CONTEXTThe EU is facing several severe crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the subsequent socio-economic crisis, the refugee crisis, and tensions between some of its Member States and third countries. To successfully deal with any crisis, ultimate victory is proof that Europe can successfully overcome any cultural or other differences between its people to become socially cohesive and resilient to meet current and new threats and challenges. Cultural diplomacy can be the vehicle leading to this victory, as it has the unique advantage of helping people to adapt more quickly to the demands of rapid change and the increased speed of change. Cultural diplomacy entails a type of public diplomacy and soft power that refers to the exchange of ideas, information, art, language, and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding and cooperation. The goal of cultural diplomacy is for people coming from a foreign nation to develop a rich understanding of one nation's ideals and institutions so as to build broad support for social, economic, and political goals. Cultural diplomacy is a course of action based on the exchange of ideas, values, traditions, and other aspects of culture or identity, to strengthen relationships and socio-cultural cooperation, to promote national interests and beyond.PROJECT OBJECTIVESThe first goal of the project is to enable children to become cultural diplomats so as to act as agents of change in order to build a socially cohesive and resilient Europe capable of meeting new threats and challenges. The achievement of the goal is based on the approach of cultural diplomacy, and the use of new technologies and innovative and creative methodologies, such as collaborative art-making, collaborative storytelling and poetry, and digital-cultural pedagogies. Another important goal of this project is to promote children's and teachers' training to improve their skills to become agents of the cultural diplomacy approach, in order to achieve the first goal of the project.PARTICIPANTSFour schools, two Universities focusing on teachers' preparation, two NGOs focusing on professional development, active citizenship, and other social goals across 4 participating countries: Cyprus, Spain, Greece, and Malta.ACTIVITIES AND RESULTSThe EURODIPLOMATS project will produce a methodological tool for the cultural-diplomacy approach according to a comparative analysis that will result from both teachers' and children's needs analyses in the participating countries, but also on the basis of the state-of-the-art analysis in each participating country. According to this methodological tool, the consortium will produce a Toolkit of Resources and Activities that will promote the objective of the project; that is children to become cultural diplomats to act as agents of change for a Europe of social cohesion and resilience which is ready to meet new threats and challenges. This Toolkit will be tested through workshops carried out with teachers and children 9-15 and then finalised. Partners will translate their own activities into their languages. As the project envisages the development of teachers' and children's competencies to work accordingly, a Teacher's Handbook and a Children's Handbook will be also produced in the English language, while including multimedia in the consortium languages. It is notable that a Group of Experts that will be created for the purposes of this project will contribute to the whole of both developing the methodological tool and the Toolkit of Resources and Activities, but also the Teachers' and the Children's Handbooks process by sharing their ideas and expertise, but also their evaluative feedback. A short transnational joint-staff training event will be carried out in Greece in order to provide the opportunity for teachers to be trained to use the project outcomes. All the project's products will be promoted through international and national multiplier events that will have the form of conferences organised by the consortium. The project's results will be disseminated through venues such as websites, social media, EU platforms, newsletters, publications, etc.TARGET GROUPSThe target groups in the life of the project comprise of children aged 9-15 and teachers working with children of that age. Apart from these direct target groups, the beneficiaries include also indirect target groups such as schools, children's associations, and organisations, policymakers, and educational stakeholders making decisions about school curricula, parents, children's curriculum developers, teachers training institutions, universities with pedagogical departments. BENEFITPromote, through cultural diplomacy, social cohesion, and resilience in Europe in order to become able to meet new challenges and threats. Raise children’s voices and active involvement in education via the innovative methodology of cultural diplomacy.

"CONTEXT""CHESS: A GAME TO SPREAD AT SCHOOL"" (CGS) is a project aimed at primary school teachers and in part to early childhood, to give them a pedagogical training tool, capable of addressing the educational needs of their pupils, to obtain - thanks to the game of chess introduced in the classroom - the development of key competences, functional to counteracting the poor results of the students, in particular in the scientific subjects. OBJECTIVESTherefore, general objective of CGS is to strengthen teachers' competences with the following specific objectives, to:1)develop an innovative training protocol, consisting of 4 didactical modules (A,B,C,D) which allows teachers to teach chess independently in the classroom, and to train their colleagues to introduce chess in the classroom, without the need for external trainers; 2)obtain a formal recognition of the competecences acquired by the EU;3)activate a model that expands independently through Peer Education.In the training protocol, modules A and D are created in CGS, whilst modules B and C are implemented by the CASTLE project (an official EU ""Success Story""). PARTICIPANTSThe project Partnership comprises:-C.S.E.N. the largest Sports Promotion Body in Italy, has a sports division dedicated to chess for educational purposes. It is the project Applicant.-EUROPEAN CHESS UNION (ECU) is the representative sports body for chess in Europe with 54 affiliated chess federations. It has endorsed the School Chess Teacher Certificate.-SPORTS SOCIETY ALFIERE BIANCO is engaged in the research and development of new models of school chess teaching.-CLUB DEPORTIVO ELEMENTAL 64 VILLALBA is engaged in chess training in Madrid and the development of new teaching models dedicated to teachers.-UPPSALA SSS is one of the largest chess clubs in Sweden and focuses its activities only on school-age children. To date, it has involved 13,500 pupils and trained 300 primary school teachers.-UNIVERSITY OF TURIN (UNITO) is among the universities in Europe which has carried out the most research into the effects of playing chess at school.-FUNDACIÓN APRENDER includes 2 schools in Madrid, among the first to introduce chess between school subjects for educational purposes. -BÖRJE SKOLA of Uppsala has been using chess in education in all primary school classes since 2012.