"CONTEXT The digital revolution is transforming the way young people play, access information, communicate and learn. Youth today have unprecedented learning opportunities. Digital and social media literacy training is now necessary to ensure that young Europeans can harness the potential of online opportunities to build skills, careers and relationships effectively but also safely. OBJECTIVES (1) to support the continuous professional development of youth professionals;(2) to develop key digital and social media literacy training material for youth with fewer opportunities; (3) to create a policy paper to advocate for the promotion of responsible digital citizenship of youth with fewer opportunities. PARTICIPANTS 12 youth professionals will complete the first iteration of the in-service training programme at the transnational training event. A further 40 youth workers will complete the in-service training, 10 in each partner country. 80 young people with fewer opportunities will attend the digital and social media literacy workshops - 20 in each partner country. 5 youth workers in each country will comprise the advisory committees of the partners (20 in total). 50 youth workers, youth trainers/ facilitators, managers of youth organisations and policy-makers will attend the Final Conference in Cyprus. 200 young people with fewer opportunities will be actively engaged in building digital and social media literacy competences. 100 youth organisations will receive information about the project and the resources developed. ACTIVITIES & METHODOLOGY The partners will develop and pilot resources for youth workers working with young people with fewer opportunities. The overarching methodology will be Open Education. Innovative methods will be used such as, in-service training, blended learning. Non formal and experiential learning underline the in-service training and the related Handbook.During the short-term joint staff training event ""TRACES in-service training for Youth Workers"" and the training for young people, the methodology will be a blend of: (1) self-driven online learning (2) non-formal education participatory methods (3) face-to-face instruction on the use of specific online tools.The partners will meet with their advisory committees of youth workers to validate the outputs and to conduct semi-structured focus groups for the creation of the Policy Paper on the Digital Citizenship of Young People with fewer Opportunities.A Collaborative online Learning Database will be created and maintained using the latest methodologies to feature all the outputs and facilitate internal and external cooperation. A combination of dissemination methods will support the visibility of the project, the partners, and Erasmus+. The methods include classic and social media, digital promotion and face-to-face activities such as the multiplier events, and the final conference.The Stakeholder Dialogue Model will facilitate the communication and engagement of people interested in the welfare of the youth and the endorsement of the Policy Paper by policy-makers and managers in the youth field.Management wise, the project will follow a collaborative, results oriented approach with ongoing monitoring and risk-assesment with the traffic lights tool. The partners will communicate face-to-face during the project meetings but they will harness online media for communication and cooperation. RESULTS & IMPACT The partners will develop and pilot innovative tools and five main intellectual outputs:1. Digital and Social Media Literacy Curriculum Resources;2. In-service Training Programme Handbook;3. Collaborative online Learning Database;4. Policy Paper ""Policy recommendations on the promotion of digital citizenship for all young people through digital youth work in Cyprus, Finland, Ireland and Romania"";5. Guidelines for Youth Workers working with Digital Media. TRACES will equip the youth professionals with practical tools to use in their work. The youth workers will support the young people with fewer opportunities to make the most out of digital and social media for their competence development and to protect themselves from digital threads.LONGER TERM IMPACTMost importantly, young people, whatever their status, who complete the curriculum resources developed as part of the project will bring a considerable skill-set with them wherever they go in their life in the connected world. With the use of a Policy Paper, the partners will start a dialogue on the digital citizenship of young people with fewer opportunities. The dialogue will continue long after the project end. Samewise, the open access to the intellectual outputs in combination with carefull dissemination and exploitation activities, will prolong their use by the partners and other organisations in Europe.The project will reinforce the international dimension of youth work and the capacities and international scope of the pa"

