The CirculAbility Erasmus+ project aims at training the staff of structures employing people with disabilities (PWD) in the development of economic activities able to reduce food waste and thus promote the professional inclusion of PWDs in the Member States of the European Union (EU). Within the EU, people with disabilities are still largely excluded from the labour market. Working structures for PWDs, which promote their socio-professional inclusion, are subject to increased competition and often seek to develop new economic activities. Moreover, despite the growing European focus on sustainable development, as evidenced by the “Green Deal” proposed by the new European Commission, food waste remains a central European issue for a successful ecological transition. Indeed, 88 millions tonnes of food are wasted every year in the EU. The CirculAbility project meets these two fundamental challenges and pursues the objective of training PWD's work structures to seize opportunities for the inclusion of people with disabilities through training on the circular valorisation of unsold food. The 7 partners involved in the project are coming from France (APF, HTS), Belgium (PLS, ARFIE), Spain (AMPANS), Luxembourg (Tricentenaire) and Italy (ENAIP) and contribute in their activities to one or more European priorities, such as the inclusion of people with disabilities, the ecological transition and the development of cross-functional competences. Their expertise, both complementary and specific, has led them to see the opportunity to link the European issues of inclusion of people with disabilities and the ecological transition through an adapted training programme allowing the creation of inclusive and sustainable green jobs in Europe. To achieve these objectives, the CirculAbility project aims to create innovative educational resources that can be used by the staff - managers and supervisors - of PWD's work structures:- A gallery of inspiring role models, which will help to raise awareness on opportunities for inclusion of PWD and demystify the circular economy by highlighting structures that have developed activities to valorise unsold food;- Training in the economic management of unsold food circular valorisation activities for PWD's work structures managers, enabling them to acquire the key skills necessary to initiate such activities;- Technical training in the operational implementation of activities of circular valorisation of unsold food products for PWD’s supervisors, allowing them to acquire the essential skills for the operation of such an activity; - A White Paper to raise awareness, awaken interest and promote knowledge of the issues addressed by this project by PWD’s work structures, traditional companies, political decision-makers at different levels and civil society, but also to establish policy recommendations.These innovative educational resources will be built thanks to the complementary expertise of the partners, and the involvement of PWD's working structures from the countries involved in the project. This co-construction ensures the creation of a replicable and transferable scheme throughout the EU.Freely accessible online, our productions will available throughout Europe. In order to ensure the widest possible dissemination of our productions and thus multiply the impact of the CirculAbility project in the Union, a coordinated communication strategy mobilising various dissemination channels will be implemented.This project will promote the sustainable socio-professional inclusion of people with disabilities in environmentally sustainable economic activities. The intellectual outputs foreseen by the project will allow the development of activities of circular valorisation of unsold food by PWD's working structures in all EU countries. This project will also help to raise political and citizen awareness of these central issues at European level, and will contribute to the establishment of a legal and regulatory framework that will promote the development of these inclusive and sustainable activities.

