Knowledge Mobilization Toolkit for Encouraging Youth Volunteering

This plan aims to encourage organizations and the community to provide opportunities for youths to engage in volunteering activities. It highlights issues of unemployment and how volunteering can benefit both youths and the organization. The plan targets policy makers, decision-makers, children and youth, and the general public. Strategies include conferences, workshops, and meetings. The plan will be executed within 6 months to 1 year and evaluated through questionnaires and measuring the number of students participating in volunteering programs.

KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION TOOLKIT
Doing more with what you know
Knowledge mobilization plan
INSTRUCTIONS: This form can help you think through different ways to mobilize
knowledge and create a solid plan for moving ahead. If you are considering multiple
target audiences, you may want to complete individual plans to guide specific activities
for each of these knowledge user groups. Or check out Appendix A for an alternate way
to sort through your various strategies to reach different audiences.
Need some inspiration? More information? Look for this icon to check out more tools and resources.

KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION TOOLKIT
Doing more with what you know
What knowledge do you want to mobilize? What are the main messages that you want to
share?
Why are these messages meaningful? Why should others see or use this product?
Why are you doing this? What impact are you trying to have with your KMb efforts?
! change attitudes
! change behaviour or practice
! engage stakeholders
! fulfill funding requirements
! generate interest or awareness
! influence policy action
! share knowledge, experience or tools
! validate, legitimize or defend a position
! other:
Who are your project partners? Who else is involved in mobilizing this knowledge and
evidence?
! caregivers and families ! government partners
WHAT
WHY
WHO
COLLABORATE
i would like to encourage organizations and the community to provide opportunities for youths to engage in
volunteering activities. In the product, i highlighed issues of unemployment and how voulnteering can
benefit both youths and the organization.
The massages are meaningful in that it changes the perception of volunteering. The target audience will be
able to transform their attitudes and incorporate volunteering as an important component for tackling youth
employment among the Canadian population.
Volunteering is not new concept yet it has not received much attention. The youths have not
realized the importance of volunteering in organization and community programs to sharpen
their social and professional skills. This product aims at changing attitudes and behavior among
the youths while influencing corporations to change their policies to provide framework for
incorporating volunteering programs in their organization.
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔

KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION TOOLKIT
Doing more with what you know
What do your partners bring to the table? How will they assist with planning, doing and
evaluating your KMb efforts?
Not all partners will be involved at the same point in time or to the same degree. Some
partners may be involved from idea formulation and straight through to the end of your
initiative, while others may only be involved at certain points in time. How will your
partners be engaged in your KMb efforts?
Who are your champions and key mobilizers? Who will help support and promote your
KMb efforts?
Who are you trying to reach and engage? Who are you targeting?
! caregivers and families
! children and youth
! decision-makers
! general public
! media
! policy-makers
! research funders
! service providers
! other:
WHO
CONNECT
The community and the government partners as well as the service providers will implement volunteer
programs. The youths on the other hand will be encouraged to actively participate in various volunteering
programs available within and outside the country. All partners will meet at the end of implementation of the
project and suggest measures to better improve volunteering among the youths in various organizations.
At the initial state of formulating ideas, all partners are expected to engage in brainstorming to raise ideas
on how volunteering can help solve unemployment among the youths. However, when it comes to
formulation of the policies, experts from public and private sectors will be engaged. During implementation
of the project, community and government partners are expected to be in the forefront in providing
volunteering programs while youths are expected to engage in these activities.
My greatest champion is the government since it has resources and machinery to ensure that KMb efforts
are implemented. They are able to formulate laws and policies that positively affect volunteering in the
country. In this way, government is able to provide conducive environment for businesses to incorporate
youths in their daily activities as volunteers. The volunteering center are also great mobilizers as they have
adequate experience that can help bring change in society and corporate sector.
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
I am targeting the general public to sensitize them on the importance of the said issue in relation to youth
unemployment. The media will help in passing the message since the brochures will also be delivered to
them. The policymakers and decision makers are targeted being targeted since they can influence
processes in organizations. The youths also need to change behavior and attitudes towards volunteering.

KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION TOOLKIT
Doing more with what you know
How will you get your message(s) across? What strategies do you think will help you to
reach your intended knowledge users best? Keep in mind that these are just ideas. Get
creative!
PRODUCTS
! blog
! case study
! e-newsletter
! educational material
! fact sheet
! FAQ
! handbook
! journal article
! magazine article
! newspaper article
! podcast
! PowerPoint presentation
! press release
! promotional material
! reference list
! report
! research summary
! success story
! toolkit
! video
! webinar
! website content
! wiki
! other:
EVENTS
! annual meeting
! awards ceremony
! conference
! debate
! forum
! interactive workshop
! lunch and learn
! media event (e.g. TV or radio segment)
! panel
! presentation
! symposium
! training session
! other:
NETWORKS
! chat room
! community of practice
! discussion board
! listserv
! online forum
! social media
! other:
Why are you choosing these strategies? Why are they best for you? Consider what
resources you have available, how complex the information is that you are trying to
HOW
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
The message wiill be shared by distributing broncures to varios partners who will then share the messages
through conferences, workshops, media events through the social networks.

KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION TOOLKIT
Doing more with what you know
What resources will you need for your KMb efforts?
! budget
! honoraria
! information technology
support
! materials
! meeting expenses
! personnel or human resources
! time
! travel
! volunteers
! other:
When do you intend to implement this plan? Ensure that your timelines make sense for
both the target audience as well as the mobilizers. Are there other things going on at that
time that will have an impact on your plan?
Take a quick look back at why you are doing this. Do you feel that you have the time and
resources that you will need to achieve your intended impact? Check out the KMb plan
outline (Appendix A) to explore your timeline.
How will you know if you have achieved your goals?
WHEN
MEASURE
✔
✔
✔
✔
These resources helps in developing KMb efforts and sharing the messages contained in the product.
materials are required for printing the brochures, while finances are required for taking care of travel and
interactive forums.
This plan requires longer time to be fully implemented. It is expected to be itiated between 3 months and
one year depending on the complexity of organizations involved. This is becasue the companies need to
meet with their key stakeholders before initiating volunteering programs in their organizations.
I think I have adequate resources to implement the plant considering that government is ine of the major
partner supporting this program.
✔
✔
I will conduct survey on few organizations targeting employees and management as the research
participants. They will be required to share the success story of the program by filling in questionnaire.

KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION TOOLKIT
Doing more with what you know
! use indicators (# intend to use, # adapting the information, # using to inform
policy/advocacy/enhance programs, training, education or research, # using to
improve practice or performance)
! partnership/collaboration indicators (# products/services developed or
disseminated with partners, # or type of capacity building efforts, social network
growth, influences, collaborativeness)
! practice change indicators (intent or commitment to change, observed change,
reported change)
! program or service indicators (outcome data, documentation, feedback, process
measures)
! policy indicators (documentation, feedback, process measures)
! knowledge change (quantitative & qualitative measures)
! attitude change (quantitative & qualitative measures)
! systems change (quantitative & qualitative measures)
How will you collect this information? How will this information be analyzed?
Take a moment to reflect on these guiding questions for evaluation.
! Who will be most affected by the evaluation of this product/initiative? What kind of
information do they need?
! How can you make your evaluation information most valuable and useful?
! Which evaluation questions are critical to produce useful and meaningful
findings?
! What internal/external factors do you need to consider in evaluating your KMb
efforts?
! How have similar products/initiatives been evaluated in the past?
! Will you focus on process or outcome information?
! Will you use quantitative measures, qualitative measures, or a mix of both?
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Useful indicators are most efficient in these case as it depicts usefulness and changed view among
management and volunteering employees. One of the change that is expected is new no of programs
adopted by organizations for volunteering as well as the number of people participating in these programs.
Policy indicators, attitude change and the systems change will also inform the rate of success of KMb
efforts.
The information will be collected by using questionnaires that will be administered to research participants
and data gathered analyzed using SPSS computer software

KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION TOOLKIT
Doing more with what you know
Appendix A: KMb plan outline
INSTRUCTIONS: Use this table to plan out more complex knowledge mobilization efforts with more than one target audience.
GOAL:
Audience
Who are you trying to reach?
Is there a tailored message for
this audience?
Strategy
How will you get your
message(s) across? What
strategies will work best for
this audience? Consider how
each strategy links to your
overall goal.
Target
How many conferences and
workshops do you want to
deliver? How many users do
you want to reach?
Budget and
resources
E.g. honoraria, information
technology, materials, meeting
expenses, personnel or
human resources, timing,
travel, volunteers, etc.
Timeline
When do you anticipate
executing your strategies?
Evaluation
What impact are you trying to
achieve?
How will you know if you have
achieved your goals?
Volunteering is not new concept yet it has not received much attention. The youths have not realized the importance of volunteering in
organization and community programs to sharpen their social and professional skills. This product aims at changing attitudes and
behavior among the youths while influencing corporations to change their policies to provide framework for incorporating volunteering
programs in their organization.
Policy makers conferences 5 information
technology and
meeting expenses
within 6 months adoption of new
policies.
Questionnaires will
be administered
Children and youth workshops several, that is more
than 10
timing and
volunteers
1 year Number of students
participating in
volunteering
programs
Decision-makers conferences and
workshops
5 information
technology and
meeting expenses
between 6 months
and 1 year
change in company
processes and
perception regarding
volunteering
Genereal public meetings severally, over 10
times
meeting expenses up to 1 year change in behavior
and perception

KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION TOOLKIT
Doing more with what you know
Audience Strategy Target Budget and
resources
Timeline Evaluation
Media
Service providers