#premiumprogramme

[commit2commeet]

Our PREMIUM burrito night!

Presenting to you Commit2COMMEET off duty! Last Thursday our team took the day off from working to make a change and enjoyed a fun burrito night! All our members came together to enjoy Mexican food and good wine (even the one’s not living in Maastricht). The night was a big success and involved lots of talking, laughing, yummy food and drinks, bonding and enjoying each other’s company. 

Source: JLRReyes

Highlights of the night 

BABS burrito is really hard to finish 

We all love nachos 

The wine cocktails made by Suzanne (we got you covered on the recipe) 

This get-together helped us learn some fun facts about each other, and now you will get to know us better too:

Kim: rarely finds people that like the same music as her, because her taste might be a bit atypical. She loves a good german ballermann song or EDM songs with lots of beats, and even studies to them! 

Suzanne: likes to write poems. A very creative side of Suzanne we came to discover!

Anna: has zero sense of direction. She was late to the gathering because she went in circles around the same houses (she gets lost in every city, no matter how long she lived there)  

Camila: has read all the Harry Potter books a thousand times and knows all the lines by heart (this also applies for the movies). She is still waiting for her Hogwarts letter 

Jasmijn: drove a van all the way around Australia. She is the most adventurous member of our team who started exploring from a young age!

Marlene: once danced Waltz under the pyramids in Egypt (this is what we call dancing with a view!)

And here it goes our wine cocktail recipe...

Source: carmelacaldart

Ingredients

White wine

Lemon syrup

Fresh lime

Sparkling water

Frozen blueberries

Instructions

1. Prepare your fancy looking wine glasses 

2. Add ice to fill ¾ of the wine glass 

3. Mix 1 tablespoon of frozen blueberries and 1. Oz lemon syrup

4. Top with chilled white wine (to cover the ice cubes)

5. Add some sparkling water 

6. Squeeze fresh lime for a perfect finish

Hope you enjoy your drink in one of the sunny spring days we will have soon enough! Keep tuned for our last posts as PREMIUM students - we cannot believe that our project is almost over! 

[designcommodus-blog]

Good evening! 

This is Ruben and today I want to share with you my design inspiration.

Modern design draws my attention, however it runs the risk of being cold and impersonal. By using the coziness of an attic, modern design can be given a 'gezellige' twist, and is therefore the best combination in my opinion. 

Hope you like my tip!

Have a good sunday :)

[commit2commeet]

New horizon: updates from the impact team

We know you have waited long and are just as excited on where our journey will go as much as we are.

After further consideration on the time limits that are set in this program, we had to make adjustments to keep our work on a high qualitative level and will not finish with only half of what we planned done. We therefore decided to work on the first part of our idea with even more room for detail and dive further into analyzing first what really makes COMMEET as unique and rich on potential as it is. For this reason we are diving deeper into what impact does COMMEET has at the moment to find out options on how their impact can be measured in the future.

To reach this goal we have chosen to use the theory of change. The theory will provide the perfect guidance for discovering the potential of COMMEET and how the goal of community empowerment is achieved. In order to get the qualitative data needed, we will conduct interviews with not only the communities that are currently using a toolkit, but also the team developing the toolkit. This will give us a deeper insight about how the toolkits are used and what thoughts went into it.

Theory of change template | Source: diytoolkit

We will keep you updated about our further progress and what new horizons we might discover!

[commit2commeet]

A Website to remember: Update from the Communication Team

After weeks of brainstorming and researching, we were proud to present some first output to COMMEET. As part of our Communication strategy, we intend to increase the findability of the fellowship and their toolkits and attract a greater audience to their website. To achieve these goals, we find it important to transfer COMMEET’s website into a website to remember!

With this mission in mind, we met up with COMMEET to present them with our ideas and solutions and discuss what is in their scope of action. The fellowship was just as excited as we are about our solutions. To give you a little sneak peak into our solutions, here are a few examples: 

- placing links to their social media accounts onto their website - adding a page for the toolkits to the menu bar - adding a contact form before downloading the toolkits

We are now in the process of finalising our solutions before we will schedule a workshop with our client beginning May. Within this workshop we will implement our solutions. So stay tuned for a website to remember!

[commit2commeet]

What has the impact team done for the last weeks?

