Since its establishment, KASA Foundation has been supporting the most disadvantaged Armenians, while following the motto "Learn to fish rather than offer a fish". The foundation indeed offers material assistance, but above all provides training and development opportunities. In the beginning, KASA implemented numerous humanitarian projects in all regions of Armenia and particularly in the North by contributing to the renovation of the villages destroyed after the earthquake of 1988 through rebuilding schools, medical and social centers, as well as by funding psycho-social projects, development, training and culture projects. KASA’s vision of sustainability has been reflected in agricultural projects initiated or supported in several Armenian villages with the aim of allowing villagers to stay on their land. The same vision is expressed in KASA’s approach towards tourism - a field that lies at the origin of the Foundation and has significantly contributed to its promotion. Priority is given to the person and the environment: development of personalized trips for groups or individuals, as well as accommodation options in Yerevan and Gyumri, are proposed. The Foundation has combined humanitarian projects with education and training. From 2008, projects promoting civic education and participation of the youth in the decision-making process within the Armenian society and the state through face-to-face and e-Learning educational programs, simultaneously, developing non-formal learning methods has become KASA’s primary field in which it excels today. The Foundation also supports the economic, social and cultural integration of locals, as well as Syrian Armenians and other displaced persons who found asylum in Armenia.

 

AREA / SUBJECT OF THE FELLOWSHIP

The areas of the fellowship will be on;

  • Social innovation
  • Non-formal education
  • Creative and innovative thinking

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED FELLOWSHİP ACTIVITY

The fellowship activities will be in the framework of the project “Young Citizens of Armenia: civic participation through promotion of social innovation” which has been launched since September, 2019 by KASA Foundation. Over three years, the project aims at training youth leaders (face-to-face and online training), forming youth spaces in different regions of Armenia, implementing civic education, designing and implementing social innovative projects, creating educational games, launching a massive online open course on civic education, developing guidelines on volunteer management and running youth spaces. During weekly activities youth leaders together with youth space members will reflect on the most pressing issues of their communities and experiment with social innovative solutions. We define social innovation as the process of developing and deploying new effective solutions to meet social needs. It encompasses innovative solutions associated with fields as diverse as education, environment, cooperation systems, leisure time, participation, accessibility, etc. With on-going mentorship of the project team and experts youth space members will pass through all the steps from idea generation to implementation. Annually, each youth space team will come up with an innovative solution and pitch these ideas for possible partnerships and funding.

The fellow will work with the project team consisting of 4 people to develop creative and innovative thinking development methodology. The fellow is expected to:

  • Develop an online module on social innovation and development of innovative thinking,
  • Develop training sessions on innovative thinking/idea generation and train the project team on running those sessions.
  • Develop criteria for social innovation projects proposed by project participants.

 

EXPECTED PROFILE 

  • Knowledge of at least upper-intermediate level of English (this will be the working language for the activities that the fellow will be involved in)
  • The fellow should have an MA degree in Social Sciences
  • Previous working experience in conducting activities with non-formal education methodology
  • Previous working experience in the field of development of creativity and innovative thinking

CONDITIONS OF THE FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY

Working days: Tuesday –Saturday (weekend: Sunday and Monday)
Working Hours : 10am – 5pm (local time)
Holidays: 21st of September, Independence Day of Armenia (public holiday)

PROPOSED TIME FOR THE FELLOWSHIP

Any one month between September and November upon the agreement of the fellowship.