Migration to and inside EU is salient now, which means integration in today’s Europe is of high importance. The public sphere in Europe is facing alarming signals of intolerance growing. The three partner organisations in Richness in Diversity already have ongoing work to empower young immigrants with diverse backgrounds, and this project aims at developing their skills in diversity management by sharing best practices as well as including the experiences and work of 12 young participants with immigrant background. Their participation will add an extra dimension to the capacity building of the partner organisations as well as creating an arena for the participants to express their view of today’s Europe and to get tools and experience to take ownership over and addressing the obstacles they face in European society. The project Richness in Diversity will include three transnational meetings and an ongoing online dialogue between the partner organisations to share their best practices on diversity management, and to develop a small E-Booklet to disseminate to other organisations in the field. The project also includes three mobility programs including teaching/learning/training activities for 12 young participants with diverse backgrounds. The participants will benefit from exchanging ideas with young people in similar situations. Comparing the Danish, Swedish and Portuguese contexts will make space for more creative and critical thinking in regards to the designs of the campaign projects that all youth participants will carry out, so that those youth can become drivers of change for better and creative integration. The activities will include interactive participatory approach using non-formal education tools. The project is based on a critical reflection of the topics Diversity and Integration. The methodology which will be applied is participatory based on the idea that all groups need a platform to air their views and the issues they are facing as a group to be able to feel as a part of society and of democracy. In order to foster democracy, all groups in society need to both feel involved and that they have a level of ownership over their society. The impact on the partner organizations will be a deeper understanding of their target group(s), higher capacity in reaching and communicating with their target groups(s), and access to more knowledge and experiences through the E-booklet. The participants will get tools manage a project, will be able to critically analyse their situation as well as managing solutions and spreading their image of being a young immigrant in Europe. To connect youth across national boundaries through seminars and project work also creates a sense of ownership and recognition of similar backgrounds and the issues they are facing, as well as the opportunity to discuss solutions with others in a similar situation. Above this, the participants also get to spread their stories and solutions to other youths with immigrant background, whom can recognize themselves in the stories that are told.

<< Objectives >>The project aims to support prospective and current entrepreneurs in rural areas in strengthening their businesses and business ideas by transferring knowledge related to circular and resource efficient business models and digitalization.Further, strengthen connections among entrepreneurially minded people in rural areas, support availability of training around Circular economy, promote 'Green Responsible Entrepreneurship' and digital skills.<< Implementation >>The project intends to develop a training for enhancing digital & green skills of rural entrepreneurs in regards to CE and resource efficiency.The foreseen phases are:Preparation: Gathering the information for building the training.Structuring & Brainstorming: Designing the training methodology and topics.Developing: Creating the training in an attractive, user-friendly, digital format.Testing: Adjusting the training according to participants' feedback.Outreach: Promotion & dissemination.<< Results >>Expected results include: 60 Surveys and 3 focus groups to assess needs of rural entrepreneurs6 inspiring Circular Economy business modelsBrainstorming activity with 9 staff members1 Virtual tour of Community Cafe in LithuaniaDevelopment of at least 6 modules in an accessible and appealing digital format1 Training activity for 6 trainersValidation of modules & methodology with 30 participants & improvement of material3 Open House Events with a minimum of 45 participants in totalOutreach

"In a time when pollution and environmental crisis are on a steep rise, there comes an immediate need to think of solutions which not only help the environment sustenance but also educate and work with young generations, as they are the ones who will have influence on the environment in the future. Drawing from the idea that environmental and social challenges can be transformed into opportunities for youth employment, our ""Empowering Eco-entrepreneurship Start-ups"", or Eco-Hub, project aims to empower the environmental and social performance among young people. The project promotes education on entrepreneurship, innovative thinking, and social responsibility with an objective to trigger inclusion and increased employment opportunities of youth. In that way, it contributes to ecological and economic growth by raising awareness and intellectual capacity of budding entrepreneurs who are inclined towards having a business idea, or already have one.Three partners: Crossing Borders (civil society organisation in Denmark), SwIdeas (medium sized enterprise in Sweden) and Kalevan Lukio (highschool in Finland) have been working in close collaboration in order to meet the above mentioned objectives. Each partner established a knowledge-resource hub in their respective locations, with