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How to Write, Develop and Manage Your Youth Development Projects

The main goal of this guide is to explain how to write and manage a project addressing youth in a successful way. The Guide starts by explaining what we mean with Project Management. It will continue by explaining how to deal with the different phases of Project Management namely Preparation, Planning, Implementation and End of the Project. An additional section will explain in details how to deal with Budgeting and Financial Reports.

The Guide covers the following topics:

Whether you are an experienced project leader or you are moving your first steps in the NGO-world, you should keep in mind that the secret of being successful in this field is to plan in advance to deliver what you promised. To have a good idea is rarely enough to achieve concrete changes in your community. Certainly, creativity will help you imagining how to tackle an existing problematic situation and propose a set of activities, which could interest theyouth of your community. Yet, if you want to attract funding both from development agencies and private donors you have to learn how to write a project, monitoring its development and report to those who sponsored you. This is why to understand what project management entails is of crucial importance.Project management is the process of designing and monitoring the development of a set of activities aimed to reach a goal. It starts with the analysis of one or more issues relevant to your community in order to propose a concrete strategy able to address said issues with the aim of solving existing problems. Project management begins with an in-depth analysis of the economic, social and political situation of your community.Once you gathered this information, you will draw on the collected data to build your project proposal, which will include the rationale of the proposed project, its main goals, the timeframe and its main outputs. A successful project proposal is the one that clearly states the steps you are taking to move from the evaluation of a problematic situation to its resolution in a limited time span. Additionally, a successful proposal includes an explanation of how you intent to monitor the development of your project as a means to assess its final outcomes and your overall success. You should also take into consideration that planning has to deal with the uncertainty of the future.As such, a strong proposal draws on the analysis of the present to list a series of potential risks that the project is taking also to imagine ways in which you could engage with them if they happened. Lastly, a good proposal spells out how you intent to report on the progress of your project to your stakeholders being them your donors, potential partner organisations, your community and your target group. This part is of utter importance especially for those who are financially supporting your activities. To clearly state how you will communicate with them, when, and how they will become part of your project (for instance by participating in the final events, meeting the participants, or reviewing your financial activities) will demonstrate your ability to manage a grant and it will support the creation of long-term working relationships with donors, who might become interested in sponsoring other future projects.The next 5 sections will guide you through the main phases of project management. You will be given a general idea of what is expected from you. You will also find a list of common mistakes to be avoided. Further, each section will give you examples and practical information that you can use to write your own projects targeting youth.The project develops through 4 main phases: Preparation, Planning, Implementation and Conclusion. It is important to understand what each phase entails in order to write a successful proposal. In fact, when submitting a proposal (or a concept note) you must demonstrate to have an innovative idea to solve a contingent problem, a methodology to tackle this problem, a way to attract the attention and begin a productive collaboration with your target group, a strong vision on how you will manage all the proposed activities and deliver what you promised timely and respecting the financial restrains of the allocated budget.Preparation for Your Youth Development ProjectsThe main goal of the first phase is to write a successful proposal to attract funding from donors. First of all it is good practice to convene all the members of the organisation to discuss about potential ideas for a new project. This first meeting should decide what you would like to do broadly. For instance, your organisation realises that one of the main problems of young people in your community is the high level of unemployment and, as such, members of your organisation decide to set up a training program to increase the employability of the target group.The members of the organisation will be divided in two groups. Group 1 will conduct background research with the aim of gathering information about the situation of youth unemployment also in relation to what has been done previously to solve this problem. Group 2 will be in charge of organising focus groups with young people. The goal of this group is to test whether the target group would be interested in attending trainings and whether they have ideas or suggestions to help you design these trainings according to their needs and interests. This second group will also have the task of collecting real life stories from young people to further probe that your project is really needed. The results of group 1 and 2 will be disseminated among all the members of the organisation. At this point you have all the information necessary to develop a strong proposal. Namely, you will need to elucidate:

