<< Objectives >>Increasing competences:The overall objective is to improve and increase the competences of our staff, broaden our minds and become better at supporting the unaccompanied minors, to integrate them more efficiently into our society in benefit to achieve their full potential as European citizens. Another overall objective: To find a way to share our experiences with other organizations in Europe that work with housing of unaccompanied minors.<< Implementation >>Exchange of experiences and transnational meetingsHandbook and Library of ToolsActivities for inclusionSustainability: online meetings, e-mail exchanges, use of social media<< Results >>Increased knowledge, a handbook and a library of tools, long term cooperation, intercultural exchanges.

Research points that Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) are more likely to become marginalized and to suffer from poverty, social exclusion, crime and mental/physical health problems, while at a macro-economic level they represent a considerable loss in terms of unused productive capacity and a considerable cost in terms of welfare payments. In fact, low self-esteem and self-confidence, typically present in this target, seems to be linked with increased isolation and lack of belonging, what contributes to the perpetuation of this cycle of decreased motivation to assume an active role in the community and increased social exclusion. This project aims to increase NEETs’ Social Inclusion and promote Active Citizenship, by developing key competences in Youth NEET and train youth workers to address better to NEETs’ needs, namely: the need to break the cycle of isolation/social exclusion; lack of motivation to become an active citizen; lack of self-awareness of their passions/talents and, even, the low self-esteem and lack of key-skills that are required to take an initiative and build an action plan to concretize it. Therefore, the objectives of the project are:- To create and test an innovative LEARNING PROGRAM for NEET Youth to develop key social and personal competences that will allow them to become active citizens and increase their social inclusion;- To motivate NEET Youth to engage and discover their passions/talents;- To increase NEET Youth’s awareness of some key societal challenges; - To empower NEET Youth with key-skills to materialize their goals in a creative and organised way; - To foster the NEET Youth’s Connection to the local/global community through the creation of concrete volunteering action projects to approach societal challenges;- To promote the exchange of good practices among partners from 5 countries (PT, CY, RO, UK and SE), strengthening cross-cooperation and a multidisciplinary approach; - To invest in the capacity building of youth workers competences promoting high-quality work and innovative methods of reaching out to NEET Youth;- To contribute to the sense of belonging, as European Citizens and motivate participants to learn more about EU, creating a European Network;For these objectives, we propose:(1) Gathering different public/private institutions from 5 countries to exchange good practices, share knowledge, tools and efforts to build an innovative approach with NEET, strengthening cross-cooperation and a multidisciplinary approach, and, consequently, improving the quality of work with NEET in each organisation.(2) Building together an innovative learning program – YES: Youth Engagement in Society - that will gather not only all our methodology and knowledge, vision and good practices in the field of Non-Formal Education, Learning to Learn and Experiential learning principles with support of Psychology, Coaching, Entrepreneurship and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, but also that will challenge us to go further and search for innovating ways to combine these and other relevant methodology and experience. For the correct testing at local level with a minimum of 50 Youth NEET, we will train the staff in question, aligning a common strategy.(3) Investing in the professional development of youth workers competences promoting high-quality work and innovative methods of reaching out this target group, through local (multiplier events) and a transnational pilot/training course (involving 30 youth workers).At the end of this project, we want to contribute to the EU Youth Work Agenda, by promoting not only quality and innovation of youth work, but also to promote the engagement, empowerment and connection of NEET young people with the local and global community, making them feel more inclusive and European.