On top of research about social impact measurement, three interviews with five different people have been conducted through Zoom. We asked questions about the theory of change, the fellowship’s work and organisation. Thanks to them we got much insight that will be core to design the perfect medium for measurement: a questionnaire, interview guideline or contact form. The importance of dialogue with the communities was underlined in every interview as being the most valuable actors for change. The fellows were also depicted as necessary brokers to a successful implementation of the toolkits among communities. At last, but not least, interviewees had the space to voice their point of view on what and how should be measured and the different issues they were facing. With all this information, we are confident our social impact measurement propositions will fit the client and methodological requirements. Our next post will be a nice quote that we gathered from one of our interviews! Keep tuned!

[commit2commeet]

Our timeline and progress

We have been working in tangible outcomes for our project, which lead us to our project timeline! This is the structure that will help us to achieve our two goals in this PREMIUM's project: 1) to create a communications strategy plan for COMMEET and 2) help to measure their social impact! We are pretty excited to work in the check in and implementation steps in the following months! 

[commit2commeet]

Meetings in the sunflower field

After our initial ‘get-to-know-each-other’ meeting end of January, and some team building activities beginning February, we soon grew fond of each other. We liked our meetings in the sunflower field so much, that it has become a weekly date to meet every Tuesday at 4 o’clock in the sunflower field south of Maastricht. So far, we used our meetings to organise our team and team roles, review last year’s report of PREMIUM students for COMMEET, and brainstorm on possible ways how we can solve our tasks. After we invited COMMEET to join us in the sunflower field and discuss our ideas, we now have a clear plan of what we want to deliver to COMEET. We can finally start to actually work on the deliverables! 

[commit2commeet]

A newspaper mention!

Some weeks ago COMMEET (with a mention of our team!) was featured in a local newspaper! As ‘international top students from Maastricht University’ we are very proud of this feature and of COMMEET’s mission, so we wanted to share it with you all. Since it is in Dutch, our Dutch team member translated the piece to get more of an insight into what COMMEET is about.

COMMEET, worldwide help from South-Limburg

From arranging jobs for migrants in Geleen to building roads in Bangladesh: with their non-profit organisation Jos Hermans (73) and Maarten Schrevel (67) from Maastricht support people worldwide. Below the meter’s high baobab tree, the South-Africa chieftain repeated: ‘Come and meet!’. Curiously villagers come to him. 

When they hear this cry, they know: something is up. When everyone is gathered, they discuss what's going on and come up with a solution with the whole community.

Four years ago, the non-profit organization COMMEET was founded on this philosophy, says founder Jos Hermans. “A similar tree in my garden gave me an idea: like the South African community, we believe that local communities know best what is good for them. Together with people from villages, neighbourhoods and regions from all over the world, we look at what they need in areas such as education, infrastructure and work”.

COMMEET works both in Limburg and far beyond. They connect local communities with the right people, says secretary Maarten Schrevel. “For example, the Sittard-Geleen region is now faced with the quest of how they can better integrate migrants into society. That is why COMMEET puts refugees from this area in contact with staff from Zuyderland, where the migrants receive training and then get a job in the hospital”.

Local internship

Furthermore, the organization is currently aware of young people leaving South Limburg, Hermans adds. “There is a lot of concern about this, people want to keep them here. Together with Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, we are looking into whether students can get extra credits if they opt for a local internship. International top students from Maastricht University are also conducting research into our social impact.”

To connect the right people, COMMEET works with a global network, says Hermans. “This includes about 40 volunteers from all over the world. They support local communities with the help of coaching and toolkits, among other things”.

With Maastricht and Geleen as its epicentre, the organization works on sustainable development goals of the United Nations, such as quality education and economic growth. Because of these global ambitions, COMMEET works not only in South Limburg, but thanks to sponsor help in dozens of countries. For example, two Dutch professionals travelled to Bangladesh on behalf of the organization, says Schrevel. “In a village there, the only road to the plaice was always flooded in the rainy season. The road was raised and paved on the advice of the professionals”.

Credits: Giphy

Westerners

Such learning processes should always be central, Hermans emphasizes. “Westerners too often go to a developing country to tell them how things should be done. Don't talk about locals, but talk to them. Only then will you discover what they need and will it have a long-lasting impact because the motivation comes from within”.

Hope you liked to discover a bit more about COMMEET! We are really proud to see the this mention highlighting the organisation's mission, and we are working hard to help them to achieve a long-lasting positive impact in communities around the globe!

