READ is a 20-month capacity building project dealing with youth, literacy and social inclusion and involving 5 partners: 3 from Europe (CSC Danilo Dolci – Italy, RIS Mansion Rakičan – Slovenia, Amadeus Association– Austria), 1 from Asia (JRP – India) and 1 from Africa (ITF from Kenya).The aim of the project has been to promote reading to young people in an integrated manner. READ has been addressing the problem of illiteracy, the risk of school dropout and the lack of interest that young people have towards education and reading in an integrated manner, using creativity and non-formal education methodologies. The objectives are:- To promote marginalized youngsters ‘s appeal and creativity to decrease their risk of early school leaving- To enhance the socio-professional development of unemployed youth workers- To foster young people’s social inclusion through intercultural activities- To produce a freely available and sustainable Open Educational Resource (OER) for youth workers and organisations dealing with youth.READ foresees the following local and mobility activities:1) State of the art about: a) the situation of literacy/early school leaving levels of partners’ country and specific focus on local community; b) the specific learning needs of the target; c) background framework for project’s methodologies; d) best practices on non-formal approach to read, including the use of digital technologies and social media.2) 8-day International Training Course involving 36 youth workers with educational/artistic background working in youth centres. Goals: 1. to share the results of the research and learn non-formal methodologies in order to increase the appeal of education and the interest in reading for young people; 2. stimulating their creativity and participation and providing the basis of the method to be implemented in the following activities; 3. plan local activities .3) Local activities, involving youth workers, young people dealing with the educational field and youngsters with fewer opportunities. In each project country, youth workers trained young people on how to reinterpret reading through the arts.Local educational activities aimed at increasing the interest and appeal for the educational path, developing outputs, tools and methodologies to be used in the local community. 5) A Local Contest during which local teams has the opportunity to present their creative outputs and a jury selected the winning local team.6) Job shadowing: youth workers from each project organisation had the opportunity to live a short term mobility in a project country exchanging good practices on non-formal educational methods7) International READ Workshop and Festival (8 days): international mixed teams composed by the young people winners of the Local Contests work together to produce new READ products, showing the project results during a public event.Finally, an Open Educational Resource has been developed to capitalize all the outcomes and outputs of the project as well as to be used by any people and organisations dealing with youth and education.

"Tell Your Story was developed to explore new tools for preventing early school leaving. While storytelling is increasingly used in non-formal animation, it is rarely combined with new technologies and more particularly with geographic information systems (GIS). The consortium behind this project, coordinated by Pistes-Solidaires, has therefore sought to explore this new path, thanks to the meeting of several actors in non-formal continuing education and universities. The idea was to involve young dropouts in digital mapping storytelling workshops so that they could share their stories with potential dropouts, to make them think about the impact on their lives of such a decision. The final objective was therefore to prevent the latter's dropping out of school, through media productions to which they are accustomed with, for example, social networks, as part of a peer education process.Pistes-Solidaires (France), CESIE (Italy), Rinova (United Kingdom) and RIS (Slovenia) provided expertise in non-formal methods while die Berater, an Austrian training centre, provided technical and numerical knowledge. Finally, Eurogeo (Belgium), the European association of geographers, was able to contribute very largely through its knowledge of GIS, in particular the ArcGIS platform.The project was structured in seven phases. During the first, the consortium worked on an overview of the use of storytelling in the fight against early school leaving, and on the best way in which storytelling could be used by digital mapping. This production, coordinated by Eurogeo, laid the foundations for the next phase. This consisted in the creation of a two-part curriculum for school dropouts and potential school dropouts. The first part was an introduction to storytelling, while the second part was intended to allow young people to create their own personal story through digital mapping by acquiring new skills, using the ArcGIS platform. The creations were then presented on an online exhibition. This was finally used in a module tested with young people at risk of dropping out: they were able to discover the stories presented and discuss with the facilitators in order to reflect on the risks of dropping out. The first feedback from the participants was very positive. The project was concluded with the creation of a publication that presents the project, its methodology and results.Tell Your Story was set up through partnerships with schools, youth organisations, training institutes, local authorities and reached 200 young people, dropouts and potential dropouts, as well as some 50 organisations working with them. The impact of the project, reinforced by the dissemination events, is likely to continue: several organisations have already asked to be trained to use the tools developed, in particular the ""Institut du Travail Social de Pau"", which is organising a seminar on ""school drop in"" the 31th of January 2019 during which educators and National Education staff will be trained in this method. A second training session will be implemented for educators in the Pau conurbation on February 1st, while another session for educators in a home-shelter (la Sauvegarde) will be implemented on February 25th and 26th, 2019. In this context, the workshops are implemented directly for 10 young people from one of their homes, in the presence of educators, psychologists, teachers and department heads who wish to be trained in this method and these tools."

