"In almost all European countries, social cohesion is being damaged or even destroyed by polarizing, mostly right-wing and right-wing populist forces. In a society of diversity, it is necessary to promote an awareness of social cohesion through suitable initiatives and to recognize it as a value. Cognitive, emotional, social and political education is challenged to take up this challenge.In the project ""Social cohesion in the context of migration: insights for the conception of adult education programs for diversity acceptance in social work"" approaches, methods and ways of European partners were learned and evaluated. Theory and practice of promoting cohesion were discussed. Concrete learning took place through visiting, getting to know and evaluating good-practice examples. A component of all meetings was the question of transfer to one's own context.... A total of 56 professionals (social pedagogues, certified pedagogues; managers, volunteers) participated in the face-to-face meetings. The group of professionals participating in the face-to-face meetings remained nearly constant throughout the entire duration of the learning partnership. In addition, about 50 ""input givers"" and affected persons/participants in measures took part in the five meetings. These were very helpful for the scientific classification and during the learning site changes to practical good-practice examples, especially to experience the impact of community education approaches in their practical effect. The project was able to successfully include good-practice projects of all partner organizations and thus, in addition to the scientific inputs and discussions, to present the views and experiences of European partners in a supportive way in order to learn from and with each other. The intended goals on a theoretical and practical level were fully achieved. Theoretical approaches and practical ways were learned and impulses for practice in the own context were given. Developed collegial friendships among participating persons: cause further networking and thus it is possible to receive mutual advice and concrete help in factual questions at any time. The European dimension: could be taken more into consideration: (Pre-) judgments were reduced: The idea of Europe was again strengthened. The fundamental importance of dialog among each other was confirmed in many ways in the project work."

“I really appreciated the very good communication between the partners, the common understanding of the project work and active involvement in all the activities. I didn't expect that the project work will continue so well in this pandemic period, but the partners did a very good work even online and managed to share a lot of interesting best practices models in Europe and experiences”, says Alina Birsan from SFE CEFEC Social firms Europe.The focus of the project work was on professional exchange, which unfortunately had to be reduced in terms of personal partner meetings due to the Corona pandemic. However, a total of 36 mobilities could be carried out within the framework of the strategic partnership, in which six organisations from five EU member states (DE, RO, LT, GR, BE) participated. The face-to-face meetings took place in Cologne (Germany), Sfantu Gheorge (Romania) and Kaunas (Lithuania). Unfortunately, we were unable to hold the planned transnational meetings in Athens (Greece), Suceava (Romania) and Turnhout/ Brussels (Belgium) due to the pandemic. In order to continue the European cooperation, we have therefore held a total of eleven monthly Zoom meetings since May 2020. Participants in the transnational meetings and Zoom meetings were pedagogical professionals who are active in vocational education and counselling work with disadvantaged groups of people on site and have extensive experience in this field. The central theme of our three 2.5-day transnational partner meetings and the monthly meetings with Zoom was the use of digital media in social enterprises. Experts from science and practice from different EU countries were invited and interesting projects were visited on site or presented digitally. Our goal was to create a European knowledge base through joint project work.In addition to the transnational exchange, each local partner developed a smaller digital project to test digital media in practice with professionals or disadvantaged people. The digital offers were integrated into the context of vocational training work with disadvantaged groups and achieved very positive results and contributed to digitalisation in the participating social enterprises. For example, more than 50 professionals from the partners took part in our training courses on the use of digital media. Furthermore, a large number of people (education experts, responsible persons from politics and administration, stakeholders, etc.) came into contact with our project or were informed about our project activities.In addition to the joint trainings, we jointly developed an extensive reader with good examples of the use of digital media in social enterprises in English, which was posted on our project website. The transnational partners have agreed to continue and expand the use of digital media in their social enterprises in vocational guidance and education work with disadvantaged people beyond the end of the project. Furthermore, it was agreed to continue working together at the European level and to jointly launch a new project if possible in 2022, which will again be thematically located in the context of vocational education and training.Further information is available on our project website: www.digi4se.eu.The contents of two transnational partner meetings are also documented in detail there in the form of e-books as well as the Zoom meetings and other documents.

