Me Myself I Executive Summary

The Me Myself I (MMI) project arose from the Peer Mentor support project, which was also led by Gorseinon College, Wales. Partners from Cyprus, Portugal, Belgium and Spain as well as a school for pupils with physical and learning difficulties and a youth offending team, also based in Wales, made up the rest of the partnership.

The project aimed to develop and deliver personal development training to a range of beneficiaries on the extreme margins of society who typically have not received the level of support they have required.

MMI was a mature and highly experienced partnership, augmented by new partners, whose previous work had been highly acclaimed. The partners had been and continued to be invited to a range of national and international conferences to share their experiences of this and previous projects. These invitations came from a range of audiences keen to appreciate the benefits of introducing mentoring to new groups of beneficiaries and to learn how this could best be achieved.

On this project there has been an emphasis on producing services and products that can be used, readily disseminated and ultimately commercialised. The outputs have been prodigious. MMI has developed a personal development plan in a range of formats, an awareness pack for employers, a trainers’ handbook, and an e-resource pack for trainers, adapted for a wide range of users, as well as a peer educators’ handbook.

This project is not an academic study per se but more an exercise in developing and using effective practical tools and approaches that have had a strong impact on the users. These beneficiaries have invariably come from poor and often marginalised groups, which included offenders, immigrant groups, those with learning difficulties and those from impoverished areas of cities.

The project has effectively demonstrated that the work developed previously and taken forward with this project is both robust and flexible in its use and is providing, as testified by the beneficiaries and users, techniques and impetus that are having a material impact on their lives.

The project, which worked in partnership with the Euromentor project, exhibited a capacity to deliver complex and challenging outputs with skill and determination. The work shared with Euromentor has not only allowed for economies in the delivery of both projects but has also led to a greater synergy between them. There have been a number of cross-benefits. For example, mentors trained on the Euromentor project have been able to move on to support groups of marginalised young people identified through the work of MMI.

MMI has been led, managed and administered in an accomplished manner, and all the key outputs have been achieved.

The partnership from the beginning has made the work of sharing and disseminating the project a key priority, and this strategy has served to enhance its work and impact.

Acclaimed research work has been completed by FMH at the Technical University of Lisbon, which has significantly affected the credence of the project in the key areas of personal development planning and peer education.

Crucially the project’s approach put the beneficiaries at the heart of the process and sought to elicit their feedback and engage them throughout. This has been one of the keys to its success.

The project inevitably faced a number of hurdles. These included keeping the website current and relevant; overcoming distance, communication and language barriers; maintaining the freshness of the new project while building on the best of the old; and ensuring all the work was delivered on time, in the most appropriate format and to the highest possible quality. All these are common challenges to transnational projects and were effectively dealt with and overcome.

Most importantly the project was highly successful in all its key objectives, in developing its networks, and in laying the foundation for future collaborations.

Some key factors ensured the success of the project. These included well-disciplined leadership, management and administration, an excellent balance between experienced and newer partners, and effective forms of joint working. There was a strong sense of purpose, energy and shared ambition, a focus on valorisation, and a determination to share the work and advance the understanding of mentoring and ensure its external recognition. Beneficiary satisfaction was almost 100%, and the work has progressed in a coherent transnational manner.

In conclusion, the Me Myself I project has been highly successful and impactful as a transnational collaboration. The achievements of the project have had and will continue to have a significant effect on the lives and futures of all those who have benefited from its work.

“We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs” - Bill Clinton