"Play is an unquestionable right for all children and young people and is a basic activity in the life and global development of people. Play is in its essence an end in itself. In a secondary level, play can also be a tool with which to work cross-cutting skills. Through play andconcretely through board games, cognitive and social development is fostered: rules are learned and assimilated, thought and strategy arestimulated, decisions are made, conflicts are resolved, and interaction is carried out. Play has a decisive role in the integral developmentof children and young people from an emotional, physical, intellectual and social well-being perspective.The Domus Ludens Project- A House that plays has as general objective improving - through play, and in particular board games - the subjective wellbeing and acquisition of skills of young people in residential care. This is a vulnerable population segment that enters residential carecentres after having suffered a situation of neglect or abuse in their family of origin. They often suffer emotional needs and other associateddifficulties such as attention deficits, impulsivity and sociability issues. According to our experience, protection services tend to prioritize actions focused on the promotion of education, employability, autonomy, and the relationship with the family of origin, and often relegate the benefits of play and games as a tool of integral development to a secondary level, either by a lack of training, space or resources.This general objective will be achieved through 3 specific objectives: SO1: To train educators from residential care services as ludic agents: a figure able to analyse the specific context and needs of youngsters in care, and based on an evaluation, structure board game spaces in a programmed and sustained way. SO2: Implement the right to play in residential care services through a specific play program based on board games and the presence of the ludic agent. SO3. To evaluate the impact of the figure of the ludic agent and the board game programme in the subjective well-being and the acquisition of competences of young people in residential care.The project involves 5 partners from 3 European countries with 3 complementary profiles: 1) services providers for youngsters in care (Resilis Foundation (Spain), S & S gem Gesellschaft für Soziales mbH (Germany) Fundacja Samodzielni Robinsonowie (Poland) 2) experts ingames (Cooperativa La Juganera (Spain)) 3) with academic expertise (University of Gerona (Spain).Three intellectual products will be developed: The first two will consist of a ""Guide on Board Games"" (IO1) and a ""Ludic Agent Manual"" (IO2) which will include methodologies and contents to effectively use board games to improve the skills and well-being of young people in care.Afterwards, the project will organize a short-term joint staff training event: youth workers will participate in a 5-day training to become ludic agent trainers, using as methodological basis the contents of the intellectual products IO1 and IO2. The participants, trained as ludic agents' trainers, will replicate the knowledge learnt in national trainings, training a total of 30 youth workers from Spain, Poland and Germany.These 30 youth workers trained as ludic agents will apply their knowledge in 8-month pilot experiences in their organizations in which they will implement structured board game spaces with a minimum of 100 young people in care. The pilot experience will be evaluated by the University of Girona. The results and conclusions of the evaluation will be the core of the third intellectual product IO3. ""Evaluation of the impact of participation in play spaces in a regular and systematic way on the acquisition of skills and the well-being of young people in residential care"".The project results will be disseminated through national conferences (E1) in each of the partner countries (Spain, Germany and Poland). Fourtransnational meetings will be organized. A project website and 4 dissemination newsletters will be also created.The expected impacts will be: 1) Improvement of personal skills and general well-being of around 100 youngsters from Spain, Germany and Poland 2) Improvement in the climate of coexistence in the residential centres in which these young people live, c) training of 30 youth workers as ludic agents d) Awareness of public authorities and organizations in the field of child and youth care on the benefits of promoting the right to play and making training tools available to them d) improvement of the relationship of young people with their immediate surroundings, specifically the school and the community."