"With the project ARTSQUAD we want to offer to the target- group of youth professionals (youth workers and youth trainers) an opportunity for professional development along with innovative tools to use in their work with young people with fewer opportunities.According to the report ""Working with young people: the value of youth work in the EU"" (European Commission- EACEA, 2014), there is a high risk of unemployment for youth professionals while there is also a lack of support measures for their professional development. In our daily practice we have witnessed that the youth professionals are not always ready to respond to the emerging needs of disadvantaged youth. Given that one third of young people in the European Union are at risk of social exclusion, we want to want to address the urging need for continuous competence development to those working with young people with fewer opportunities.The EU Youth Strategy recognises the relevance of youth work to mitigating the effects of social exclusion amongst young people. The end beneficiaries of ARTSQUAD are going to be young people with disadvantaged backgrounds and / or fewer opportunities due to disability, educational difficulties, economic obstacles, cultural differences (immigrants or refugees/ asylum seekers), health problems, social obstacles, or geographical obstacles.294 youth professional working with disadvantaged youth in Cyprus, Ireland, Belgium and Romania- of which 19, approximately, are with fewer opportunities themselves- are going to be more actively involved in the project as members of the target group (at policy and practice level regarding Youth Work & Social Inclusion) and the local sub-groups, will complete the first iteration of the new curriculum in each partner country , will attend the dissemination seminars and the final conference. At least 1.000 people are going to benefit indirectly through our activities for the dissemination of the project results and the exploitation of its results. These beneficiaries are going to be approached through relevant media and social media at local, national and European levels but also with personal contact, meetings and visits. Another 2.500 people will receive the project newsletters and will be informed by media coverage .Consortium partners believe that there is a gap in the provision of training for professionals working with marginalized young people where the use of creative disciplines is concerned. To address this deficit, the project will develop, test and pilot innovative tools to introduce youth professionals to the use of digital media, storytelling, drama and music for the development of key competences. These tools include a suite of train-the-trainer materials, an E-Learning Portal, a full suite of modules for a train-the-trainer curriculum and a suite of 8 prototype tools developed using the above artistic disciplines.With the use of these tools the youth professionals can reduce disparities in learning outcomes affecting learners with disadvantaged backgrounds and we can support them to acquire social, civic, digital, intercultural competences and media literacy. The partners will follow an innovative, integrated enquiry-based learning approach based in non formal education methods and tools. ARTSQUAD proposes a new approach to key competence building in youth work environments which is based on a youth-centered design approach. The course-ware supports free agent learners allowing youth professional and young people the opportunity to learn in new, exciting and engaging ways. For many disadvantaged youth, formal education approaches have failed to deliver the learning outcomes required in todays economy and the creative arts can be a more effective teaching method to acquire basic and transversal skills such as social and civic competence, digital competence, cultural awareness and expression, entrepreneurship and critical thinking. ARTSQUAD will equip the youth professionals with practical tools to use in their everyday work with disadvantaged youth. It will also support them to work in non-conventional environments and will enhance their employability, their reputation, professionalism and standing even if they now work in completely different educational settings. This way the youth professional will become more efficient in supporting the social inclusion of disadvantaged youth to formal education or employment and their progression as valued and contributing members of European society.Ultimately, the project will impact the impact and recognition of youth work."

Context/background The project CURSOR- Crafting Career Roadmaps addressed the issue of youth unemployment which was 17,7% (3.905 million young persons) in EU in February 2017 while during 2016 in the partners' countries it was 29,1% in Cyprus, 17,7% in Poland, 17,2% in Ireland and 20,6% in Romania according to Eurostat.Career support in youth work settings was deemed to be limited and in most cases, amounted to providing access to career guidance products that were usually available informal education settings. The partners believed that it was time for a completely new approach to support the development of career planning skills among disadvantaged youth target groups. Moreover, the partners had witnessed a lack of professional development training for youth workers working with disadvantaged youth as it regards to career planning. Objectives With the project CURSOR, we wanted to tackle the issue of youth unemployment and social exclusion. Our objective was to offer to youth workers an opportunity for professional development along with innovative tools to use in their work to support the employability of young people with fewer opportunities. We proposed a new model of career planning as a subject instead of career guidance as a service; a subject with resources at different levels, with required learning outcomes and an assessment framework to measure attainment. With CURSOR, the partners aimed to enhance the international dimension of youth activities and promote high-quality and inclusive youth work. Number and profile of participants 48 front-line youth workers completed the first In-service Training. Each youth worker then engaged at least 10 young people in career planning activities before the end of the project. This resulted in over 480 young people to engage in career planning activities, many of whom came from disadvantaged backgrounds. 