<< Background >>WHO developed the “WHO Campaign against Ageism” with a strategic plan named “Global strategy and action plan on ageing and health (2016-2020)” in 2016. In this document some recommendations are highlighted. For instance, regarding the health systems, “A transformation is needed in the way that health systems are designed to ensure affordable access to integrated services that are centred on the needs and rights of older people''. When it comes to the issue of long-term care, mainly provided by NGO’s, the action plan refers that “Every country needs to have an integrated system of long-term care. Each system should (...) allow older people to live with dignity and enjoy their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms”, where the right of being LGBTQI+ freely and living their sexuality with dignity is included. On the other hand, while estimates are that around 10% of the residents of elderly care homes & services are LGBTQI+, when asked about LGBTQI+ residents, management and care professionals of care homes & services usually state not to ‘have’ them or not to have ‘any problems with homosexuality’, and increasing discrimination and exclusion turned out to be an unknown subject to them which they had not thought of before. LGBTQI+ people are at high risk of being discriminated against in residential care homes as they lack ‘voice’ due to heteronormativity and the social taboo on sexual diversity (Leyerzapf, H., Visse, M., De Beer, A., & Abma, T. (2018) Moreover, LGBTQI+ older persons, as they experience and fear to be rejected by health-care providers, care professionals and other residents, can feel forced to go ‘back into the closet’ (Stein, Beckerman and Sherman 2010).While the need to have more LGBTQI+ friendly care services is clear, the number of explicitly LGBTQI+-friendly elderly care services is very limited and, with 2 exception in UK and NL, we couldn’t find any evidence of programmes aimed to identify inclusive care services. The 5 partners of the project (FR PT RO GR IT) want to tackle similar issues and enrich their solution proposal from the specificities of their contexts. Given partners' respective expertises, field of intervention and missions, they all show complementarity in addressing the topics treated in the project. Through sharing their experiences, perspectives, and knowledge of the audience, they will be able to develop an approach that encompasses a wide range of situations while being specific about the strategies and tools elaborated. Thus, this partnership is also a way to develop and create training and tools that will adapt to various situations while remaining relevant. Partners share common needs that they want to overcome. The project takes over REC project Best4OlderLGBTI. This project aimed to develop tools and strategies to raise awareness among the general public and some selected target groups about sexuality in old age and older LGBTI, to contrast ageism and discrimination through challenging stereotypes. The BestCare4LGBTQI+ is complementary to this previous work, as it makes a step forward from awareness to action, supporting professionals in residential care as well as in home care services in finding and applying strategies to make services inclusive & accessible to all.Four organisations of the strategic partnership participated in the REC project Best4OlderLGBTI (Anziani e non solo ( IT), Caso50+ (PT), KMOP (GR) & EaSI (RO) ). Afeji (FR) joins the partnership as a service provider and because of a high interest in these matters. Partners have a complementary experience and brings a large network they involve to ensure to reach the target group and promote a better inclusion & non-discriminatory care for older LGBTQI+ peopleThe complementarity of their approaches, experiences and contexts will allow a pooling of practices and transversality necessary to build a comprehensive and reflexive methodology for better care of older LGBTQI+.<< Objectives >>The mission of the BestCare4LGBTIQ+ project is to support the development of LGBTQI+ friendly elderly care services, providing tools, awareness-raising material and learning resources to home care and residential care services managers and staff to ensure a better adapted and more respectful and inclusive care for LGBTQI+ older people living in care facilities. Concretly:1-To raise awareness on specific older LGBTQI+ needs among care home & services managers and staff as well as in the general audience2-To equip home care and residential care managers and staff with tools and skills for a better integration of older LGBTQI+ people3-To support care services to assess their inclusiveness and to implement an action plan to become more LGBTQI+ friendly 4-Ultimately, to ensure better care for LGBTQI+ older people in residential care facilities & home care services, especially when living with dementiaThe whole BestCare4LGBTQI+ purpose is to make home care services places where LGBTQI+ people can feel safe and welcomed, and free to live and express their identity in day-to-day life.Through cooperation, training and replicability of our project, we will have a strong and lasting impact on home care & residential care services managers and staff, on care professionals at large (through the database) as well as aging LGBTQI+ people and anyone interested as production as results will be available to all.We expect the following results:1-For professionals and stakeholders_Strengthening capacities to work with older LGBTQI+ people_New skills and tools for a better non-discriminatory care of aging LGBTQI+ people_Develop and make accessible a new set of didactic tools fine-tuned to a wide range of contexts_Increased cooperation capacity_Creation of a community of practices _New skills to overcome a heteronormative society (and services) and make it more inclusive for all_Encourage resilience, by strengthening ability to collaborate _Increase ability to identify discriminatory situations and ways to address them in day-to-day practice_Making residential care services places that are all encompassing in their approach to the well-being of residents2-For LGBTQI+ care service