As a result of the European Relocation and Resettlement Program, most of European countries are now hosting a larger number of refugees and asylum seekers than before, and are therefore developing hosting and integration programs, with the main goal of promoting their full inclusion.The Refu’In is an international partnership that aims to identify and disseminate good practices on the intervention and inclusion of refugees in their host countries. The good practices found in the different participant countries will result in a Training kit, designed in an innovative way, allowing any entity to train their technicians and therefore improve their intervention strategies with asylum seekers and refugees.The project involves many different stakeholders in all of its activities: questionnaires that will gather the perspectives of field workers, asylum seekers and refugees, and other relevant technicians in every participating country; focus groups providing insights into how people think and a deeper understanding of the work towards the inclusion of refugees; national forums with external partners and relevant stakeholders, to share preliminary results and receive inputs through working groups; one international conference including a Training kit kickoff session. The Training kit will be available for any interested entity, allowing, on a longer term, the dissemination of the good practices found and therefore improving the quality of the services provided to the asylum seekers and refugees in Europe, and ultimately reaching a better inclusion.

"To provide more comprehensive and coherent support for vulnerable youth, so-called one stop shops have been developed across Europe whereby multi-professional teams deliver integrated services to youth. By combining different professions and branches of the welfare system, ""integrating all relevant services for young people, including social, health, family and housing services, makes support more accessible, more user-friendly, and more customer-focussed."" (DG Employment 2018, Activation measures for young people in vulnerable situations). Yet despite large-scale efforts, multi-professional services across Europe continue to encounter considerable challenges relating to forming, managing and coordinating their teams and providing truly integrated services, due to a lack of the competencies among staff to navigate and coordinate these complex structures. This was has been underlined by the ESF Youth Employment Thematic Network Sharing Paper No. 1 March 2017, wherein the need for targeted measures to form and coordinate staff from different professional backgrounds was seen a key learning.The project addresses the need for a new Coordinator function able to fill the competence gaps, by identifying the competencies required to work in a multi-professional environment with integrated services for youth. These are key competencies that go beyond what professional staff have learnt in their previous training - specific to working in, coordinating, and offering services to clients through multi-professional co-localized teams. This need as defined by the project partners and other organizations exists across Europe but is most pressing in those member states that have achieved a high intensity of cross-sector collaboration and integration of services. Taken together this allows the project to develop a professional profile and concomitant curriculum responding to concrete needs and transferable across national contexts yet sensitive to local and national variations in institutional set-up and culture.The partner consortium consists of a number of key actors in the member states, and the macro-region ensuring an output of cross-border relevance, with high educational quality, addressing concrete local and national needsThe lead partner, Norden association has an extensive network in the field of youth, education and labour market integration due to its dual role of platform manager for the Knowledge Platform Integrate NEETs, and as Policy Area Coordinator for the Policy Area Education in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea RegionThe partner consortium further consists of two VET providers, JAMK University of Applied Sciences in Finland and VIA University College in Aarhus, with extensive experience of professional education in the youth guidance field, and involvement in Erasmus+ projects relating to the development and professionalisation of integrated service delivery. Additionally, the partnership includes three guidance centres Alytus Karjeras (through UZT as its principal) Östersund Navigator, and Ohjaamo Jyväskylä, as well as Local Government Denmark which acts as national coordinator of youth guidance in Denmark.Participants in activities will be local and national stakeholders in the field of youth guidance. The training program test will involve guidance staff from social work, youth guidance, health care and employment office.The project is divided into four phases, each with the following result:Phase 1 - Inventory, Analysis and Profile description - Defining the profession of Coordinator in Multi-professional Youth Guidance Centres, and its key competenciesPhase 2 - Curriculum - Developing a Coordinator Training programme curriculum, with ECVET validation, consisting of modules based on key competencies identified in phase 1Phase 3 - Training program test run - Testing the curriculum through a one year training program (ECVET validated)Phase 4 - Evaluation, revision and dissemination - Presenting an evaluated and revised Coordinator competence profile and curiculum, and sharing it to relevant stakeholdersThe results of the project are-Defined and strengthened profession of Coordinator in multi-professional Youth Guidance Centres- Identified key competencies required for the Coordinator function-Developed a Coordinator Training program curriculum consisting of modules based on key competencies, with ECVET validation.-Have 20 trained Coordinators across the partner countries-Spread awareness of the curriculum to stakeholders in youth guidance in member stateThe project will contribute to enhance capacity to manage multi-institutional/multi-professional teams and to deliver quality services to youth in vulnerable situations, fostering transnational learning between the “Youth Guidance Centres”.Long term benefits include increased trust in public institutions among vulnerable youth, improved labour market transition in accordance with the Europe 2020 goals."