The Skill IT for Youth project was a European initiative aiming to increase the quality of youth work through the digitalisation of youth organisations and the professionalisation of youth workers, resulting in increased opportunities for young people.The partners’ goal was to equip youth workers with the relevant skills to enhance young people’s futures in the 21st Century, in line with the Erasmus+ goals for Strategic Partnerships and with the Digital Agenda for Europe, which stresses the need for more highly qualified young people for the digital economy, growing at seven times the rate of the rest of the economy (Digital Agenda for Europe, 2014).Skill IT responded to the identified pressing need to enable youth workers to support young people in developing their ICT, digital & social media skills in order to enhance their employability, civic participation and wellbeing (Expert group on ‘Risks, opportunities and implications of digitalisation for youth, youth work and youth policy’ 2016; Screenagers Report 2016; Digital Scoreboard 2017).We also aimed to address objectives taken from: the European Youth Strategy 2010-2018 – Investing and Empowering Youth (social inclusion, health and well-being, development of youth work, enhanced cross sectoral policy cooperation, participation, active citizenship), Europe 2020 (unemployment, social exclusion and mobility), the Youth Policy Agenda 2020 (human rights, employability, living together in diverse societies, social and economic inclusion of young people).We believe that Digital-based Youth Work can:•add value to the face-to-face interactions youth workers have with young people; •enhance activities to include technology, making interactions a better fit for the new generation•bring digital content into the work •help to create online services for young people that cannot be reached otherwise. This has was shown to be all the more essential during the COVID-19 emergencyThe professionalisation of youth workers and the digitalisation of organisations help to:•foster the inclusion and employability of young people with a focus on those at risk•ease transition into adulthood in particular the integration into the labour market•reach out to marginalized youthAs well as an up to date innovative piece of Research on Digital Youth Work, Skill IT offers practical tools designed for the Youth Sector to ease digitalisation at every level of the organisation•The Digital Learning Planning for Organisations provides a self-assessment tool and guidance to embed digital technology into youth NGOs in a truly youth-centred fashion, and an online course to take them through this process using Design Thinking•The Competence Framework for Digital Youth Work Practice is an innovative and sector-specific way for youth workers to assess their competence level, receive feedback and grow their ability to facilitate young people’s digital learning •The Training Toolkit for Youth Workers & Educators to Deliver Digital Skills to Young People supports staff and volunteers with detailed hands-on scenarios to facilitate digitally-based activities Finally, our Policy Briefs aim to take Digital Youth Work to the next level with a number of concrete recommendations grounded in the research and in wide consultations.The project directly reached or engaged the following stakeholders (more through Dissemination):•For the Research (IO1) we consulted 118 Young People, 101 Youth Workers, 11 employers and 24 Senior Youth Services Managers.•For the IO2 Competence Framework and SA tool we engaged youth workers to review the protype: 197 of them were given a demo and asked for feedback; 14 tested it online and gave more detailed feedback. 1 expert also reviewed •Similarly for the IO3 Organisational Digital planning guide and SA tool, we demoed them to 122 professionals; 15 tested online and gave more detailed feedback. 2 experts reviewed.In both the functionality was enhanced accordingly, making them really relevant for the sector. So far we recorded 239 PDF reports downloaded, generated by the SA tools. 100 people took the online quiz. •21 youth workers tested the Training Toolkit (IO4) during the C2. They were presented to another 121 professionals. There are 28 scenarios and 5 Adobe Sparks provided to show them in action. So far we recorded 384 views of Adobe Sparks•127 professionals were asked for inputs into Policy Briefs at the MEs via World Café and another 96 consulted via online poll. 5 Policy Briefs were written (1 translated also) and circulated with 5 videos to support Dissemination. So far we recorded 80 views of the videos•329 young people attended post C2 local workshops•Multiplier Events: 41 people attended the first MEs and 69 the secondThe tools are already having wide impact: several youth NGOs are using them to review and plan the digitalisation of the organisation and the development of their staff’s Digital Youth Work competencies.

CoOp project aimed to enhance the collaboration between Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and youth organizations, thus to promote and encourage private investment in youth development, and education. The main objective of the project was to support youth workers, thus youth organizations, to diversify their funding sources and attract investments from the business sector, by professionalizing them in the field of CSR / fundraising from SMEs.The specific objectives of the project were:-Develop reliable knowledge on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ collaboration, and on how much business investment can be attracted for youth development, and education.-Develop innovative and attractive funding models and tools on CSR and fundraising, which can be used both by youth organizations and SMEs.-Identify and promote best practices and success stories on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ partnerships, intended to start an European trend for such partnerships.-Propose valuable public policies for boosting the partnerships between SMEs and youth organizations, intended to start an European trend for such collaborations.The project aimed to respond to the pressing need of European NGOs for diversifying the funding sources, and attracting more investments from the business sector, in order to obtain financial sustainability. The project addressed the causes of this need, as identified by the partner organizations: the lack of research-based knowledge on SMEs’ specific motivations for CSR activities, and SMEs’ real capacity for giving; lack of innovative tools for raising funds from the business sector, and the tools to guide SMEs in the CSR field; the lack of the right tools to screen youth workers for assigning fundraising responsibilities, and to train them for taking on these responsibilities; the lack of public policies that could boost the SMEs’ involvement in CSR activities.The main target group in the CoOp project were the youth workers. We reached 173 youth workers, and addressed all their needs described above, through innovative products, such as ready tools for fundraising activities, comprehensive research on SMEs' involvement in youth field, training for youth workers on CSR and fundraising, policy briefs for boosting SMEs' and NGOs' collaboration, best practices guide, and video success stories. 51 SMEs were reached by the project's activities, and outcomes, as the key approach in all the resources created was the focus on the collaboration between youth organizations and SMEs. Thus, all the outputs were developed having in mind that these should serve both sectors, boosting the alliances between them.The CoOp project contributed to bring valuable results for partner organizations, youth workers, SMEs and other relevant stakeholders from the youth field. First, CoOp helped partner organizations, and youth workers to professionalize their fundraising activities, diversify funding sources, and ensure financial sustainability. SMEs benefited from valuable information about youth organizations, spotting concrete opportunities for CSR activities, and gaining an international perspective on their sector in regards to CSR activities, and on business investment in youth.Second, CoOp provided both to youth organizations and SMEs innovative and attractive funding models and tools on CSR and fundraising. The partner organizations have started to use these tools to professionalize their organizations, their fundraising teams, diversify funds, ensure financial sustainability, and to start providing consultancy to SMEs on CSR. Third, CoOp promoted best practices and success stories on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ partnerships, motivating both youth organizations, and SMEs to get involved in common CSR activities, while receiving an international perspective, and the right recipes for success. Finally, CoOp proposed valuable public policies for boosting the partnerships between SMEs and youth organizations, intended to start an European trend for such collaborations.These were the first policy initiatives on CSR for SMEs in the field of youth, in the partner countries.In conclusion, the project has contributed to financial resources for youth field and also developed professional organizations, which are now open to synergies with business sector. The project supported youth workers to improve their professional competences and increase their sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. The project reinforced the interaction between practice, research and policy in the field of youth and CSR; and created closer links between the youth field and the business community.