users_Increased safety_Sense of belonging and confidence for older LGBTQI+ people in regards to quality of care in all contexts (disabilities, dementia…)_No concern that the (life) partner is present or identified as such_Effective access to services_Services to be perceived as safe places where all their needs are taken into account3-For all_Sensitising on the issue of effective access to care services for LGBTQI+people and, in particular, for LGBTQI+ elderly people_Encourage critical questioning of practices for inclusion of older LGBTQI+ people and at large_Promote inclusion_Expand public horizons, improve the knowledge of a specific audienceThis project will reach 12 840 people, most of them care professionals. The transnational aspect of the project is at the heart and will lead to:_More best practices detected & promoted to support the rights and non-discriminatory practices toward older LGBTQI+ people in home care services or residential care services_A community of practices created at a European level with regards to a taboo topic_A transnational training created and tested in order to be replicable and transferrable_Tools created to be relevant in a wide range of contexts _Links between organisations to enable long-term cooperation_The sense of belonging to a European project strengthens the sense of citizenship of all participants_Better analyse, reading and understanding of the different types of issues affecting access to non-discriminatory care services for LGBTQI+ elderly people in EU_Sensitising on a European level on the difficulties to access non-discriminatory care services for LGBTQI+ elder people, and that these issues are not isolated issues, nor limited to specific culture or social enviroronment.<< Implementation >>BestCare4LGBTQI+ is composed of 5 results:Result 1: “Make me feel at home” - proposals for a better service provision of care for older LGBTQI+ users based on storytellingAccording to Addis et al. (2009) the understanding of older LGBTQI+ people's needs with regard to their health and social care is low and research on this is scarce. Together with professionals and elder LGBTQI+ people the project will create a multilingual captivating booklet with 45 testimonies of elder LGBTQI+ people and professionals in 6 languages (EN, PT, RO, IT, FR, GR), peer-reviewed and validated. This PR is a base for all following results as it will allow to detect the needs and expectations of older LGBTQI+ residents as well as professionals willing to build more inclusive services.Result 2: Provide Training for more inclusive care services: training course and toolsResearch has shown that there is an urgent need to provide services that are more sensitive to LGBTQI+ issues and to address the education and training needs of their staff (Browne, 2007; Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2009). Anti-discrimination training seems to be a key approach to ensure that LGBTQI+ people can enjoy appropriate and sensitive health and social care, but such training is not yet widespread and there is no standard approach for it (Ross & Carr, 2010). The training course curricula will include at least 5 modules, covering topics related with human rights; inclusion; discrimination; equality; diversity charts; health, emotional and social specific issues about LGBTQI+ older people; gender identities and sexual orientations; harassment; inclusive language; among others. Tools will be developed alongside. 100 professionals will be trained. Result 3: Train the trainerIt will be implemented after the test of the pilot training (result 2) and followed by fine tuning, and will equip trainers with tools to replicate the training, thus enhancing its scope and impact. 60 trainers will be trained and at least 35 replications are expected (10 of them during the project's life, reaching another 60 professionals). Result 4: methodology for awarding a Badge of Excellence for inclusive residential care of older LBGTQI+ service users. Values and beliefs of service providers, together with organizational constraints and lack of awareness, can be a significant barrier to LGBTQI+ inclusive practice. That is why, in order to be able to implement inclusive practices in elderly care, it is important to have a framework that sits alongside education and which identifies a set of quality standards to be achieved in practice. The tool can be a practically usable resource for professionals, which will support them in practically implementing strategies to make their services inclusive for LGBTQI+. The methodology will be easily transferable and expandable to other care-contexts, type of end-users or languages. Result 5; database for inclusive careThis is a publicly available and multi-lingual data base that provides a searchable repository of practices, policies, tools and lessons learned in relation to inclusive care for older LGBTQI+s. The platform will also incorporate a toolbox of resources developed within PR2 to assist the training and awareness raising of professionals and institutional environments.The aim of this tool is to provide users (primarily: health professionals; care professionals; care managers; service providers; policy makers; LGBTQI+ associations etc.) practical examples complemented with suitable tools.The project is supported by a strong dissemination strategy, including partners networks and 5 ME. Sustainability plan include:_Durably raised awareness thanks to acquisition of new knowledge and skills related to inclusive care _Production of free reusable and replicable tools, useful in a wide range of situations_A fine-tuned communication strategy to broadly disseminate PR_Long-term maintained results with an online database<< Results >>The project will reach more than 12840 people in total and activities will directly involve 2840 of them in 5 countries.The project will produce:1 multilingual captivating booklet with 45 testimonies in 6 languages (EN, PT, RO, IT, FR, GR).1 training course with at least 5 modules involving 100 participants from at least 5 care homes1 train the trainer module with at least 4 modules involving 60 participants and at least 10 replication of