Author: aj6319

Dear Nightingale friends,
Time for a new semester, hopefully filled with new energy!

As mentioned in the summer Newsletter, always remembers: Each of us can make a difference but together we can make a change!

New homepage
As you might have seen we have had some problems with our webpage loading up photos etc. and there were also some limitations too. But with a lot of help from our administrator Nina we are now very happy to soon be able to introduce our new webpage. We will have this new address now but hope soon to change it to a Nightingalementoring.com in the future.

Next network meeting & celebration of the Nightingale Network 10th anniversary the 24-25th of February 2020.
As you already know the next Network meeting will be held at Malmö University
Remember to save the date!

We will as soon as possible make a blog with more information.
This time we also hope you can invite school persons, your contact persons too. They are important link and cooperation partners to all of us and we would like them to get together, form groups (let them get in touch with each others, even after the network meeting) and also have the opportunity to have experience exchange.

EU KA3 application
As mention earlier, Barcelona (Servei Solidar) had an idea of applying an EU application KA3 in cooperation with Malmö Nightingale. It was a good idea and it could give us a great opportunity to also involve our former mentors to come together (Youth dialogue) as an event on the next network meeting in Malmö.  

A KA3- application could involve youth/mentors in political action, therefore, the topic should be carried out by the participants of the network/Conference.
The deadline however is October 1^st and it should be presented to the Swedish National Agency before. You should fill in a paper if interested and of course a lot of things should be done before. Unfortunately this is at the same time as we have a hectic program in Malmö (but also you have!) with recruiting students and children and we also have a new team in Malmö. So we have decided to postpone the application this year. However we think it is a great opportunity to let our mentors come together (by EU funds) so that’s why we would like to put the subject /KA3 Erasmus on the agenda of our network meeting in Malmö the 24th – 25th of February. Hopefully Laia, from Servei Solidar in Barcelona could introduce the KA3 application, the benefit and from there we can decide if and how many are interested. My idea is to already decide the content or focus of next Conference:  Student mentors. Then we can invite key-note speakers, researchers and maybe PHD students too in this area.
I think we can even make a better application and maybe also get us the money easier if we plan all the things in advance. 

New partner
We are happy to announce that Berlin Frei Universität will be our partner again.
We want to welcome Peter Stammerjohann, coordinator of Nightingale at the Free University Berlin and Prof. Dr. Petra Wieler, as responsible project manager of Nightingale at the Free University Berlin.

Ghana

Our Nightingale partner in Ghana is working hard but with success! He wants to share his experience so far and wrote to me:

Dear Carina,
November 3rd, 2019 will exactly be two years ago that you set your
foot unto the land of Ghana to sow a seed that should bring some sort
of happiness to school children in Ghana.

This seed is The Nightingale Mentoring Program. In fact the program
kicked off a year after you have left the country Ghana (2018) at
Ashesi University in Ghana. However, the program faced and still
facing financial problems from the beginning to the end of the program
calendar (May). But with determination, the first group of 15 mentors
and mentees respectively has come to an end in this year, 2019. Thank
you for this unique program that you have extended to us in Ghana.

Parents, school children (mentees) and the mentors are saying they
have learnt a lot from the program and have expressed their joy on the program.
Many parents have testified how it has brought a change in their children lives
After all, we were not able to make a big get- to- gather or
farewell, though we met to bring the program to an end successfully.

Attached to this are few pictures on the farewell day.

On this note, we are increasing the number of mentors and mentees
respectively from 15 to 25 in the coming kick-off day in October 2019
at the Ashesi University in Ghana.

Also, we are extending the program to the University of Ghana (
approval pending) may be this or next year .

Thank you once again.
Best , David Kwakye

Dear Nightingale friends,

Another semester is going to its end which means that 1000 mentors and 1000 children in our network have had the possibility to meet, learn and have fun together.
To meet people over different boarders and create good relations is even more important now than ever when populism, alternative facts, xenophobia, islamophobia, antisemitism and intolerance are spreading and people tend to build mental walls between themselves & others.
Diversity is all about all of us, and how we walk through this world together.

