The context of our project is represented by the social meeting places, both public and private, where people experiencing fragility (in our project, especially asylum seekers, refugees, homeless, and Roma gypsy women) meet “social workers”; these workers often complain about not having adequate competences and skills to manage efficiently this kind of meetings, a situation which negatively affects also the organisations in which they work. This proposal could constitute a pilot experience promoting multidisciplinary learning and social inclusion under the key topic of peer and community mediation. For “community mediation” we do not only mean mediation taking place in neighbourhoods, but a wider process consisting of various actions (cultural, social, educational, etc.) whose objective is to work for a specific community (being it a prison, a hospital, a University, a private organisation, etc.) and, within it, to move from mere coexistence to real social intercourse. These actions should create the conditions by which such communities can explore new ways of preventing, managing, and transforming conflicts, not only thanks to the intervention of an external third party (professional mediator), but empowering themselves in the process of being trained in peer mediation and acting as peer mediators. Peer mediation is widely known and applied in schools where children and young people help their peers manage conflicts in a constructive and non-violent way (although not so much in the Countries participating in aCT). There are, though, other kinds of peer mediation being experimented, for example in prisons, also by the Coordinator.The general objective is to promote mutual awareness on the part of both university students, faculty and organisations of the sector in order to develop competences and skills in community and peer mediation; such development could help current and future professionals to foster their own employability, as well as their interpersonal and socio-educational development. The project takes into account previously funded EU and other international projects, promoting the design and the creation of innovative outputs in the field of peer and community mediation.As to participants, the project foresees the following: university students (Economics, Nursing, Pedagogy, Social work, Tourism, Translation) and faculty, professionals of the relevant sectors (see above, but not exclusively), volunteers and potential or actual users of mediation services (including disadvantaged people).To reach this goal, the aCT partners will carry on several activities, ranging from international learning and training proposals (a foundational peer and community mediation course, a peer and community mediation summer school and a training-for-trainers module) to local or national-scale ones, such as all the research tasks leading to the design and the development of the community and peer mediation research study, the testing of the peer and mediation pilot course and the relevant trainers’ toolkit.The methodology used is based on action-research theory and practice, as well as on the basic principles of mediation: involvement of as many key-actors as possible, listening to their needs and perceptions, make potential conflicts emerge and turn them into a growth opportunity, fostering self-reflexivity, and empowering participants in order to make themselves heard and to be trained to act as peer mediators. This methodology will be reflected into the aCT peer and community mediation handbook.One of the main intangible outcomes will be interprofessional and intersectorial exchanges of competences and skills, as the ones foreseen in this project, that could help future and present workers to tackle and prevent conflicts, to communicate in a positive way and to consider diversity (generational, cultural, gender, etc.) as an asset.The expected impact will be a multi-level one: nevertheless, the first and most numerous beneficiaries will be the students participating in the experience, whose active and horizontal participation in all the phases of the project is here explicitly foreseen; secondly, the partner and non-partner Universities, that could introduce the outputs into their curricula.The long-term impact on other non-academic organisations and public local authorities will be based on the positive effects of the project on the mediation market: with an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the peer and community mediation approach and in synergy with other mediation sectors that are more developed in the three partner countries and cities (especially, family, cross-cultural, and legal mediation), mediation services could be designed and thought of as an asset for any recipient, and something that accommodates economic concerns when it is conceived as internal organisational and peer mediation.