the training during the project life as well as 25 commitment to replicate after the life of the project1 transferrable methodology for awarding a badge of excellence to services1 public database of best practices for inclusive care reaching a minimum of 10 000 people1 toolbox on the database with at least 5 tools developed with LGBTQI+ elderly people & care professionals1 STJSTE training reaching 20 professionals 5 Multiplier events (1/country) engaging a total of 100 stakeholders to disseminate the project results 1 Final evaluation report1 quality plan + quality reports 1 dissemination plan + dissemination reports 1 sustainability plan1 project website / database to support project dissemination and communication, community of practice, information related to events and news, dissemination of results, possibility for participants to share the results of their practices, 1 Facebook page (and any other relevant social media) to support project dissemination and communication, mainly through posting news and information about the project and inviting people to like the page and participate in the events6 transnational project meetings (TPM) : program, agenda, minutes approved by all (4 face-to-face and 2 online)

"<< Background >>The integration of migrant women or women with non-Western backgrounds into the European context is an essential step towards achieving the goal of raising the EU employment rate to 78%, as called for in the Europe 2030 Strategy. In general, the impact that the employment of immigrant individuals can have on the growth and GDP of the various European countries is considerable, as shown by numerous studies in the sector. Moreover, the figures confirm that the presence of migrant women in the EU territory is significant. In fact, since the last decade, there has been a continuous increase in the flow of female immigration into the EU. The data collected in the ""Motion for a European parliament resolution on Women's immigration: the role and condition of immigrant women in the European Union (2006/2010(INI))"" underline how crucial it is to effectively manage this important flow, adopting measures aimed at the social integration of immigrant women, to combat discrimination and marginalisation. A crucial step in this direction has been made in the last decade with the adoption of the Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee dedicated to the integration of migrant women in the labour market (2015). It is worth noticing that the specific skills to be promoted among immigrant women—the target group of the project—to ensure their full social and labour integration—are those related to digital literacy, interculturalism and entrepreneurship, as well as personal skills related to so-called life and soft skills, in a context of informal and non-formal education. The need to integrate digital and entrepreneurial competencies are especially underlined by the European Commission's Communication on the Digital Education Action Plan (COM(2018)0022) and the framework outlined in EntreComp (2016).The applicant has detected the needs of the specific target group based on the specific context of Portugal, which has the following figures:■ The 4th highest youth (15-24 years old) female unemployment rate among the EU-27, above 20% (Eurostat 2019)■ The highest gender difference on youth (15-24 years old) unemployment rate in the EU-27 (youth female unemployment rate is higher than male unemployment rate) (Eurostat 2019)■ Among the young population, Portugal is the EU-27 country with the 3rd highest difference of percentage of work seeking female NEETs (6,6%) vs work seeking male NEETs (5,0%) (Eurostat 2020)■ The highest rate of discouraged job seekers within EU, and with the highest % difference between discouraged males and females (Eurostat 2017)■ The 2nd lowest percentage of job vacancies in EU-27 in the third quarter of 2020 (Eurostat Job vacancy statistics 2020)Therefore, the promotion of entrepreneurship is fundamental for Portugal, because there are no available jobs and therefore is strategic to find innovative solutions.Life for women with a migrant background is not easy in all the European countries, facing at the same time discrimination and gender inequality. Migrant women needs in Europe are reported in a number of academic articles and official reports by international organisations, such as “Integration of migrant women. A key challenge with limited policy resources”, (2018), in which the biggest struggles and problems they are facing is reported with a transnational approach. “the gap between the share of employed non-EU-28-born women and native women is 8 percentage points larger than the gap among men. This clearly shows that migrant women represent an untapped and under-utilised source of skills and that their potential is not fully exploited.” In the document, among the important steps that must be done for effective social inclusion of our target group, labour market integration is reported as fundamental as other activities and initiatives aimed at their social inclusion.<< Objectives >>The WINBIZ project involves migrant women or women with a non-Western background, with medium-high levels of education, in a training pathway aimed at enabling the acquisition and development of personal, transversal and specific competencies and skills necessary for their full integration/reintegration in the European labour market, thus generating well-being for themselves and for the society they live in.WINBIZ aims to:■ Contribute to the development of migrant women's competencies in adult education through high-quality learning■ Contribute to the promotion of open education and the development of methodological, didactic and technical innovations for the promotion of women's social entrepreneurshipSuch objectives are achieved through the production of four works of art created during the project:■ A social and training needs research report, aiming at outlining the local, national, and European framework of opportunities and barriers that migrant women may face, about their educational and training condition for access to the labour market and their