What can be more pleasant than seeing the fruits of hard work?!
On November 23-26, YMCA Europe Staff and partners from the American University of Armenia, YMCA Sweden, and YMCA Georgia came together in Yerevan, Armenia with the main aim to evaluate the current phase of the YMCA Europe Generation Next project and to elaborate the future action plans.
Despite the agenda being only two days long, the discussions were deep and comprehensive, resulting in a detailed and constructive evaluation. In each working session, the project staff, the implementation team and scholarship holders sat together, having the opportunity to express their views about carried out activities and to share about approaches and methodologies used – as well as about the future plans, because the project is not only done for young people, but together with them, with careful consideration of their voice and their needs.
Active dialogues were held about future partnerships and diversifying the program by including a cross-country collaboration element, which will help project students to enrich their experience and learn about work in different contexts and circumstances outside their community.
Furthermore, during the working meeting at the American University of Armenia, current scholarship holders from Georgia and Armenia shared their feedback and spoke about highlights and challenges encountered while participating in different activities. As it was identified, Georgian and Armenian students’ experiences varied as the internships they were engaged in were different, however, their development, growth and impact stories were very similar and the absolute majority of them expressed deep gratitude and pleasure to be involved in the project.
Finally, after two engaging and positively challenging days, the working group attended the Aram Khachaturian 11th International Festival, featuring violinist Stella Chen and the Armenian State Symphonic Orchestra. It does not even need to be mentioned that the working meeting was not only about gathering data for reports but to create a team which will be making an exceptional contribution to the community for the years to come under the name Generation Next.
Learn more about Armenian and Georgian best practices and success stories from the current phase of Generation Next here:
- BEFORE GENERATION NEXT EVALUATION WORKSHOP KICKS OFF
- GENERATION NEXT “SUMMER SCHOOL” IN GEORGIA
- EMBROIDERY SUMMER SCHOOL IN ARMENIA
We wish good luck to all current or former beneficiaries of the project in their endeavours.