CONTEXTThe Europe 2020 strategy calls for efforts to reduce to less than 10% by 2020 the proportion of people aged 18-24 who leave education and training with lower secondary education at most. According to the main statistical findings (Eurostat) in the EU as a whole the rate of early leavers from school and education is much higher for disabled people, especially for those with specific learning difficulties and autistic spectrum disorders, than for those not having a disability: 31.5 % compared with 12.3 %.As the EU population is getting older, the number of Europeans with disabilities is rising significantly. They remain consistently disadvantaged in terms of employment, education and social inclusion, as discrimination is still a major obstacle.OBJECTIVES The main aim of the IDEA project is exchange of best practices and knowledge on innovative work-based learning methodologies (school-work programs, internships, apprenticeships etc.) for VET teachers, trainers and mentors to increase the current percentage of young people with disabilities who come to qualification and who enter in the labour market for the first time.By implementing this project, among Italian, Spain, French, Romanian, Finnish and Belgian organisations, we aim to discover our neighbours context, practices, challenges and initiatives, regarding the access of disabled learner on vocational training. During the length of the project, especially during the meetings among the partners, the partnership intends to:- Develop the knowledge of partners’ staff on the local contexts abroad (social, economical, cultural and legal perspectives) and approaches facilitating disabled people inclusion in each partner’s place.- Create awareness and interest among organisations dealing with European mobility (VET centers, Mobility agencies...) so that they consider disabled learners as potential beneficiaries.- Develop the confidence of European staff dealing with learners with disability, especially regarding European opportunities like ERASMUS, by discovering successful initiatives.TARGET GROUPS:The direct target groups will be institutions and professionals in vocational training system and in employment services directly involved in the partnership or in the second level network which, thanks to the European exchange, will be able to innovate their practices and methodologies. The indirect target groups, therefore, will be young people with disabilities ((learners, recent graduates of a VET provider and unemployed).DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY# 3 Transnational project meetings:- The first Kick off meeting in Italy to set up the partnership; - Intermediate meeting in Belgium (at the end of I year) to evaluate the realization of the first project activities and developing the second part of project activities (the second kick off meeting)- The final kick off meeting (place of venue yet to be agreed) to evaluate the results of all the activities realized and discuss follow up# 5 Short-term joint staff training events to exchange practices and to allow peer-learning about:- Innovative work-based learning methodologies (school-work programs, internships, apprenticeships etc.) for teachers/Vet provider to increase the current percentage of young people with disabilities who come to qualification and who enter in the labour market for the first time;- identifying the most innovative best practices which may be transferable to other European countries in national / local context on assistive technologies and inclusive methodologies for young people with disabilities.EXPECTED IMPACTS• on the participants involved in the short-time joint staff training events: improvement of the hard skills and competences of training and job service providers in terms of methodologies to foster the first flow of young people with disability into the labour market. Furthermore, project participants will discover new environment and work cultures. It also will strengthen transversal key competences, such as learning-to-learn and communication skills, a sense of initiative and European citizenship.• participating organisations and their professionals – not directly involved in the project - will improve the quality of services and the adoption of innovative work practices, organisational learning by discovering new and different methodologies for the employment of people with disability. This will open their perspective and increase their self-confidence in a basilar understanding of European Union Programmes, especially in Erasmus Programme.• indirect target groups young with disabilities benefit from the best practice exchanged in terms of new approaches, new methodologies in order to increase their employability, self-confidence and economic and social independence.• other relevant stakeholders will involve in each short-time joint training to reinforce the mutual enrichment of practice and networking at bilateral, regional/national.

The ENABLE project “From Culture of Caring to Culture of Enabling: Co-produce Services for People with Intellectul Disability” will be developed through the implementation of a co-production framework and related methodology and will, as an outcome, develop an Inclusive Training/Learning Platform on how to co-design, co-deliver and co-evaluate services for people with ID together with: services users, families, professionals in disability and local community representatives. ENABLE considers the current model of top-down delivery of social services throughout the EU Member States to be endangered through the impact of austerity measures on financial sustainability and through being a model predicated on the belief that professionals need to take care of the most vulnerable in society and consequently creating a dependency culture of passive consumers and a “them and us” culture between service providers and service consumers. The co-production approach abandons the traditional deficit model and its focuses on defining and meeting needs of passive recipients in order to provide opportunities for personal growth and development of people who are recognised in terms of their personal attributes, knowledge and experience and are treated