"<< Background >>Background of the project:(i) Grandparents spend a lot of time with their grandchildren- A pan-European survey, delivered under the initiative Grandparenting in Europe, shows that 58 percent of grandmothers and 50 percent of grandfathers provide regular or occasional childcare for their grandchildren aged 15 or younger. - Grandparents play a vital role in children's wellbeing. Research from the University of Oxford, conducted by Professor Ann Buchanan, revealed that children who had a strong relationship with their grandparents had fewer emotional and behavioural problems than those without.(ii) The Elderly and Mobile Phone Use- Technologies and services are essential for the elderly, to improve their quality of life (United Nations. Life Expectancy and Mortality at Older Ages).- MDP’s sustainability 2020 report reveals the rapid progress of IT and, in particular, the high use of mobile phones by different age groups mean that the elderly are willing to use them more often and more naturally.- It is stated in the Access and Use of ICT to Promote Active Ageing, that the use of the mobile phone is positively associated with the social activity of the elderly.(iii) Lack of tools to promote creativity and empathy - According to a NESTA Everyday Innovation survey, creativity is an integral part of modern life, and a well-designed creativity training programs typically improve performance in all fields.- According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity are the three most important skills a person will need to thrive.(iv) There are limited mobile apps to help parents and grandparents spend it in a quality and creative manner- The market is overflowing with the mobile apps that support creative process among art and design professionals, while there are no apps that would support creativity and empathy learning among parents and grandparent in local languages.Due to the lack of relevant studies we have conducted a short survey in the preparation phase of the project. In Slovenia we obtained answers from 22 parents and 21 grandparents, in Croatia, from 48 parents and 34 grandparents, in Montenegro from 18 parents and 24 grandparents, and in Serbia, from 62 parents and 57 grandparents.Main findings in avarage for all 4 countries:•87% parents and 64% grandparents use the mobile phone regularly•89% parents and 59% grandparents answered that they lack adequate innovative services in the local language that would support them in spending quality free time with their children<< Objectives >>General objectives of the project:•Contribution to the non-formal and informal learning of adults with a creative and empathy component to help young generations improve their creativity and to improve their empathy for vulnerable groups. Project results will give parents and grandparents knowledge, skills, competences and tools to promote creativity (storytelling, illustration, sound creation, animation creation) and empathy among children (content of the Twisted Tales). •Contribution to the non-formal and informal learning of adults to acquire new skills and competences, including digital competences.Parents and especially grandparents will - by using the project results - obtain digital skills and competences on how to find, download, create accounts and use mobile apps, how to upload different files, and share them on social media. •Contribution to social inclusion of vulnerable groups through the arts, by fostering innovative participatory and intercultural dialogue approaches.Project will contribute to social inclusion of vulnerable groups due to increased empathy among not only children but also their parents and grandparents.•Contribution to improved knowledge, skills and competences of parents and grandparents for support for children within distant learning due to improved digital skills of parents and grandparents.Specific objectives of the project are:- To (re)create, localise and digitalise four (4) fairy tales as a tool for parents and grandparents for creativity and empathy promotion among children,- To develop online platform and mobile application,- To develop tutorial package ""Twisted Tales"" for parents and grandparents,- To establish an online UGC (user generated content) exhibition.<< Implementation >>Within the project we will:-Develop the intelectual results-Implement mutual learning activities-Implemet project meeting-Monitor project iplementation-Disseminate the project results-Evaluate the project results and impact<< Results >>During the project implementation we will develop the following intellectual outputs:IO1: Detailed analysis of the final beneficiaries’ groups’ needsIO2: Tales creation, digitalisation and localizationIO3: Twisted Tales web and mobile application for creativity and participatory creationIO4: Tutorial package “Twisted Tales” for parents and grandparentsIO5: “Twisted Tales” exhibition and online archive of user generated stories (UGC)In each participating country there will also be a multiplier event with at least 50 participants.Within project management the following outputs will be developed:- Project web pages (1x)- Promotion of the project results on social media of the partners (at least 10 by each partner)- Promotion of project results on relevant platforms (EPALE, E+, ChildHub,…) and web pages of associate partners- Information of media about the project, it’s results by e-mails (at least 50 reporters in each country)- Individual presentation of the project results to media (at least 10 in each participating country)- At least 80 publications in different media in the participating countries- Individual presentation of the project results to organizations outside the partnership that offer initial and continuous education for teaching and support professionals in primaryschools and kindergartens (at least 3 in each country)- Gathering data for evaluation of the project results and impacts (1x)"