"The consortium consisted of 6 partners coming from 5 different countries. The partnership had its strength in the diversity of the involved partners. CYCLES involved field-based institutions, network organisations and one academic Partner (FH JOANNEUM) each having a different focus of expertise but complementing each other. The social organizations participated were: SOS Jeunesse (France), Bundestherapeutische Gemeinschaften (Austria), IKJ Mainz (Germany), FICE Bulgaria and Fundajca Samodzielni Robinsonowie (FSR). On the one hand side child and youth care systems in countries across Europe provide decent support for children and adolescents with complex needs. However, in most countries care ends at the age of 18, leaving the so called young care leavers (YCL) to stand on their own feet and have to earn a living. On the other hand side child and youth care practitioner (CYCPs) such as youth workers, social pedagogues etc. are true experts in facilitating the social development and welfare of children and adolescents. They do outstanding work and contribute substantially to the integration of vulnerable groups such as young care leavers into society. CYCPs are – by education and experience – equipped with a wide range of skills. However, a majority of CYCPs are lacking economic competences which also includes financial education and entrepreneurship skills given their education.The main aim of the project was an increase of the skills and competences of Child and Youth Care Practitioners (CYCPs) on financial education and entrepreneurship through an innovative offline and online Training. The CYCPs should be able to act as multiplier and teach young care leavers. This should lead on the one hand side to higher skilled CYCPs and further also to an increase of skills on how to cope with daily life issues connected to finances and entrepreneurship for the secondary target group of young care leavers.The consortium started with intellectual output 1 to find the needs and gaps of CYCPs concerning financial education and entrepreneurship. A focus group interview and a desk research were used to find the needs and gaps in each country. Then, a skill card was prepared in order to get a first impression how to fill the needs and gaps of CYCPs (intellectual Output 2). The skill card was conducive for the preparation of the Curriculum (Intellectual Output 3). The consortium went further into detail during the preparation of the curriculum. A very crucial intellectual output in the CYCLES project was intellectual output 4. The target was to prepare the training materials, to implement the training and to evaluate the implementation of the training in each participating country. The training materials were prepared according to the curriculum. The consortium asked external experts about the quality of the training materials and got a very good feedback. Then, the training was implemented in each country. The target was to make a training for trainers and a training for trainees. Both trainings have been done in each country. Finally, the implementation of the training was evaluated through all participants. At the training we had more than 80 participants at the ""Train the Trainees""-Events in the participating countries and at the ""Train the Trainers""-events we had 5 participants in each country. The participants at the ""Train the Trainers""-events were CYCPs and social managers and at the ""Train the Trainees""-events we had CYCPs from youth Centers or from foster care organizations. The Impact of the CYCLES Training was especially strong in Bulgaria, but also in the other participating countries. Other organizations are interested to incorporate the CYCLES training (see below). So, the Impact of the CYCLES training was really good. Finally, it was the target of Intellectual Output 5 to deliver a transferability of the training materials to other organizations and countries. The consortium prepared a ""Transferability and Evaluation Handbook"". After finishing IO5 the consortium collected supporting letters from different organizations of participating countries, but also from FICE Europe (an organization supporting all organizations in Europe dealing with young care leavers and CYCPs) and from FICE international (an organization supporting all organizations in the world dealing with young care leavers and CYCPs).The project consortium was also very active concerning dissemination activities. The Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/cyclesEUproject/) of the project became very popular and has more than 230 likes and many interesting contributions for the community. The homepage of the project (http://cycles.fh-joanneum.at/) may also contribute significantly to the sustainability of the project. It is for example possible to download all training materials in English."