“Creating a framework and developing contents for tomorrow’s youth centers” consists of equipping youth centers and youth organisations which are partners in the consortium with a series of competences and skills for young people and youth workers and working methods and tools for the same categories adapted to the needs of the future. More precisely, the application aims at creating a framework for tomorrow's youth centers, based on an innovative approach.PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES:The purpose of the project is to create a framework and to develop contents for tomorrow’s youth centers- in the EU, involving 4 youth organisations and one public authority, over the period of two years and a half. OBJECTIVES:1. Developing and testing a set of tools for youth work (based on the criteria of the European Council Quality Label) in the four youth centers of the consortium over the period of two years and a half.2. Creating and testing needs-adapted contents focused on career planning and youth inclusion in the four youth centers of the consortium, over the period of two years and a half.3. Developing a platform for the use of young people in Timisoara and intersted in Timisoara (covering events, trainings, youth exchanges, etc.), over the period of two years and a half.WHY TRANSNATIONALThe project envisages both local (Timisoara City Hall(FITT) and transnational cooperation (Roter Baum- DE RIS-SL, Nuorisokeskus -FL and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona-SP ) with the purpose of using a broad spectrum of experiences and qualifications (from different partners). The project has to be carried out at a transnational level, because it will pilot youth centers equipped for the needs of tomorrow's society. The pilot youth centers will become an example of good practice for youth centers elsewhere and the intellectual outputs, multiplier events and trainings foreseen in the project will reinforce its transnational dimension.The project will have several results that are not covered by intellectual outputs, multiplier events and training activities.1. Youth centers and participating organisations:-will increase their capacity of cooperating with organisations from abroad- the consortium will work together for 2 years and a half both on continuous activities and punctual events and meetings. As shown above, consortium partners in different combinations have worked together previously, but the scale of this project is bigger than any project of before.-will be prepared to offer solutions to young people for tomorrow's labour market- the activities in the project will focus on identifying skills and competences for the future-will contribute with information and support to the setting up of the European Area of Skills and Competencies-will improve their working methodology (synergies between training, education, youth activities)-will have a better approach in tackling social inclusion (young people with fewer opportunities)2. Youth workers in the four youth centers will be better equipped with competencies (through trainings and methodologies) to support young people for the jobs of tomorrow and will benefit from the conditions that an international work environment provides (25 staff and youth workers)3. Young people (60) will benefit from trainings on two major topics (career panning and access to labour market and social inclusion in the context of the youth center for tomorrow). 4.Young people will also become aware of the Erasmus plus Programme, of the benefits of a EU wide system of recognition of skills and competencies; young people will work and interact with youth workers and other young people from other EU countries. 5. Employees and collaborators of the consortium partners will develop their skills in working in project based activities and will build communication channels.6. Timisoara will increase its profile as city for young people- through the intelectual outputs and the activities, but also through the direct participation of Timisoara Municipality.And four intellectual outputs:1. Study on the needs of employees of a youth center that wants to acquire/implement quality standards – Quality Label for Youth Center (program of CoE) and methodology for youth work based on the standards2. Handbook for efficient correlation between youth centers’ activities and the labor market- use your creativity today to find a job tomorrow3. Compendium for youth work in the field on social inclusion and social equity in tomorrow’s youth center4. Timisoara for YOUth platform

Effective provision of preschool education sets the foundation for children’s lifelong learning, social integration, personal development and employability. It directly correlates with quality preschool teachers education and training and their Continuous Professional Development (CPD) practices.Within the KEY project ECEC practitioners, educators and regulators in Serbia and Montenegro join efforts with EU partners to design modern pathways to efficient CPD system for preschool teachers based on the introduction of professional learning communities (PLC) approach, going beyond the training courses required for teachers certification encouraging them to review the learning needs, acquire new knowledge/competences through formal, informal and non-formal learning throughout their careers while enabling HEIs to provide students with competences they need to adapt to globalised settings, where creativity, innovation, initiative, and commitment to continuous learning are as important as knowledge.Establishing 6 ECEC learning hubs at participating HEIs as operational facilities supporting teachers and practitioners training specialized in 5 different areas (inclusive education – work with socially deprived children and their families, Roma and migrant children; education for sustainable development across the curriculum; ICT in preschool education, work with gifted children and their families, teaching English to preschool children) is the project main output. Other products include CPD courses and materials, Guidelines on M&E and QA in CPD, CPD model of standards, introduction of Moodle platform in CPD. In sustained efforts to address equality and inclusion, project outputs will be prepared in Serbian, English, Romani and Hungarian.KEY project will impact ECEC learning communities in Serbia and Montenegro, bringing about greater value of teachers profession and students and young professionals learning competences and skills mandatory for their careers in 21 century.