  1. What is the main goal of your project? How the life of young people in your community will be affected by the implementation of this project? For instance, the goal of your project could be to decrease the rate of unemployment among people aged 18 to 25 living in your community.
  2. What are the outcomes of the project? How the life of young people in your community will be improved thanks to your trainings? For instance, people attending the trainings will know how to write a resume successfully, they will know how to use a certain software, they will know how to speak a foreign language (according to what the aim of the training was).
  3. What are the outputs of the project? What will be produced as a result of the training? For instance, a manual could be assembled for further trainings or a report could be written to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the training cycle.
  4. What are the activities of the project? Activities are the concrete means to reach a stated goal. For instance, a cycle of trainings in a specific field is an activity.
  5. What are your inputs? What do you need to implement the project? Inputs could be money, facilitators, manuals, or infrastructures to run your trainings.

Important Points to Remember while writing Youth Development Proposals

June 30, 2013 By 
  1. A project proposal should be written in accordance to the specific guidelines given to you by the donor you are approaching. Make sure to understand what they want and to ask for clarifications in case you are not sure about any of the requirements. There is always a contact detail of a person who can be approached for clarification or there might be a meeting organised in your area to explain to potential applicants how to write a proposal.
  2. A project proposal needs time to be written. All the members of your organisation should be mobilised at least 3 months before the deadline for submission of proposals. Remember that a strong proposal is well researched. As such, each member has to work to collect sound information to be presented in the proposal. Make sure to present both quantitative and qualitative information. Quantitative data could be accessed though country, regional or municipal reports written locally or by main agencies such as the United Nations or the World Bank. Qualitative data could be gathered through interviews with young people participating in focus groups.
  3. To collect life stories from young people participating in the organised focus groups is crucial to further probe the real importance of your proposed project in the eyes of potential donors. Your proposal should communicate how passionate you are about what you do and also how important the implementation of the proposed project is for your community.
  4. Consider that working with young people is exciting and fulfilling but could also present additional problems. For instance, consider that young people divide their time between school, family commitments, friends and recreational activities. One of the main difficulties in attracting the attention of young people is to propose a set of activities that interest them to the point of ensuring their full commitment to the project. This is why is so important to involve young people in the very first phase of designing the project. Listen to their needs and try to match your organisation’s aims with what they ask for.
  5. Make sure that all the members of your organisation are happy and enthusiastic about the new project. This will ensure their full participation and support. Make sure that each member feels important and that their skills are appreciated and used appropriately.
  6. Your project has a timeline. As such, you have to think realistically about how many activities could be implemented. It is also important to leave enough time to gather all the information produced by the project, reflect upon them and work on the dissemination of your results. The final phases of Assessment andEvaluation are as important as the planning and implementing of the activities and they will help you producing sound reports for donors (which will be fundamental for attracting funds in the future).
  7. If you are answering to a call for proposals, you will be asked to submit a budget proposal. Do not ask for the maximum amount of money because donors tend to allocate smaller quotas to more organisations rather than large grants to few applicants. Make a financial request that is realistic and ask for what you really need. It is not always necessary to ask for a new computer or a photocopying machine!
  8. Planning for Your Youth Development Projects
    June 30, 2013 By 
    Planning starts once you have secured funding for your project. It involves giving tasks to staff members, distribute responsibilities and set a series of deadlines to respect the timeframe of the project in order to deliver the main results on time.The first thing to do is to gather all the members of the organisation to discuss on the strategy to adopt to implement the project. It is true that you have written a proposal, which has been successful, but it is important to review your timetable in order to set internal deadlines and ensure that the project will unfold reaching its milestones as planned. This is the right moment to decide who is in charge of doing what. Make sure that everyone is happy about their roles in the project and that the potentials and skills of staff members are fully explored.Task Assignment. A task is a job given to one member of the organisation that needs to be done by a set deadline. Tasks could be short or long. For instance, a short task could be to design a poster to invite people to participate in the project and it could be done in 1 week. A long task could be to attend all the trainings and observe the participants in order to understand their levels of satisfaction or to assess the facilitator’s performance. This information will be crucial in the monitoring phase to understand what could have been done differently in order to write a better training program in the future. This task will last for as many days as the training lasts (perhaps months). To write task is very important and it must be done considering all the activities that need to be completed to enable the project to develop as planned. Remember to write down all the tasks even when they seem trivial. For instance, to collect posters from the printing shop is a task and there should be someone in charge of it. If posters advertising the project are not disseminated on time, there will be a delay in gathering participants, which could cause a delay in starting the planned activities. As you can tell, all the activities have their own importance and there must be a person responsible for their completion. Further, giving tasks is also a way to make all the members of the organisation actively participating in the development of the project. It is a way to support teamwork and to improve the ability of team members to work together and to respect deadlines.How to assign tasks. There is not a golden rule to assign tasks although there are factors to be considered. First of all, depending on the number of people working in your organisation, each member will be assigned with one or more tasks. Make sure that each member participates in all the phases of the project. As such, it is good practice to assign different tasks in different phases. Second, always suggest a group of people for a task and let them decide who is doing what. In doing so, you will make members of staff more responsible about their tasks. Third, if your organisation counts on the work of volunteers, make sure to name a supervisor among the members of staff who will be in charge of monitoring the volunteers’ work and to support them in their learning process. In doing so, you will be able to count on additional workforce and also to train individuals who might become permanent members of staff in the future.
    The Project Implementation Schedule for Your Youth Development Projects

