MOTG Project synopsis

MOTG Research Project Synopsis

In collaboration with From the Roots Up

(For information on Movement on the Ground, visit: https://movementontheground.com/what-we-do.)

Topic/ Research Question

How effective is MOTG's program in achieving the following impact goal: 'Residents have greater prospects for their future when they leave the camp’?

Possible follow-up questions: Which aspects of the program work well in achieving this goal, and which aspects may need refinement? How can MOTG adjust or strengthen their model to better achieve this goal? Which aspects of MOTG’s model already yield success in achieving this goal? What are the things that enabled residents to find opportunities, or what did they find was missing when searching for opportunities?

Project synopsis

This project aims to give MOTG a clearer picture about the journey that former resident volunteers embark on after leaving the camps. In particular, it is interested in understanding the effectiveness of MOTG’s programs in achieving the 1 of its 5 core impacts as stated by the organisation’s theory of change: ‘Residents have greater prospects for their future when they leave the camp’. MOTG would like to learn about the other 4 core impacts, but only insofar as they affect ‘prospects’.

There are multiple angles from which to consider this area of impact. These include but may not be limited to skills honed, accreditation acquired, languages learnt, and mental health outcomes. A particular focus may be upon the access to jobs and education that residents were able to attain after leaving the camps, and how this was either impacted by the time with MOTG, or otherwise, what are the things that enabled residents to find opportunities?

The project will also seek to understand some of the challenges faced by resident volunteers after departing the camps and consider how MOTG can pre-empt these difficulties while remaining on the right side of the law (not supporting illegal migration).

Support required from MOTG

The primary support that will be required from MOTG will be assistance in getting in contact with former resident volunteers. This could entail reaching out to former coordinators and tapping into the networks of former volunteers as they are reached out to. It may be useful to build a (or several) Facebook/ Whatsapp group for dissemination of surveys/ arrangement of focus groups (subject to selected methodologies).

In addition to this, the team may require support from MOTG in the form of translation. This could come from existing resident volunteer translators who may be able to help translate survey questions into the languages that are most accessible to former resident volunteers.

The project team may also find that it may be helpful to conduct a survey/focus group with existing resident volunteers to understand the opportunities that they have to improve their ‘prospects for the future’ in their work with MOTG. This may be an additional avenue for which assistance from MOTG would be required.

Finally, the team will require a representative from MOTG that can direct the report at critical junctures. This is particularly important as this project has the potential for encompassing a very large scope, and it will be helpful to have someone to rein it in and point the team towards the research that MOTG is most interested in.

Possible report outcomes

This report will attempt to draw attention to residents volunteer’s actual prospects after leaving camp and the impact of MOTG on these prospects. In doing so, this report will highlight the elements of MOTG’s program that are working (thereby identifying missing proof points) as well as make evident what aspects of MOTG’s program need improvement so as to better prepare residents for the future and satisfy the core impact goal in question. The report may also endeavour to provide suggestions for how MOTG can better support its resident volunteer team in a way that prepares them for the future.

Having a better grasp of challenges faced by resident volunteers after leaving camps can inform organisational strategic planning, so this report will also aim to draw attention to these broader challenges.