[commit2commeet]

A guide for social media platforms

Our trajectory to increase COMMEET's reachability in a digitally-mediated society had to contain, of course, guidelines to a better use of social media platforms. Our team is proud to have built a document to instruct COMMEET in how to take advantage of Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin to pass their message and help more local communities around the globe. 

Source: Bestarion

The document we have produced establishes aesthetic choices for social media, including correct logo usage with examples, a colour scheme, font and text. These items are really important for COMMEET to be consistent and have an aesthetically pleasant image in all platforms. 

Another important point for us was to suggest good practices of how to post on social media platforms. For instance, for Instagram, we have made a selection of hashtags for COMMEET to use, as Instagram is a hashtag-heavy platform with many of its users searching for keywords and hashtags to find good content (or even following hashtags that they’re particularly interested in). 

In addition to our suggestions, we are producing social media posts to show how to put the guidelines into practice! We are extremely excited to provide this document and also the posts, as we believe that they can improve COMMEET's online communication, which consequently can help to build a broader network with communities that can benefit from COMMEET. 

Do you have any tips for communication for social impact organisations that would be valuable for COMMEET? Don't hesitate to tell us and keep tuned to our next posts! 

[commit2commeet]

COMMEET and the Migrants and Displaced Persons Toolkit

COMMEET’s actions to support community empowerment is until today (more are to come!) targeting two specific topics: entrepreneurship and the inclusion of migrants and displaced persons. To get a better insight into the concrete work and philosophy of the fellowship, let’s take a look at the Migrant and Displaced Persons Toolkit!

Creator: DeepGreen | Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Why migrants and displaced persons?

Inclusion is the keyword for fostering a climate of development, yet is rarely associated with migration. Communities can be the forefront of this philosophy and a suitable scale to put in place the milestone for inclusive societies. It is therefore adequate to help communities grow by embracing and welcoming diversity and differences. New arrivals bring local challenges and migrants face several problems but the help of the community is of mutual benefits, fuelling individual developments and the communal one. 

This perspective is highly tided to the Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) that commits us to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, in which COMMEET believes.

What does this toolkit focus on?

The toolkit provides instruction to structure the actions that the community may undertake. Moreover, it focuses on key points to provide a welcoming environment and aid settlements: 

developing a culture of welcome and inclusion supporting co-creation and co-production to foster trust and understanding.

promoting good health

emphasizing the benefits of green spaces and the natural environment

understanding legal aspects for the migrants’ rights to be protected

promoting economic opportunities

facilitating access to education

addressing prejudice and racism

All the World's Immigration Visualized in One Animated Map

All in all, this toolkit focuses on the well-being of migrants and displaced persons through the inclusive and empathic actions of a community.  Check it here and start your own journey for greater inclusion!

[commit2commeet]

What is COMMEET?

COMMEET fellowship is a not-for-profit organisation working for community empowerment! COMMEET's vision is to accelerate regional sustainable development through empowering local communities. The fellowship provides Toolkits that can be used to solve problems at the community level, facilitating access to knowledge using a bottom-up approach: giving power and initiative to communities, enabling them to make fair decisions that will create better opportunities to future generations. It is based in the Netherlands but operates all around the world.

An overview of COMMEET's work

Contributing to UN sustainable development goals 4, 5, 8 and 10

Raising awareness among community members and facilitating their access to toolkits about Toolkit Entrepreneurship Training and the Inclusion of Migrants and Displaced Persons 

Providing coaching for local communities

Creating a database with examples of good practice to inspire local communities

Work based on scientific studies and international networks

It involves four main stakeholders: the community, educational partners, the labour market and government partners

COMMEET is always looking for volunteers! 

Who is part of COMMEET?

Fellows/Ambassadors - actively expand the COMMEET network by raising awareness about the organisation and its values on an international level. They frequently act as advisors to the Board.

Fellows/The Board- the central team of highly committed individuals who take on formal roles needed for COMMEET to classify as a Foundation.

Well-wishers - Friends, Sponsors and External Partners

Commit2COMMET- part of Premium project, students from Maastricht University working with COMMEET to improve communications and conduct impact assessments.

Our team is quite grateful for having the opportunity to work with Commeet towards a world with more solidarity! Don't forget to check their website and learn more about their initiative — and maybe become yourself a volunteer as well! 

