Follow-up
Homecoming activities – Fredskorpset Youth Programme
The follow-up phase consists of:
- appraisal interview and homecoming seminar
- preparation for information activities/ sharing of experience
- The implementation of information activities/ sharing of experience
Appraisal interview and homecoming seminar
Before participants return to their home country, the host-partner and the participant should sum up the exchange. Once participants have returned to their home country, the partner should organise a homecoming seminar to sum up the exchange and discuss further plans. This should be done in order to improve the project and strengthen future exchanges.
Follow-up activities
One of Fredskorpset’s main aims is to “…build the individual participant's commitment to, and insights into, North-South issues”. To this end, partners and participants in Fredskorpset Youth Programme are obliged to carry out two months of full-time follow-up activities after return. This includes a homecoming seminar and time for planning the information activities.
Much of the focus of this will be on communicating experience gained, sharing new ideas or skills or informing about the host country in the participants own organisation, or externally.
What is the purpose of follow-up activities?
- raise awareness of North-South issues
- build commitment and enthusiasm for development issues
- change attitudes
- communicate experience and ideas
Follow-up activities may involve:
- public relations work on North-South issues, aimed at changing attitudes and/or building commitment
- communication of experience, focusing on the feedback of know-how and experience, as well as new concepts and methods that can be employed to strengthen one’s own activities. This can be done internally in one’s own organisation, or it can be aimed at external target audiences.
Download the Activity Guide - FK-Youth (pdf)
How relevant are various types of follow-up activities for Fredskorpset Youth partners?
|
Public relations work |
Communication of experience |
| Internal |
Relevant |
Somewhat relevant |
| External |
Relevant |
Only slightly relevant |
Examples of follow-up activities:
- profiling of Fredskorpset participants in the partner’s in-house journals or on websites
- lectures, talks, slide shows, drama performances, exhibitions, etc.
- press coverage before or during the posting or after returning home
- write articles for newspapers, journals, the web or newsletters. When writing articles, it is important to consider where copy can realistically be submitted
- awareness-raising: The partner organisation can use exchange participants to build awareness of the other culture – internally within the organisation, in surrounding networks or in follow-up activities aimed at other groups.
Fredskorpset School information program
Fredskorpset has established a program for expanding the partners information activities directed towards schools in Norway. The program consists of teams of participants (both South-participants in Norway and North-participants who have returned home), visiting primary and secondary schools, engaging pupils and sharing information related to North-South issues.
South participants in Norway
Partners in Norway are encouraged to use South participants in public relations work in Norway. Where this is done, partners should consider whether part of the time devoted to this should be deducted from the time which South participants are to spend on follow-up activities in their own countries.
What does Fredskorpset expect from partners’ follow-up activities?
- Project planning: In preparing to apply for Fredskorpset Youth Programme, the partners should agree on the main objectives for follow-up activities, and propose target audiences and possible activities.
- Recruitment: Follow-up activities should be marketed as an integral component of the project as a whole. Applicants/selected participants should be advised at the earliest opportunity that follow-up activities are a main component of the exchange project.
- Preparations: During the preparatory phase, partners and participants are to discuss and prepare the programme of follow-up activities. The theme of the public relations work should be determined in advance.
- Posting abroad: Participants are to begin making preparations for follow-up activities during the posting abroad. Even at this stage, it is possible to make a start on some components of public relations work. The partner/local contact person should monitor progress. A participants’ meeting should be planned for the first half of the posting abroad, at which participants will have an opportunity to exchange experiences and observations, and receive help in interpreting these in the light of the host culture.
- Post-return: A detailed programme of follow-up activities is to be drawn up with the partner. The partners should present various ways of getting involved at the end of their service, either in the partner organisation or through alternative approaches.
- Quality control: The partner is responsible for quality control of follow-up activities. This also entails controlling the quality of what the participants communicate, how they do so, and to whom.