‘We have taken educational work with disadvantaged families to the European level. Our aim in this was to involve as many colleagues as possible in transnational exchanges in order to give them the opportunity to establish European contacts, gain international experience and familiarise themselves with examples of good practice’, said Kinga Hubbes, regional coordinator for social integration at Caritas Alba Iulia in Romania.The project work was centred around professional exchange. A total of 112 mobility actions were carried out under the strategic partnership, with seven organisations from six EU Member States (DE, AT, RO, IT, UK, LT) taking part. Participants in the exchange activities were educational professionals who offer education and counselling services to disadvantaged families in their various localities and have extensive experience in this field. The partners have exchanged information on their practices and strategies for fighting poverty innovatively and critically assess achievements from a European perspective. Methods used focused on cooperative learning and mutual assessment, discussions with specialists, workshops and cross-border transfer of know-how.The central topic of our six 2.5-day, transnational partner meetings held every four months at partner organisations was the topic of education and counselling for poor and socially marginalised families. Experts from science and practitioners were invited to this event, and interesting projects were visited on site. Our aim was to do all we could to create a common European knowledge base through project work.Supplemental to the transnational exchange, each partner also locally organised what are known as ‘family fora’ for disadvantaged parents and single parents. Here, attendees had an opportunity to discuss, provide and receive advice and information on assistance offers around child-rearing, school attendance, vocational training, health promotion, housing, indebtedness and other issues. Initiated as a complement to case-by-case advice, the family fora produced very positive results and helped combat social exclusion. The fora succeeded in reaching more than 600 disadvantaged participants. Above and beyond these, another 180 people (education experts, responsible politicians and public officials, stakeholders, etc.) came into contact with our project.We visited Brussels at the conclusion of the project partnership. Here we had the opportunity to brief Lisette Schermer, Senior Policy Officer for Erasmus+ at the European Commission, on the progress and results of our strategic partnership, and to discuss with her the further development of the programme from 2021 through 2028, particularly with regard to inclusion. Furthermore we discussed with experts from Caritas Europa and from the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN).The transnational partners agreed to continue to apply the family-fora method beyond the end of the project in their advisory and educational work with marginalised families. It was also agreed that the collaboration would continue at the European level, with joint launch of a new project in 2020. Our British partner will also be involved in this, irrespective of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.Barbara Schinnerl, Caritas Upper Austria, states: “From my point of view the whole partnership was a high qualitative international collaboration with a lot of innovative and motivating output. Getting to know other European countries in a professional way that was and is a crucial factor for a united and prospective European strategy. Thanks a lot of making it possible being part of this very important European partnership.”Interested parties can find more information on the project website: www.inclusive-family-education.eu.The content of the transnational partner meetings is documented in detail in eBook form there as well.

Families who are socially disadvantaged and have multiple burdens to confront are also at a disadvantage in terms of health. The seven partner organisations involved in our project come from Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Austria, Italy and the United Kingdom. In the course of their day-to-day counselling and assistance, they have found that particularly the children and adolescents in these families are exposed to a wide array of health risks. Studies have shown that poverty has an impact on the health of children and adolescents. They found a greater incidence of cavities, overweight, accidents, diabetes and coordination disorders as effects of this poverty. Early-screening examinations and vaccinations are also less frequent among children in socially disadvantaged families. Health examinations prior to primary-school entry have found a disproportionate incidence of gross-motor coordination and speech disorders as well as an increased need for early intervention. Complicating matters is the fact that this particular social group – which apparently has the greatest need for preventive measures to promote health – is also barely reached by such measures. To date, preventive health care and health promotion amongst disadvantaged families has not been a central field of action for the project partners involved. Within the framework of our European cooperation, however, we wish to devote central importance to this topic in our daily educational and counselling outreach. For one, we seek to interact with fellow stakeholders around the importance of preventive health care and health promotion in the European context, thus creating a common knowledge base, while at the same time familiarising ourselves with good practices amongst participating Member States. To this end, a total of six 2.5-day Transnational Project Meetings (TPM) will be held during the two-year project period. Around 20 specialists from amongst the project partners will participate in each of these meetings. To make our European cooperation effective at local level as well, we would also like to initiate and conduct local testing of concrete offerings in counselling and education on the subject of health for parents in disadvantaged and poor families. Working with parents will contribute towards improving the health awareness, health behaviour and state of health of children and adolescents in their families. In this respect, we pursue a ‘setting approach’; this means that the counselling and educational offers we initiate for parents will be tested, for example, in a daycare centre, counselling centre or urban residential quarter. The family-based perspective will form an essential element of our project work. We anticipate providing advice on health issues to a total of around 350 to 400 families as part of our project. We will work within the scope of individual consultations, on the one hand; but we will also enlist the method of group consultation.Through our project work, we specifically seek to promote implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights at the political level as a new and central strategic concept for the European Union. Particularly where Section 11 (Childcare and support to children) and Section 16 (Health care) are concerned, through our joint work, we would like to ensure that the Pillar also has a practical impact on the citizenry of the EU.

Background: Virtual coaching can play an important role in sustaining Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) through early risk detection and tailored intervention in smart living environments. However, current technologies are not easily customized to individual needs, provide limited interaction, and are often intrusive. Aims and Relevance: Based on an excellent international cooperation between Europe and Japan, e-VITA proposes an innovative approach to virtual coaching that addresses the crucial domains of AHA: cognition, physical activity, mobility, mood, social interaction, leisure, and spirituality, thus empowering older adults to better manage their own health and daily activities, resulting in improved well-being and improved stakeholder collaboration. The e-VITA virtual coach will provide individualized profiling and personalized recommendations based on big data analytics and social-emotional computing beyond the state-of-the-art. Approach: The virtual coach will detect preventative potentials and risks in the user’s daily living environment by collecting data from external sources and non-intrusive sensors and will provide support through natural interactions with 3D-holograms, emotional objects, or robotic technologies using multimodal and spoken dialogue technology, advanced knowledge graph representations and data fusion. Interoperability and data privacy will be guaranteed using FIWARE and a federated data AI platform. Proof of concept: A support system will be provided to enable the elderly users to learn and use the virtual coaching system. The coaching system will be deployed and evaluated in the living environments of healthy older adults in France, Germany, Italy, and Japan to assess its feasibility and efficacy. The results of e-VITA include also new standards and policies beyond technology, and will be consequently exploited and transferred across Europe, Japan and worldwide.