"<< Background >>Europe is characterised by its heterogeneity. This is underpinned not only by the amalgamation of various states into the European Union, but also by the different national social structures. There is no such thing as a homogeneous society, since the majority society itself is heterogeneous, irrespective of any foreign influence. Contrary to nationalist currents that insist on a homogeneous image of the nation and see this endangered by other influences, heterogeneity must be recognised and promoted. Diversity is not a deficit, but a resource that can help us master social challenges at all levels, from local to global. The project ""DIYverse"" focuses on this issue by supporting the development of structures within educational institutions of non-formal youth education that understand diversity among young people as an opportunity and actively promote it. Within the project, two project results are developed, both of which aim at promoting diversity as a resource. Two main topics were defined: Promotion of a resource-oriented awareness towards diversity and promotion of active civil society engagement, especially among marginalised youth.DIYverse addresses two target groups. The primary target group is non-formal youth education institutions and their staff. The results developed are designed to complement the educational portfolio and structures of the institutions and thus have a sustainable impact on the secondary target group of young people. As the project sees the young people as responsible actors, the focus of the project is on empowering the young people to become active themselves and to take responsibility for tackling social problems. By setting up social project offices, the young people are given skills and abilities to implement their own solutions and ideas under the motto ""Do it yourself"" (DIY). With the social project offices, the civic engagement of young people is specifically promoted. Within the project office, the young people are professionally accompanied in the planning and implementation of their own social ideas and encouraged to actively work for a peaceful and communal coexistence. Both project outcomes aim to promote awareness of diversity as a resource. While the basic curriculum of PE1, which serves as a basis for the social project offices, is aimed more at educational institutions of non-formal youth education, the Silent LABs address the issue of diversity as a resource for society. Through the active involvement of the young people, diversity as a resource is not only addressed and transported thematically, but also in the production of the Silent LABs. Because diversity can only be used as a resource in a targeted way if diversity is perceived as an opportunity and not as a deficit at the societal level.The DIYverse project, with its orientation and the results developed, is embedded in the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027. The Youth Strategy aims not only to make young people ""architects of their own lives"", but also to empower and encourage them to contribute to positive change in society. The DIYverse project also wants to encourage this and, with its results, call on future generations to actively work for peaceful coexistence through empowerment, encounter and participation. DIYverse sends a strong signal for diversity and community and tries to inspire more (young) people to actively work for a common and thus peaceful diverse Europe.<< Objectives >>The DIYverse project works on different levels, but focuses primarily on the personal development and skills acquisition of non-formal youth education institutions (primary target group) and the young people themselves (secondary target group). Through the various project contents, they are encouraged and enabled to actively work for an open community at local and European level. For a sustainable strengthening and promotion of the young people as well as their engagement, the focus of the project is on the participating institutions. The developed project results contribute to the fact that the participating institutions will continue to meet the challenges of youth education and thus the secondary target group of young people in the future by actively addressing the three core areas of the youth sector, namely participation, encounter and empowerment. The experience gained in the project and the increased competences of the staff also sustainably strengthen the participating institutions in their everyday work. With its project results, the DIYverse project promotes exchange and empowers young people to deal with the current challenges of our time together. In the process, young people from different life realities are brought together in a targeted manner and the diversity is perceived as an opportunity to find innovative approaches to solutions for social challenges together. Through mutual understanding and intensive exchange, a relationship of trust is created that will develop into a sense of community in the further course of the project. Participation and civic engagement are significantly promoted by the social project office. The social project office picks up young people's ideas and enables them to implement them through professional support and thus to actively participate. Funding programmes offer many opportunities to tackle social challenges. However, the project world is diverse and complex and difficult for outsiders to understand, let alone use. The social project office therefore serves the purpose of informing about funding and project opportunities on the one hand and creating the conditions for young people to implement their own project ideas on the other. The social project office focuses on the self-efficacy of young people and the solution of social challenges. The link with the European dimension and