<< Background >>Substance abuse is one of the biggest challenges EU societies are facing. According to EMCDDA, each year it is estimated that approximately more than 15 million Europeans use a class of drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamines, MDMA and opioids. At the same time, according to WHO, per capita alcohol consumption in the WHO European Region, including the European Union (EU), is the highest in the world. Eco-therapy is a formal type of therapeutic treatment, which involves doing outdoor activities in nature. It involves varying amounts of physical activity, depending on the type of programme. It can include activities that focus on:- working in nature, such as gardening- experiencing nature, such as physical activity in nature, cycling, etc. Eco-therapy, especially structured eco-therapy that incorporates aspects of psychotherapy and CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) is found to be effective in managing health disorders. Specifically, eco-therapy has multiple benefits, which drug & alcohol abuse counsellors can tap into with the appropriate training: - It significantly reduces stress levels (Park & Mattson, 2009) - It helps against PSTD (Hawkins et al., 2016)- It improves physical health (heart rate, obesity, etc.) - It reduces pain (Malenbaum et al., 2008)These benefits can have a tremendous impact in the rehabilitation process of people suffering from substance abuse disorders, as stress, PTSD and pain management are important factors for recovery (Rosenblum et al. 2003; Gielen N. et all. 2012).However, despite the research done in the field of eco-therapy and its impact on health disorders, this method is still not utilized in the field of substance abuse disorders in Europe. In this context, the project aims at supporting drug & alcohol abuse counsellors in their important role at supporting and guiding people with substance abuse disorders, by providing them with a new and innovative tool for recovery and rehabilitation, the eco-therapy methodology.<< Objectives >>The objectives of the project are: - to educate professionals and build on their capacities to better support people with substance abuse disorders- to introduce the innovative approach of eco-therapy to drug and alcohol abuse counsellors - to respond to the need for high qualified professionals in the field of drug & alcohol abuse- to support VET institutions and therapy centres at adopting eco-therapy courses and sessions (respectively) in their structures<< Implementation >>The following activities are going to be implemented by the project- Mapping of best practices in the field of eco-therapy - Interviews with professionals & trainers on eco-therapy and its potential- Study of current curricula / gap analysis- Creation of the curriculum outline, teaching methodologies and curriculum plans- Development of the educational material and interactive training resources for trainers - Development of the digital eco-therapy toolkit- Creation of the piloting methodological framework - Networking and identification of participants for the pilot implementation - Reporting on the pilot implementation - Development of the EcoTherapy MOOC<< Results >>The following project results are foreseen in the project: R1: Guide for therapy centers and VET institutions on eco-therapy for substance abuse disorders R2: Eco-therapy curriculum and Open Educational ResourcesR3: Eco-therapy digital toolkit for VET trainersLTTA: Eco-therapy resources training for partners’ staffR4: Eco-therapy MOOCR5: Eco-therapy training sessions for professionalsApart from the above-mentioned results, the project will also produce results relating to dissemination. In detail these are: - A project website & project information material, which will be used to promote and disseminate the project to stakeholders and the target groups, as well as to host (website) the project results and to ensure open access to them- A Dissemination & Exploitation strategy, which will set the basic scope, aims, objectives and channels of the dissemination of the project and the considerations for the exploitation of the project results. Lastly, at the end of the project the following outcomes are expected: - Enhanced capacity of drug & alcohol abuse counsellors to support people with substance abuse disorders - Increased use of the tool of eco-therapy in substance abuse disorders - Better accessibility to quality services for people with substance abuse disorders

"Instead of wasting time and getting demoralized during incarceration this project envisions prison staff to stimulate convicts to enhance their skills and be better prepared to tackle professional challenges when they have done their time. Prison staff represent an essential link between the static conditions of imprisonment and the challenging and volatile conditions of the labor market. We observe that in penal systems across Europe, women and ethnic minorities are less likely to be reached by these stimuli. Those populations tend to be much more isolated and much harder to communicate with. Prison staff and volunteers reaching out for those groups need to reinforce their communication skills to distinguish profiles and put forward the most suitable personal strategy to accompany the inmate on the path to a better future. To reach those objectives this project will in a first phase engage on a multinational survey to reach a factual approach on causality between international and local needs and priorities. This survey will gather statistics on demographics, conditions and dynamics of those vulnerable populations in EU-wide prison systems. This first phase will conclude in the mapping of priorities. These factual underpinned priorities will in a second phase be used to create a body of knowledge to coach staff into the specific domains they need to reinforce, to first help them to get a synoptic view of the challenges they are facing and according to this to direct their efforts. During the third phase the feedback from first and second phase will be used to popularize the experiences of the first contingent of staff to create a recruitment base for next generations. Recruitment bases and specifics for staff addressing those vulnerable groups, which at this point has proven their efficacity and efficiency, can be disseminated to all organizations and institutions of interest. During the final fourth phase, we will make a roundup of what has changed according to the priorities concluded in