72 youth professionals attended the dissemination workshops and final conference, at least 1.000 people benefited indirectly, and 2.500 people were reached. Description of activities The project developed an entirely new career planning framework where young people were supported to acquire the necessary skills to plan their own career progression pathway and to retain those skills for use throughout their active working life. CURSOR proposed the modernization of career planning to reflect the reality of the European employment marketplace where a change in career path can be a frequent occurrence. CURSOR harnessed the potential of digital technologies and developed a career planning framework, complete with all the required tools and resources, that benefited from blended learning; is free to service users and cost neutral to service providers; and easy to sustain and update in times of shrinking expenditure. Methodology to be used in carrying out the project CURSOR proposed an innovative, integrated approach to key competence building in youth work environments which was based on a youth-centred design approach. The partners followed an innovative, integrated enquiry-based learning approach based on non-formal education methods and tools. Based on Needs Analysis, CURSOR produced a career planning subject framework with outputs such as a Handbook for the youth professionals. Further, we created a number of Career Planning Resources and digital tools such as the e-learning portal to help young people to develop the necessary skills to enable them to construct their own career progression pathway and update it as required throughout their working life. The Handbook and the Resources were presented to selected youth professionals during an In-service Training. The young people were guided and trained face-to-face and online in the use of the Career Planning Resources. Results and impact CURSOR equipped the youth professionals with practical tools to use in their work. The results of the CURSOR project include a totally new career planning framework, complete with a full suite of 12 introductory and 12 advanced resources available to front-line youth workers to support their work with young people on the margins of society and economy. This way, the youth professional became more efficient in supporting the social inclusion of disadvantaged youth to formal education or employment and their progression as valued and contributing members of European society. Potential longer-term benefits Most importantly, young people, whatever their status, who completed the introductory and advanced career planning curriculum resources developed as part of the CURSOR project gained a considerable skill-set that will stay with them wherever they will go in their career and will have those skills to call on when the opportunity for career change presents itself. Ultimately, the project impacted the influence and recognition of youth work.

"In the wake of COVID-19 a lot of young Europeans experience for the first time lengthy lockdowns, border closures, restriction of individual freedom. They face the unique challenge of managing their personal development and transition to adulthood amid more uncertainties than usual. This is why the knowledge and practices of senior citizens are becoming increasingly important to young people: seniors have experienced wars, hardship, and difficult times and know how to cope with stress and uncertainty in life. Their knowledge and practices can aid young peoples’ survival during these unprecedented and challenging times. So therefore intergenerational thinking and action is essential for addressing challenges faced by local communities in times of increasing global uncertainty.But as there is a big gap between generations nowadays, as the quantity and quality of intergenerational dialogue and exchange have decrease in modern European societies. In our project “Suitcase of my life” the 4 involved NGOs from Germany, Cyrpus, North Macedonia and Spain want to bridge this gap and promote intergenerational dialogue and learning through biographic work, art and creativity. And as the arts have proven to be a powerful tool in supporting reconciliation, rehabilitation, and reintegration, we want to use art and creativity to create dialogical spaces and to initiate intergenerational work and a collaborative learning process on eye level. Young and elder people are matched on 1:1 basis, and together they work on individual “Suitcase of my life” (with physical distance if necessary): They share their life experiences, and create objects, photos, videos, audio files, drawings etc. that stand for the various experiences they made. At the end each participant wil have create his own individual ""Suitcase of my life"" with the support of the matched person. The participants will be supported by project partners through trainings, online tutorials on art and creative techniques and by providing creative art boxes with lots of material and tools. The “suitcases of life” produced by the intergenerational couples will be displayed in traveling exhibitions in Germany, Cyprus, North Macedonia and Spain in order to start an intergenerational dialogue on community level. Through his creative and artist approach, we create new room and opportunities for young and elder people to meet on eye level, to rediscover the joy of learning together and learning from one another about how to stay healthy and safe, and share stories of resilience, strengthen their bonds and acquire new knowledge and skills. This will also help to reduce inhibitions and prejudice between the groups and promote intergenerational respect and solidarity. A joint European virtual exhibition “Suitcase of my life” will be created as well, to reach a wider audience all across Europe. We want to highlight the advantage of bridging the experience, wisdom and