the main hub in Crossing Borders, where most project activities took place. In these hubs, 7 workshops and multiplier events were offered to young people, who receive educational workshops on environment and eco-eco-enterpreneurship innovation, as well as mentoring sessions. These sessions provided rich opportunities to learn about the necessary and logical steps aspiring entrepreneurs need to take on their way to building a successful enterprise, as well as a platform for practical exercises, where they can put their knowledge in use.The project activities included four multiplier events, one in each partner country as well as Blended Mobility of Young People which was moved from Finland to Sweden. Followed by the production of first three intellectual outputs which focus on providing guidance in the process of building an enterprise, we disseminated knowledge and information about Eco-Hub as well as spread awareness about the most pressing environmental problems. The purpose was to create a platform for international youth to share their ideas and explore the econ-entrepreneurial field. We organized sessions, during which young aspiring entrepreneurs had an opportunity to participate in practical exercises, such as simulation games. In addition to multiplier events, we organized several workshops in our offices in Humlebæk, where we invited well-established eco-entrepreneurs to share their knowledge and experience in the entrepreneurial field.As a result, we got a group of young people aspired and motivated to engage in eco-entrepreneurship through several international meetings during which participants visited and learnt about green innovative practices in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Furthermore, we made a practical use of the produced educational materials during coaching sessions (group and individual). In addition, we managed to create space in which several relationships between aspiring and well-established entrepreneurs were established. As a result of those, a network of eco- and social- entrepreneurs and youth has been growing since, and a wide range of sustainable initiatives have been supported. All in all some 800 youth have directly benefitted from the project. Food institutions were added to the project as associate partners including the Malmø University, Malmø Sustainability Center, Espergæde High School and a green solution company in Tampere. Extra green entrepreneurship theme day was held at Sct. Knuds High School in Odense on 11 April for 150 students, 8 teachers and 17 exchange students from the US with two teachers plus 16 Crossing Borders global studies students at Krogerup Højskole. The 16 students came from Denmark, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, UK and US."

The COVID-19 outbreak had tragic effects over our societies and economies, leading to the loss of a number of jobs and hindering opportunities for many young people to integrate the labour market in the near future. It also urged a worrying rise in the amount of waste disposal of single use materials such as PPE, as much as 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves every month (Scientific American, 2020). And, while reduced traffic in European cities have led to a drop in air pollution, this is likely to quickly rebound unless lasting structural changes are created (Carbon Brief, 15 Apr 2020). Thus, while COVID-19 forced our societies to a halt, it also posed an opportunity to challenge systemic unsustainable practices. But, in order to start reverting environmental degradation, our societies must implement long-term measures, which fundamentally demand AWARENESS BUILDING, MINSET CHANGING, and the CREATION OF SUSTAINABLE AND CIRCULAR ALTERNATIVES. In this matter, the CREATIVE SECTOR has the potential of offering solutions to promote circularity in the use of resources. Additionally, EDUCATION is crucial to transparently disseminating knowledge and to prompting the change of mentalities in an enduring manner. Finally, educating today’s YOUTH and involving them in the process of creatively conceptualizing circular practices is key to empowering youngsters to lead the journey towards a more circular future.In this context, YOUCREATE acknowledges that the CCIs represents the entering sector for many young people into the labour market, and that the triggering of a green and circular economy demands creatively developing alternatives to unsustainable practices. It also recognizes the role of EU projects as innovation drivers, however identifying the wasteful character of some practices of EU project conceptualization, management and dissemination.YOUCREATE therefore builds on the notion that CREATING BRIDGES between the CCI and the CE can be resourceful to improving the future of our planet, societies and youth. The project perceives that this is especially true when targeting youth from different cultural backgrounds, given their creative and innovative potential, and when empowering them with educational tools and connecting them with the field of EU projects. This bridge is also opportune to building awareness and knowledge about CE, CCI and EU PROJECTS, while DEVELOPING SKILLS that will aid our youth’s transition into working contexts. It is also key to prompting new and transferrable perspectives among youth workers around EU project development and management. Finally, the project will deploy a participatory methodological approach in the development of its outcomes, involving youth and valorising their perspectives and needs in all of its stages.More specifically, the project seeks to: • raise awareness to using the creative and digital tools within the CCI regarding the ideas of CIRCULARITY and ECO RESPONSIBILITY; • deliver sustainable working instruments based on innovation and