the survey during the first phase and so measuring the overall success of the project. A great advantage of this partnership is that it covers these topics in a full geographical European spread, from Portugal over central Europe with Spain and France through East Europe with Poland and Romania. Lifelong learning needs to become a priority in one of the most challenging environments in Europe - the prisons and the prison system. And what better change agent to use than the prison officer? They are the backbone of the prisons’ daily activities, spending good portions of their lives in the same environment and with the same conditions as the prisoners. EESPIP project aims to put in the spot light the potential of a prison officer to interact with women prisoners and minorities in a lifelong learning context, as a ""champion"" for a learning culture. In order to achieve this, we will have 3 major blocks of activities throughout the 3 years of project development and implementation: - first, we will do the research - setting the context, the numbers, the connections and understanding the perspectives of all major key players on what is the role of a prison officer in the learning process and education of women inmates and minorities. - second, we will develop the content. Training modules, EQF 4 or 5, revolving around units of learning outcomes that can be easily integrated in any initial or continuing VET program for prison staff. - third, we will pilot and multiply our developed content to professionals and management of the prison system as to the education environment and to adjust it as much as possible to the realities encountered by those professionals. All of this will be managed closely responding to effective quality levels, close monitoring of the partnership performance and disseminated at national and European levels."

Based on the observation that many parenting support actions in France and in other European countries are mainly addressed to mothers, and that fathers do not always feel legitimate in carrying out this participatory process aimed at increasing their skills and parental knowledge (for lack of information, for fear of being the only father, etc.), the regional federation of Rural Families wanted to try to provide a concrete response, through the establishment of a European project making possible for fathers of children the opportunity to fully assume their role as parents. The objective is to develop the degree of involvement of fathers in the life of their children and thus promote the family well-being and the development of each of its members. The originality of the approach lies in the playful format used in the context of this project. Indeed, the project aims to design an Escape Game for educational purposes intended for fathers, adapted to the content of the training to reinforce the constitutive skills of parenthood and to the stakes of this one.As the leader of the project, the regional federation of Rural Families of Pays de la Loire collaborated with the following organizations, from 5 countries of the European Union which represent, by their geographical distribution, the cultural and political diversity with which are addressed family issues: VsI Skudutiskio akademija - Lithuania, Formacion para el desarrollo e inserción - Spain, Brainlog - Norway, I and F Education and Development Limited - Ireland. The European “Positive Paternal Engagement” project pursued the following objectives: identify the needs and/or difficulties of fathers in their daily role in rural areas, define the parenting skills to be developed, particularly with fathers, design and test Educational escapes games on these specific skills.This project took place over 30 months, between October 1, 2018 and March 30, 2021. In accordance with the provisional project, and despite the health context of the year 2020, the PPE project was able to take place and achieve the objectives initially set. A kick-off meeting was held in Angers on November 26 and 27 2018 to officially launch the project activities. This meeting made it possible to get to know the participating organizations as well as the interlocutors better, thanks to multiple icebreakers and networking games.15 project developers met during the training week in Norway from June 17 to 21, 2019 in Flåm during which project developers from 5 countries were able to train in the exercise and challenges of gamification (also called gamification ). The participants, made up of professionals or volunteers interested in the theme of parenthood - more precisely, fatherhood - were able to familiarize themselves with the policies and actions to support parenting that existed in the consortium's partner countries. The training week was an opportunity to experience an Escape Game and then to start thinking about and preparing the Escapes Games to be carried out in each partner country, according to the contexts and specificities of each country. The participants learned from each other's mutual experiences, while discovering the social and societal realities of other European countries. They also developed linguistic and intercultural skills, validated by the delivery of a Europass passport.Once the training was completed, these parenting experts got down to the preparation (from the design phase to the phase of realization and experimentation of the game with an audience) of the Escape Game deployed in each country with families interested in spending a fun and enjoyable time together, while developing parenting skills. These experiments were thus able to bring together around 100 families in total, coming from predominantly rural areas.Finally, a final coordination meeting was offered via Teams on October 15, 2020, replacing the trip initially planned to Dublin (Ireland). This meeting made it possible in particular to finalize the production of the project result: the methodological guide aimed at compiling the experiments and knowledge acquired thanks to this project. The latter is aimed at parenting professionals who want to know more about the opportunity to use games to boost parenting skills in a more fun and innovative format. It is accessible in each language of the countries making up the consortium. Ultimately, the consortium was able to integrate these games into their program of activities for families, and disseminate this opportunity to their networks of local and associative partners (social services, associations, NGOs, European networks, etc.).