skills of different generations are important. The knowledge and experience of the older generation is of great value, and younger generations should be able to benefit from it. Learning from the stories and life experiences of the elder generation and through collaborative art work, young people hopefully will come up the creative and innovative solutions to face the unprecedented risks, and societal challenges Corvid 19 brings. Conversely, the younger generation has skills that it can make available to the older generation. The kind of collective intelligence, shared meaning among generations can help us to build peaceful and emphatic societies. All partner organisations involved are experts in youth work, creative work and intergenerational learning. Together they will produce following results within the 2 years project:a)a comprehensive study which gives us an insight into what are the success factors but also the inhibiting factors for intergenerational learning in Europe b)a train-the-trainer program and a handbook for facilitators to manage a “Suitcase of my life” projectc)a training for young participants and an info session plan for senior participants to promote and support intergenerational dialogue and workd)online tutorials on art & creative work as well as creative art boxese)traveling exhibitions with 20-30 “Suitcases of my life” in all 4 countries andf)a virtual exhibition and gallery In total we’ll have a minimum of:40 facilitators trained40 young people trained and involved40 seniors trained and involved8 creative art boxes 80 Suitcases of life4 national exhibitions, shown 2 times minimum in each country, reaching 400 visitiors1 European virtual exhibition with at least 1000 viewers100 partner organisations know the results4000 users/visitors in total will be reached through additional dissemination activities.We hope that a lot of organisations will be inspired and copy our approach, so that in all regions of Europe a new form of intergenerational dialogue will start."

"“VIP Values: ICT Skills for Peace Projects” is a project that aims to raise awareness among the European youth about values of peace and non-violence, the situation of young migrants and refugees and the possibilities offered by ICTs for the creation of projects focused on improving their situation.This project is the continuation of the “VIP Values: Volunteering and ICT for Peace” project (https://vipvalues.cibervoluntarios.org/), funded under the Erasmus + programme in 2018, also coordinated by Fundación Cibervoluntarios, in which the partner organisations from Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus were able to exchange good practices and knowledge about ICT tools and methods to use in their work with young migrants and refugees, creating a guide of good practices, and applying the skills acquired and tools learned in pilot trainings in each country, in which a total of 79 migrants and refugees participated.This project aims to take advantage of what has been learned and to increase the impact achieved, by designing and developing an innovative online e-Learning platform, focused on the acquisition of ICT skills and knowledge of peace and non-violence values, so that young people in Europe can create projects targeted to young people in vulnerable situations, particularly migrants and refugees.To this end, the impact focus has been extended to northern countries, and thus the 6 partner organizations are located in Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Belgium and Austria.The three most relevant objectives are:1-Highlighing the problem of vulnerable young people, especially migrants and refugees among young Europeans.2- Creating an innovative e-Learning platform with contents and training methods in ICT tools, social entrepreneurship and peace values, for the creation of projects focused on the inclusion of young people in vulnerable situations.3-Creating a usability report, through local trainings in the use of the platform to young people from partner countries, and creating at least 10 projects after them. Several of these young people will be direct ultimate beneficiaries, that is, belonging to vulnerable groups.Therefore, the target groups are:-Organizations that work directly with young people, educational centers, social entities focused on peace and inclusion projects.- Young refugees / migrants: The final beneficiaries of the project, who will be able to take advantage of not only the resources of the e-Learning platform, but also the projects created through it.-Youth Workers / trainers / volunteers: People who work daily with young people.Both the previous VIP Values project and this one, arised from an idea that is already underway in Spain at a national level, the project ""TIC para la Paz” (ICT for Peace), which thanks to both projects can grow and extend its reach, taking this proven methodology to other countries and young people, and achieving fruitful international contacts between beneficiaries and organizations that will foster European culture, the exchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge, and solidarity between countries.The work at European and international level improves management skills, cooperation between entities from different countries and the promotion of integration and adaptation of innovative educational practices.Finally, the project fits with the Sustainable Development Goals, and especially with objectives 1, 10 and 16. Specifically, objective 16 (Promote societies, fair, peaceful and inclusive), is the axis around which the idea orbits, seeking to reduce discrimination, violation of rights and exclusion of young immigrants and refugees, and to do so through and thanks to ICT and non-formal education."