    June 30, 2013 By 
    The Project Implementation Schedule is a chart that clearly lists all the tasks necessary to complete the project and related deadlines. This Schedule is the most important part of planning because it will become the tool to use for the monitoring and evaluation phases of the project. You should have listed all the tasks required for the implementation of the project. Take the list and rank your tasks according to their importance. There will be tasks that need to be concluded in order to start another task and tasks that could be done in a more flexible way. Highlight all the urgent tasks and visually connect tasks that require the completion of a previous task to be started. At this point you can transfer your list into a chart, which will clearly state the timeframe for each task to be completed.The Gantt Chart is the table most often used by organisations to detail the Project Implementation Schedule. It could look like the following:

    Project Implementation Schedule (GANTT CHART)
    Activity n°1Gather the Group of Participants Name of the person in charge Month 1 Month 2 Month 3
    Task ADesign Posters to gather participantsFinish to Start B A.B. 1X 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
    Task B

    Disseminate the posters in schools, clubs, and other meeting places

    Finish to Start D

    		 A.B.  X  X
    Task C
    Set up the training room (tables, chairs, equipment)

    Finish to Start D

    		 F.G. X X X
    Task D

    Gather the participants to meet the facilitator

    		 H.T. X

    You will obviously customise your own chart according to the number of tasks you have listed and the best way you find to visually communicate what the urgent and less urgent tasks to be completed are. For instance, in the chart presented I highlighted how the completion of one task is necessary for the beginning of another. In this way, the person responsible for the task is made aware of the timeframe within which her/his task must be completed. The main limit of the Gantt Chart is that it becomes very complicated when there are too many tasks to be completed. A good advice is that of drawing a chart for each activity. For instance, the chart presented refers to the activity ‘Gather Group of Participants’. Once this activity is finished you can archive this chart and focus on the next activity. There might be the case of two activities overlapping, in this case make sure to display both charts together and highlight the overlapping activities. Depending on the skills of the organisation’s members you might decide to produce a digital rendering of this chart. A digital version would be easier to amend, correct, and share among the members of the organisation. Said that, it is also useful to keep a paper version of the chart in the office as a reminder for staff working there. This chart could also be shared with donors to show the progress done by the project when required.Overall, there are 3 main reasons why you should draw your own chart:

    1. It will help you visualise how many activities are required to implement the project. This could help all the members of the organisation to realise how much has been done and how the project is developing
    2. It will clarify who is responsible for what. This is a way to ensure that all members of staff take full responsibility for the development of the parts of the project of their competence
    3. It will give you an idea of how long it will take to complete a task (thus how much you should pressure for an activity to be completed in order to start the next one and allow the project to progress on time).

