Objectives of the project The project “Growing professional” aim at providing further qualification of MitOst staff members and members of the strategic bodies of MitOst - Board and Project Advisory Board - in the sphere of strategic management, monitoring and evaluation of programs and knowledge on inspiring facilitation and trainings in an international setting. We want to provide them with professional knowledge and further qualification using the In-Dialougue international courses. Besides professional knowledge, they offer the possibilities to exchange experience with other participants working in the similar field and learn from their good practices. Context: The staff members of MitOst e.V. from various departments deal in their daily work with issues related to coaching, counselling, leading trainings, organisational development and evaluation of the programs that we manage in different countries. However, only few of the staff have formal qualifications for these complex tasks and carry them out rather intuitively and using their past practical experience. Besides full-time paid staff members of MitOst, there are young people voluntarily investing their time in strategic management of MitOst as members of the Board and Project advisory board. Even though working on a very professional level, people involved in the strategic management of MitOst in these voluntary bodies invest a lot of energy in the strategic steering of the organisation often without formal qualification and training in this concrete field, using just their practical experience. Activities and methodology: There is a vast unused potential for rising the quality of the work of the MitOst staff as well as the members of the voluntary strategic bodies, increasing effectiveness and professionality of our work with young adults. This we want to achieve through participating in specialised courses on the topic of “Monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects” and “Inspiring facilitation, teaching and training”, led by the partner organisation In-Dialogue. The courses combine theoretical inputs to the topic with very practical exercises, role plays on relevant situation, peer-coaching and sharing experience among the participants. There is also enough time to work on specific cases relevant for each participant. As a follow-up of the three trainings, a tailor-made training for MitOst staff and Board is planned in cooperation with the partner organisation. Number and profile of the participants: In total, there will be 19 people participating in the courses relevant to their field of work. In the course “Monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects” there will be 4 people participating. Two of them will be staff members of MitOst - Program manager responsible for running educational programs for young adults in the countries of Eastern Europe and a Program assistant responsible for the new program Actor of Urban Change. Besides that, one participant will be member of the MitOst Board and one member of the MitOst Project Advisory Board. In the course “Inspiring facilitation, teaching and training” there will be 2 people partcipating, one of them being the member of the Board and one MitOst staff member responsible for carrying out trainings. In the course “Strategic management”, there will be one Program manager of MitOst involved in the Theodor-Heuss-Kolleg and two members of the Board. In the follow-up training with the partner organisation In Dialogue, there will be 10 people present, both MitOst staff and the members of the Board and Project Advisory Board. Results and impact envisaged: The main results of the project will be profound knowledge of evaluation and the methods of carrying it out, innovative methods for leading international trainings and a better strategic management of the organisation, enabling it to grow and develop and professionalise in its core expertise. This quality will be visible also for partners and donors and will enable us to better run the future educational programs thanks to good evaluation of the current ones. The project will have through MitOst a direct positive impact on the partner organisations in over 20 countries due to better management and evaluation of projects and positively impact also the over 320 participants of our programs each year thanks to a higher quality of trainings. Potential longer term benefits: In the long term, the project contributes to the professionalising of the NGO sector and helps increases awareness of the skills that are already used it the sector but can be brought to the next level of expertise and become a valuable resource. It will support the creation of a stronger network to enable learning exchange and exchange of good practices between the stakeholders and sparkle a common debate on what capacity building is needed in the NGO sector to function as a relevant partner in cross-sectoral issues.