[commit2commeet]

Mid Term presentation

Drumroll… to our first big pitch! On the 17th of March we had the chance to share our progress story with the rest of PREMIUM. Our virtual presentation evening was nerve wrecking but also thrilling; we got to connect with other teams and get inspired by their progress. We took part in the Mid-term presentations where we showcased what Commit2Commeet is all about, answered audience questions and got positive feedback and improvement points. The atmosphere was positive, friendly and supportive. Even dancing was involved! Many thanks to D&I Office for their supportive feedback boost, Politie Limburg for their points of improvement which we are actively working on, and ATOS for their interest in our project and their question.

This gif from The Office is an accurate representation of us celebrating our teamwork after the mid-term presentation!

If you missed our pitch, here is what was included:

1. What is COMMEET - a global fellowship that aims at community empowerment. Its vision is to accelerate regional sustainable development through empowering local communities with the provision of toolkits which they can apply themselves. Now under the UNESCO umbrella, COMMEET is looking to expand its practices and reach out to even more people.

2. Our challenges: 

a) measuring social impact in a time frame of 4 months and no existing data. This requires reaching out to toolkit users, figuring out inventive strategies to track activity. 

b) facing inactive social media platforms that have limited reach, and are not informative and up to date with COMMETs current presence. 

3. Our solutions 

a) impact measurement of COMMEET’s toolkits through feedback loops 

b) raising awareness of COMMEET’s message through our website and social media.

Moving on, our team is working to operationalize our ideas with the goal of making a relevant contribution to COMMEET! Stay tuned on our Tumblr page for the next two months when we are going to implement and finalise this soul-filling project!

See you all in the final presentations!

[commit2commeet]

In 2019, the number of migrants globally reached an estimated 272 million, 51 million more than in 2010. This number includes 26 million refugees, 3.5 million asylum seekers, and over 41 million internally displaced persons.

United Nations

[commit2commeet]

Check our first post for COMMEET!

As part of our communication strategy for COMMEET, we advice the fellowship to post regularly and consistently on their social media accounts. Up until now, the fellowship faced troubles coming up with content to upload. Fortunately, we are here to change that.

Source: Simon Super Rabbit

We are currently creating a number of posts that can be uploaded including topics ranging from the history of the fellowship, to the explanation of their toolkits, to their contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and so forth. Today, however, marks another milestone of our project: our first post is ONLINE!

Our first post introduces COMMEET and tells what the fellowship stands for. Interested in more? Then please check out COMMEETs Instagram account (@commeet_fellowship) and hit the follow and like button. Stay tuned for weekly posts!

[commit2commeet]

What has the communications team done for the last weeks?

As we approach the ending of our time with PREMIUM and COMMEET, the communication team is setting up the three pillars of half of the project: the website, the social media, and a video.

Source: Illustration by Fonzy Nils and animation by Paolo Luca

In the update on the 28th of April, we updated you on the first pillar, the website, so today, we share our goals and outcomes for the other two pillars.

For COMMEET’s social media, we saw the chance to use these platforms to spread the message and create awareness about the organisation. As our client informed us they struggle with social media, we wanted to create a sustainable, long-term solution for an active social media presence. To do so, we came up with a long list of topics we think should be posted on the social media of COMMEET, created the content and writing to go with it, and scheduled a post a week for the coming months. This way, even when our PREMIUM project is over, COMMEET’s social media will stay active. In addition to this, we also created a style guide (see the post on this for more details). A style guide is a document that contains information on how a brand appears and acts on social media. With this document, COMMEET can change whoever is responsible for upkeeping their social media without losing the overall appearance of their online presence.

Secondly, the team has been working on creating a short video to share on social media and the website and for introduction or speeches at universities or conferences. In this video, the fellowship of COMMEET will be explained in a short and concise way to solve one problem our client was facing: not being able to tell people who were interested in their organisation what it actually entails. Once the video is finished, it will also be posted on our Tumblr, so keep an eye out for it. Keep tuned for our next posts in this final stretch of the PREMIUM programme!

[commit2commeet]

It would not merely be an ideology but it would also be a matter of improvement of living together. People in Africa have a world for this, they call it Ubuntu. Ubuntu means I am because we are, we cannot live without each other

Jos Hermans, Founder of COMMEET, talking about the community empowerment toolkit