The evaluation committees decided which organisations advanced to the Impact Lab Bootcamp

A total of 96 projects were submitted to the Accelerator’s Impact Lab. Out of these, 88 fulfilled the criteria and were submitted to the evaluation committees composed of independent evaluators, whom we selected based on their expertise in individual areas:

• education: Dávid Richter, Svetlana Síthová, Juraj Didák, Katarína Lučeničová, Andrej Návojský, Vladimíra Ďurčová,
• inclusion and human rights: Lukáš Kvokačka, Helena Tužinská, Marta Králiková, Peter Kulifaj,
• democracy and transparency: Erik Láštic, Eva Braxatorisová, Maroš Kočiš.

The evaluation committees assessed each category separately. For individual projects, they evaluated: the feasibility (quality) of the offered solution, the potential for positive impact and scaling of the project, the degree of innovativeness, and urgency of the solution.
The committees selected a total of 15 projects: education – 7 projects, inclusion and human rights – 6 projects, democracy and the rule of law – 2 projects.

Mentoring will be provided by experienced experts from seven different fields

Organisations and their projects firstly proceed to the Bootcamp. It is an intensive three-day event, during which organisations will be mentored by experts in impact measurement, advocacy activities (promotion of interests), communication, fundraising, internal processes, and creation of business models. These are people from business and public administration from Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Mentors help organisations get to know better their projects, their strengths, and weaknesses. They identify potential challenges, development needs of organisations and propose solutions for them. They also bring new perspectives and inspirations.

At the Bootcamp, we will get to know the organisations that will advance to the Accelerator

The Bootcamp also includes evaluation of organisations by the mentors. Based on this assessment, ten organisations will advance to the three-month Impact Lab Accelerator.

By participating in the Accelerator, the organisation can receive financial support of up to 60,000 euros. The added value is individual mentoring, setting up impact measurement, consultations on selected topics based on an analysis of the organisation’s needs, and networking with people from the business and public sectors.

Complete list of Impact Lab Bootcamp participants by category in alphabetical order:

Education

Živica – Centre for Environmental and Ethical Education
Project title: Model Inclusive School
Živica/Comenius Institute in cooperation with the City of Zvolen will create a model inclusive primary school that will be open to all children, regardless of the socio-economic background of the parents, the disadvantages, and the talents of the children. The school will also include the creation of a space for the verification of pedagogical innovations and their subsequent dissemination into the educational system, a teacher support centre, and an educational urban hub.

Lifestarter
Project title: Learning Trnava
The project’s goal is to increase the interest and participation of adults in adult education in the region. This will be achieved through the creation of learning communities among teachers, HR professionals, and educators within companies, as well as among mothers on maternity leave and young adults willing to engage and bring innovative solutions. The project will also focus on promoting lifelong learning and the development of key competencies through creative videos, media content, and micro-learning.

Manageria
Project title: Public Leadership Academy – upscaling
Four organisations (Teach for Slovakia, Leaf, Club of Officials of Good Will, and Nexteria) collaborated to create a development programme for young professionals in the state and public administration, with a long-term ambition to build a strong community of change leaders. Nearly 100 officials applied for the pilot year, and 30 of them have been selected to undergo an intensive eight-month programme. The programme focuses on developing skills for creating and advocating for changes in the public sector, based on proven international models and best practices from Slovakia. The pilot has yielded outstanding results (NPS>80), leading to plans for a significant expansion of the programme, including possible format adjustments.

Milan Šimečka Foundation
Project title: Stories that Move
Through the project, the organisation will help reduce prejudice and stereotypes among 750 students at eight schools during the 2023/24 school year. Upon completing the programme, young people will be sensitive to diversity and able to actively address various forms of discrimination while engaging in civic activities. The project will also strengthen teachers’ competencies in the areas of intercultural education and digital skills development. The foundation will create a model for systematically providing this tool and support.

Superar Slovakia
Project title: Superar – Increasing the potential for the dissemination and sustainability of an innovative educational programme
As part of the project, the organisation will test new methodologies for inclusive music education. They will publish these methodologies in both print and electronic formats, along with a collection of over 50 videos. The team will gain training to work with these new methodologies and will undergo two mentoring sessions with experienced experts. During and after the project’s implementation, the organisation, whose experts collaborate on content creation for the curriculum reform, will support the implementation of the reform by sharing their methodologies and proven practices.

YouthWatch
Project title: GEN-Z Revolution – A new look at Generation Z
The aim of the project is to create a system of sustainability of research and presentation of trends about the current generation of Z and Alfa in terms of reach, impact, finance, but also in connection with internal functioning. They want to strengthen the organisation’s capacity to help reshape the perception of the current generation and change attitudes towards it, thus contributing to positive social change. They also want to bring the findings from the research to another target group with which they have not worked so far – the business sector.

Zmudri
Project title: Learn with Zmudri!
The organisation specialises in the creation of content about current events and topics important to young people on social networks and in the creation of online educational materials and online teacher training. It thus operates in the field of adaptation to the online environment and fights against disinformation campaigns. It wants to improve its activities through this project, namely by technical improvement of the platform for teachers for its easier use and a campaign to increase its traffic. The organisation also wants to increase the capacities of the editorial office of the Zmudri G media, so that they can publish more content and thus use their organic reach for more effective education of young people in a language and in formats that are close to them.