The VRSciT project consists of conducting a virtual educational visit to locations of cultural, social and natural interest of each partner involved, from Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Lithuania, by using Virtual Reality (VR) immersion and interaction techniques to provide users a unique learning experience. VR technology adoption removes the barriers of remote visualization of environments making possible for everyone to experience a high educational value through digitalization. The VRSciT project specifically aims to explore new approaches in educational tourism, such as 3D modeling together with 360º immersive VR environments to build innovative virtual educational scenes, from four different countries. To achieve this objective, several products will be developed by the partners, namely: (i) Share a literature review of VR technology.(ii) Elaboration of an interactive virtual reality experience - 'VRSciT SPOT´.(iii) Production of an Online Web Toolkit. (iv) Training events to share best practices using VR technology in educational tourism(v) Multiplier event to promote the project's resultsPeople who experience the VRSciT SPOT will be able to make an immersive trip, not only in the landscapes of the Northeast region of Trás-os-Montes, but also to travel through the landscapes of the regions of the other partners, thus increasing the visibility of all the contemplated regions and a clear confirmation of the European-wide partner entities. Providing access to scientific information and educational activities for people with different social backgrounds will allow less favored people, such as people with less economic power or physical disabilities, to access recent technologies, promoting inclusion by allowing unrestrained access and interaction with technology that otherwise would not be possible. So the target group of VRScriT project is the adult learners that visit all the partners and will have access to scientific and educational tourism with new interactive learning environments. The project will produce a broad impact through the delivery and the publication of the Intellectual Outputs, the implementation of training events, and the dissemination plan. The continuous innovation of the Institutions in terms of the touristic and scientific offer, one of the vital components of the European Union's policy for lifelong adult learning, will, in general, enable the visitors to: (i) in the specific field of adult education:improve the basic skills of individuals by managing new technology and information;deep/consolidate specific skills (in terms of cultural literacy, science and technology, European citizenship, interculturality, and community development);integrate of experienced knowledge in their lives;promote language skills;improve personal motivation and critical reflection. (ii) in the creation of new opportunities:disseminate of best international practices (through the creation of local and regional dynamics that enhance technological innovation opportunities and also in the development of entrepreneurial and sustainable projects for the community in general);stimulate the development of innovative activities (contribution to the expression of scientific and technological based companies);stimulate the construction of a more active, responsible and interventional citizenship (creation/reinforcement of individual cognitive, social and cultural background, in a structured and oriented way).The consortium believes that this project will enable the target groups, to not only acquire and consolidate skills at the level of adult education, but also to improve their skills in European citizenship, interculturality, employment, and community development, emphasizing the promotion of learning, digital literacy, debate and sharing of scientific and technological knowledge.The whole project idea is based on a transnational comparison of approaches, issues, solutions and good practice in the implementation of innovative strategies for educational tourism using informal innovative procedures. Furthermore, it is expected that each partner will have the opportunity to take advantage of research in the introduced novelties and build on the project’s achievements.After completion, the project will deliver guidelines for the design of future collaborations and will present the capabilities that the advanced technologies of Virtual reality are offering in bringing modern technology to society. This way the project will make a valuable contribution to the modernization of Europe Digitalization using focusing on an informal pedagogical approach combined with digital technologies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational systems worldwide, leading to the near-total closures of all formal learning settings. This is a good time to expand opportunities in non-formal and informal settings. xFORMAL project aims at creating a framework in which science and technology meet citizens of all ages in an informal intergenerational educational setting, based on a platform and a game devoted to the common European cultural heritage. The key ingredients of the project are: the history of ancient Europe (partly taught in formal education), the landscape (typically, a non-formal learning base), the heutagogic approach, the virtual/augmented reality (generally recognised as an informal-learning tool), and the sharing of knowledge and experiences between SSH and ICT researchers in an intersectoral setting. The proposed actions target the creation of new partnerships in local communities to foster improved education for all citizens following the heutagogy approach. This project aims at supporting a range of research, dissemination and exploitation activities based on collaboration between educational providers, associations, enterprises, and civil society in order to become an agent of community well-being; encourage families to become real partners in educational life and activities; actively involve professionals from enterprises and civil and wider society in bringing real-life projects to the civil society; and encourage policymakers to the mainstream of good practices and insights into policies, and hence sustainability and impact beyond the lifetime of funding. It is expected that in the short term the development of xFORMAL partnerships between academic and non-academic institutions will contribute to a more scientifically interested and literate society and citizens of all ages with a better awareness of and interest in a cultural common heritage. In the long-term, it will contribute towards ERA objectives of increasing the number of scientists.