Definition: A project is a plan, that is exactly limited in time and content and should have a checkable result.

“Management, at its basic, can be defined as, ensuring a project makes the most effective and efficient use of resources in order to achieve agreed objectives.
Project management is an important tool to improve the work in youth organisations.  Most projects, nowadays are managed by a team. Youth work projects are not anymore the hard work of an individual youth worker but a collective effort of a group composed of different people, with different capacities, expectations, experiences, backgrounds and cultures.” (Project management T-Kit 3)

Projects have various typical features, characteristics that could be observed in almost every project. So first of all, it is a means of enabling project managers to move from idea to action. At the same time, it aims at changing the social environment in which it takes place (in one way or another), having educational dimensions and being a product of a collective work. Last but not least, it involves evaluation that makes possible the relation between the idea and its implementation.

In order to be successful, the project should meet the following requirements:

:: contains proper evaluation of the need or problem that are in the focus;
:: invokes the active support and participation in it from the target group;
:: needs a clear vision to unite all the activities and efforts of the project organisers;
:: needs to be designed in such a manner that will enable the project executors make an impact and lead to the expected results.



Main steps in the youth project management:

In order to prepare and implement a project you need to have in mind that it is not a simple task. A lot of things need to be taken into consideration, big administrative work has to be done. So, starting from the idea to make a project, passing through the brainstorming, preparation, implementation and evaluation, it is a long road you
have to be prepared to pass. A simple and commonly used way of imagining the project is dividing it into three major moments: definition (What for? Why? Who? For whom?), implementation (How? By whom? Through what?) and evaluation (What for?)

Needs analysis 

Why is the project necessary? Why is it relevant?
Needs analysis includes the main social, political and economical conditions in the field of the project which makes the project necessary. It should meet some specific needs of particular group of society (especially young people) or the society as a whole. The social analysis is crucial because it should determine the social aims and objectives of the project as well as the programme of action adopted. The analysis could be comparative, historical or a target group survey. It aims to show that the idea of the project is achievable.

Setting aims and objectives

What for? Why there should be a project at all?
Aims are broad statements about the general direction or purpose of the project. They are often defined as overall goals of the project.
Objectives are the specific steps along the project which ensure that  the aim is achieved. The objectives must be concrete, realistic, multiple, assessable, timed, flexible and recognizable in the activities.

Target groups

Who? For whom?
The target group must be closely related to the needs analysis.

Methodology

How?
The methodology is the social, educational or organizational process through which the objectives will be pursued in a coherent manner; the way in which the different activities will build up on each other to reach the objectives. Methodology and working methods are often confused and confusing, but it is important to try to keep the distinction. The methodology has more to do with a global approach and concept; the working methods are usually specific to an activity.


Plan of activities

What?When?Where?Through what?
The plan of activities is the part that is the most visible to the public at large. It is also what we will think of the most when we think of what the project consists of. The activities are the means through which we will try to get results for our project. The main  elements in the planning of the activities are the financial, material and human resources but the most delicate issue is time.

Implementation

With what? Whit whom? When? Where? How?
The project is an idea that has been transformed and made feasible by a careful planning process and that will be implemented. The implementation project has three important aspects:

1. The management of the resources involved in the project
2. the monitoring/evaluation of the project implementation.
3. dissemination of the results

Evaluation

What for?
To assess the impact of your project, to avoid the mistakes in the future and to be more flexible during the event, you need to make evaluation. For that purpose try to collect feedback during the whole project from as many as possible people involved in it. You can make your own evaluation taking notes during the entire project, you can have team evaluation, participants' evaluation, external evaluation, etc.

:: Enter "Youth project management" resources
:: Enter "Youth project management"glossary