as assets and equal partners. The ENABLE project through the development of the Inclusive/training Platform will improve and extend the offer of high quality learning opportunities tailored to individual adult learners, and will include innovative ways of delivery through high quality inclusive digital and face to face training with the aim to offer new and innovative approaches to knowledge transfer and reduce disparities in learning outcomes affecting disadvantaged learners. The methodology of co-production will be implemented through the creation of Assemblies-Focus groups that will bring together a variety of stakeholders. The Assemblies dwill be comprised of 10 participants ( 4 service users, 2 family members, 1 manager, 2 social assistants and 1 local community representative). ENABLE is innovative in the following way: • ENABLE implements an innovative methodology to address target groups and build reciprocal relationships between professionals services users and other stakeholders • ENABLE brings innovation in social services design and delivery through blurring/eliminating the distinction between producers and consumers in social services • ENABLE provides innovative approaches to increasing the awareness and competences of professionals on issues of equity, diversity and inclusion challenges in the training environment • ENABLE brings innovation in knowledge production and knowledge transfer with the aim to reduce learning disparities for disadvantaged groups; ENABLE will - Plan and deliver services together with users, families, communities in order to improve the quality of life of people with ID - Enable service users; families (and communities) to be equal partners within the planning and delivery of services - enhancing self-determination of the user - Provide opportunities for personal growth and development to users with ID, so that they are seen as assets, not burdens on a system.- Ensure organizational commitment, creating the “culture” of coproduction in partner organisations - Promote inclusive learning and training materials for users, families and professionals Regarding the benefit to service users from this project: ENABLE will directly and indirectly contribute to better fulfilment of the following rights enshrined in the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities - Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own choices, and independence of persons; (art 3 a- General Principals Art 3 UN CRPD )- Full and effective participation and inclusion in society ( art 3 c)- Respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity (Art 3 (d))- Will promote recognition of the skills, merits and abilities of persons with disabilities, and of their contributions to the workplace and the labour market ( Raising awareness Art 8 (iii) UN CRPD - Will promote the design, development, production and distribution of accessible information and communications ( Accessibility of Information art 9 UN CRPD)- Provide information disabilities in accessible formats and technologies appropriate to different kinds of disabilities (Freedom of expression and opinion and access of information art 21 UN CRPD )- Ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with (art 24 UN CRPD education)ENABLE strongly believes that the co-production in social service design and provision in EU could represent a unique opportunity to rethink the relationship between the citizen and the state, and invest in ENABLING societies.

"In the recent years it is possible to notice a growing question from the Civil Society related to the added social value of persons with intellectual disabilities. From a strictly economic point of view, the impression is that they are rather perceived as a burden. This is a common phenomena in Europe. The nagging question therefore is ""What contribution a person with a intellectual disability can bring to the community?” This refer to all forms of paid or voluntarily employment/engagement/ taking up social roles. What is the social roles they can have? What role can service provider and professionals play? In our activities, as service provider and as member of European networks, we have noticed that in different countries new insertion practices and new forms of employment are appearing. These different realities provide a wide range of solutions and practices to meet the needs and expectations of people with disability.Through the ValorEmpl project we want to take a look at these practices, to explore them together and identify the key elements for success but also the obstacle in this regard. The objective of the ValorEmpl Project is to point out elements and practices that facilitate the professional integration of people with intellectual disability: identify good practices, explore them together and identify the key elements for success but also the obstacle that hinder employment for persons with intellectual disability.Furthermore, in line with a series of events and workshops that approached the theme of employability of people with disabilities and fostered the will or the participants to work together on this theme, we believe this action may be the opportunity to strengthen the network around the topic of employment / voluntarily employment/engagement / taking up social roles.More concretely, through the ValorEmpl Project the partnership wants to:- Improve the skills of the professionals working with people with intellectual disability;- Develop new skills for people with intellectual disability;- Take an overview of new forms of insertion and employment of people with intellectual disability;- Identify and analyse good practices and factors of success to improve the role of service provider in supporting the employability of people with intellectual disability. - Strengthen the network of organisations and service providers committed to support social inclusion of people with disability, particularly with regard to employment/ voluntarily employment/engagement/ taking up social roles.This project is in a way complementary and in line with previous European actions and events that focused on social inclusion, employment and innovative services for people with disability."