Each of us can make a difference but together we can make a change!

For students it is also an opportunity to meet others – different from themselves, as individuals and not as spoke person for particular religious- or ethnic groups. And I am convinced that meetings can change attitudes quicker than information ever can.  We all know when bonds of friendship are sealed prejudices often fall away.

Nightingale-mentoring is also the answer to EU strategy plan 2020
How to address early intervention to avoid that people fall into poverty remain trapped in ever more difficult and problematic socio-economic situations.

Nightingale is exactly that early intervention tool, aiming to prevent problematic socio-economic situations. Cause significant for many Nightingale children is that they lives in the suburb, were it is a higher unemployment, lower income (than average) and not seldom children have fewer adults with high education around them, and some of them live in a risk zone too. So ….I say invest  in these children ….

And I want to use one quotation from Paulo Freire who once said:
“The mentor task is a liberating task. It is not to impress upon or transfer own goal to the mentee. The mentor must instead make sure that mentee get ownership of his or her own history. In my opinion, it is the ethical obligation to support mentees’ perfect autonomy, freedom and opportunities to develop“.

News from our partners

Malmö
first a little reminder, those who had not sent us your Annual Report, please do it so we can compile it! It is a simple document to fill in, which is much easier to fill in. Load it down here .
We wish partners could fill in that document every year when the Nightingale year has ended. Then we will compile it and you can get the result in the autumn, when you start a new year. Ok?

IMPORTANT NEWS
The Network meeting next year will be held in Malmö, Sweden the 24-25th of February 2020, where we also will celebrate the Network 10th anniversary! Come and join us!
As decided in Bodö we will not have any Conference this year, that means we will now try a new concept to meet every second instead.

The board have decided to change the date for the membership in the Nightingale Network
The Nightingale fee will be paid at latest the 1 of September and applies from 1 of September – 31 of August.

Save the date the 24-25th of February 2010

NIGHTINGALE LINZ CELEBRATION

The 18th of June Linz celebrated its 13th anniversary with a gathering and party with Nightingale staff, children and parents, former mentors and children, University staff, sponsors and school staff as well others invited! ( So for example as you can see Sigi, who once worked with Karl when it started). 

 It was a fantastic day with lot of different speech, dancing, singing, eating and laughing- and a warm feeling inside! 

There were also an interview made by Dorf tv-program, before the party started. 
You can see the interview here. 

Austria, Wienna, Graz and Salzburg
We are working in the same way continuously and successfully throughout the year since 2010, without many changes in the concept, “your concept”. Since 2014 Nightingale has he same size (appr. 150 pairs per year, in Vienna, Graz and Salzburg) …  So far more than 1000 children and students benefitted from the programme. This time, in May 2019, around 120 couples are active, 40 started in April, 80 finish in June.  
A good news is, for 2019 we are getting the funds like before and we can go on wokring until 2020 …
:-)Kind regards, Günther

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology
we are happy to present a Master thesis (in English) by a Master student Helena Marten who has written about how coordinator/staff and teachers at participating school in Trondheim work to implement Nightingale in their own organisation.
Please load it down here

The Nightingale/Rossinyols Girona

Our Rossinyols Jordi Feu, and Òscar Prieto-Flores and partners from Girona University are participating in the IMISCOE Annual Conference:
UNDERSTANDING INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES which is held at Malmö University, the 26 – 28 June 2019.
In the evening before the Conference they invited Carina for dinner in Malmö. 😀

Now, best friends, I hope everybody will have a good and relaxing vacation!
Best wishes to all of you!

Dear Nightingale friends

Today it is the 8th of March, and I am thinking about the importance of education to develop our society. To let all children, also girls, have the opportunity of education is not ony an individual thing or an equality question it is a profit for the society. 

Malala has said: a child, a teacher, a book can change the world but I want to add also a mentor can make a difference. Don´t you agree? 