full social integration■ An online toolkit for trainers and tutors, created by integrating data and information from social research, technical and intellectual contributions from partners, already available OERs and input from potential trainers/tutors, who will be ""tested"" through alternative engagement and information gathering techniques, such as coaching circles. The methodology used will be based on the contributions of systemic methodologies such as U-theory and Design Thinking. The toolkit produced will then be used by the trained tutors themselves as an operational tool for coaching/mentoring activities for the benefit of migrant women involved in the MOOC■ ​A 150-hour-modular course to be structured in blended mode: 25 tutors will mentor 250 immigrant women during the course. The reference for the coaching/mentoring of the mentors will be the previously developed toolkit. The MOOC will be hosted within an e-learning platform and will aim to transfer knowledge to the target group and promote digital, entrepreneurial, intercultural and life skills. To validate the acquired skills, participants will receive a certificate and an open badge, according to the EntreComp framework■ A catalogue of business plans, bringing together the 15 best operational business plans developed by the women who have successfully followed the MOOC and who have obtained the highest score following participation in the final project work scheduled at the end of the MOOC. At the end of the blended course, there will be a 100-hour-project work (20 of which include the presence of the tutors), which will be structured as a team working experience that will lead the 250 participants, divided into groups, to the definition of business ideas. The project work will also be open to the participation and contribution of other women from the urban context in which the participants live. At the end of the project work, a special committee will evaluate the business ideas and select the 15 best—based on criteria of innovativeness and social impact—to be ""incubated"" in a transnational training campus, to transform the business ideas into real operational plans. The incubation phase will take place with the support and mentoring of 15 role models – namely the successful female migrant entrepreneurs from project partner countriesThe results of WINBIZ have been designed to produce relevant outcomes in terms of direct and indirect impacts, as far as innovation is produced and the exchange of know-how between the involved organisations active in the education and training sector is promoted, and the social inclusion/empowerment of women and migrants is achieved<< Implementation >>The project is structured in such a way that the various results achieved—and the activities related to them—progressively contribute to the full achievement of the project objectives. Considering the macro-objective outlined above, 4 more specific objectives (SO) and related actions (AS) are necessary:■ SO1—Acquisition and sharing of knowledge, theoretical, empirical, and statistical-operational data—from institutions involved in the implementation of educational-training paths for adults, and of institutions involved in the socio-professional inclusion of women and migrants. Such data will be related to the training needs and the social, economic, and cultural situation of the target groupA1 Planning and development of an appropriate social research frameworkA2 Implementation of desk research at local, national, and European level and focus groups at the local levelA3 Processing of results, review, and publication of a final report, to be shared within and outside the partnership, through the dissemination and exploitation channels identified ■ SO2—Development and sharing of open methodologies, tools, and training materials for the professional preparation of operators who will be responsible for tutoring, guiding, and coaching the target groupA1 Planning and development of an appropriate methodological frameworkA2 Implementation of an activity aimed at the exchange of good practices among the partners—in particular of U-theory and Design Thinking toolsA3 Implementation of an analysis of the training-professional needs of the operators: this will be done by organising local coaching circles that will mainly use engagement tools of Theory U and Design ThinkingA4 Processing of the data and information obtained, collection of feedbacks and coproduction of a toolkit for trainers/tutors to be used for the training of 25 appropriately selected operators and to be shared also outside the partnership, through the dissemination and exploitation channels identified ■ SO3—Development and sharing of ""open"" methodologies, tools and training materials to promote: a) the acquisition of personal, transversal and specific competencies and skills by the target group; b) the socio-professional integration of the target group; c) the promotion of female entrepreneurshipA1 Planning and development of an appropriate methodological frameworkA2 Development and joint revision of training contents (modules)A3 Development and testing of an e-learning platform to host a MOOCA4 Implementation of a 150-hour blended training course for 250 migrant women or women from non-western backgrounds, supported by 25 trained tutorsA5 Validation of skills acquired through certification and issuing of open badges, following the EntreComp frameworkA6 Promotion of the products through the dissemination and valorisation channels identified ■ SO4—Promotion of a practical co-planning training course - for the benefit of the target group and linked to the previous theoretical training course. The training course aims at defining, elaborating, and collecting operational business plans that meet the criteria of innovativeness and social inclusionA1 Planning and development of an adequate methodological frameworkA2 Implementation of 100-hour project work for the benefit of the 250 women participants in the MOOC, which is also open to the participation of women not enrolled in the course, and led by 25 tutorsA3 Development of business ideas by the participants in the project work, who