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More than 20 dogs have been trained to provide therapy for sick or disabled children at the Motol Faculty Hospital in the Czech Republic. The idea behind the scheme came from a group of young people who are part of a global programme designed to help develop life skills among youth.

The Make A Connection programme was established in April 2000 and is a partnership between Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone technology company and the International Youth Foundation (IYF), a Baltimore-based organisation that works with public and private bodies in more than 70 countries around the world.

The programme operates in about 25 countries including Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Germany and the US. The participants are males and females aged between 16 and 24 and more than 250,000 people have been directly involved in the programme. It is estimated that more than 2m people within communities have benefited from Make A Connection’s projects and initiatives.

Martin Sandelin, vice-president for corporate social responsibility at Nokia, says: “There are local programmes in all countries and what unifies them all is that they are youth focused and the core objective is to build life skills – it’s not about offering formal or vocational education. It’s about developing the social glue within a peer group or community. It’s also a long term strategic programme – each project lasts for a minimum of three years.”

Life skills can include communication skills, creative thinking, respecting others, team work and developing self-confidence. Local areas have differing needs and so the projects vary considerably. In Chile, for example, 550 disadvantaged youth are receiving life skills training; in South Africa unemployed college graduates receive training designed to help improve areas such as self-confidence, teamwork and motivation.

In eastern European countries the emphasis is on voluntary and community work. More than 2,000 young people have participated in Make A Connection since it was launched in the Czech Republic in April 2002. Anna Oncová, the country’s Make A Connection co-ordinator, explains how the hospital dog project (called Not Just People Can Help) started: “A young girl who wanted to study medicine had the idea of offering therapy through dogs.”

In April 2005, Nokia announced an additional $23m investment in Make A Connection over the next five years. Mr Sandelin says the programme is entering a new phase. “We’re looking at what is the long term impact of this type of programme on young people and their communities. We want to see what is best practice and share this between the projects and national government organisations.”

Brandeis University in the US has been commissioned to conduct an in-depth study of the outcomes of the Make A Connection programme. Andrew Hahn, a professor at the university, is leading the research.

This involves both pre- and post-testing more than 2,000 young people in 16 projects around the world to measure the impact the programme has had on their behaviour, attitude and achievement. An additional 500 people will take part in a retrospective survey, looking back at how Make A Connection has affected them.

Brandeis is expected to publish its initial results this spring, but there is already evidence that Make A Connection has had a significant impact in many communities.

“In the Philippines, where the work has involved youth leadership and training, we find that since the programme, many people have become self-employed or gone into further education or continued voluntary work. Many young people report that their confidence and self-respect has been boosted as a result of taking part,” says Mr Hahn.

Tom Leavitt, a consultant who is working on the Brandeis research project, says that in countries such as the Czech Republic, there has not been a tradition for civil engagement. “In fact, volunteering used to have negative connotations as a result of the way things were back in the days of being a communist state. But now, you’re seeing voluntary and inter-generational help growing as a result of Make A Connection.”

Ms Oncová agrees: “The young people say that the programme has helped their creativity and team work. But the biggest impact is that it has given them self-confidence. They say ‘now I know what I can do’.”