the reflection on the European community are an integral part of the guidelines for setting up a social project office. Solving social problems at the local level is important, but only effective in the long term if it is based on a common set of social values. We will only be able to master many social challenges of our time together. The Social Project Office raises awareness of holistic approaches to solutions through European linkages by sensitising people to cross-sectoral exchange and cooperation. Through the social project office, awareness of diversity as a resource is also transported, as the social project offices are intended to target young people in particular who have more difficult access to project management. The NOTE series of Silent LABS (PE2) also brings the approach of seeing diversity as an opportunity into the social consciousness. Participants are sensitised to perceive diversity as an opportunity and are encouraged to bring up positive examples. Civic engagement is characterised not only by its own actionism, but also by raising awareness and bringing thought-provoking ideas into the public consciousness. Through playful, audiovisual elements, the Note series promotes a change in public perception from diversity as a deficit to diversity as a resource and thus as an opportunity of our time.<< Implementation >>The DIYverse project focuses on two project results, both of which in their own way support the participating partners and other institutions, especially those involved in non-formal youth education, beyond the end of the project. Both products can be counted as an extension of the respective portfolios of the institutions in their work with young people.For this purpose, the DIYverse project primarily involves the professionals of the participating institutions with their skills and abilities in the development of the PEs and enables them to use or apply the PEs later in the two trainings. At the national level, the involvement of young people is also specifically addressed in order to optimally gear the PEs to the later target group. Trainings: C1 & C2 are used to sustainably strengthen the professionals of the participating partners and thus the partner organisations themselves. In the first training (C1), participants are trained on two levels and in two areas. The focus is on diversity as a resource. In the training, contents of the basic curriculum (PE1 - A.1) that have already been worked on are specifically integrated in order to test them. The practical implementation best illustrates the effects achieved but also any weaknesses in the content and methods. The Silent LAB is treated in a differentiated way within the C1 training (C1 - A.3). The participants will not only test this method, but will also be trained to write their own Silent LABs and will use the knowledge they have gained to develop PE2. The C2 training focuses on project management. In this training, participants will be trained on two levels, the individual and the facilitator level. The training is used to increase the competences of the partners in project management by strengthening people who do not have much experience in this field. In addition, however, the participants in C2 are also trained in setting up the social project office and in communicating the contents. In both trainings, young people from the working environment of the leading organisations are involved in elements of the training. The direct exchange with the future target group offers great added value and is therefore approached in a targeted manner. The resulting findings are integrated into the development of the PEs. The involvement of representatives of the associated partners is also planned in order to check the relevance and transferability of the project results beyond the involved partner organisations already during the development process. The trainings are therefore important activities with regard to the achievement of the objectives, both because of the training of the participants and the testing possibilities. Multiplier events: The multiplier events E1 - E4 have the function to disseminate the project idea and results and to introduce the national project offices and country-specific Silent LAB elements. Pilot offices: As part of PE1, the pilot offices do not actually count as a project activity like those listed here. However, since the pilot offices provide important insights into the work with the young people in conveying the contents of PE1, it is nevertheless worth mentioning them here. In the pilot offices, work is done specifically with young people on their ideas. Through professional guidance, the ideas are transferred either directly into practice or beforehand into a project form. Within the pilot offices, the contents and methods developed in PE1 are specifically applied. These are then evaluated together with the participants. The insights gained enable PE1 to be better adapted to the needs of the target group. Project meetings: The 4 project meetings M1 to M4 serve the regular coordination and quality assurance of the entire project.