European Projects

With the kickoff meeting held in Brussels from  January 25 to 27, the intergenerational, cross-border Mentoring Across Borders project (MAB), financed by the European Union  Erasmus+ program, was officially launched.

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MAB Project aims to develop mentoring hubs in Eastern and South-Eastern European countries, which will organize and train accomplished professional senior adults as mentors, to volunteer their time to help young people, aged 18-30, including those at risk of marginalization, to develop their professional skills and enter the labor markets.

    

The MAB Project builds on the successful results of the Erasmus+ EvolYou program, reinforcing its best practices and transferring its innovation to a pan-European level. EvolYou, in 28 months, mobilized 90 experienced senior people as mentors, from 6 countries, who helped 187 disadvantaged young people to access labor markets or the vocational educational training paths with the help and experience of their mentors.

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Within MAB 13 partner organizations are involved from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, Cyprus, and Greece to set up the mentoring hubs. The MAB Project is coordinated by CESES, a European Confederation of Senior Expert Services,  which provide support from experts  in their countries and abroad.

 

The project partners are 50plus Hellas, Greece AGE Platform Europe Belgium, Auleda Local Economic Development Agency Vlore Albania, Center of European Volunteering Belgium, Cyprus Third Age Observatory, Druzhestvo Znanie Bulgaria, Senior Experten Services Germany, Seniores Italia Lazio, Onkentes Kozpont Alapitvany Hungary, Stowarzyszenie Centrum Wolontariatu Poland, Volontariato Torino Italy  and Volontari Senior Professionali, Italy.

     

The project will last for two years and focuses on three main activities, the shaping of a mentoring methodology towards the needs of the Eastern and South-Eastern countries, the development and implementation of an online platform to help match mentors and mentees across the border and the testing of this matchmaking tool for 120 registered mentors and 120 mentees in Eastern and South-Eastern European countries. The platform will be open to people over 50 years of age who wish to offer their knowledge and experience, as well as to young people who need mentoring or coaching in their area of interest. In order to disseminate the project among stakeholders, workshops and public awareness campaigns will be organized. The project also will include dissemination, quality control, and risk management activities in order to achieve the best possible results.

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By bringing together Western, Eastern, and Southern European organizations, the project provides an excellent opportunity for the participating organizations to exchange experiences and best practices with their peers.

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More details will be made public as the project develops...