Stakeholder Management for Youth Development Projects

June 30, 2013 By 
Stakeholder Management. Stakeholders are all the individuals or groups interest in the progress and results of your project. Stakeholders could be your donors, members of the public, the group of young people you are working with, the wider community, the media and also political authorities working in the youth sector. Make a list of all your stakeholders and arrange them into groups.For instance, Group 1: Donors, Group 2: City Authorities, Group 3: Youth Organisations and Youth Councils, Group 4: Media, Group 5: Youth in your community (including those participating), Group 6: the wider community, Group 7 (if existing): Partner Organisations. You should develop different strategies to communicate with the different stakeholders.For instance, you could inform the donors about the development of the project by sending monthly reports and inviting them to assist to a special event or one of your activities. City authorities, if not directly involved in the planning of the project, will not need to be informed monthly. Rather, they need to be informed about the outputs of the project and its outcomes. The media will be contacted at the beginning of the project (launch event) and at the end to disseminate the results of the project.The community should be informed by organising a gathering in which participants could share their stories and discuss the impact of the project not only in their lives but also in the life of the community.Risk Assessment is the process of assessing the risks that the project is willing to take. Risk Assessment starts by reviewing all the phases and activities of the project to understand what could go wrong. It is an exercise of scenario planning, which needs to be done by all the members of the organisation together. Considering that each member has different skills and knowledge, it is important to conduct risk assessment in plenary sessions. The main goal of Risk Assessment is to write a Risk Register and a Risk Control Diary.Risk Register is the list of risks you can foresee. For instance, the most common risk when planning a project involving young people is their unpredictable level of commitment. If the project aims to train at least 20 young and unemployed people, consider that few of those signing up will not show up and few will stop attending classes. This is not because your training project is not valuable but because there are several other variables to take into consideration. Young people might be asked to help at home or they might find temporary occupations (like seasonal jobs), which could distract them from the training course. You should know what risks you are taking in relation to what you know about your community and previous meetings with the young people you are working with.Risk Control Diary is the list of potential strategies you might need to adopt to mitigate a risk. For instance, what could we do to make dropout trainees go back to their course? If a trainee is abandoning the course because she/he was offered a temporary job, could we imagine a way to provide a paid internship to the trainees so that they will be more likely to complete the course even if other temporary jobs are offered to them? It is also important to name a person who will intervene when a planned risk happens to mitigate its effects on the project at large.Implementation of Youth Development Projects

June 30, 2013 By 

Implementation follows the steps and deadlines set in the phase of planning. For instance, if your plan says that by the end of the first month the training manual should be completed, you have to make sure that the person or group in charge of the training manual are progressing their work in a successful way to meet the end of the month deadline. The person in charge of monitoring the implementation of the project should be the project manager (or coordinator). The project manager is responsible for coordinating all the activities in the group and also to set up meetings with the various members of the organisation to check on their partial results and progress.The most important part of the implementation phase is to measure your performance, which is done according to the monitoring methodology you have described in your project proposal. Accordingly, it is crucial to understand what monitoring entails to present a sound methodology in your project proposal. Broadly, by monitoring we mean the ways in which you assess the development of the project by highlighting whether the planned and the actual work, costs, and time schedule match (if they do not, take note on the impediments and unforeseen events that changed your plans).Monitoring is crucial because:

  1. It allows member of staff to gather data concerning the timely achievement of milestones as set in your project planning
  2. It allows members of staff to implement additional strategies when unforeseen difficulties are faced. For instance, if you realise that your project is not meeting its targets and you understand why this is happening, you could decide on rectifying a number of activities in order to ensure that the project as a whole will deliver the final outcomes. If the allocated budget for one activity results insufficient for the development of this activity as planned, you could either shorten this activity or raise more money to accomplish your task as planned.
  3. It makes members of staff aware of what was well planned and what was not well planned in order to gain practical knowledge that will guide the writing of new future projects strategically.
  4. It allows donors to understand how their money has been spent and to evaluate the success of the project as a whole. Also, it allows donors to intervene when difficulties arise and to further help the organisation in rectifying its plans to achieve the final goal.
  5. It provides information that will help you engaging with the participants in the project. For instance, you could begin a participatory strategy to discuss how their expectations have been met (and if not to understand why and what to do next)
  6. It encourages a productive dialogue between the project managerial team and the target group to better understand what could have been done differently to inspire future projects and collaborations.