Inclusion and human rights

Bona Fide
Project title: We Open Tabačka to Communities
In cultural spaces, the community programme is often perceived as a low-cost supplement to the main programme. In Tabačka Kulturfabrik, however, they want to give the community programme a full-fledged space as part of the main programme of the cultural centre, which, however, requires a good set-up of cooperation, organisational and financial background. The goal of the project is to create a sustainable system of cooperation in Tabačka on the creation of inclusive content of the community programme, which will be tailored to specific communities. This system should connect the specific needs of different groups and activities that are part of the realisation of cultural events in such a way that events are open, safe and interesting for a wide range of spectators.

Early Intervention Centre – Košice
Project title: First Steps
The project focuses on ensuring inclusive care for children at risk in development (including children of emigrants from Ukraine) in the first seven years of their lives. It has so far fulfilled its goals and considers it important to continue to fulfill them by improving the preparation of a child at risk in development in the first years of their life for admission to kindergarten, by ensuring an effective way of supporting the child’s parents by experts in the first years after the birth of their child. In the next step, the centre wants to establish a traditional kindergarten and create an example of good practice in its transformation into an inclusive one that will be able to accept, educate and raise all children in relation to their current needs.

Way Out
Project title: OMAMA as a Systemic Change
The project aims to assess and leverage the experience and benefits of the OMAMA programme to enhance early care for children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. The team will undertake an in-depth evaluation of the programme’s impact, analyse existing data, and gather missing or additional information. This process will help objectively identify the programme’s benefits and areas for improvement. These findings will bolster arguments and recommendations for the effective setting of the state support system. At the same time, through strengthened advocacy capacities, the project will actively influence the setting of planned systemic measures. This will extend long-term, quality assistance to a greater number of children living in conditions of generational poverty.

The Otherness Initiative
Project title: Increasing the Sustainability of Efforts for Positive Change for LGBTI People in Slovakia
The project responds to the current low level of acceptance of LGBTI people in Slovakia, and simultaneously the insufficient sustainability of activities of LGBTI organisations. It aims to increase the acceptance of LGBTI people in the workplace through employer education (creation of an innovative educational programme) and building partnerships between LGBTI organisations and companies. The project will create conditions for achieving positive legislative changes (or preventing negative ones) through strategic litigation. It will increase the sustainability of activities of LGBTI organisations by creating a fundraising strategy and developing individual philanthropy.

Platform of Families of Children with Disabilities
Project title: Capacity Development for the Support for Children with Disabilities, and Their Families
Over the last 2.5 years, the organisation has rapidly expanded, including human resources, not only the paid ones, but for example, also the number of lay counsellors and volunteers. Within the submitted project, the platform therefore wants to focus on strengthening its internal capacities and sustainability to effectively continue fulfilling its mission in the future in three areas: 1) Strategic financing of the organisation (development of existing fundraising activities, resource mobilisation, etc.), 2) Communication strategy (communicating key topics to the public and partners), 3) Concept of human resources development.

The DOM.ov Project
Project title: From Exclusion to Inclusion
The project supports the active citizenship of residents in excluded communities and creates conditions for the elimination of inequalities of vulnerable and excluded groups. Within the support for active citizenship, it primarily focuses on the involvement of marginalised Roma communities in the negotiation process on the topic of personal ownership and access to the right to adequate housing. In the process of eliminating inequalities, it focuses on activities such as client education (financial literacy, family budget, etc.), social counselling, activities aimed at breaking down stereotypes and prejudices between the minority and majority, building and maintaining partnerships with public authorities, civil organisations, and good practice sharing in the non-governmental sector.

Democracy and the rule of law

The Climate Needs You
Project title: Improving the Monitoring of the Implementation of Climate Policies
The project aims to improve the preparation, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of key climate policies based on our international and European commitments. The aim is, first of all, to map the current situation with the involvement of important actors (non-profit, business and public sector) in individual regions and to get a relevant picture of the current shortcomings, with which the initiative, besides improving monitoring, also wants to bring concrete examples of good practice for the preparation of a series of recommendations for public administration sector. The result should be greater transparency in the implementation of climate policies, improvement in the state of environmental protection and socio-economic conditions in the context of the green transformation.

Transparency International Slovakia (TIS)
Project title: Support for Informed Public Control and Data-based Policies
The advocacy for public policies and strengthening of public oversight in areas of anti-corruption, increasing transparency, and rule of law have been among the fundamental tasks of TIS for almost 25 years. The basic principle is to come up with solutions and criticism based on data-supported analysis. The project, therefore, supports this proven and appreciated approach of TIS not only by developing data capacities but also by strengthening information for public oversight and public policy makers. The goals will be fulfilled through the creation, updating, and improvement of data portals and analyses focused on the transparency of election campaigns, the efficiency of public resources, and ethical purchasing in tourism.