"Project was established as a response to the difficult situation many young people found themselves in, not only in Slovenia but also across Europe. Pomurje region is one of the least developed regions in Slovenia and it is highly impacted by the outflow of young professionals from the region and by the highest unemployment rate in the whole country. One can also observe a high rate of brain drain (the emigration of highly trained or qualified people from a particular country), as young people are looking for a job and a better future outside the region or rural areas. The project has contributed immensely to improving the position of young people in rural areas, including their social and economic status. They achieved this goal by introducing young entrepreneurs to the concept of social entrepreneurship as a possible way to improve their position, offering them the possibility of training in the field of social entrepreneurship, support and assistance in the development of entrepreneurial ideas and their realizations. Social entrepreneurship represents the concept of sustainable economy and it is characterized by a resistance to market shocks, excellent ability to adapt to the challenges in local environment and great potential for social integration and employment.Social entrepreneurship strengthens social solidarity and cohesion, promotes involvement of society and volunteering, strengthens the company's innovative ability to solve social, economic, environmental and other problems, provides an additional supply of products and services that are in the public interest, develops new employment opportunities, provides additional jobs and social integration and vocational reintegration of the most vulnerable groups of people in the labor market.Encouraging young people to develop their own entrepreneurial ideas and supporting them when they take their first steps into social entrepreneurship can be an effective approach of reducing unemployment among young people and also creating new employment perspectives not only on a regional, but also on a national and European level. Project combines the innovative model of the so called ""Living and Virtual Lab"", a structure of informal mentorship and the use of modern technologies for the purpose of raising awareness and educating young people on the subject of social entrepreneurship and the detection and exploitation of its potential in rural areas. Within the project’s framework a “Living Lab"" was created for experimentation and co-creation of social innovations. It represented a meeting place for young people, it was suitable for teamwork, individual work, meetings, gatherings, events, and a place to develop new ideas. Entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs presented their enterprises and their entrepreneurial path to young people. Various workshops and events were held at the ""Living Lab"" and were open to the general public. With the help of these workshops on the topic of social entrepreneurship and rural development, young people were able to acquire new knowledge and motivation for entrepreneurial and social-entrepreneurial engagement. More than 250 young people were involved in the activities of the project, who got the opportunity to explore the potential and possibility offered by venturing into social entrepreneurship.The final event of the project was represented by the Festival of social entrepreneurship, whose purpose was raising awareness on the intellectual results of the project. It combined an international conference, a round table (Opportunities, challenges and Dangers of Social Entrepreneurship in Rural Area) and a marketplace. Young people presented the manual “My Idea, My Future: First Steps to Social Entrepreneurship” and the mobile application “My Idea, My Future.” The event was attended by local and national law makers, entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, representatives of various organisations, development agencies and an interested general public, which was mainly represented by young people. The aim of the festival was to promote social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurs, to present the potential of opportunities in the rural area, networking and presentatin of intelectual results. Manual and mobile app represent long-term benefits for young people on an international level, as they offer an interesting insight into the field of social entrepreneurship in an interesting way. Manual is available for free in the Slovenian and English language on the website www.myideamyfuture.com. Mobile app is available for a free download in the Google Play Store and App Store.Project partnership was composed of organizations from Slovenia (RIS Dvorec Rakičan, coordinator), Italy (CESIE) and France (ADICE). Cooperation on international level was an important contribution in terms of transfer of knowledge, experience and creation of long lasting partnerships."