Monitoring of Youth Development Projects

June 30, 2013 By 
You should be able to determine whether an activity has been successfully completed or not by following the planned timetable. If you notice that an activity has not been completed, then you should list all the reasons why this has happened and measures you have taken to reduce the damage (refer to your Risk Register and Control Diaryalso to understand whether you have underestimated an existing risk or whether you had already designed a strategy to solve the problem you are facing). All this information needs to be archived because they will be used to write the final report once the project ends.Monitoring is important for your organisation to understand how well your project was planned and what you need to improve. Monitoring is also essential to provide sound information to your stakeholders. Following yourStakeholders Management List, you should decide when and how to contact different groups of stakeholders to share with them the information gathered while monitoring the progress of the project. You could use the chart below to organise your work:

Disseminating Monitoring Information
Stakeholder Group n° What they need to know? Why they need this information? How often/When they need to be informed?

EXAMPLE

Group 1 (Donors)

 1)      Achievement of milestones2)      Budget Reports3)      Assessment of the project after completion 1)      To monitor the progress of the project and provide further support when needed2)      To understand how their money has been spent3)      To understand whether they invested in a successful project 1)      End of each activity2)      End of each activity3)      End of the project

According to the needs of your stakeholders, you should decide on the ways in which you will report on the progress made. It is good practice to discuss with donors how and when you will send reports before starting the implementation phase. Several funding bodies, such as major international development agencies, will ask only for final reports whereas private foundations and smaller funding bodies tend to ask for more and more detailed reports.Overall, you should consider that:

  1. Donors are your priority. Reports to donors must be detailed and provide enough information for the donor to assess the progress and results of the project. Donors are mainly interested in the achievement of set goals and in the financial report. Do not omit or hide information such as the failure of achieving a milestone or participants’ dropout. Consider that donors are not only a financial resource for your organisation, but also partners with more experience. As such, you should engage with your donors when problems arise to ask for their help and support. There might be strategies that you have not considered or advices your donors are willing to share that will improve your project or mitigate the effects of negative events. Further, consider that it is always better to communicate with the donors promptly to avoid revealing the partial or total failure of the project at the time of its supposed completion – when it is probably too late to intervene. Financial reports are extremely important to prove that you can manage a grant (you will find more information in the Financial Section of this Guide).
  2. Contacting the Media is the best way to disseminate the partial and final results of your project in the community and beyond. It is important to establish working relationships with local journalists to guarantee visibility to your project. For instance, you can contact the media after the completion of a milestone and ask to the participants to be interviewed by local media to share with the wider community their experience. This will also support your long-term commitment to become a reliable actor in the community.
  3. The Youth Group. Do not forget to treat young people participating in the project as stakeholders. You should share with them information regarding the development of the project as a whole but also ask for their comments and evaluation. You could distribute a questionnaire or record one to one interviews. There are two main reasons why assessing the youth satisfaction is important. Firstly, you can quote positive comments given by participants in your final report to donors to further probe how your project was successful in the community. Secondly, you could use critiques and negative comments to avoid making same mistakes in the future. Always remember that without the participation of young people the project could not have happened. As such, you should make sure that they are satisfied to build long-term working relationships with them.

