News

The NGEurope project is reaching its final stage. In the 32^nd month of activities and during this extraordinary pandemic situation, partners adapted to diligently continue the project’s mission: support the third sector.

The final partners’ meeting should have taken place in Albergaria-a-Velha, Portugal, hosted by Associação BioLiving. Instead, partners met online, and were able to fully attain the meeting’s purposes. Final tasks and deadlines were defined and the final conference was prepared.

From the 22^nd to the 26^th November 2019 the 5^th NG Europe Training Course on “Green and Social NGO Leadership“ took place in Graz, Austria, with participants from Austria, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.

Ahead of the project’s last edition of the training course, a leadership seminar was held in November 2019 in Graz, Austria. In the seminar’s first session, which took place at the University of Graz, participants, who were rather new to the idea of European project work, were introduced to NGEurope and learned about the training course and all other materials produced in the project. Most participants came from a pedagogical background and expressed interest in the methods used in the NGEurope training course.

 The venue for the course was GMIT- a third level institution that proudly boasts being a Green Campus.

Twenty participants took part in the enlightening course, 12 from the host country and 8 visiting participants from Spain, Portugal, Greece and Austria. The participants brought a wealth of knowledge to the training from their own diverse experiences and the trainers used their facilitation skills to ensure this knowledge was captured.

Leave No Trace Ireland, the Irish partner in the NGEurope programme hosted a seminar on April 11/12^th  2019. The seminar was held in the Green Campus, in GMIT, Castlebar, Co Mayo. in the west of Ireland. The seminar titled ‘NGO Leadership’ promoted best practice of local and national NGO’s with 6 NGO’s sharing their stories. The NGO’s ranged from the very structured with employees to individuals working on their own with no official structure.

From March 29 to April 2, 2019, Valladolid hosted a course in English called "Green and Social NGO Leadership", aimed at providing members of these organizations with the skills and competencies necessary to control their operations and activate citizens to take initiatives that promote sustainable changes in society.

Continuing with the planned programming of the NGEurope project "Active citizens. Thriving Communities" on 14 and 15 March was held in Soria the Technical Seminar: Management and governance of foundations in the forestry and environmental sector.

From 29^th March to 2^rd April, in PRAE Valladolid (Spain). This free modular course is directed at existing and future NGO leaders and staff members. Potential new leaders will acquire a new set of competences and skills and existing NGO members will refresh their knowledge from the perspective of a lifelong learning process. The objective of the course is to activate talent from citizens that may become role models as NGO leaders for change and sustainability.

The Cesefor Foundation, one of the NGEurope project partner, will host a Seminar on Foundations management and governance in Soria, Spain (14th-15th March 2019). Open registration at https://www.ngeurope.net/en/SeminarioFundaciones

The second training course of the NGEurope project was hosted in Athens, Greece, from November 27^th to December 1^st, 2018. Twenty participants, twelve from Greece and eight from four European countries (Austria, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain) came together to learn and exchange ideas and experiences. The trainers used their know-how to maximize the expected learning outcomes. More specifically, they explained tools for creating, managing and supporting NGOs.