My name is Miriam, and I grew up in a small village in the south of Sweden. I moved to Malmö to study IMER (International Migration and Ethnic Relations) in 2001. During my studies I decided to apply to become a mentor in “Näktergalen” and was happy to be admitted and matched with a child. I learned a lot, and valued the time spent with my mentee highly. I carried the experience close to my heart as I started to work. At first as a youth leader, and eventually in a preschool. About a year ago, when I was invited to a gathering for former mentors in Näktergalen, I was so happy to again be connected to this amazing organization. Shortly after the gathering I found out that a new coordinator was needed. My heart started to beat a little extra and I really hoped I would be the right person for the job. Luckily, some certain persons believed I was, which gave me the opportunity to be a part of the organization once again, and giving me the chance to continuously learn more about the impact of mentoring. I am looking forward to the future, and to meeting you someday under the wings of the Nightingale network! Best wishes, Miriam

Research about The Nightingale mentoring program in Malmö
Nightingale in Malmö are happy to share the news : we have got research money from Malmö University to let one of our associated Professor, senior lecturer at Malmö University do a research study about what mentors and mentees in “Näktergalen Malmö” remember of the relation together. He has already begun the interviews with former children and mentors from the beginning when we started 1997 up to now…we will let you know more when we have more results. But it is very interesting.
As mentioned many times research can strengthened our program so whenever you have time don’t forget to load down and read research articles on our webpage “Research& Development”. The latest article is focusing on the impact on the mentors and if there is any link between mentoring and civic activism.

The Nightingale Day the 24th of February
Since the 24th our Nightingale Day was on a Sunday maybe partners didn´t celebrate the Day.. however it is not to late! And as decided next Nightingale Day will be held in Malmö, the day we will have our network meeting but also celebrate the Networks 10th anniversary!
In Malmö we celebrated this Nightingale Day by letting children and mentors come together on a little fruit-party and at the same time work with the map and try to find out where all Nightingales are cituated and sing all around Europe. They also search for information about each city/countries…and they learned a lot. Actually they wanted to know more about you.
One question, as earlier discussed is to let our tandems become Pen Pals withe each other. What do you say about that? Can one Malmö pair be pan pals with another pair in one of our cities ? Couldn´t it be something?

Greeting from our Nightingale Partners, all around Europe.
I think everyone is aware of the GDPR which means we will from now have difficulties with uploading photos of children and mentors without any agreement.

Annual Report
Thank you for those who have sent us the Annual Report. As soon as we have got all we will compile them and give you the results.

Welcome Petra Johansson, new coordinator in Nightingale Karlstad.

National Network Meeting in Kristianstad, Sweden
The Swedish Nightingales had a national meeting in Kristianstad with experience exchanged about: *interviews, *selection of children and mentors and matching
It was fruitful meeting and we discussed to continue but also deepen our understanding by reading more research in the area.
Malmö has also had two research meetings and discussed different research articles.
For those who requested the compiled results from different evaluations about mentoring. (Carina Sild Lönroth 2013)

Dear Nightingale friends,
some of you might have noticed we have had some problems with our webpage, but  it is hopefully working now. However I would like you to please check if  everything is correct. Please check your namne, e-mail addresses  and also if the link is correct to your own homepage or to the University pages etc.
I have noticed some of your pages are not updated.
The Nightingale manual (updated version) is now also uploaded. You will find it on our webpage. To be able to load it down you have to log in.  

Partner News

Hi, we are Marie Florence Moufack and Cecilie Ellefsen, and we are the new “Nightingalers” at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in Trondheim, Norway. We both work as Assistant Professors at the Department of Social Work.

Marie Florence has educational background within social work and sociology, and she has previously worked as a child counsellor. Her research areas concern development of practice studies in social work education, immigration and integration issues in Norway, and child welfare in a minority perspective.

Cecilie Ellefsen has education background within social work, sociology and literary science. Before she started working at the university, she work within community based dementia care and drug rehabilitation. Her fields of interests include pedagogy, development of teaching methods within social work, drug rehabilitation and child welfare

We are both very excited about joining the Nightingale international mentoring program!