-The ITALIAN NETWORK OF SCHOOLS FOR CHESS consists of 2 Apulian schools with the aim of spreading the game of chess in schools.-CHESSITY is a comprehensive online chess learning platform designed for primary school children under the supervision of their teacher.ACTIVITIESThe project includes four TPMs to plan and manage all aspects related to the administrative, organisational and development activities of the Intellectual Outputs (IOs). The project undertakes to develop five IOs: 1) IO n.1 Game protocol on giant chessboard for the kindergarten, which constitutes module A of the CGS training protocol; 2) IOn.2 Chess-on-desk plus use of the web for classes 3a, 4a and 5a of primary school, with preparatory elements for learning Coding, which forms the module D of the protocol; 3) IO n.3 Guidelines for teacher training on the CGS methodology, to provide additional operational support for the CGS method; 4) IO n.4 UNITO's scientific research report, which highlights the results achieved; 5) IO n.5 Interactive training platform, necessary for the online development of the project and its replicability.There are two Multiplier Events of 2 days: one to present the project and the other as a final event; to which are added 2 Multiplier Events of 1 day to give resonance to the IOs made in CGS. There are also two Learning, Teaching, Training Activities (LTTAs) of 3 days each to ensure that skills are transferred to teachers in a way that conforms to the project objectives. METHODOLOGYCGS plans to adopt the innovative Peer Education Method to the teaching of chess. This method builds the skills of teachers through peer learning and tutoring. The method will be combined with the use of the web platform to support the learning and tutoring. RESULTS AND IMPACTBy the end of the project, 312 teachers will have successfully peer trained with the CGS method. They should capable of training other colleagues with the Peer Education Method. 6,500 children will have learned chess at school, with significant benefits in overall social and academic performance. In addition, the trained teachers will have obtained formal recognition of the skills acquired, strengthening their professional profile. This project will deliver a lasting impact both for the teachers that come out strengthened and motivated due to the use of a new educational tools and also for the schools that become more innovative and effective in their educational purposes. The long-term advantages are its accessibility, easy use and sustainability due to the Peer Education."

"> CONTEXT/PROJECT BACKGROUND The 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 %. The Preamble to the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) recognizes the importance of access to education. The education system should be inclusive at all levels, including informal and lifelong learning. This means that young disabled people should not be excluded because of their impairment or disability status. To do this, it is necessary to provide individual support for the SpLD students, with the improvement of the trainers' skills and the quality enhancement in the Education System as a whole. Moreover, the promotion of inclusive education and lifelong learning for students and pupils with disabilities is one of the priority areas set up by the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020. Support for practical implementation of the strategy is provided by the Academic Network of European Disability experts (ANED), who yearly publishes a report for the EU Commission, notably highlighting significant challenges and barriers that remain and including recommendations to overcome such barriers. The awareness of the delay in the reduction of the ""learning gap"" for disabled pupils, and the increase in schools of every kind and level of SpLD, bring education and training representatives, together with the Associations of people with disabilities and their families, to clamor for the sharing of tools in order to: >>facilitate the recognition and early diagnosis of SpLD, including dyslexia, dysgraphia, dysorthography, specific spelling disorder, dyscalculia, specific language disorder, dyspraxia, auditory processing disorder, non-verbal learning disorder; >>train the teachers/trainers to use tools and methods for an inclusive and quality education. > OBJECTIVES The aim of the ""Simplified Language"" project is to CONTRIBUTE TO THE REDUCTION OF OBSTACLES TO THE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION OF STUDENTS WITH SPECIFIC LEARNING DIFFICULTIES (SpLD). The path is gradual and passes through 1. the sharing of good practices at European level both in terms of diagnostics and assessment of specific and pervasive learning disorders and teching tools in easy language. 2. the joint staff training in an international multidisciplinary group, with the involvement of psychologists, speech therapists, pedagogists, trainers, family members involved in supporting young people with SpLD or ASD. 3. the local dissemination of the training experience of the project workgroup of experts. The preparation of the stakeholders matrix at European level is the first step to correctly define which diagnostic protocols and teaching tools must be used with SpLD students. The sharing of the best practices within a heterogeneous but qualified partnership (Schools, Training Agencies, Research Institutes, Diagnostic Institutes, Family Associations) brings added value, with the possibility to realize, later, new tools and products in ""simplified language"". > PROJECT PARTICIPANTS The project involves 7 partners, including the lead partner, from Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. - EnAIP FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA, lead partner (IT) - ASSOCIAZIONEPROGETTOAUTISMO FVG (IT) - THE NATIONAL AUTISTIC SOCIETY/NAS (UK) - CONFEDERACION ESPANOLA DE CENTROS DE ENSENANZA ASOCIACION /C.E.C.E. (ES) - CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE with its lInstitute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems ""Eduardo Caianiello""/ISASI (IT) - INSTITUT DE DIAGNOSTIC I ATENCIO' PSIQUIATRICA I PSICOLOGICA/IDAPP (ES) - FUNDACION APRENDER (ES) > PROJECT ACTIVITIES - stakeholders analysis at european level - sharing of best practices - transnational joint staff training events in 2 stages (3 + 4 days) in London on SpLD diagnostics and teaching tools - project dissemination and final conference at the National Research Council - CNR in Rome >EXPECTED RESULTS/IMPACT - stakeholder matrix and european committment - best practices feedback and implementation - 24 +24 operators trained on diagnostics and tools in easy language - european dissemination in the countries of the network - testing and local adaptation of practices with students with learning difficulties and their families - european inter-institutional protocols - students with specific learning difficulties and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) included through innovative teaching tools."