<< Results >>Within DIYverse, two project results are being developed that are aimed at institutions of non-formal education and will contribute to the improvement of work in the field of youth education. The aim of the whole project and thus of the two PEs is to raise awareness of diversity as an opportunity of our present time and societies. In PE1, awareness raising will be promoted on an institutional level by developing a concrete way of acting on how diversity can be used as a resource. In PE2, diversity best practice examples are collected and used to raise awareness in society.PE1: Guideline for the development of a social project officeThe guideline is divided into three elementsPE1-A.1: Basic curriculumThere is enormous potential in the diversity of societies. However, in order to promote diversity, certain pedagogical basics and competences of the professionals are required, which are imparted through the basic curriculum. The basic curriculum enables an appreciative and resource-oriented attitude and promotion of heterogeneity. In addition, the intensive examination of the topic leads to a sensitisation of the staff and thus has the effect of anchoring an appreciative attitude towards diversity in the institutions themselves and thus in their educational work. PE1-A.2: Guideline The guideline for setting up a social project office makes it possible in the future for other youth institutions to create the structural and content-related prerequisites for professional support of young people in the area of project management. A social project office expands the possibilities of the institutions. Empowering young people to transform their own ideas into projects leads to both better access and greater involvement of the target group. During the project, individual representatives of the target group as well as employees of the participating institutions are introduced to project management, among other things in the C2 training. The experiences gained and skills acquired strengthen the participants in the long term, but also lead to increased competence in the short term in starting, setting up and implementing projects or initiatives. The project duration is thus used to slowly build up persons with little or no experience in project management in order to increase the capacity and diversity of projects within the participating institutions in the short to medium term. PE1-A.3: National pilot officesWithin DIYverse, four national pilot offices will also be established. In these pilot offices, the developed contents will be tested outside the activities scheduled in the project. Since the knowledge gained in the pilot offices will be directly incorporated into the development of the guide, quality assurance will take place in the ongoing process. At the same time, the pilot offices function as best practice examples and possible variants of a social project office. PE2: Country-specific Silent-LAB elementsWithin the framework of the NOTE series, 4 Silent LABs will be developed, one in each partner country. Within the developed Silent LABs, positive examples of diversity are worked through with local young people. The Silent LABs are used to sensitise society to diversity as an opportunity and thus initiate change. Both PEs lead to an expansion of the participating institutions' own portfolio and thus make them more competitive in their field. The field of non-formal education in particular is a dynamic and rapidly changing field in which the participating institutions must constantly assert themselves. Both PEs strengthen the institutions in current topics and sustainably promote their dynamics and innovative strength with the social project office."

<< Background >>In 2018-2020, we implemented the MAYDAI project - Motivation and Youth Do an Innovation (Erasmus + program K2, 2018-2020), which included a research report on motivational factors of young people. The report also focused on barriers that prevent young people from engaging and volunteering. The young respondents stated that after the initial enthusiasm, there is a fear in the engagement, then the stress until it all ended in burnout and leaving the activity for which they decided.Mental health, which is the basis of physical health, is an important factor in working with young people. According to OECD statistics, 1 in 6 EU citizens suffers from some type of mental illness. Exhaustion, anxiety, depression, stress, burnout / http://bit.ly/euractiv_mental_health /According to the research by the Cleveland Clinic, world events have influenced parents' parenting methods so that children of the Z generation have not had the opportunity to develop psychological resilience through their own experiences, resulting in rapid enthusiasm and, on the other hand, rapid relief and stress. /http://bit.ly/cleveland_clinic/One of the solutions from such situations is to create a support for youth workers who are dedicated to the education and training of young leaders from the Z generation, so that they can lead them to prevent depression, stress, burnout and other negative mental health conditions.The introduction of new procedures, such as the introduction of virtual reality into the non-formal education, can also serve this purpose.Specific problems to which the project responds:1 / Young people do not have a psychological resistance to stress, solving responsibility and problems2 / Youth workers lack methodological support in leading and educating young leaders3 / Youth workers lack modern technologies that will enable them to better support and guide young leaders.<< Objectives >>Project objectives:1 / Improve non-formal education by introducing a method of using a virtual reality. Indicator: created simulations in virtual reality aimed at preventing the state of stress and burnout of young leaders.1 / Increase methodological support for youth workers for work with young leaders from various groups. Indicator: developed, verified and published methodology in 3 countries. 21 youth workers are undergoing pilot training led by non-formal education methods.2 / Support the implementation of educational blocks with the application of virtual reality in the education in youth work. Indicator: created manual for youth workers focused on the implementation of education using the technology of virtual reality.The project follows the Erasmus+ priority for young people: increasing digitization, strengthening education with digital virtual reality tools.