will be divided into groupsA4 Selection of the best 15 business ideas from all partner countries and subsequent ""incubation"" within a transnational training campus for the transformation of ideas into operational business plans, with the support and mentoring of 15 selected role modelsA5 Preparation of a catalogue gathering the 15 operational business plans produced, and their dissemination through the communication and exploitation channels identified<< Results >>The following impacts are expected with the implementation of WINBIZ: On participants:■ Migrant women or women from non-Western backgroundsThe 250 women who will have participated in the piloting a) will improve personal, transversal and technical skills - especially entrepreneurial, digital and intercultural skills. This will be certified by open badges, Europass Mobility and Europass CV, in accordance with the EntreComp framework; b) will have more and better chances of professional integration; c) will have bridged their educational and professional mismatch; d) will possess the tools to collaboratively develop business ideas; e) will see their well-being increased, creating wealth for themselves and for society; f) will have the possibility to join informal networks at local and European level, which are fundamental for their personal and professional development; g) will contribute to breaking down negative stereotypes about women and migrants and will be successful examples of social integration in the EU.■ On tutorsThe 25 operators (tutors) who will participate in the project activities a) will possess transversal and technical competencies, in particular in the area of life skills and entrepreneurial coaching, certified by Europass Mobility and CV, in agreement with EntreComp; b) will be able to use the acquired notions and tools to support - within their organisations - migrant women in paths of empowerment and socio-professional integration; c) experience a career advancement; d) disseminate the innovations also outside and promote collaborations with other stakeholders, allowing a future transferability of the WINBIZ results and their use also after the end of the projectOn organisations:■ The staff members of the project partners will become experts in the implementation of: a) a training course for tutors/facilitators trained in the area of life skills and entrepreneurial coaching, with competencies linked to EntreComp; b) a training and practical course for migrant women for the development of personal and transversal competences, in particular entrepreneurship and social and digital inclusion, linked to EntreComp■ The profile and expertise of the partners (namely training and adult education centres, organisations working to support migrant women) will be significantly strengthened■ The methodologies, tools and materials produced will enrich the offer of educational and support services of the participating organisations which, by promoting the innovations acquired, will see an increasing demand for these services by a greater number of end-users■ Synergies and cooperation between partners will be improved in the field of adult education, from a multi-sectoral/interdisciplinary perspective■ The partners' training offer will better meet the needs of today's European labour market - which is flexible and dynamic, and which requires the acquisition of new transversal skills On other organisations/stakeholders:■ The expected impact of the methodologies, tools and innovations produced on modernising and increasing the quality of services provided by organisations working in adult education and supporting migrant women across Europe is high. APSU and the other partners will promote the results of WINBIZ within their own networks of associated partners. For example, CES—being an umbrella organisation comprising 30 organisations in 15 European countries—will be able to use its channels to disseminate project results at an exceptionally high international level. EGInA will exploit the network of Stati Generali dell’Innovazione (SGI), of which it is a member. SGI, together with DAISSy, HOU's research group are part of the European ALL DIGITAL network, which will promote the project results by disseminating WINBIZ innovations among its members (60 organisations representing more than 25.000 e-skills development centres)"

<< Background >>In a recent Eurobarometer protecting the environment and climate change was considered as the highest priority for the EU by 67% of young respondents. Youth participation in various social movements for climate and environmental protection as well as consumption habits towards sustainable food and clothing further manifests the turn of the youth towards sustainability and alternative models of economic development. COVID-19 devastatingly also underlined the need to turn towards sustainable production and consumption and for alternative economic models in the future. At the same time, the percentage of youth unemployment is exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the unemployment is expected to soar, while young people have already been one of the most vulnerable groups emerging from the years of economic crisis and austerity (Eurofound). Projections on the full impact of COVID on youth in Europe is very dismal. The SYnC project sits at the intersection of these European realities and aims to develop an non-formal educational framework to introduce young people and youth workers to the circular economy and to unleash the innovation potential of the former.<< Objectives >>Specific objectives are: To educate and raise awareness of youth in particular those with fewer opportunities on the key concepts of sustainability and circular economy with a view to strengthen their entrepreneurial opportunities (SO1) Build the capacity of youth organisations to be able to inform and guide youth towards circular economy and to explore their entrepreneurship and innovation potential (SO2) Reinvigorate cross-national and cross-sectoral knowledge transfer to build momentum towards promoting youth entrepreneurship in circular economy (SO3).