Learning from T.W.O. GROWTH Project

1
Learning from T.W.O. GROWTH Project

• EWM Presentation
• Dublin Castle September 14th 2004
• Salome Mbugua, EWM Co-ordinator, T.W.O.

2
Outline of Presentation

• Overview of the GROWTH Project
• Project Implementation Successes and Challanges
• Outcomes from the Project
• Learning from the Project
• Multiplication Mainstreaming

3
Overview of the GROWTH Project

• Greater Recognition Opportunities for Women in
  Tullamore its Hinterlands
• Delivered under Strand D of EWM
• Target Group Women experiencing Multiple
  Disadvantage
• 6 key actions areas
• i) Certified Personal Life Skills Training for
  Women (Entry Level Level 1)
• ii) Certified Consciousness Raising (from a
  feminist perspective) Personal Goal Setting
  for Women
• iii) Flexi Guidence / Counselling for Trainees
• iv) Training of Service Providers (Level 2)
• v) Supporting Establishment of T.W.N.
• vi) Internal proofing of T.W.O. Planning

4
Implementation Sucesses Challanges

• Main Successes
• - Training Programmes over scribed
• - Flexibility of delivery (times, locations, mix
  of participants, provision for addressing
  barriers)
• - Network operating effectively after initial
  teething problems
• - Women overcame severe problem by availing of
  guidance / counselling service
• - Positive contribution to proofing plans (e.g.
  ESL research)
• - Wider impact through local publicity
  (research, conferences etc)
• Main Challenges
• - Securing accreditation (very time consuming,
  also relevance)
• - Poor uptake by employees of Statutory bodies
  on service providers training
• - Overcoming problems in TWN (particulary
  personality)
• - Uptake in flexi guidance / counselling
• - Framing project successes / impact

5
Outcomes from GROWTH

• 174 direct beneficiaries
• 29 received guidance / counselling
• 9 service providers trained
• High success rate based on goals set (e.g.
  obtaining work, education training, starting a
  business, changing job, entering politics,
  addressing inter-personal difficulties etc)
• 16 women supported onto T.W.O.s Options
  programme 94 progression rate
• 38 women supported through involvement with TWN
• 215 women participated in various conferences /
  fora organised
• Sharing of materials developed, templates for
  surveys etc
• Evidence of multiplication of programme

6
Learning from the Project

• 6 key areas of learning identfied
• i) Capacity of disadvantaged and marginalised
  women to make real life changes given a
  conductive environment
• ii) The impact of delivering personal
  development/growth training programmes from a
  historical gender analysis perspective
• iii) Importance of flexi guidance / counselling
  as well as the need for its masking, and
  continuity over time bound limits
• iv) Need for appropiate measures of outcomes
  from programmes (not necessarily immediate nor
  economic based)
• v) Need for accreditation in Republic of Ireland
  of flexible community based learning right down
  to entry level
• vi) Further work needed for service providers to
  approach womens progression from a gender
  analysis equality perspective

7
Multiplication Mainstreaming

• Project Materials used / adopted by AVCFRC, IRL,
  AkiDwA
• Materials shared with Offaly LEADER, and 2 RAPID
  areas applying under Round 2
• Open to sharing training package with others
• Hopeful that project would be choosen for
  replication under Round 2
• Hopeful that recommendations of todays session
  will be mainstreamed into policy