Grants:PEG/International Centre of Excellence for Community Schools/International Learning Community

Withdrawn

This was a submission to the Project and Event Grants Program from an organization in 2013-14, but was withdrawn by that organization before a funding decision was delivered.

• See the discussion page of this grant request for more information.
• Since this grant was withdrawn, no report is required and no further action is required from the grantee.

Basic information

Project details

Official project name

International Learning Community for Community Schools SUMMARY of PROJECT

AIM to establish an international learning community about Community Schools which will include webinars, articles and practical materials for use by teachers, teacher trainers, parents, students, strategic education planners, school leaders. (Community Schools work in partnership with parents and other agencies to bring new learning opportunities to pupils, ensure that the curriculum is relevant, supports local community organisations and offers educational support to adults, are open and democratic and encourages volunteering and active citizenship).

Start date: 1st March 2014 Finish date: 28th February 2015

Please describe the project in 1–2 sentences: Over the course of one year we will conduct technical webinars and discussion groups to encourage the sharing of data, articles and materials about Community Schools. Starting with existing contacts - national Non Government Organisations, NGOs ( Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Mongolia,Moldova, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Czech Republic,UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, Malawi, Uganda and Benin) we aim to build an online learning community sharing information about Community Schools.

Financial details

Currency requested

Stirling (UK currency)

Amount requested in currency requested

£9,819.8

Equivalent amount in US$ on the date of this submission

16,061.17087 on 4th December 2013 quoted from http://money.msn.com/investing/attributions.aspx

List the exchange rate used to calculate the amount listed in US$:

PLACEHOLDER TEXT

Grantee details

See the eligibility requirements for more information.

What is the official name of the organization requesting this grant?

International Centre of Excellence for Community Schools (ICECS)

Are you an organization, an individual, or an individual submitting on behalf of a group? <!-Organisation

Are you a for-profit entity? NO

Are you able to provide local proof of nonprofit status within your country?

Answer YES or NO.

YES

Does your organization currently employ any fulltime or part-time staff or contractors?

YES

If you answered YES, please indicate how many. You may use fractions or percentages for part-time staff if appropriate.

- contractors X 2 part time. There are two contractors on a fixed fee contract, each with a specific set of tasks to complete.

If yes, please provide a list of their job functions, or a link to your organization's staff page, if it lists all employees and contractors employed or engaged by your organization.

EX: A complete list of staff and contractors is available at http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Staff_and_contractors.

The tasks performed by the 2 contractors are as follows: Executive Director Taking the role of Executive Director and carrying all responsibility for the proper management of finances; reporting to the Trustees/Directors of the charity; reporting to donors;promoting Community Schools internationally by speaking at conferences; partnering other organisations with overlapping interests; conducting and hosting meetings; advising professional colleagues on legal frameworks and policy developments conducive to Community Schools, their management and the training of staff; liaise with NGOs that also promote Community Schools offering them advice, support and networking opportunities; gathering research findings on Community Schools and helping researchers network amongst themselves on topics of interest to the Community School field; identifying and applying for funds to carry out partnership action research projects This role is equivalent to 2 days a week.

Development Director Assisting the Executive Director by researching new partners; identifying possible sources of funding; completing funding proposals for action research projects initially in Africa ;arranging and hosting visits to the UK by teachers from other countries. This role is equivalent to 3 days a week

Contact information

Primary contact name

Chris Jones

Primary contact username or email

ICECS or email at chris@cejassociates.co.uk

Primary contact title (position within the organization)

Director

If this project will be executed by someone other than the primary contact for your organization, please list that person's details here:

Project lead name

PLACEHOLDER TEXT

Project lead username or email

PLACEHOLDER TEXT

Project lead title (position), if any

PLACEHOLDER TEXT

Goals and measures of success

Project goal

Please briefly describe what will be accomplished if the project is successful.

Project goal

If successful the project will have a) social media account in English which will be used by several NGOs in different countries b) A sequence of webinars with international panels c) a series of articles about Community Schools and various aspects thereof, produced with open access and in English, Russian and possibly other languages .