End of the Project: Evaluation and Reporting for Youth Development Projects

June 30, 2013 By 

After the end of the activities, the project enters its conclusive phase. The outputs of the project should be delivered and reports should be written for the donors and other interested stakeholders.This is the moment for all the members of the organisation to gather again and discuss about the results of the project. Following this discussion, the project coordinator will write the final report for the donors. This report will give a narrative of the milestones of the project and it will discuss whether or not the project achieved its main goal. If the project failed to achieve its goal or if the project failed to produce one (or more) of the stated outcomes, it is of crucial importance to discuss why the project was unsuccessful (contingencies, underestimation of risks taken, organisation’s lack of control over the project etc).To understand what went wrong will help you to write stronger projects in the future and it will also reassure the donors about your awareness; by explaining what went wrong you communicate to the donor that you are aware of the situation and that you will not do the same mistakes in the future.As such, the end of the project is characterised by 2 main activities: evaluation and reporting.EvaluationEvaluation means to assess whether your project has fulfilled its aims or not. Evaluation is a useful tool for stakeholders who financially or technically supported the project. Evaluation is also important for the leading organisation to reflect upon what happened during the implementation of the project and to learn how to design better projects in the future.Evaluation could be conducted once (at the end of the project) or several times (when a milestone is achieved or half way through the implementation of the project). The following sections will discuss what are the main methods used for evaluation and what typologies of evaluation exist. You will need to understand the following points to decide what methods and types of evaluation could be selected for your project proposal.

Methods used to perform Evaluation

  1. Review of Project Activities means that at the end of each activity, and by looking at your Gantt Chart, you should write a partial assessment of the development of this activity. You could include whether the activity was completed in time and whether the allocated budget was sufficient to complete the activity. If there was a delay, you should write what happened and how you managed to limit the negative impact of the events that delayed the project. If the budget was not sufficient, you should explain how you dealt with the situation and how it affected the project at large. At the end of the project, you will review and collate all the partial reviews to write a detailed final report.
  2. Interviews with Participants involves talking to each of the participants to assess their level of satisfaction, the impact of the project in their life, their commitment to the project and also to gather their ideas on how to develop the project further or how to design new future projects. Extracts from these interviews could be presented to the donors as a way to demonstrate your success or discuss your failure. You could decide to video-record and edit these interviews and to upload a short video on your website to disseminate the results of the project.
  3. Participant Observation entails attending trainings, workshops and all other activities to observe what the participants do, how they relate to each other, what they say, and how they interact with the group facilitators. This information will enable you to better understand what are the strengths and weaknesses of the project. For instance, you could realise that the selected facilitator is unable to attract and keep the attention of the youngpeople present. In this case, you could further enquire into the participants’ level of satisfaction and, if they are not happy, you could discuss with the other members of the organisation what to do (for instance, to change the facilitator).
  4. Surveys and Questionnaires allow you to gather a dataset able to produce statistical information. For instance, you can render participants’ level of satisfaction or participants’ life improvements by drawing graphs and charts, which are visually easy to read and understand also for your final report to donors.

Types of Evaluation that can be undertaken for Youth Development Projects

June 30, 2013 By 
1) Final Evaluation. This is normally among the requirements of the donors. You should write a detailed report explaining how the project reached its targets and how the target groups benefited from participating in the project. The final evaluation gives the implementing organisation crucial information that could be used to design future projects. For instance, it could be that you needed to fundraise more to complete the project. Accordingly, you will ask for more money to implement a similar project in the future.2) Mid-term Evaluation. This is not always a requirement of the donor but it could be a useful tool for the implementing organisation. By assessing the results of the project half-way through its implementation, you will understand whether something needs to be modified (this could be because the project is running behind schedule or because the participants are not fully satisfied)3) Internal Evaluation is conducted by members of the implementing organisation. If the donor does not require for an external evaluation, you should normally opt for the internal evaluation. This will save money (external evaluators must be paid) and it will also allow you to highlight the best parts of the project and the most successful activities to impress the donor.4) External Evaluation means that the donor agency sends members of its staff to review your project and write the final report. They will normally ask for outputs, outcomes and to give evidence of the achievement of stated goals. Make sure to arrive prepared to this meeting and provide all the necessary information for them to understand what you have done and how you have succeeded in reaching your targets.How to select your methodology for evaluation?

The choice between final and mid-term evaluation depends on the length of your project. If the project lasts for more than 6 months, it is good practice to have a mid-term evaluation. This could be done in a plenary session where all the members of the organisation gather and assess the progress of the project. It is good to discuss what is not going as planned to understand how to rectify the project and also to learn from your own mistakes. The choice between internal and external evaluation is normally up to the donors. Main international development agencies tend to ask for external evaluation (especially if you were given a large grant) to ensure transparency whereas smaller funding bodies tend to trust internal evaluators.

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