action against Hunger.
How does Nous Cims work on international cooperation?
The strategy of the Global Development Area of the Nous Cims Foundation is mainly based on identifying local partners who are notable for their professionalism, commitment, innovative spirit and the impact they generate in their communities. Together with these partners, joint projects are developed in the areas of economic, educational, health and psycho-social development.
Currently, Nous Cims is developing projects in Colombia, Honduras, Central America, Ethiopia, Jordan, Palestine and the Middle East, as well as Senegal. The foundation is permanently open to receiving proposals and establishing a dialogue with people and global and local entities that would like to foster or are already working on projects in its areas of work.
Nous Cims and Kalida foster Art Therapy workshops at the hospitals of Terrassa, Mataró and Manresa
Patients who are in the oncological process and undergoing active treatment in the Oncology services of Mataró Hospital, Terrassa Hospital and Althaia Hospital of Manresa, can benefit from Art Therapy in some new weekly workshops.
This initiative is being fostered by Nous Cims in cooperation with the Kalida Foundation, following the line of promoting projects that have positive effects on people living with cancer, as well as on their relatives and care givers.
The project referred to is called Art Therapy: we’re any colour. According to Marta Mosquera, the Director of the Emotional Well-being Area of Nous Cims, the initiative was christened with this name after “thinking about the different experiences that people in the disease process go through, including support during the greyest moments of cancer and, humbly, in the colourful spaces and settings that can appear”.
The sessions follow a structured process, first of all, by initial contact, in which the participants' concerns are resolved. Then a relaxation and introspection activity takes place. Subsequently, art is produced, whether plastic arts (painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, collage, etc.), written expression (poetry and/or narrative) or music, self-expression through movement, theatre and others.
The last part of the session is dedicated to reflection: participant share their experiences, putting them into words, talking with the art therapists and finding new meanings for the emotions they’ve felt. The final objective of these sessions is for these people to find greater well-being, improve their mood and decrease their level of fatigue, anxiety and stress.
Multi-centre study on Art Therapy
The Althaia Hospital of Manresa, the Mataró Hospital and the Terrassa Hospital join the Nous Cims and Kalida project with a view to conducting a multi-centre study to assess the impact of art therapy on the lives of persons with cancer.
Specifically, the support provided through art therapy is based on an actual involvement in art, which helps people to very quickly and profoundly come into contact with their inner world. It is a therapy that is empirically proven to aid medical treatments.
To be precise, this therapy opens up a symbolic way to talk about all the concerns and fears that any person may have during a cancer process. In fact, cancer is considered to be a high-impact event in the lives of people, and leads to the appearance of fear and uncertainty, among other emotions. These emotions can all be embodied through artistic works, and sharing them with a group and receiving the support of art therapists helps provide another way to manage experiences.
The Nous Cims grant programme passes the baton to the Zing Programme
Nous Cims, at its annual meeting of grant holders, presented the new Zing Programme, a project arising from the foundation’s grant programme, whose objective is to transform the lives of the young participants by facilitating their access to educational pathways. The new Zing Programme brings together all the talent and vocational activation methodology, impact training and individual support for these youths under a single initiative created by the Employability Area of the Nous Cims Foundation.
From 2013 up to the 2018/19 academic year, a total of 758 students – youths who were referred by social entities and were in a situation of economic or social vulnerability – benefited from the various annual calls to apply for Nous Cims grants.
The Zing Programme starts its journey by expanding the scope of the initiative, consequently benefiting 600 young people of Catalonia and Spain in this 2019/20 academic year. They are all sufficiently motivated and are highly committed to continuing with their studies and receiving training as professionals.
Why the Zing Programme?
The Zing concept gets its name from and is inspired by Tenzing Norgay, the sherpa who accompanied mountain climber Edmund Hilary to reach the summit of Everest for the first time in history.
According to Miquel Antonijuan, the director of both the programme and the Employability Area of Nous Cims: “once these young people have reached their summit, we’d like them to stay with us. Through social return, we want them to help other boys and girls in the same process, so that they can also fulfil their educational and professional dreams”.
All participants in the Zing Programme follow a training pathway. This includes discovering their vocation (Zing Vocation) and a call to apply for high-impact educational grants for vocational training and university education, in addition to individual support until labour insertion. A pilot project for students from secondary schools, called Zing High Schools, is also being tested, which includes mentoring as one of the cornerstones of the programme.
The first Zingday, at the CCIB
The majority of young people who have become ‘zingers’ during this academic year, meaning beneficiaries of the programme and members of the Zing Network, participated in the first Zingday. Specifically, over 100 social entities from Catalonia and Spain, together with schools, high schools and other key players in the social sector, are working to turn the Zing Programme into a solid, high-impact model, one of empowerment for young people.
Zingday benefited from the special collaboration of the Barcelona International Convention Centre, which offered it the use of the CCIB Forum Auditorium in order to make this encounter a reality.
Zing starts the year with a new challenge: the Zing High Schools pilot project begins, including its mentoring programme
A total of 36 students from eight high schools of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area will participate in the Zing High Schools pilot project. It is a spin-off of Zing Programme, a talent activation, impact training and youth support programme created and developed by the Employability Area of the Nous Cims Foundation.
Zing High Schools arose after having verified that the economic and social problem in many secondary schools is as complex, or more so, as that encountered by social entities that work side by side with the Nous Cims team on the Zing program.
The participants in Zing High Schools are ex-students of the 4th year of mandatory secondary education put forward by their high schools due to their motivation and commitment to their studies. They have all begun an intermediate level vocational training programme for the 2019-2020 school year, will participate in the Zing Vocational Orientation Programme, and will be able to study what they really want to, without their economic situation impeding them.
Moreover, thanks to the collaboration of the Social Mentoring Coordinator and the social volunteering entity, AFEV, the students will receive individual support from the mentor in their municipality so that they can adjust their expectations with regards to the Zing programme and make decisions about their academic and professional future.
Introductory mentoring workshop
In order to dispel any false beliefs that young people might have about mentoring, Nous Cims organized an introductory workshop based on theatrical improvisation as the starting point, performed by actors from Improshow.
Close to thirty young people from Barcelona, Terrassa, Sabadell, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Badalona and Sant Vicenç dels Horts enjoyed a different, dynamic and creative experience during the workshop, based upon which they’ll be able to start building a positive relationship with their mentor in the upcoming months.
The pilot test of the Komtü programme begins at the El Turó school in Montcada (Barcelona)
The El Turó Pre-school and Primary Education centre of Montcada i Reixac (Barcelona) has been selected because of its educational programme to activate the pilot project of the Komtü programme. It is a new emotional support programme for boys and girls between 3 and 12 years of age, created and developed by the team of the Emotional Well-being Area of the Nous Cims Foundation.
The programme, which will be tested at the El Turó school in Montcada, is notable for its innovation in the area of emotional and relationship well-being at school.
Specifically, Komtü is inspired by scientific studies that indicate that relationship experiences leave an emotional footprint that can condition the personality and attitude of children throughout their entire lives. “A good experience can entail better learning and a greater capacity for self-awareness, empathy and the acceptance of differences”, according to Carles Bosch, psychologist and expert in the programme.
The entire educational community of El Turó will be involved for three years in the pilot test of the Komtü programme, which is adapted to the reality of each school. The programme’s technical team, which will work full-time at the school three days per week, will provide training on emotional support to not only the executive team but also to the teaching staff and non-teaching personnel at the school.
More information in the local weekly paper, La Veu de Montcada.