Measures of success

Please provide a list of measurable criteria that will be used determine how successful the project is. You will need to report on the success of the project according to these measures after the project is completed. MEASURES OF SUCCESS 1) social media account established with at least 20 Friends of which 8 make regular, monthly posts 2) a set of 12 open access pages with articles about Community Schools - ie about Community Schools around the world, the thinking behind them,information about teacher training in relation to Community Schools, existing research findings 3) these 12 pages also posted in Russian and Latin American Spanish 4) 5 webinars about Community schools or related topics such as partnerships, lifelong learning, volunteering etc with contributors from different countries

Project scope and activities

This section describes what will happen if this project is funded. Who will do what, and when?

List of activities

ICECS is already in regular contact with a number of NGOs around the world that are promoting Community Schools. Each one of these collects information, writes articles, conducts evaluations and research but these are not yet shared much beyond country borders. There are two barriers - language and technical confidence to use a common shared site. Some of the NGOs network as a virtual team to create new materials which support schools wishing to make the transition to Community Schools and those that are already established. Together we have produced and tested a set of International Quality Standards but these are only available on a website and are in English and Russian. ICECS has translated some of this material into Latin American. The partnership will continue producing materials together for at least two years but there is no place for a live dialogue beyond the countries involved in that project.

International Learning Community for Community Schools would establish a single entry point for those interested and would be freely accessible enabling a dialogue and an opportunity for additional interested parties to participate.

To achieve this we will : a) train ICECS staff in the use of social media, in technical issues relating to setting up and running webinars and in issues around the management of open access pages b) pass this training on to colleagues with national remits in 9 countries: Russia, Moldova, Mongolia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Poland, Czech Republic and Bosnia initially and possibly replicate this for colleagues in Malawi, Uganda, South Africa, Namibia, Nicaragua and El Salvador c) set up and manage social media and open access pages d) make 5 webinars with colleagues from these 9 countries and others, especially USA, Canada and UK subscribing to a suitable platform e) translate existing and new materials into Russian and Spanish

Budget and resources

Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here.

Grantees are subject to line-item scrutiny of expenses. Changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

Project budget table

CONTRIBUTION SECURED FROM OTHER SOURCES Voluntary Translation £1,700 Volunteer costs in putting together webinars £500 Cost of handbooks to partners and others about webinars and wiki pages £500 ICECS staff time 24 days @ £300 a day secured from other sources £7,200

TOTAL secured from other sources: £9,900

CONTRIBUTION REQUESTED FROM WIKIMEDIA TRANSLATION COSTS Russian (30,000 words @£110 per 1,000) £3300 Latin American Spanish (30,000 words @£110 per 1,000) £3300 ( http://www.worldaccent.com/)

TRAINING COSTS 2 bespoke training courses for ICECS staff (social media, webinars,issues to consider in the management of wiki pages) £2,000 producing handbooks to distribute to partners £500

Webinar platform subscription £719.8 (£59 a months for 100 attendees plus £11.80 VAT) promotional materials £500

Total contribution requested from Wikimedia £9,819.8

Resources

This section is optional. It may be used to highlight the potential grantee's potential for successfully executing this project.

RESOURCES ICECS staff have many years' experience of building physical networks, hosting meetings, running newsletters, working in partnership on new projects. They also have many years' experience of running small and large scale action research projects with a defined set of activities undertaken according to pre planned deadlines and also on reporting on findings and finance.

The two contractors would be able to take overall responsibility for this work because they already receive funding for their time and are able to spend it on this kind of activity.

There is already a core group of 10 NGOs from 10 countries and each has a national remit and regularly work together on related issues producing materials to support community Schools and others who support their development. ICECS has regular contact with a further 6 NGOs with a national remit in different countries including in Africa USA and Canada. ICECS is beginning to build up some contacts in Latin America which it intends to develop during the coming year.

Impact

In the sections below, please describe how the project is related to the Wikimedia mission and Wikimedia's strategic priorities.

Fit to strategy

How will this project support the key organizational objectives of

• increasing reach (more people will access or contribute to Wikipedia or our other projects),

there is no central accessible space for Community Schools allowing people to share and contrast their ideas about Community Schools and how they work in their societies. This will provide that space.