Nattergalen – Norway 

Unfortunately Hedvig from the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and family Affairs in Norway will not  continue  as the  manager of the “Nattergalen team” and as a member of the Network. Instead she will work with research and development  linked to  this organisation. However she want to say goodbye to all of you and send thousands of thank´s to  the Nightingales network for our cooperation over the years. 
We want to thank her for her commitment and wish her good luck and the best. 

Our new member will be Marianne Bie.Marianne.Bie@bufdir.no.
Warm welcome!

Näktergalen Halmstad 
   

 In Nightingale Halmstad students meet refugees youth.  They have barbequed, made different things together and talked a lot. 
You can read more about the Halmstad project here  ( in Swedish) 

On the page “Network documents & Information” there is a candidate paper uploaded from a teachers student in Halmstad with the headline Teacher-empathy and mentoring. You can download it, but it is only in Swedish!

Nightingale Ghana 

I am happy to say we now have a new Nightingale project in Ghana. David, the project manager has sent us photos from their Kick-Off event. 

We wish them good luck and look forward to hear more about the progress.

Soon it is Christmas time and hopefully you will have some free days to  relax. But why not read all the interesting research done in our area “Mentoring”!
Or why not listen to a new NMRC ( National Mentoring Resource Center) podcast series on mentoring research Reflections on Research!  
It offers interviews with leading researchers and scholars about their youth mentoring research and how practitioners can use that information to improve their work with volunteers and youth. 
First episode is a interview with David DuBois and Carla Herrera about their recent long-term follow-up with youth who were mentored in the 1990s to see how they are now doing as adults.  I really recommend it! Click here to listen. 
There is also  short film clip about mentoring on a Mentoring-website. Maybe something to use as a tool to describe the potential of mentoring or as a recruitment tool. Click here if you are interested. 

Wish you all a Happy Holiday and a the best for 2019!
Carina 

Dear Nightingales,

BIGGEST thank to all of you who participated in the Network meeting and our 8th Nightingale Conference in Bodö!
We had two really good and fruitful days together.

On the page: “Network Meetings” you can find some photos from the Network meeting but also some documents as:

* the PPT-presentation Malmö made
* The New Annual Report
* The Network Minutes
*Partners feed-back at the Network meeting.

In the folder: “2018 Bodö Conference”you will find:
* some photos from the Conference
* one PPT-presentations (Viggo Krügers)
*  feed-back from those who participated in the Conference.

News

We are happy to announce that Nightingale mentoring program now also have a page on LinkedIn
It is still a draft and partner feed-back an ideas are very welcome. Would be nice if partners also could put this page as a link on their own LinkedIn presentation to be able to spread the idea of our Nightingale Network.

Partner News

Since Rossinyol Barcelona  now had made their two years period as board members, they will not continue to do so. BIGGEST thank you for your commitment!
At the same time we will like to present an interview by: Rossinyols from  Barcelona!

How and when did you start your Nightingale mentoring program?
A school in the district of Nou Barris in Barcelona knew the Nightingale project of the University of Girona and contacted the administrations to bring it to their school and neighborhood. The administration contacted us to carry out the project in the city of Barcelona.

During the 2010-2011 academic year we started with a pilot of 7 couples and 3 schools and institutes in the district of Nou Barris and Ciutat Vella, districts with a high migratory rate.

Since then, growth has been exponential for the good reception of the participating educational centers and the administrations. Currently, this year we will collaborate in 16 schools with 74 couples.

What inspired you to become involved in this field?
The nightingale project fits in Servei Solidari vision and values, and we have experience in projects supporting youth people.

Any special key aspects why you have succeed with?
Supporting always the volunteers, with a complete training about mentoring and also answering any doubt or situation that may appears in any moment of the process. Also give some freedom in the choice of activities to do with their couples.The good functioning of the project in recent editions has created stability and a consolidation of the project in the educational centers.