The year 2020 will be historically known as the COVID-19 year of great pandemic. The whole world shut down for a few months and even when the lockdowns and curfews were lifted, our societies have witnessed a notoriously change. In some ways, the effect of this pandemic will be temporary until a cure has been found, but for some fields the pandemic has been a turning point that will condition and modify their procedures. This is as well the advantage since it challenges had made us and our work more flexible and created the offers outside of our regular working plan.During the lockdown, resources dedicated to youth had to readapt themselves in order to continue offering services to their users, youngsters. In this case, we can say that fortunately we live in the tech and internet era, and we were able to use it in our favour. The applicant with the youth centre which it is running decided to continue their agenda of activities virtually, using popular platforms, and asking and listening constantly to the youngsters what kind content they would enjoy. This is a method used from the open youth work methodology where local and small activities in youth centers are designed in accordance with the needs and wishes of youngsters. Concurrently, the applicant together with the Romanian partner and other European organizations, created the International Virtual Youth Centre platform, where a diverse profile of people related with youth would upload audio-visual content with the goal of entertaining and educating at the same time youngsters from all over Europe.Among the partnership of six different European organizations dedicated to the youth field, the ongoing project wants to continue this beta project that started during the lockdown, explore new realities due to COVID-19 and innovate in the methods on the implementation of a virtual youth centre in Europe. We want to create a platform where the youngsters can find the offer and resources that they also find in the physical youth centre, with constant accessibility to their referents, the youth workers.In this project the main target group and participants coincide - for we will ask them what they need and wish, will participate in the creation of content and then will become a beneficiary of this new tool. Also we want the youth workers to improve their vision about the changes that COVID-19 raised on the youth and increase their skills on media content, doing a training activity which will be applied separately and who focus will be on the instant media presentations, creations of videos, processing and postprocessing.The project will create three intellectual outputs - IO. The first one will be a survey to fifteen youngsters active in organizations daily work in every partner country, with which we want to collect the needs and changes caused by the virus and answers on what kind of platform and audio-visual content they would like to have. The second one, will be the mentioned webpage/platform and the creation of specific audiovisual content from each of the partners and in accordance with IO1. And as a third and closing intellectual output we want to create a digital handbook, that will gather the results of the survey and the experiences on the platform from every partner, its youth workers and young people.In order to achieve these objectives and results, we target a project duration of 24 months (March 2021 to March 2023). For a successful accomplishment of our milestones and discussions, we will have five transnational meetings in the different countries besides a monthly steering online meeting. Moreover, once the third intellectual output is finished, we plan to do a multiplier event in each of the partners’ countries in the format of a symposium so we can disseminate the results, share experiences and motivate other youth organizations to follow our steps.

"The project ""Open Youth Work For Open Society - Give A Chance To Informal Youth Centres"" responds to the need of the partners involved to create a dossier that is an argumentation aid for decision makers to support open youth work. As open youth work we understand an unrestricted access to spatial, material and personal resources, which allow young people to develop their personal competences in an informal context.In order to achieve this goal, we need to present the different perspectives of those involved. These are the perspectives of young people, youth workers and social scientists. We will collect and evaluate empirical studies, collect, develop and publish good examples of successful open youth work, and publish young people's ideas about what open work should achieve and how it should be equipped. In order to achieve the latter, a youth encounter will take place in Romania within the framework of this project, in which the young people (6 from each country and a group leader, together 35 participants) will jointly develop this idea.In a second step we will create three argumentation aids for open youth work. The first is aimed at decision-makers and administrations. It summarises the opportunities and results of open youth work and places them in a context of positive social development. This is done in detail and is primarily addressed to specialist politicians and the specialist departments of local administrations. There will be a summary in the form of a short handouts addressed to all parliamentary decision-makers.The second contains recommendations for action for universities in order to sharpen the profile of youth workers in open youth work and to better shape it.Both are discussed with representatives of the respective target groups and tested for practical usability.The third argumentation aid is aimed at citizens. It is intended to provide media content that is produced by the partners jointly with their young people. These can be pictures, Youtube videos and sound files that present open youth work in a comprehensive and creative way and make it understandable.With all components an extensive dossier develops, which does not exist in this form so far. It will be available online in English and all languages of the participating partners (Germany, Italy, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia).The partners involved in the project are ""ARCI Strauss"" (Italy), ""Curba de Cultura"" (Romania), ""Narandzasti"" (Serbia), ""RIS"" (Slovenia) and ""Roter Baum Berlin"" (Germany). They represent countries in which different models of youth work exist, with Slovenia even having its own legal basis, all the way to Italy, where there is no entitlement to state-supported youth work. The partners agree that we see the model of open youth work as particularly positive for the development and participation opportunities of young people and that for this reason we want to support the objective 9 of the European Youth Goals (SPACE AND PARTICIPATION FOR ALL).In order to achieve the objectives and results, we target a project duration of 24 months (September 2019 to August 2021). We will work closely together online. The important milestones will be discussed and finalised in 4 transnational meetings, each in one of the partner countries. In each of the 5 partner countries we will also organise a multiplier event in the format of a symposium, which will present and discuss the results of the work and thus contribute to their dissemination and use."

21st Century societies are increasingly demanding youth workforces that are creative, flexible, adaptable and innovative and education systems need to evolve with these shifting conditions. However, the conception and the breadth of arts and culture curricula vary in education for professions in the field of Fine Arts. In particular, a new focus on creativity (in relation to its importance in innovation and entrepreneurship) and cultural education (in relation to both individual identity and promoting intercultural understanding) is apparent in the goals of vocational education and training. This raises questions about the ability of the arts and culture curriculum in VET to fulfil such diverse and wide-ranging aims. On the other hand, teaching the arts and culture to a high standard is challenging. Teachers who teach the arts and culture subjects in VET play a fundamental role in developing the creative skills. There is the need for continuing professional development, to enable arts teachers to update their knowledge and develop their skills.Utilising the momentum created by the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage, InART2DiverCity project aims to develop new and effective approaches, methods and materials to introduce/reinforce European Cultural Heritage and intercultural learning, with the view to enhance the skills and employability of young adults (age group 18-30) in the creative sectors, as well as the professional skills of trainers (train-the-trainers). InART2DiverCity proposes the following intellectual outputs:1. Research and evaluation analysis of educational and training needs for the specific sector and consolidated report;2. Development of Alternative Pedagogical Methodology & Training practices to train the trainers; 3. Development of training seminars for young VET students; and 4. Creative applications and pilot testing for the re-use of cultural heritage. Essential for the project is the idea of “smart culture”. The intention is to propose ways in which Principles of Cultural Heritage can be taught through ICT tools contributing to the idea of a smart culture. InART2DiverCity project strategic partnership includes countries that have suffered the most from the economic crisis and austerity measures (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain), while at the same time have undergone extreme pressure from the high influx of immigrants. Inevitably, this project will approach communities of young students / artists with fewer opportunities including young people with cultural differences; in long-term unemployment; young people facing discrimination; young people from remote and rural areas; as well as young art students and art professionals with physical, sensory disabilities.Young students 18-30 studying Fine Arts will be trained in an innovative and creative way, to learn how to employ teaching methods tailored to the teaching of Art and Cultural Heritage, with respect to cultural diversity and through the promotion of cultural awareness. They will have the opportunity to receive international training, experience foreign training and education systems, harvesting new methods, demonstrate their work and exchange knowledge with their European colleagues. The planned training activities will provide them with knowledge on cultural diversity of the European countries aiming to expand their professional horizons. Their involvement is expected to motivate them to influence more young people as they are experts to spread the word to youth network for the need of skills enhancement. Fine Arts Trainers through the “train-the-trainers” activities, will gain important professional experience on how to use innovative methods that foster the cultural awareness of the trainees and the positive value of cultural diversity. The project long term benefits are summarised as follows:• Bringing together young people and young local artists from different culture, abilities and beliefs, enhancing their creativity and developing a cultural map with common points;• Facilitating participation in learning contexts by local arts practitioners and the inclusion of local art forms and techniques in learning processes in order to strengthen local cultures and identity; • Facilitating cooperation between educational institutions, local authorities, experts, so as to enable them to share transmitting cultural values and local art forms; • Providing assistance to enable Fine Arts trainers to harness technological developments which will enable Arts and Cultural Heritage Education to reach marginalized groups, and facilitate the creation of innovative knowledge products and the sharing of knowledge; • Supporting ongoing professional development of young workers and artists, in order to develop an appreciation of cultural diversity and enable them to develop their potential to create, critique and innovate; • Encouraging and promote the development of art practices through digital media.