CREATIVE SKILLS within project conceptualization, management and implementation;• EMPOWER youth workers and young people and prompt their familiarity with the CCI by building their skills and capacity to make EU projects more environmentally responsible through education and training; creativity and environmental responsibility; and cooperation and solidarity; • encourage transnational COOPERATION and intercultural interconnections, and the exchange of sustainable practices between young people, youth workers and organizations;Along these lines, YOUCREATE'S EXPECTED RESULTS AND ACTIVITIES are the following:- 1 transnational report containing reflections and basic information about environmental issues, the CE, CCI, and EU projects pre- and post-COVID (interview 2 environmental experts; roundtable with 32 youngsters and 8 youth workers overall);- a manual for trainers introducing innovative narrative-based learning techniques;- a digital training composed of 6 modules;- a learning and teaching activity with 12 youth workers to learn how to utilize the manual and digital training;- a testing activity of the digital training with a workshop to develop creative new ideas for circularity within EU projects in each country with 20 young people in total;- 8 videos in total displaying the activities and reflections of the project;- an “EDUcreateBAG” collecting the videos and all ideas and practices identified and developed during the project, available online. Contributions will still be possible after the end of the project.- directly reach at least 100 individuals/organizations per country and 900 indirectly with the EDUcreateBAG;- 1 dissemination activity per country (4 in total) to share the project’s outcomes and collect feedback from at least 25 individuals within the target groups per partner (100 in total). - to directly outreach a total of 180 young people/youth workers throughout its activities.

<< Background >>According to the new skills agenda for Europe close to one fifth of young Europeans struggle with using digital tools and handling information and data in everyday life. The European Commission have said that Media literacy, our capacity to access, have a critical understanding of, and interact with the media has never been as important as in today's society. The global relevance of Media and Information Literacy has increased yet more significantly in recent times and in light of the COVID-19 crisis the need for literacy around health and wellness information and misinformation is forefront. In India, the United States and Brazil, fact-checking and media literacy organizations have been training citizens to confront the new coronavirus “infodemic.” Workshops have happened online, many employing a train the trainer model with attendees cascading their new knowledge to peers. Fact checkers in Spain have inadvertently come under fire as WhatsApp limited it’s message forwarding feature to limit the spread of COVID-19 disinfomation through chat groups, prompting a misinformed backlash from the public. At the same time cloned versions of the BBC and CNN news sites originating from Russia are pushing disinformation such as the idea that Ebola and Coronavirus are man-made pathogens.The approach and content of MIL must change, forced to adapt to the rapidly evolving challenges confronting young people in, among other matters, managing and interpreting the exponentially-growing volumes of information directly targeting them on social media, as well as development in the traditional media sector itself. The scale of the challenge for government institutions and educators is enormous.<< Objectives >>The Project Objectives are to assist youth and young people across Europe to better deal with the expanse of digital information and misinformation targeted towards them in relation to health, mental health, wellness and wellbeing by providing a skills set, a self assessment tool and a course directed at youth, alongside an accompanying kit for youth workers and educators. We will learn from the media response to the Covid19 crisis by collecting Best Practice from across Europe and beyond. We will build on the existing innovative DigiComp framework and extend it to encompass media, information and data literacy competences. The project outcomes will enable youth, young people and those who work with them to better understand, access and interact with information media relating to health and wellbeing in informed and agentive ways.<< Implementation >>The activities to be carried out during the project are;A literature review, Interviews with target group and stakeholders and best practice analysis feeding into a report extending the DigComp Framework taxonomy with new competence statements for facing the rapidly evolving challenges in MIL.The research, design and delivery of a self assessment tool.The design, testing and delivery of a MOOC covering the 5 Competence areas of DigComp 2.1 and the extended competences elaborated in the project. The MOOC will be specially adapted to the context of health and wellness information and misinformation.Research, selection and collation of open source and creative commons licensed materials and software to support MIL education and the creation of an adaptible toolkit for youth workers and educators<< Results >>The expected project results are;A research paper analysing the results of the interviews and best practices. New MIL competence statements.A web based self assessment app for use in a youth work context or by young people.An open Infodemics course (MOOC) for young people and educators.The MIL in a Crisis toolkit for youth workers and educators comprising a directory of open-source resources, software, OERs, best practice exemplars in MIL education and a white paper highlighting the project results.