"We are in constant movement. So is the world, and indeed, so is our knowledge about ourselves and the world. This is why we think it is crucial to prepare the new generation for a life where travelling is not only a means of transportation, but a way of being, a way of learning. To prepare them for a life where it is acknowledged that being on the road (taken this expression from Jack Kerouac) does not only lead to new places in the world, but it also leads to new places in ourselves. Where being open to otherness comes naturally, regardless if we find the otherness in cultures, worldviews, habits, rituals, genders, religions, or in ourselves. Where the belief in humanistic, Rogerian values is fundamental, and where we can feel at home wherever we find human relationships. Where we can allow ourselves to change while keeping our integrity. We put travelling in the focus. Already the moment when we leave our home for some other places contains EQ elements.The main objective of our project is to develop innovative educational materials that supports the vision above. These will prepare youth educators for putting personal development in focus in their work, and teenagers for mobility, to experience their European identity and to feel free yet safe far away from home and from their parents. By focusing on developing competences such as resilience, authenticity, acceptance, problem solving skills, open and nonviolent communication, we hope teenagers would begin to see problems as challenges, difficulties as opportunities to learn, and conflicts as possibilities to gain understanding about themselves and the other. We would like to contribute to this shift in attitude.The partnership consists of 3 organisations: Rogers Foundation from Hungary, TANDEM n.o. from Slovakia and Active Citizens Partnership from Greece. By working together we are going to enrich each others alread existing practices, while each partners bring in their own experiences. We plan to operate on a participatory basis, utilizing each organisation's unique take on our common topic. We plan to organize 5 transnational meetings evenly distributed throughout the project lifetime to ensure smooth management during the 26 months-long project.We plan to develop four intellectual outputs in the project, whih are the following:- a Complex Curriculum that serves as the intellectual source for the rest of the IOs that are the implementations of the curriculum in various ways. It will be built up as a traditional school curricula, but with different learning goals, and therefore not restricted for use in schools - it will be transfarable to all sorts of settings where young people act as participants.- a Methodology Handbook for educators that provides the theoretical background of our approach and collects practices, exercises and games. It would help to shape the attitude of educators who are more used to traditional frontal teaching methods. Thematically it will consist of activities that regards to travelling and mobility, and their focus will be on self-development and self-reflection (such as: When you travel, what do you leave behind?""). Therefore it is not necessary that the young person, who is the final recipient of this should have an actual travel experience, but it is a bonus if the exercises can be used referring to actual experiences.- IO3 is a Training Plan for educators. It involves a) the development of a modular trainer curriculum, b) pilot trainings amongst the partner organisations and c) follow up online support of the trainees. It will build on the exercises collected in the Methodology Handbook, and will have a detailed description of a 30 hours long training course.- IO4 is an online learning environment for teenagers for developing social and communication competences in gamified ways via videos, tests and online games. It would also offer a range of methodologies how a trip of any kind can be turned into a learning process where the environment provides the subjects to learn about.Apart from developing these materials, we will organize two sets of local Multiplier Events: stakeholder meetings to present the Handbook, and local workshops presenting mainly the Training Plan, but all other 3 IOs as well in all three partner countries. We are also going to organise an international training event, where we pilot the Training plan, collecting feedback from participants to ensure maximum quality. We expect to reach at least 150 educators and 60 teenagers directly through our activities, and an additional 2000 people indirectly through small scale dissemination activities and the multiplying effect of our participants. By including mobility in the discussion of education, we hope to contribute to building an approach of working with young people that fits better with the requirements of the 21st century, and support young people in becoming more open, resilient and brave - which consequently leads to a more harmonic Europe."

"Since its inception, the impact of the European Union on our daily lives has increased. The dynamics of human relations in the Old Continent, the multicultural and multinational environment created and the innovations introduced over the last 10 years have had an impact on all age groups of societies in the Member States. Most affected by this, in the negative, remained the 40-65 age group, for whom adapting to the current news is extremely difficult. Often this causes them to drop out of the labor market at a very early working age, followed by their inability to become competitive again and find their own employment.The municipality of Kardzhali is located directly in the border periphery with the borders of Bulgaria with Greece and Turkey. This enables the residents of the municipality to monitor the ways of overcoming the problems of the senior citizens of our border states. The general conclusion that can be drawn is that both countries have much lower unemployment rates (at 45-65 years old) and good mechanisms to support adult qualification and retraining processes, which enable better the realization of the elderly in the civil turnover and, accordingly, a higher standard of living within the age group so cited. This is the main reason for the creation of the current project concept, which is aimed at supporting the development of the elderly in the 45-65 age group, by the municipality by studying and introducing the good practices of our neighboring countries, which enables these representatives of the education and training society for the purpose of qualification and retraining, methods for carrying out communication activities, models of entrepreneurship development, ways of providing social services and activities for tourist destinations strive to provide an opportunity for adults to get closer to this European dimension.Our aim is to encourage the older people of our community to take on the whole process of ""lifelong learning - a better guarantee for a good job market."" The global objective and all project activities are aimed at adapting and qualifying the 45-65 age group to meet the current labor market needs. This will be achieved through group visits in the countries of our partners from Turkey and Greece, during which the good practices of the partners will be explored and then tested within the municipality of Kardzhali. This will be implemented through thematic training courses targeted entirely at the target group, which will be provided free of charge to 50/100 people from the municipality, who are registered with the regional Labor Office and / or experience difficulty or inability to fulfill their work responsibilities. At the same time, together with our partners, we will launch a number of thematic initiatives related to the return of immigrants and the potential they bring; services that can reach the aging population, with an emphasis on supporting an independent lifestyle.The acquisition of social skills and rapid adaptation in the community is one of the areas in our municipality that needs rapid change. It is very important for us to be able to adapt to the needs and models of new age learning by the aging generation, enabling them to be sustainable and competitive in the labor market. The idea embodies these changes in the way of thinking, behavior and communication of adults (45-65 years old), through adequate awareness of development opportunities in our municipality, through the sharing of good practices by our partners who have made significant progress and experience in this direction.The realization of this idea will provide an opportunity for building a sustainable partnership network between organizations from the three countries, which will provide additional adult training courses for the formation of professional skills and the desire for continuous development and learning. Through the content, teaching methods and tools included in the planned project activities, we will provide the target group with the opportunity to:- to update and upgrade their teaching / training skills for the benefit of both trainers and trainees, acquiring useful, original and effective practices from the perspective of another EU / Europe country, especially in the areas of environmental sustainability and social inclusion ;- acquire theoretical and practical knowledge of transformative training to promote the environmental, social and economic sustainability and valorisation of countries' cultural and natural heritage;- gain access to new perspectives on adult learning by offering them the opportunity to reflect and analyze their own sets of tools and approaches regarding the use of foreign good practices;- improve knowledge of a foreign language."