What did you learn from the mentors/mentees about their involvement?
The mentored people delicacy and respect. All the good practices and great ideas that they have in order to connect with the young people.By mentors, knowledge of different family realities, that young people are young, regardless of culture or origin.

What did they learn?
Knowing different environments, finding many common points starting at differences. Self-knowledge for both sides.Practices in the improvement of personal relationships and communicative skills.

What is the prime benefit and problems of the program?
According to two studies that carried out the latest editions of the project by Spora Sinergies Consulting: To the mentees§ The desire to learn is stimulated§ Strengthens your confidence and self esteem§ Linguistic competence is improved§ Approach is made to institutions such as the university and the real possibility of continuing higher education§ Interest in culture is also stimulated in the family environment To the mentors:§ New world visions are discovered and approaches to social problems§ Preparation to live in a multicultural society§ Communicative and relationship skills are encouraged

What is the prime benefit of cooperating in the Nightingale Network? 
Share studies, process designs, good practices and new ideas for improvement.Feeling of relevance in a common project much larger than Servei Solidari Nightingale Project.

Nightingale Ghana

The 8th September, 2018, Nightingale Ghana had their first training session at the Ashesi University in Ghana and the 21 st of October they had their Kick-Off start. We wish them the best and good luck!

Dear Nightingale friends,

it is approaching to our Network meeting and Conference in Bodö, the 10-12th of October.

I am happy to inform all of you that two partner-cities in Spain are registered, two from Sweden, almost all partners from Norway and the  Nightingale´s from Switzerland will come. Only partners from Austria and Iceland could not.
We are looking forward a lot meeting you all.  Bodö says warm welcome to all of you!
Remember it is in the north of Norway – bring warm clothes!

We want to show our gratitude and thank Bufdir. Norway who paid for the room for the network meeting!

Now you can upload the Agenda for the network meeting HERE.

Partner News

We now have the possibility to take part in the second evaluation by Norway.  Norway evaluation (in Norwegian). NOVA Rapport 2/2018

Evaluering av Nattergalen – en oppfølgingsstudie
By: Jorunn T.Jessen, Tonje Gundersen and Kamila A. Hynek

Over the year (2012 -2017) totally 838 children and students have participated in the Nattergalen programme.
The results show positive learning effects on both children and mentors.
For example:

• Four of 10 children (36 %) have developed their language ability and more than 52 % have developed their social abilities.
• The questionnaires also show that participating in the program has increased the student’s knowledge and insights.
  By participating in the Nightingale program eight of ten said they have increased their communications skill and at the same time got better insight into children life and living condition.

New partner Switzerland

We are happy to announce and would like to welcome our new partner Tamina Kappeler,from University of Teacher Education in Zug, Switzerland.

My name is Tamina Kappeler, I’m 33 years old and have just taken over the project management of Nightingale at the University of Teacher Education in Zug. I myself grew up as a third culture kid, moving between cultures within my family and moving to different countries during my childhood and youth. These experiences are probably what drew me to participate in a similar mentoring program during my studies, so I’m really excited to be part of the Nightingale Network in this new role supporting the students and children. I just moved back to Switzerland after working in Bolivia for three years and am currently employed at the Institute for International Cooperation in Education.

Nightingale Linz

Karl Wegenschimmel send greetings to us from the Nightingale in Linz who’s project is steadily increasing. They even got an email from a student who is registered to another  university ( the second University of Education in Linz)  who wrote that he had heard about the Nightingale and  was very interested in becoming a mentor. This can be an opener for many more students, Karl added.

Karls  also wrote that Margit Severa and he ( Karl) will take part in the CARN (Collaborative Action Research Network) conference held in Manchester from 25th to 27th of October. They will present their Nightingale research results regarding this topic “Daring and Doing”. We are looking forward hearing more about this.
Unfortunately they could not come to Bodö…but we wish them good luck!

Pair of the month

it would be nice if partners can send me, Carina, some photos and maybe a quotation or text from one mentor and child in your program, so we can load up different pairs in our network/ Nightingales. That means showing our Nightingale all around the world!
To begin I would like you to meet one pair in Nightingale LSS (a new pilot student where students meet seniors with some disabilities).