Background of the project:Different Open and innovative practices in the digital era became essential to adult education. Open education resources, Nano open Online Courses (NOOCs), have become the main means for adult learning.Today, open education is based on digital technology to support teaching and learning. It is very important because it allows to show video cases for professional development. NOOCs method is based on presenting short, very well structure-based video courses. It helps improving and extending the supply of high quality learning opportunities, tailored to the needs of individual low-skilled or low-qualified adults. At this point, ADU-NOOC assures the recognition of the existing competences by using assessment tool and encourages development of new competences for low skilled people in Europe. The objectives reached during the project: 1. an assessment tool for existing competences recognition for low skilled people has been developed;2. increased motivation and disparities reduction in learning outcomes of low skilled adults by providing digital program based on NOOCs method for new skills and competences development.Target groups: low skilled, low qualified people and disadvantaged groups. The following activities has been carried out during the project:Creation of the assessment tool for self-assessment of low skilled and qualified adults;Creation of the training program to develop competences of low skilled and low qualified adults;Creation of the methodology for adult's educators on running training program and assessment tool;One-day national workshop for adult's educators has been organized in all partner countries (LT, GR, IE, ES);National multiplier events for stakeholder and local communities has been organized in all partner countries;European Conference in Lithuania in August 2019 has been held successfully;The learning/training activity has been organized in 2018 in Greece.Methodology used in carrying out the project:While carrying out the project, face to face and online meetings with the partners has been organized. Discussions about the project management and implementation has been held during these meetings; All received feedback from partners was taken into consideration.Results and impact envisaged, the potential longer term benefits:The project outcomes (O2, O3), based on the project partners’ best experience increased the number of adults with new competences. The research done before the project, showed that adults educators are not always ready for working with low skilled groups and for thus the project helped them to develop new necessary competences. Qualified adult educators with the help of the ADU NOOC motivated and will motivate in the future large number of low skilled groups to get skills and competences and to participate more actively in learning and later in the labor market.

A full transition to Circular Economy is not possible without professionals with a new way of understanding the economy, a comprehensive knowledge of the circular business models and new skills, tools and competences for developing circular strategies. Business leaders specially trained are essential to drive this shift. The job market needs to be prepared for a transition that is already taking place and a specific Circular Economy training would be a key instrument to boost the employability, self-employment and meet the new labour market demand.For that purposes, the objectives pursued are:- Identify the current state of development of Circular Economy in the EU zone.- Identify areas with more potential of self-employment and job profiles required.- Promote Circular Economy showing the opportunities this model offers and the risks for our society of a linear model continuation.- Endow a range of young adults with a deep understanding of the Circular Business Models and tools to initiate and finance their business in the context of Circular Economy.To reach these objectives, U-eco target groups are:- Entrepreneurs interested in starting a business in a Circular Economy Context.- Professionals interested in learning about Circular Business Models in order to:o Acquire new skills and competences that can improve their curricula, aligning it to the needs and opportunities that the labour market will offer.o Bring their current business activities closer to a circular approach.The project is gathering partners from 5 EU countries (Belgium, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden).The expected results are:- Current state of development of Circular Economy in the EU zone including:- A list of the main problems connected to a linear economy.- A report about the areas with more potential of entrepreneurship in a circular context including data as: market scope, growth rate, costs structure and profitability.- A list of the SMEs capacity gaps and their potential for market development.- A directory of barriers regarding rules and regulation.- A SWOT analysis of the identified business solutions.- A set of business strategies for entrepreneurship in a Circular Economy context.- A catalogue of 15 job profiles that will be demanded in the next decade to meet the circular labour demand and a set of skills and competences connected to those profiles.- A training system composed of 12 training modules/pills, which will include a useful toolkit for guiding the entrepreneurship process.- A set of 12 case studies and good practices divided in the areas previously identified as those with more potential for business opportunities.- An online content of open access with all the Intellectual Outputs developed during the project available in all partners’ languages (EN, SW, ES, RO, PL and FR).- Social networks (Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn)