The Digital Cultural Designer (DCD) Project consists of extending and developing the digital skills and competences of young people especially in the field of culture aiming to improve cultural education through innovative online tools and methods. As young people are the main users of social media nowadays and as 2020 is the new digital era there is a need to increase the digital awareness of youth and develop their skills in IT and other technology contexts, increasing their knowledge and active participation in the activities of DCD Project and in their societies in general. Young people are the future digital leaders and entrepreneurs as youth entrepreneurship and digitalization are of the main priorities of the European Union for 2020-2021. The project aims also to introduce young adults to the concept of open data allowing them to learn and experiment with open data, corresponding to their own needs. The digital natives of today are the data literates of tomorrow. On top of that, it’s also an age group that starts to invest their own development and self-actualisation. The natives themselves and society can benefit from it. By making the open data topic understandable for youth, young people can easily experiment through interactive video series, animated clips, expert interviews and then more and more young people might try to cross the open data bridge. They can point out problems, select data based on their needs and give creative input on how to transform all this into an application. It’s important that open data become truly open to young people, as this will lead towards more and better use of it. Addressing young adults in a visual, interactive and non-linear manner, is a good way to make open data easy approachable. So, it is a must to transform digital natives into open data literates. The project will bring together 6 partners from 6 different countries (UK, CY, IT, SI, LT, IS) wishing to strengthen youth digital entrepreneurship. The main activities of the project are:1. To make national groups of experts in the LOD management for cultural activities, involving young people in order to improve and develop their digital skills concerning IT skills and data management. The experts groups will be trained through pilot courses that will test and explore open data experiments at national level improving the curriculum of young adults for the management of the LOD in the field of cultural activities. The curriculum aims to promote educational and professional mobility, starting in the countries Partners and then the disseminate the impact in other countries too. 2. To explore museum activities, libraries and archives or other pilot projects for empowering youth in management of cultural experiences also implemented through LOD, with the set up of thematic cultural digital skills and tools. The activities will involve groups of young people, invited to set up specific digital and cultural competences. The activities will start during the project and will be structurally embedded into the cultural institutions and programmes triggering benchmarking processes.3. Implementation and open data organization processes and development of cultural awareness in different sectors. For each Partner Country the level of specific intervention area will be identified.4. Development of a European network for youth organizations working in cultural and technology fields for the continuous development of innovation with particular attention to innovation and online cultural and digital services.5. Improving usability and attractiveness of virtual cultural experiences between virtual and physical experience, involving user groups in testing phases. Particular attention will be given to the involvement of schools, arts academies that will proactively participate to the design and implementation of users activities (in particular those one addressing educational and training activities).Impact on youth:• Enable understanding of EU culture diversity, needs and values;• Explore and test their digital skills;• Acquired tools for cultural needs in local communities;• Promote personal development, youth entrepreneurship and leadership;• Enable a full understanding about EU diverse cultures, values and the new digital era 'Digital Europe';Impact at national and EU level: - Increased ICT skills and knowledge of young people;- Raise awareness about cultural needs of local communities through awareness of needed cultural and digital skills and qualifications gained through their participation in the developed of ICT trainings and courses;-Facilitated recognition of the online courses, modules and the methodology by formal structures and institutions, depending on the national priorities and commitments;-tackle the digital skills gap in Europe coherent and comprehensive support for building up the digital skills needed to support reskilling and upskilling in Europe.

<< Objectives >>The project objectives:- To sustain the development of society through reassessment and discovering the core and common values- To help isolated people and local people understand each other better and build the values of the future society in Europe- To reduce the intergenerational gap- To ensure the people acquire basic values and family values that will be beneficial for themselves and the society- To provide acceptance of differences and disappear prejudice, discrimination & excluding<< Implementation >>Activities 1. Research ActivitiesSurvey applicationsCollection dataValue analysis report2. Education actitivitiesValues Education Program (VEP) is to provide and promote values education4. Family activities, family memories albumCollecting and publishing important stories from the families in interactive stories, digital portfolios, research journals, ‘About me’ books,<< Results >>Project Results:1. Project management (WP1)2. Value analysis (WP2)3. Values education programme (WP3)4. Guideline of basic societal and individual values (WP4) 5. Interactive family memories album (WP5)

The Social Youth project aim at bringing together primarily, disadvantaged Youth (NEETs) with secondary TG, SMEs active in the rural tourism sector, in a collaboration to create new external touristic services and products by the youth and implemented in the SMEs. Through a cooperation methodology, the necessary training resources, an implementation methodology and a learning framework, the partners aim at enabling and/or up-skill youth workers and rural youth, to foster their entrepreneurial skills and mindsets, especially in social entrepreneurship, while offering them valuable digital competences in cutting edge technologies (AR) with a great potential for application in rural tourism services. The youth will in turn, create alternative touristic services and products, suitable for the SMEs. Objectives • Foster youth entrepreneurial. mindsets in rural areas and identifying needs in digital communication and digital content creation related skills • Developing learning resources for Youth, youth workers and trainers, • Developing a framework guide to help Youth workers and trainers to exploit the Social Youth results, • Developing a Digital Training Toolbox to facilitate access to learning resources, case studies, and training paths • Creating actual case-studies/business applications through pilot-testing the methodology and toolkit • Engaging project stakeholders in collaboration and networking regarding the project theme, and researching transferability potential to other sectors besides tourism (e.g. retail, commerce, manufacturing etc.).It is estimated that approximately 300 youth and youth workers and subsequently, SMEs will be trained through the Social Youth methodology and tools. Target groups: Primary target group are Youth in rural areas NEET or in danger of leaving, NEET and youth workers Secondary target group: Youth organisations, Project stakeholders/Partners: Clusters, business associations, SME networks, etc. The project partners will work together to tackle a common problem with a transnational character. They will compare data, benefit from exchange of good practice, complement each other in terms of expertise and previous experience and create youth work tools that will have a wide application across nations and cultures. Moreover, by addressing different forms of rural tourism in each partner region according to the local experience and capacity, the project outputs will be further complemented in terms of applicability to different contexts around the EU.

"As phrased prior to the project, Early School Leaving (ESL) is an obstacle to economic growth and employment for EU Countries. It obstructs productivity and competitiveness, and fuels poverty and social exclusion. In 2019, the share of early leavers from education and training in the EU stood at 10.2%. In other words, one in ten individuals aged 18-24 years with at most a lower secondary level of educational attainment (ISCED 0 - 2) was not engaged in any further education and training in the four weeks preceding the survey. The Europe 2020 target was to reduce the rates of early school leaving in the EU to below 10% by 2020. In 2019, this share was already below 10% in a majority of regions with some of the lowest shares concentrated in Eastern Europe and in capital regions.Among the EU regions, the lowest share of early leavers from education and training (1.7%) was recorded in the coastal/island region of Jadranska Hrvatska (Croatia). There were three other regions where no more than 1 in 50 young people were early leavers: the capital regions of Czechia and Lithuania — Prague and Sostinės regionas (both 1.9%) — and the Greek region of Kentriki Makedonia (2.0%). Young people who leave education and training prematurely are bound to lack skills and qualifications, and to face serious, persistent problems on the labour market. It aims to inspire and generate the development of a comprehensive approach to ESL. As defined in the booklet edited by the European Commission and entitled 'A whole school approach to tackling early school leaving', Early school leaving ESL is a pressing concern for the individual, for society and the economy. The skills and competences gained in upper secondary education are seen as the minimum credentials for successful labour market entry and as the foundation for further learning and training opportunities. These skills and competencies help prepare young people for life, developing the potential in every person so that they become fulfilled and active citizens. Yet 11.1% of 18 to 24 year-olds have left education and training without completing an upper secondary programme according to Eurostat 2014 data. The project proposal was based on the Communication From The Commission To The European Parliament, The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions “Tackling early school leaving: A key contribution to the Europe 2020 Agenda”. The project aims to develop and disseminate an innovative pedagogic method, based on the centrality of pupils and of their emotional needs and requests, aiming to prevent and/or to face the early school leaving phenomenon. The aim is to develop a unique pattern flexible enough to be adapted to the specific contexts and conditions of the different regions and individual situations. The Like Project involved 9 partners coming from 6 EU countries. Partners are research centers, no profit organizations, authorities and associations with long-standing relevant experience and strongly involved with problems connected to the education system governance and development. The project expected that the pupils learn to fill their existential, communicative, relational and training needs; develop the motivation to study; the project managed to fulfil these requirements. This was possible through a process of meaningful learning and training, in order to identify, concepts and meanings, to understand the importance of collaboration to be able to perform their cognitive and socio-emotional growth. Prior to the project we believed that operators and teachers had to improve their ability to ""read"" the starting positions of students in terms of identifying cultural levels, modes of communication and relational learning styles of each. The project aimed to set up and transfer the methodologies and effective tools to bring out recommendations useful to identify and combat the phenomenon of school drop-out and obtain target required by the target communities in the partnership countries, giving a contribution to the redefinition of school curricula with regard to life skills.During the project in the collaboration of the partners, a Pedagogical Toolkit was created after the conceptualization of the model had been finalized. The procedures described in the Toolkit were implemented in the schools of the partner countries. Following the implementation, the impact of the procedures on the life skills of students was measured with the developed survey tool phrased in IO2. The results were analyzed jointly together with the partners."

"<< Background >>Inclusion & Fight against Climate Change are the key cornerstones of EU policy. Besides this, Forest Youth goes together with SustainableDevelopment Goal ensuring equal opportunities and rights to ALL, means that conditions are created to enable young people to fulfil their potential despite their conditions and marginalisation. Also ""Climate Action"" and ""Good health and wellbeing"" as that one is especially important after and during the pandemic period.COVID-19 pandemic has influenced everyone's lives for the worse. Youth with fewer opportunities, specifically, had even greater trouble coping with that. Improving their physical and mental health will help their overall mindset and attitude, resulting in a significant confidence boost, leading them to stand on their feet and chase opportunities. Reduced stress and a healthy mind and body can help them form better human connections, thus increasing their chances of passing a job interview or forming valuable friendships.In the Forest Youth project, we are going to ENGAGE youth with Forest Bathing Methodology by paying attention to youth's wellbeing after covid19 and even during the pandemic situation when in many cases we have forests, parks, gardens (outdoor and indoor) and plants left, on the same way, we are paying attention and raising awareness to the green nature. This point correlates with our second priority ""Environment and fight against climate change"", as the forests are the lungs of the planet, we need to have the greatest attention to them, starting from the youth.The project Forest Youth is going to CONNECT youth to the common community via Forest Youth Platform and EMPOWER via local activities and initiatives.All partners are highly focused to involve youth having fewer opportunities to ensure INCLUSION of youth. Although the youth itself had experienced a huge negative impact of the covid19 pandemic, including their wellbeing and social inclusion issues, the project aims to help them to overcome issues and even more - to EMPOWER them for the actions towards the fight against climate change.<< Objectives >>The Forest Youth project aims to improve 4 areas in the youth field:(1) Youth Wellbeing: In a recent survey of UNICEF (2021) with young people across the EU, almost 1 in 5 responded that they identified as suffering from mental health problems or symptoms such as depression or anxiety. Participants described a complexity relating to their desires to receive greater mental health and wellbeing support. The Forest Youth project based on Forest Bathing methodology will improve youths health & wellbeing, including low blood pressure, decreased stress,improved mood, reduced anxiety, increased ability to concentrate, etc.(2) Inclusion: the activities of the Forest Youth project are focused on the main target group - marginalised youth. So, in engaging and connecting activities, they will develop a sense of belonging to the community, better social inclusion via common goals and activities.(3) Youth Entrepreneurship & Initiative taking: during the empowerment and initiative-taking sessions marginalised youth will develop a sense of entrepreneurship, will gain a number of transversal skills and will be empowered to take action. The beneficial outcomes to youth empowerment programs are improved social skills, improved behaviour, increased academic achievement, increased self-esteem and increased self-efficacy.(4) Actions on Climate Change: Youth is identified as one of the nine major groups of civil society in Agenda 21, with the right and responsibility to participate in sustainable development. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Article 6 on Education, Training and Public Awareness, calls to implement educational and training programmes on climate change to educate, empower and engage all stakeholders. The Forest Youth project calls youth to act NOW and TODAY!<< Implementation >>In the framework of Erasmus+ project Forest Youth, methodology for youth workers “Forest Youth: from improving Youth Wellbeing to Empowering Youth for Actions"" and Forest Youth Platform is going to develop. This will be followed by train-the-trainer sessions (at least 48 trainers will be trained) and later learning, empowerment and initiative-taking sessions will be led by these trainers to marginalised youth (at least 240 young people). At least 48 initiatives will be initiated by youth and supported by trainers and partner organisations. Active youth participation as one of the key aspects in the EU policy will be implemented in the Forest Youth project. Forest Youth Platform will serve for connecting and networking of community with similar goals and activities.<< Results >>The following results will be achieved during the project lifetime:- Methodology for youth workers “Forest Youth: from improving Youth Wellbeing to Empowering Youth for Actions” (approx. 60 pages) in English, Lithuanian, Italian, Spanish, Greek and Bulgarian languages;- At least 48 youth workers/trainers will be trained during the piloting stage of the methodology;- At least 240 youth will participate in Forest Youth activities, will initiate and organise initiatives on the fight against climate change;- At least 48 initiatives by young people will be organised.- Project website will be set where all produced materials will be published as open source.- Project Facebook page & Instagram will be set to keep updated about the project (frequency once a week) with at least 600 followers.- At least 240 users will be on the Forest Youth Platform which will be available in English, Lithuanian, Italian, Spanish, Greek and Bulgarian languages.- 6 multiplier events with at least 180 participants ready to implement Forest Youth methodology in their organisations and their daily activities."