<< Background >>The urgent need to enhance the digital skills of both teachers and learners has been widely identified and it is even more vital in the COVID-19 situation.National and European policies acknowledge the need to equip all citizens with the necessary competences to use digital technologies critically and creatively. The European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp), which was updated in 2016/17, responds to this need, by providing a structure which allows European citizens to better understand what it means to be digitally competent and to assess and further develop their own digital competence.Digital skills have moved from ‘optional’ to ‘critical’ and need to be complemented with transversal ‘soft skills’ such as the ability to communicate effectively in both online and offline mediums. Entry-level digital skills, meaning basic functional skills required to make basic use of digital devices and online applications, are widely considered a critical component of a new set of literacy skills in the digital era, with traditional reading, writing, and numeracy skills.The indirect target groups (disabled and people in vulnerable situations) that the consortium organisations work with, are in danger of being excluded from the society also due to the lack of sufficient digital skills. The project aims at developing and enhancing the basic digital skills of the teaching staff (DigiComp skills for everybody). The project wants to enhance our teaching staff’s proficiency especially in the areas of digital resources, teaching and learning and empowering learners. Digi Teachers Working Online project aims actively at equipping teaching staff engaged in special education with digital skills they can utilize when teaching and instructing the disabled (secondary) target groups both online and face-to-face.<< Objectives >>The expected impact will vary according to the categories of actors involved in the action- participants will gain a wide and valuable knowledge to improve and enhance their digital skills and competences with a strong link to pedagogy.- participating organisations will gain new digital and pedagogical methods to benefit the students and enhance the quality of online learning and teaching. Organisations will get new tools, ideas and practices. The level of competence on the organisational level will increase.- the project will impact the indirect target group’s possibilities to develop and enhance their key competences of lifelong learning. Their learning will get recognition and validated.- other relevant stakeholders will get new ideas and concrete tools to utilise digital tools and methods in various environments, for example, with their clients. They also see the importance of mastering at least some of digital skills in order to better manage in society.<< Implementation >>The concept of the project is to create and test new digital training content and methods to develop digital key competences of VET teaching staff working with students with special needs or in otherwise vulnerable positions. The structure of the project builds on the surveys that are done during the design phase of the project and the more profound surveys that will be done in the beginning and in the end phase of the project. The surveys identifies the digital and pedagogical skills that teachers need to improve in their current and future distance learning.The surveys, carried out during the project, provide more detailed information on the level of competence of the teaching staff at the beginning and end of the project (result 1). With this information, we can assess the impact of the outputs developed and implemented in the project, such as syllabus, training material and toolkit, on the development of the competence level of the teaching staff.The pedagogical, digital skills needs are transferred into a training course syllabus (result 2) and the actual online training course (result 3) supported by a model of open badge constellation (R2).During the piloting phase (result 4) the content, usability and quality of the training course is validated. The good practice methods and tools are collected on the way to the Digi teachers toolbox (R5).´The project timeline has been planned meticulously. Each result has been split into tasks that are also placed in the timeline. The consortium is able to follow the progress of each result and the tasks within and quickly address the deviations from the plan. The budget planning is based on the results and the timeline, allocating a realistic amount of working days for each IOand the tasks within.The project has five transnational meetings that are planned so that they contribute to the progress of the project as much as possible. The scheduling of the meetings and the meeting programs have been planned already in the application phase in order to monitor and promote the implementation of the project activities.The Multiplier events have been scheduled to the end of the project in order to have the outputs ready and during that stage we are already starting to see the impact of the project in our organisations that we can pass on to the audience.<< Results >>The digital skills and competences of staff in the participating organisations have improved to be better able to carry out engaging online teaching to enhance the students’ learning experiences.- results for the students: better quality online teaching - results for the students: blended learning- results for the students: individual learning paths The participating organisations have shared good practices, methods and tools working with persons with special needs. They have also created a long-lasting network to develop their activities, to share knowledge and expertise and to work together in both mobility projects and strategic partnership projects. There’s a training module and a model of open badge constellation, both based on the DigCompEdu-framework but also strongly taking into consideration the survey’s results, adjusted to better fit the requirements of special needs education. The training module is built on the principles of competence based learning: all the skills learned are transparent.