<< Implementation >>Activities aimed at creating intellectual outputs:Output: A set of simulation activities in virtual reality focused on the prevention of stress and burnout when working with youth with case studiesOutput: Methodology of non-formal education of youth workers aimed at preventing stress and burnout in young leaders using virtual reality simulation activitiesOutput: Manual for youth workers how to implement educational blocks, methodology with simulation activities of virtual reality to work with young leadersPilot training to verify the developed methodology and a multiplier event aimed at disseminating project results.<< Results >>Results (intellectual outputs) after the end of the project:1 / Output: A set of simulation activities in virtual reality focused on the prevention of stress and burnout when working with young people with case studiesResult: Users of a set of virtual reality simulation activities will gain a new method in working with young people.Leading partner: SPACE s.r.o. / CZ /2 / Output: Methodology of non-formal education of youth workers aimed at preventing stress and burnout in young leaders using virtual reality simulation activitiesOutcome: Youth workers will acquire the competencies needed to train young leaders to prevent burnoutLeading partner: RMŽK / SK /3 / Output: manual for youth workers how to implement educational blocks, methodology with simulation activities of virtual reality to work with young leadersResult: Users of the manual will get a practical information on how to work with the methodology and virtual reality incorporated in it.Lead partner: SIRIUS / HR /

"The project addresses the issues of poor implementation and policy transfer in Georgia of Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education Charter (EDC/HRE) adopted by the Committee of the ministers by the Council of Europe. - with the lucrative cooperation between Youth for Peace and Equality - youth workers' organisation since 2012 and Civic Education Teachers' Forum - which is one of the fewest NGOs that has an access to the public schools; - with the innovative 1+1 principle - that one youth worker works together with one civic education teachers;- with the good existing space and resource - ""Civic club"" - extracurricular non-formal based education club at public schools;The project envisages to create an examplary practice of synergy between non-formal and formal education systems and principles in terms of human rights education and education for democratic citizenship.The project spins around Council of Europe's publication ""Democratic Culture Competencies"" and develops research, studies, intellectual outputs, simulation and educational tools around this publication for young people at civic club. These outputs will further be integrated into the youth work curricula for the ""Civic Clubs""These activities are run by 1+1 duos - (youthworker+teacher) who are getting their competencies from multiple mobility activities - trainings, job shadowings and seminars which are dedicated for their professional growth and high quality youth work.Lightmotive of this project is also to promote policy reforms in educational and youth areas with information and awareness raising campaign and the conference to support more democratic, open and human rights-based education system in Georgia."

For many, the age of “youth” is an interesting time, but since it is full of changes and challenges, it can represent the trigger of anxiety, worry and uneasiness.For example, it is estimated that 4% of those aged between 15-24 years old recognize that they might suffer from chronic depression, while 14% of the European youth between 18-24 feel alienated or anxiety. Women are more likely to have depression (Eurofound).Unfortunately, young people sometimes do not recognise what is happening, where to find help or find it embarrassing, so these emotional strains might lead to deeper mental processes, depression or even suicide. Suicide is the second cause of death, among age group of 15-29, according to the WHO.That is why, this strategic alliance (formed by Petrklíč Help, CWP and Permacultura Cantabria) decided to address this topic in the project “Protecting Youth's Mental Health”, and contribute reducing this problem.The project seeks, to gather tools for the identification of youth mental health issues, considering socio-economic and cultural factors; and on the other hand, it seeks their prevention, by learning how to design spaces and activities based on 8 main pillars, that are considered as favourable for a healthy mental health and relationships.These pillars create a series of healthy habits that help prevent emotional issues, being topics of youth interest:-Good Relationships.-Self-esteem.-Emotional Care and Management.-Prevention of Addictions.-Active participation in EU and social activities.-Healthy Sports and Cooperation.-Traditional culture (Traditional dances as cultural heritage).-Adultism (from youth to adulthood).Project’s objectives are:-Create spaces for knowledge exchange and good practices that add solutions to the problem of youth depression.Thus, the project has planned 2 participatory visits to Petrklíč Help (Czech Republic) and CWP (UK), to know the situation of the problem in each country, and their best practices to tackle it. Associated organizations will collaborate in these visits.-Provide youth workers and participants with tools for creating healthy and collaborative spaces.That is why, an 8-day course in Spain will be carried out and led by Permacultura Cantabria, to merge the tools to identify and prevent youth depression. With this, youth workers and young leaders will be better trained.