This pair have met since March and will continue to do so until December.
We have done so many nice things together, me and my student, some of them for the first time. For example we have been at the theater and when I told my friends at my accommodation they were really jealousy not having a student to meet like me.

See you in Bodö!

Dear Nightingal friends,
as you can read in this (but also in other) Nightingale newsletter partners get prizes, make research, delivers lectures etc. but most of you let people that otherwise would not met  meet. Meetings were you talk WITH other instead of ABOUT each other.
Meetings were  mutual learning take place and were you get access to each others life and living  and thinking.

For almost 21 years I have been working with the Nightingale mentoring program in Malmö. But I have also been working with you, some of you for more than 10 years and I am very happy  and proud to have you as partners.

Today schools have to face many challenges but some of these challenges they cannot solve themselves …they need cooperating partners  – Nightingale can be one – supporting children in their own development. 

Also our Universities have challenges to tackle in future society and these challenges need students who have got insight, understand, can reflect and analyze structures in our society.
As Freire once put it:

The fundamental task of the mentor is a libratory task. It is not to encourage the mentor’s goals and aspirations and dreams to be reproduced in the mentees (…) but to give rise to the possibility that the mentee become the owners of their own history. This is how I understand (…) the ethical posture of a mentor who truly believes in the total autonomy, freedom, and development of those he or she mentors

Partner news

Congratulations to Nightingale Linz who was awarded a prize for integration
of the town of Linz in May 2018  

In the town hall. From left: Then town councilor of integration affairs,
two Nightingale colleagues, Karl, and the town councilor of cultural affairs

“We are very proud of that and see it as an appreciation for our mentor students and their brilliant job they were/are doing.
The project is steadily  increasing. This year we were having about 30 tandems including students from Primary and Secondary Education.
Due to evaluations we see that all persons envolved like to join the project and find it extremely enriching in many pedagogical and educational aspects.”

Letter from Nightingale Switzerland

Our partner in Zug, Switzerland, Mireille will not be working at the Office of IZB and Nightingale Zug any longer but has written:

“Working for Nightingale has always been an extremely impactful experience for me. Our students have learnt a lot about their professional skills in regards of being a teacher in the future. It was very touching for me to see the positive effect of Nightingale on the kids but also on the parents. This year, all the parents were invited to our party at the end of Nightingale 17/18. Some of them told me how much their child has learnt during the course of this program. Especially one boy who was too shy to speak German one year ago, is now so much more confident and he started to enjoy using his newly learnt language. What else could we ask for…?
I wish you all the best in the hope that Nightingale can fly further on for many more years to come.
All my best regards to you and to Nightingale Network international.”

At the same time we want to welcome our new partner Tamina Kappeler who will take over the program.

Nightingale Vienna

     
A Conference: “9TH CHILD IN THE CITY WORLD CONFERENCE “
will be held in Vienna the 24 – 26 September 2018
Our Nightingale partner Günther Leeb from Nightingale Vienna/Kinderfrunde, will deliver a lecture together with Daniela Gruber-Pruner
Read more here

Ruiseñor Project

Friday, the 1st of June , we celebrated the ending of the course 2017/2018 of our Urretxindorra/Ruiseñor Project.
It was a successful and emotional event where children, students, parents, teachers, members of Institutions, musicians took part with the aim of celebrating the last course and a project that, year after year, connects more and more migrant children and their families with students contributing to their mutual personal and social wellness. See more

New research

A new Interesting research about component of the quality of relationships in mentoring. “A typology of school-based mentoring relationship quality: Implications for recruiting and retaining volunteer mentors”.

Click here and read more about it, or go to the website “Research and development” were you can find more research and articles.

Now I wish you all a nice summer and relaxing vacation, Looking forward meeting you all again in Bodö!

Don’t forget to register to our 8th Nightingale Conference.
The network meeting will be held the 10th of October at 4 o’clock.

Carina