We are experiencing a historical moment with an unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 global pandemic.The outbreak of COVID-19 will have a long-term and profound impact on older adults’ health and well-being.Social isolation and loneliness are likely to be one of the most affected health outcomes.Social isolation and loneliness are major risk factors that have been linked with poor physical and mental health status(Wu,B.Social isolation and loneliness among older adults in the context of COVID-19:a global challenge.glob health res policy 5,27(2020).https://doi.org/10.1186/s41256-020-00154-3)While scientists and researchers scramble to better understand the ways in which the coronavirus affects the body,we have a very clear understanding of the ways in which social isolation and loneliness affect people’s health and especially senior’s.Those who do not feel sufficiently connected to others and are deprived of social contact are more likely to:have weaker immune systems and catch colds,develop dementia,develop cardiovascular disease,live shorter lives(Source: Age UK)Experts indicate Art Therapy(AT)can play a crucial role to prevent mentioned dysfunctions.AT involves the use of creative techniques such as drawing,painting,collage,coloring or sculpting to help people express themselves artistically and examine the psychological and emotional undertones in their art.It helps older adults explore their emotions,improve self-esteem,relieve stress,improve symptoms of anxiety and depression and cope with a physical illness or disability(Source: Psychology Today)Since shared artmaking involves meaningful interpersonal interaction,it fosters sustained involvement,increased motivation and social inclusion(Cohen,2006;McGrath,O'Malley&Hendrix,2011,Moody Phinney,2012)On the other hand,it is a well known fact that people regress physically,mentally,emotionally and socially in older ages According to Eurostat statistics in 2019,20.3% of the EU population was aged 65 years or over.Across the EU Member States,the highest share of the elderly in the total population was observed in partner country Italy(22.8%)followed by Greece(22.0%), and another partner country Portugal(21.8%),In Turkey,elderly population reaches 9.1% of the total,by 7.550.727 people,according to TUIK statisticsDue to the recent increase in the elderly population and physical and mental adaptation problems of the elderly.The need for increasing the quality of elderly care services is becoming more and more obviousIn the light of the mentioned facts,the project aims to facilitate the application of AT techniques on older adults and their caregivers to ensure their mental well beings especially during the lockdown and social isolation timesBy carrying out this objective,the project will also contribute to increase quality of elderly care servicesThe project will produce separate intellectual outputs for 2 target groups:Training Course Programme and Materials and M-learning Application will be developed for training of Adult Trainers who work in Elderly Social Services.Trained adult trainers will provide guidance to seniors who reside in Elderly Care Institutions.Activity Book,Video Series and Podcasts will be developed for guiding seniors and their caregivers to make them perform AT Activities on their own.After the completion of Intellectual Outputs,they will be used and exploited in following project activities:LTTA with participation of 30 Adult trainers,Local Workshops to be held in partner countries with participation of totally 60 Seniors,60 caregiversMultiplier Events to be held in partner countries with participation of 160 representatives from Elderly Care Sector,health sector,adult education sector,public authorities,relevant stakeholders.These activities will lead to following results in targeted groups:AT activities will promote senior’s socialization and communication allowing for an alternate means of connecting with others, helping to lessen feelings of loneliness and isolationAT will relieve stress and depression of seniors.Creating art allows for an open expression of feelings,which can help relieve stress,anxiety,confusionThe activities will promote self-awareness and self-expression of seniors.Expressing themselves through art can be a powerful,meaningful way to share their lives with othersThe adult trainers will learn the art therapy method,which is predicted to have an impact on the loneliness and psychological well-being of the elderlyAdult trainers engagement will be increased through the use of m- learning,After dissemination and exploitation of the mentioned results,long term benefits will be followings:Seniors will gain resilience to all negative effects of the pandemic like stress,anxiet,social isolationIncreasing competency of adult trainers on AT will increase the quality of Elderly Social ServicesSpreading use and easy accessibility of digital learning tools will enhance the quality of adult education.