-Promote the dissemination of the project and its results in order to broaden its impact.An exhaustive dissemination strategy was planned and divided into several phases (before, during and after the course) and tasks. Also, internal workshops will be replicated in each entity, to different relevant targets, expanding the project’s sustainability and impact.All participants for all the project’s activities are members of the involved entities (youth workers or youth leaders) that will meet the required criteria and will attend the activities. 2 youth workers will be the project and dissemination coordinators who will attend all the transnational activities including the transnational meetings (in Spain and Czech Republic).Four youth workers from each organisation will attend the 2 participatory visits (Czech Republic and UK) and the course in Spain, while 4 young leaders per entity will attend the course. Both youth workers and leaders will be in charge of the design and implementation of internal workshops, in each entity.All of them will support the dissemination strategy and the correct development of the project and its activities, with their active participation.During the project’s activities, the methodology will be flexible and participative, with practical and theoretical sessions.The project aims to develop a non-formal training methodology for youth workers or educators, so that they can replicate and adapt it to their groups, according to their circumstances, in their regions. This will make the results of this project sustainable over time and have a greater impact.Impact:Youth workers will acquire tools to create healthy spaces, to prevent emotional risks or isolation; Recognise socio-economic and cultural factors; Contribute to the elimination of taboos to seek help; Improve their career prospects and linguistic skills, etc.Young leaders will increase their awareness about depression and addictions, and have tools to support their peers or seek help. The project will help their passage to adult life, to better manage emotions, establish healthy relationships, increase self-esteem, intercultural dialogue, etc.Involved organizations will become pioneers and references on the subject; will capacitate their staff; strengthen alliances and networks; have greater EU participation; design future related projects, etc.Thanks to the dissemination, we will reach a wide multiplier audience, at all geographical levels.Thus, we expect the project results to help reducing depressive processes, discrimination and isolation, among youth.

Our project has three main lines.The first is the development of selected competences for the democratic culture of young people (the list was developed under the auspices of the Council of Europe). We realize this through the creation and delivery of an innovative two-day educational module DEMO for young people from the 8th and 9th grades of primary schools and the first years of secondary schools. This module will consist of larp guaranteed by Crex, non-formal education covered by YouthWatch and experiential learning what is the dominant development method of the Prazdninova skola Lipnice (Lipnice Holiday School). Larp, part of the educational module, is a kind of role-playing game. People in this game act as their characters, these are received at the beginning of the game. Their main goal is to meet their character's predetermined goals in a fictional world by interaction with the rest of the characters. Participants will realize their role in maintaining and promoting democracy and will increase their interest in active participation in society.The second level of the project is the creation of a sustainable system of youth education in democratic competences in the pilot cities of Nitra and Kroměříž. Therefore, during the project, we will select the key youth workers from both cities to be involved in the development of the DEMO training module. We will educate them in all three key methods (experiential learning, non-formal education and larp) and passing on the know-how of the completed educational module DEMO. An integral part of the project is close cooperation with schools. We educate teachers who, after completing the training module DEMO with their class, will carry out follow-up educational activities during their school subjects: civics, history, classroom or project teaching.The third level of the project is the transfer of experience between project partners within the strategic partnership. We do this through internal trainings and close collaboration between partners in creating project outputs.The project will have two intellectual outputs. The first is a methodology for youth workers and teachers. This will help to multiply the DEMO youth training module (which includes a larp) as well as the follow-up activities carried out by teachers in the classroom. The second is the impact analysis. Analysis will measure the impact of the education module DEMO and describe in the IO what results we have achieved and what was the methodology. The results of the impact analysis are essential for evaluating the success of our education module and for further work of all involved organizations.In the final phase of the project we will organise a conference where the results of this project will be shared. By organizing a conference we would like to support the multiplication of the DEMO education and larp method implementation in youth education. This conference will support the discussion and dialogue between experts and organizations from various regions to motivate them to apply intellectual outputes from our project to their youth work.The outcome of the project is an increase in competence for democratic culture among 268 young people (SR: 146, CR: 122). 14 youth workers (SR: 7, CR: 7) will be able to implement an experiential learning module consisting of larp, 15 teachers (SR: 8, CR: 7) can carry out follow-up activities for young people. Representatives of pilot cities will be ready to organise education module DEMO after the project.