<< Implementation >>Result 1 How to? Toolkit for youth and circular entrepreneurship R1-A1 Research and analysis of best practices R1-A2 Testimonials from circular economy entrepreneurs R1-A3 Drafting and finalisation of the Toolkit Result 2 - Guidebook for raising awareness and building the capacity of youth workers R2-A1 Development of the GuidebookR2-A2 Organisation of the raising awareness and capacity building seminars R2-A3 Feedback and evaluation reportResult 3 - Non-formal online course and platform for circular economy entrepreneurship R3- A1 Co-design encounters with youth, youth workers R3-A2 Research and drafting of the course design R3-A3 Content development and instructional design R3- A4 Localisation and translation R3 - A5 Platform concept and technical definition R3 -A6 Piloting, feedback and evaluation Result 4 - Lessons learnt and forward looking educational strategies R4-A1 Lessons learnt and youth recommendations! How to SYnc-in youth innovation potential in the circular economy R4 -A2 Forward looking educational strategies<< Results >>The SYnC project in its 24 month duration will deliver the following results:-- How to? Toolkit for youth and circular economy entrepreneurship available in digital format and in 5 languages (EN, EL, PT, RO, DE)-- The Guidebook for raising awareness and building the capacity of youth workers, translated in 5 languages and available in digital format-- Four (4) raising awareness and capacity building seminars with the participation of 20 youth workers per country, to be implemented in Greece, Portugal, Romania and Germany.-- The SYnC online course and educational platform for introducing youth to circular economy entrepreneurship, available in 5 languages and piloted in the four (4) countries with the participation of 80 young persons in total.-- The Lessons learnt and youth recommendations! How to SYnc-in youth innovation potential in the circular economyreport and The Forward Looking Educational strategies report available in digital form in 5 languages.

One of the groups of people that is more affected by social exclusion is people with disabilities where the targets are failing. For instance, in 2016 in the EU-28, the poverty and social exclusion rate of people, aged 16 or over, with some or severe limitation was 30.1% of the total population while for people with none limitation was of 20.9%, a gap of 9.2%. (Indicators to support the Europe 2020 Strategy, 2018). There is a very well established link between negative attitudes to people with disabilities and the barriers to their rights. The United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also recognized it saying “… disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with other” (CRPD Preamble (e), 2008). But despite this progress, negative public attitudes and awkwardness about disability prevail. Disabled people and their families tell that negative attitudes affect every area of their lives – in the playground, at work, in shops, on the street (Current attitudes towards disabled people, 2014). In this context, intends to develop the Awareness4Change project, that aims to do the diagnosis of improve more everyday interactions and greater public education about disability. Our aim is to increase understanding and acceptance of disabled people. As specific objectives are: understand the European current attitudes towards disability and disabled people, focusing on the opinion and attitudes Organizations’ Human Resources departments; understand the disabled people current perceptions and experiences about civil society’s attitudes towards disability and disabled people; to launch a transnational campaign to get European public thinking about what we can do to include disabled people more in our lives; to design an awareness training to address attitudinal barriers and negative attitudes, targeting employers, human resources departments, workers on the front line (those who face the customers); to improve people with disabilities’ experiences when they do participate in everyday life domains such as transport, public services, health services, etc.The project participant profile comprises companies, human resources professionals, employment support technicians, civil society and people with disabilities. Will be participate of the project 750 considering the people who answered the surveys, experts, pilot learnersand pilot trainers, project meeting, open seminars participants.To achieve these objectives, the project will be divided into three stages: IO1, Organizations’ Human Resources departments report on current attitudes towards disability and disabled people; IO2, Disabled people’ perceptions and experiences report on civil society’s attitudes towards disability and disabled people; and IO3, Awareness training materials to address attitudinal barriers and negative attitudes.The impacts expect of Awareness4Change are first to awaken call to society, to discuss and change attitudes toward people with disabilities. After this, are expected to engage the target group especially in the human resources and employment professionals, because they are the way to make some difference in the reality of people with disabilities in the labor market context. Lastly, the project expect to contribute for social change in the European scenario, making a tool to the social engagement in disability affairs and be replicable in all Europe for transform globally the labor market and all society in a space of community and human diversity.In relation to the results that will be maintained after the end of the EU funding are: online questionnaire about the attitudes of human resources and business services to people with disabilities and perceptions of civil society on the same issue; a focus group guide to get information about people with any kind of disability (motor, sensory, intellectual); awareness flyers for the employability of people with disabilities; and training curriculum for human resources professionals and employment support professionals. All the materials will be available during and after the project ends and can be replicated by partners or other entities that have an interest in disability awareness.