• participation (more people actually contributing),

because we will be working with active national NGOs in many countries, whose remit it is to provide support for the development of Community Schools, there is a good chance the people in their networks will be signposted to the open access pages we produce thereby increasing the number of people actively engaged in this venture. With materials available in English, Russian and Latin American Spanish, we should also get many practitioners who operate at school level able to participate in open access materials, social media and webinars. Offering some practical materials which they can use in their everyday practice will also make visiting the site attractive.

• quality (more content, more useful content, or higher-quality content),

we will be able to post high quality practical materials which teachers will be able to use directly in their schools. This is important for many countries where such resources are poor. We will also be exposing our audience members to ideas shaped by societies different from their own. For example, Community Schools in countries of the former Soviet Union tend to focus on citizenship, lifelong learning and volunteering whereas those in Western countries think more about working in partnership with other agencies to bring new learning opportunities to pupils. These pages can encourage both sides to debate, share and take something from each other because they are very unlikely to meet each other in any other space.

• credibility (more trust in our projects), That the main initial contributors come from so many countries is likely to build the strength of each NGO to promote Community Schools in their own country and to build trust in their messages. Because people can add their own ideas into the mix, we hope to spread a sense of ownership and community.
• organizational maturity and effectiveness (how it will move you or the Wikimedia community forward),

For all the existing NGOs working together to promote Community Schools this is a new venture. We have all read from Wikipedia and similar and we all have websites although they are somewhat static. Some have participated in webinars but this way of opening up a live and ongoing dialogue with the field instead of simply producing something and presenting the finished product, is new to all. The experience should make all those participating more responsive to views from the field.

• or financial sustainability (how it will help you achieve more in the long run)?

ICECS hopes that eventually this will demonstrate that Community Schools are a very viable response to the complexities of 21st century societies and that by showing how widespread is the support, we will gain more traction with government policies, with teacher training etc. Hopefully, too, we will be able to continue attracting funding to carry out some much needed action research.

This statement should address at least one of the strategic priorities listed here specifically. See WMF Grants Program criteria for decisionmaking.

PLACEHOLDER TEXT

ICECS intends this project International Community of Learning for Community Schools to make the following contribution: a) bring in more participants into international open debate about Community Schools. In particular we hope to increase the amount of participation from Russian speaking practitioners and by the end of the year to have some contributions from Latin American Spanish speakers b) to demonstrate a way that NGOs promoting Community Schools can have a live, ongoing and dynamic relationship with the field of government officials, strategic planners, policy makers, researchers, teachers trainers and school based practitioners. This aspect will be a new departure for all NGOs in this project. c) To sustain the activity because many of the NGOs have been engaged in this work for up to 20 years. We have worked together as a partnership for 6 years already and can anticipate that we will be working together for at least another four years and possibly longer. By that time, even if the team no longer works together it is probable that the individual NGOs and their networks will have grown accustomed to using open access pages, social media and webinars and will continue alone. d) It is probable that some material will be contributed in languages relating to the national NGOs eg Polish, Ukrainian etc.

Benefits

If the project will benefit a specific online community, please tell us.

The project will benefit those working in education and in particular those with an interest in Community Schools. ICECS is actively involved in the International Healthy School movement and makes contribution to their online debates, speaks at their conferences, participates in their webinars. This will be an opportunity for them to contribute to the Community Schools debate which has many areas of overlap eg partnership, social inclusion, teacher training, evaluation methods etc

Please provide a brief statement about how the project is related to other work in the Wikimedia movement. For example, does the project fit into a work area such as GLAM, education, organizational development, editor retention, or outreach?

This project will also be of interest to those using the education programme, especially when practical materials for teachers are available at about five months into the project.

If successful, will the project have the potential to be replicated successfully by other individuals, groups, or organizations? Please explain how in 1–2 sentences. It is very likely that it will be replicated. NGOs from the group of 9 countries listed above already produce materials to promote their own networking, training and materials and will be incorporating this project into that. ICECS has already produced and distributed to these NGOs tips on running webinars(not including the technical details which will be given to them as part of this project) and after training its staff ICECS will produce a similar handbook for NGOs on setting up and running wiki pages themselves in their own languages.

Please list other benefits to the movement here.

There will be a new group of very active and influential organisations using this technology and , as they become more comfortable with its use, be ready to introduce it into other languages eg Czech, Polish