The Youth4food project departed from a need Gaziantep, Dénia, Parma, Östersund and Bergen had to inform youth about the career opportunities in the food sector. The main objective of the project has been to identify ways to increase the number of young people who make Vocational Educational Training (VET) in the food value chain their first choice of education. The project had 18 partners and more than 102 people have travelled between the cities. 5 university trainees have been involved. There have been 5 transnational meetings on VET food related topics. The project has completed the planned activities, but the beauty of the projects lies in all the collaboration and plans that have been initiated during this project and that will carry on now the project is completed. In an exchange project you don’t know what kind of new skills, knowledge and contacts that will lead to something else. You can plan activities, but you can never plan the outcome and the positive things that is happens when people meet. Dissemination of results: booklet, report, videos, presentationsSeveral films have been produced, including a series called ‘You+ng heroes’. A booklet about young food creatives in the participating cities has been completed. The report “The future of Europe’s kitchens-recruitment and skills matching” is made. The project has a logo, webpage, Facebook page, YouTube channel, and is found on Instagram and Twitter. A part about Swedish Cuisine is included in the book “Cuisine Cultures in The World” by the Turkish lecturer and author Ceyhun UÇUK. Steps are taken to make the book a national textbook in curriculum for Gastronomy Education. The project has been communicated on several platforms, UNESCO Creative City Network, European, regional and local settings. The project was selected as a best practice for the 2030.LAB call promoted by UNESCO and was presented during the UCCN Annual Conference held in Krakow and Katowice in 2018. A publication regarding the 2030.LAB is distributed to the 180 Creative Cities. In October, 2019 the project was presented in UNESCO headquarter, Paris, on World cities day.Impact: Stronger bonds and collaboration beyond the formal project The project has contributed to stronger bonds locally within and between the participating cities. Participating schools have gained new contacts for international cooperation. They wish to continue their cooperation through exchange, work training and other Erasmus+ programs. Businesses are more aware of and ask for international opportunities. The participating universities have taken the first steps towards a joint master program within gastronomy. Impact: communication of results and influence on policy The challenge of recruiting young people to the food value chain is complex and is not solved in two years, however the project has made a significant contribution and paved the way for more cooperation. The recruitment issues are addressed at the national level in Norway. Results from the project have been communicated to the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and food, as input for an event addressing recruitment for food related VET the Ministry will have during the green week in Berlin in January 2020. Best practices on how to work with recruitment have been registered in the project. Some suggestions for recruitment strategies are: 1) communicate future possibilities after attending VET; 2) improve the information given in schools; 3) use the internet as a tool to inform and create excitement around cooking; 4) get chefs and VET students and teachers to visit lower secondary schools and5) communicate more of the positive sides of the profession, such as the social aspects.VET students and teachersThrough exchange visits students have learned the elements of a restaurant and different cooking techniques. They have learned that food is so much more than the kitchen. Food is culture, traditions, regional gastronomies, local territory and products. The students that visited Gaziantep learned that stereotypes of cities and people are not true. Students cooperated and communicated across cultures. Interaction and culture exchange can inspire to entrepreneurship and innovation. Students can bring with them this knowledge to their future professions. The exchanges have increased the students’ knowledge of the agriculture sector in the different countries. They have seen the importance of local production and local farmers, and increased their understanding of the connection between local production and local gastronomy. The students are familiarized sustainable goals, UNESCO, Erasmus and the different cities in the project. Through their travels and the experience of training in a different country the young people have had the joy of mastering a new situation, to understand their own potential and hence their self-confidence has grown. The young people felt like ambassadors for their UNESCO city. They felt part of something bigger.