<< Background >>It is known and understood that economy is changing, new concepts are emerging (concepts such as knowledge economy, 4.0 economy, circular economy), and all these new concepts impact the challenges to increase transversal skills. Networking is one of the most important elements of job search. Professional networking has been shown to be the best way to find a new job. Nevertheless, nowadays networking continues to be seen as a high-performance professional career development skill. In what concerns networking, is commonly understood that 85% of employment opportunities are related to networking outcomes (says a recent survey conducted to more than 300 thousand persons in conjoint research in which the Adler group and LinkedIn participated (www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-survey-reveals-85-all-jobsfilled- via-networking-lou-adler/ - 2016). The research concluded that “(… active candidates represent around 5-20% of the total talent market, Tiptoers about 15-20% and passive candidates about 65-75%. reflecting fewer candidates for a high position.” This confirms that networking is a key and fundamental skill to labor market integration and job retention, or in an extended approach to generate opportunities that benefit people inclusion – having in consideration that a workplace is a key to social inclusion and personal wellbeing. Target groups: disadvantaged groups - NEETs, migrants, immigrants, and others According to the Skills for jobs database by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), at least 80 million workers in Europe are mismatched in terms of qualifications. This means workers lack the proper qualification for the job they have been hired to do, either because they are under-qualified or overqualified. According to the OECD, this is the case for 42% of workers in Greece, 41% in Portugal, or 37% in Germany. The so-called ‘skills shortage’ has an economic impact both on workers and businesses. At the partnership level, it has been observed in each country that ‘skills shortage’ is a real problem and especially for NEETs and migrants, who are facing a pool of challenges in being socially included. The expertise of the team members and the experience in working with disadvantaged groups constitutes an asset for the development of this project concept – foreseen activities. The general objective of this project is to help disadvantaged groups (NEETs, migrants) to become successful participants in the community by developing their networking skills and by using the links they have created for better inclusion. We believe they will be better prepared if their networking and soft skills are empowered and oriented to invest in their social capital increase. SHAREN(E)ET was designed to develop innovative results but also to intertwine innovative practices with existing activities considered as good practices adaptable to young adults, namely the creation of opportunities for self-development and empowerment towards the labor market. Some innovative resources: 1) Networking Self-assessment for disadvantaged persons 2) Learning paths or programs around the learner - Learning paths tailoring tool 3) Learning resources catalog To develop these resources, partners will invest knowledge they have consolidated during their lifetime of fieldwork & implement other key projects.<< Objectives >>The overall objective of this project is to help disadvantaged persons to become successful participants in the economy. We believe they will be better prepared if their networking and related skills are empowered and oriented to invest in the social capital increase. Thus, the project goals are to: Enhance networking and related skills, identified as critical in the 21st-century economy in disadvantaged young adults (especially NEET) and adults. Identify existent open-source networking self-assessment tools and design one suitable to disadvantaged persons. Develop a tool that analyses and issues learning paths proposals for networking and related skills enhancement in disadvantaged persons and practitioners. Generate a set of learning paths to train the trainers (practitioners) in providing the most effective support to trainees (disadvantaged persons) Create a networking and related skills development guide, providing to practitioners a set of guidelines, resources, and tools to apply when working with disadvantaged persons Pilot the PRs’ in each country targeting 12 practitioners and 24 disadvantaged persons (in PR3 pilots) from which will result in a Catalogue of Successful Case Studies in “Building Human capital to sustain social inclusion and employment” Target groups: practitioners: psychologists, social workers, trainers, educators, and other related professions. This group will be mostly engaged in core project activities, integrating the first direct beneficiaries of what the project aims to develop and deliver. These participants are asked to provide their experts' points of view and influence the development of the results. Furthermore, they are to be engaged in the activities that provide critical input to PRs’ validation and improvement - validation workshop. They will also be invited and enrolled in the piloting activities in which they benefit from the learning experience but also have the duty to provide informed feedback to the developers. They can be integrated into the groups for transnational activities - STJSTE - and in the communication and dissemination actions.