Netherlands • 2021

What: Graduates Development Program
Where:
TBA
Who:
Third-year and master students
When: Summer 2021

A word of the chairwoman • Chris Halkema

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the page of the Graduates Development Program 2020-2021. On this page, we will give you updates on the progress of the project. I would like to start by saying that I am delighted that we were able to form a highly motivated committee again this year. The circumstances regarding COVID-19 make GDP even more challenging, but that won’t stop us.

We are busy looking at all the possibilities and are making contact with various potential project partners, both in Europe and in the Netherlands. As no one can predict what COVID-19 will bring us next year, we are working with different scenarios. By doing so, we will hopefully be able to set up a nice project, regardless of the measures taken.

Update March 3rd: 

Hello everybody!

It has been a long time since the last update. After interviews and selection, we are now left with a team of nine amazing people, who are all willing to go the extra mile for our partner: Blik op Talent. We have started the acquisition phase for the benefit dinner in June. Due to corona, we cannot physically work together, but we do schedule zoom meetings so that we still somewhat do the acquisition together. This way, we can celebrate every win and slowly get to know each other while we are working and learning. Last week, we got an acquisition training by Dell, which is going to help us get better results from our efforts.

After the acquisition phase, we will move into the research phase where we dig deep into the company of our partners from Blik op Talent. We will consult them on how to find sustainable funding, so that they are secured of the resources they need to help the teenagers. Another part of the team will get busy with the impact analysis, which focuses more on the results of the Fight for your Future program and the future impact the program has.

We are happy to have started the work for our partner and we are excited to get great results for the sake of troubled teenagers in Amsterdam.

If you also want to help/contribute, you can donate here: [link] or email to [email protected] for product sponsorship or just to get in touch with us.

See you soon!

GDP 2021

Update January 18th:

Hello everyone!

The last couple of months we have been very busy searching for a nice project. The constantly changing corona measures didn’t make it any easier for us. But we did it, we found an interesting project and partner and we are very excited to announce it to you!

This year, the Graduates Development Program will take place in Amsterdam. Despite being much closer to home, there are still serious issues that our project will work on.

The project we will work on is called: “Fight 4 your Future”. This is an initiative of charity organisation “Blik op Talent”.

Blik op Talent is a dynamic foundation in Amsterdam which carries out projects in the field of participation and employment guidance. They also focus on developing and providing training for specific target groups. Innovation, creativity and talent are their core values. Their vision is that every person has talents. They work together with partners such as the local business community, social institutions and training providers to provide the widest possible range of options. They carry out socially relevant projects with a focus on investing in developing skills and talent.

One of their projects is Fight 4 your Future. This projects helps troubled youth. Teenagers with PTSD, education deficit, substance abuse and many other problems are supported by this project. They offer an unique program in which those teenagers will get to work with their mental and physical wellbeing to get more out of their lives. In 12 weeks they learn how to set goals and how to achieve them. After this they will be fully prepared for a job they like or an education.

We will be working on a business plan, in order for the organisation to gain more sustainable sources of finance. Additionally, we will be doing a cost-benefit analysis of the Fight 4 your Future project, in order to evaluate its successes and areas of improvement. Our support for this is that we will help the project grow a name for more sustained funding and that they can benefit from our help on the long term. We will also be raising money to organize events for the teenagers. We as a committee, together with participants will decide what kind of events this will be.

We can’t wait to start working together with Blik op Talent. Right now we are busy recruiting the participants, keeping contact with Blik op Talent and we are working on the annual charity auction.

We hope to soon provide you with new information about the project, and if you are interested, please apply before Sunday the 31st of January, 23:59.

Have a good one,