"<< Background >>""Let me go, my dear mother, to probe my fortune"" - storytelling and folk/fairy tales had been guiding people's lives for generations in the past. And actually, they have a lot to say about how to start an adult life, how to navigate in-between separation from parents, study and work for young people. Working with folk tales is a good coaching method to work with all the different issues around the life start of young people. Life start is always difficult, but it’s never been as difficult as now, when the future is completely uncertain because of climate change, world migration and economic crises. Sustainability has several meanings, not only ecological, but economic and social issues and goals (SDG-s) also consider part of it, and young adults have to navigate among all those different issues, like between Skylla and Charybdis. That means they have to be prepared for changes, challenges, - which are actually entrepreneurial skills - as well as “traditional” life start skills as carrier choice, separation, setting up an independent life, and setting and sticking to goals.<< Objectives >>The main aim of the project is to improve the preparedness of young people for carrier and life choices by developing their self-reflection, their resilience as well as having them actively make decisions and steps forward their future. As additional aims, we would like to increase the acceptance of cultural diversities and also positive attitude towards sustainability.<< Implementation >>In this project we will use the Folk Tale Work method to develop sets of self-help and coaching / training tools for young people and their helpers, advisers and coaches to think through their choices, their motivation, and design their life steps. Folk stories teach them a lot of things of trial and error, of not giving up even when it's hard, or not that exciting (as the hard bread talks to Jankó in one of the Hungarian tales: because you have to know, it's not luck and fortune, which is waiting for you in life, but hard work, in which you have to be persistent, until your last breath and lost drop of blood ). Folk tales are also a way of narrative therapy. Stories we live by influences the way we live, and the way we thing, as ecolinguist Aaron Stibbe discusses (http://storiesweliveby.org.uk/ ) As in folk tales nature is presented in a revered and active way, as an important support factors, these stories change attitude towards nature, and using folk tales from different backgrounds also provides a good opportunity for increasing cultural awareness.In order to reach our aim, we do the next steps:- to set up a group of developer experts as well as a Youth Board, to engage them throroughly during transnational live and virtual meetings, - to develop the three project results discussed- to run training events for young people (C1) and youth workers' trainers (C2) as piloting and also engagement and training occasion- to run a set of multipliers to engage the larger stakeholder community as well as workshops on our results for young people and youth workers.<< Results >>We are going to develop three main results:1.a Framework and Screening Tool on Carrier Preparedness for councellors2.six (6) Folk Tale Boxes, containing tools for self-help and councellor work, such as the analysis of the tale, cards on the scenes of the tales and assessment questions for self-help and coaching, instructions for coaching on the specific tales, and also group work schedule and tools to work with the tale in youth groups. The six tales used will come from the 4 partner countries, at least one from other cultural region, and at least one with a very strong nature representation.3.a training curriculum for youth workers including modules for direct delivery for young people.Other outcomes at organizational levels:- Dedicated, trained young people (our Youth Board)- motivated and engaged staff- strenthened partnershipOther outcomes at transnational level:- change in the way we talk and think about nature as well as of other cultures- more connection to our ancestors' knoweldge and use it in changing our own future.... So we can all become queens and kings of our own lives, and live happily ever after...."

Young people (in their adolescence and their tween-age, aged 13-20) are in the process of identity formation, and this is the time when their self-esteem, self-efficacy is also built. This process is connected to their feeling of agency – their feeling of control over their lives (Zimmerman and Cleary, 2006). Being an agent in your life have a clear connection of seeing why to finish school and be able to work. Rates of early school leaving (12,1% EU average, with a peak of 12,5% in Hungary, 14% in Italy) and increasing, as well as a 14% in Italy from partner countries), as well as of youth unemployment (14,9% in the EU).Schools, and especially teachers have a very important role in both tackling these challenges of social background as well as tackling the everyday phenomenon of bullying within school. However this is a field, where teachers feel on unsafe grounds, as original teachers training is less focused on this area.What teachers face that usually there are no available psychological / mental health help for young people, even less at the countryside, and they have to deal with these issues themselves if they want or not. They themselves feel helpless several time, and need support.This project aims exactly at that: assisting teachers working with these problem-facing young people, to gain methods, which can be used in the difficult peer-to-peer situations, including peer-mentoring. During our project, after analysing what can be well implemented locally, we would like to develop a reference frame / national adaptation plans for schools, a toolkit for teachers, a teacher training curriculum, and run pilots, and finally develop an Empowerment Platform for gaining access to materials, case studies and online help.

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.