<< Implementation >>SHAREN(E)ET is a 30-months project which aim is to support inclusion and employment pathways, by creating a series of learning pathways (self-assessment and training offer). The self-assessment instrument will allow creating disadvantaged people’ self-awareness regarding their current levels of proficiency in key soft skills, and the training will cover the gaps and train disadvantaged groups on how to develop and value their soft skills. To the project purpose, it is required to design a participatory approach and to be as close to the beneficiaries as possible. Therefore, SHAREN(E)ET methodology will be based on delivering pilots simultaneously to a single group in each country. The development of the PR’s will also be almost in parallel, making sure the resources are working and taking advantage of synergies.The project will start with the planning of all the necessary PR’s, they will be detailed at the same time with a conjoint effort from all partners. The PR’s are interconnected. PR1, PR2 and PR3 will be developed at the same time and cannot be implemented independently in a sequential manner, but they are all to be applied to the same beneficiary in an integrated process, so the prototypes need to be ready at the same time. The PR1 will be focused on setting the right framework of skills and providing the beneficiaries with the possibility to measure their levels in terms of networking and related skills. PR1 will pack with PR2 since this one provides the personalization or the paths to develop the skills according to the self-assessment. So in the pilots, the participants, supported by practitioners, first perform the self-assessment and then receive guidance and counselling to go through a pre-defined learning-tailored path. The partnership will go through the development of a set of learning paths that can ultimately fit and be tailored to self-assessment results. The accumulation of these learning paths (or in smaller unit learning objects) will constitute the PR3 - Learning resources catalogue. This PR3 is an open catalogue in the online format being to accommodate new learning paths and resources as the PR1 is used. The final PR (4) is a guide to support the practitioners in using the previous PR’s but also with resources and activities for guidance and related supporting methodologies.<< Results >>PR1: Networking Self-assessment tool for disadvantaged person skillsThe project proposes to add innovation to existing tools by creating a networking online self-assessment for disadvantaged persons. The self-assessment tool will be a user-friendly tool to appraise the level of networking skills of one person with basic level skills. By evaluating the level of networking competence, we will be able to prepare a customised training to improve this ‘must have’ competence and to promote social inclusion, fostering disadvantaged people to enter the labour market and the capacity to retain their job (career progression). People will feel more capable to overcome their difficulties to communicate. Communication is very important to enter the labour market and retain the job: developing and maintaining relationships with others for the purpose of mutual benefit can help individuals search for and secure employment opportunities, gain access to needed information or resources, obtain guidance and social support. PR2. Personal inclusion and employability paths tailoring toolThe learning paths tailoring tool is about tagging and matching the self-assessment results from PR1 and the suitable learning recommendation to develop the participant talent and potential in terms of social capital and network. The PR1 delivers an appraisal and help to better understand what that person must do to be empowered. The learning paths tailoring tool is composed of a document / online platform (in which beneficiaries can visualize the tailored path) and a board game (customized for digital use). PR3. Learning resources catalogThe catalog will combine resources self-awareness/ self-development and networking development skills that will be developed or selected and presented in the catalogue. The resources, materials and activities in the catalogue must be aligned with what was developed in PR2, that is, the beneficiaries create their tailored learning path and find the necessary resources, materials and activities to perform it in the catalogue. The catalog will be organized in a process of design thinking and it will comprise an instruction guide to facilitate transferability and a guide to provide more robust information on replicability procedures. This result also comprises the functional specifications document for the web-based development and coding, allowing the transferability to many other stakeholders and context.PR4. Guide for Social Capital and Employment Opportunities Development This guide will be focused on how to support the generation of opportunities to develop social capital and employment. The enhancement of disadvantaged persons (DP) networking and related skills can’t be only about finding a job, must also prepare the person to invest in self-development, social capital investment and professional development. This guide is all about supporting the generation and development of opportunities. This PR intends to provide guidelines, that practitioners can use, to increase the human capital of the DP. It will also emphasize the integration of guidance and insertion schemes, activities, tools, and techniques (PR3) and their potential to generate opportunities, e.g case studies. One of the resources at the disposal of the practitioner will be the PR3 with a wide variety of learning objects and paths that can be evaluated to fit the beneficiary needs.Project outcomes1) the empowerment of disadvantaged people with key skills – focused on networking - and new tools, to overcome labour market alienation (applying for a customized training course); 2) the upscaling of Job Placement Professional’s tools for the integration of disadvantaged groups on the labour market, ensuring their retention; 3) a strong engagement both from disadvantaged groups and JPP with continuous learning and with new learning technologies.