The TAG project is carried out by an international and multispectral partnership of seven partners from Romania, Spain, Slovenia, Germany, Italy, Portugal and France. This partnership was formed from the strong beliefs of partner organisations that education of older adults is of European relevance because it deals with an undeniable fact all around Europe: the population is aging but is not getting involved in LLL at a due pace or rate. In a rapidly changing world, older adults are forced into new and challenging environments which require new skills and attitudes which can only be gained through education and training. Despite the many efforts made by EU institutions to promote lifelong learning, there still exists a large share of the population, namely older adults, which is back behind. In this sense, adult education is of great importance to encourage the elder to be more active and participative in social and civic spheres. It is also of a remarkable relevance for adult educators to know their learners, their characteristics, needs, emotions, social position, style of learning, etc. Knowing what topics or issues are of their interest will be crucial towards engaging them in learning processes. It is well known that human nature tends to feel identified with communities and groups of people. We all tend to feel represented by a community and its culture; our values, beliefs and the manners in which we relate and interact with other define by the culture of our societies. Culture is an extensively wide concept in meaning, embedding an endless variety of areas: language, music, literature, religion, gastronomy… However, within this long list of cultural fields, gender tends to be forgotten. Gender issues are an integral part of our culture: people of a community, the way men and women understand gender and interact, their roles in the society… Hence, partners have seen the opportunity to take the advantage of gender issues as a triggering point and an untapping tool for the elder motivation to understand EU past, history and common values. If they find an interesting and shared reason for learning - that is understanding the role of important women throughout history - older people will be more engaged in LLL and active in their social circles. The project will use all this cultural background and legacy as a motor for both the professional competences development of adult educators and the boosting of older adults’ motivation to actively participate in LLL activities To address such issues, TAG partners have established the following objectives: - to enhance educators’ professional competences to work with older learners with the aim of motivating them to take a more active part in their communities and LLL activities; - to create safe learning spaces for older people taking the advantage of gender issues as a motivational trigger; - to raise awareness about belittled and invisible women by collecting stories of nationally outstanding female intellectuals and artists from the 20th century having a European dimension;- to generalise the understanding of gender issues through history as EU common values and community cultural heritage;- to create synergies among relevant actors in the educational and cultural fields and entities working with the elder. To achieve such objectives, partners will develop four main intellectual outputs: 1. Handbook-conceptual background: history of belittled and invisible women as a trigger for better understanding common EU values and promoting active participation of older people in LLL.2. Blended Course targeting Adult Educators: ICT Tools for Older Men and Women. 3. Interactive EU Map «The making of a woman through history” created by working groups of older learners.4. Digital Stories elaborated through Collaborative Storytelling with working groups of older learners.TAG project will target directly: · Adult educators: social workers, teachers, mentors, professors, etc.· Older learners, adults aged 55+ · Staff working in adult education contexts -formal, non-formal or informal organisations.Indirectly, the project will target other stakeholders, namely educational centers and organisations working in the field of adult education; public bodies active in the field, policy makers in the field of education and social and civic participation (public bodies staff, managers and heads of departments, etc.)A transversal approach to address such issues in cooperation among educational institutions and public bodies working with the elderly is essential to ensure the creation of safe and comfortable learning paths and boost their motivation and active participation in social and civic life. Similarly, the international and EU approach will guarantee that all target groups around Europe who are currently facing the above-mentioned challenges will benefit from project results and outcomes in the short and long term.

"RATIONALE The genesis of the project idea lies in the joint reflection on the peculiarities that unite the territorial, social and working contexts in which all the companies participating in the project partnership operate, summarized in the key concept of 'marginality', both physical and urban (periphery and peripherals), as well as economic, educational and social ( educational poverty and social exclusion), which characterizes the areas of project activity. The concept of the periphery hides within itself more meanings that refer to a place in space, far from a center, and to a social dimension of place of degradation and marginalization. Starting from the definition of suburbs as deficient places of ""something"", both in terms of distance or distance from ""something else"" rather than deprivation and absence, areas that lack centrality because they lack services, care for spaces, a 'adequate quality of life, we analyzed the change that the concept of ""periphery"" has undergone over time: the suburbs, today, is no longer generically what is far from the center, since it is in the center that we find more and more neighborhoods affected by phenomena of marginality, exclusion, marginalization and social degradation. Today the urban suburbs find themselves acting within a model of city government - still in formation but sufficiently clear - fueled by the interaction of three R: Resilience, Recycling and Reactivation of urban capitals and within this new paradigm they can contribute to its operational definition offering itself as a precious laboratory. The aim of the project proposal is the promotion of processes and models of participation in the educational and social sphere in contexts characterized by peripherization and by social and economic marginality. The 'LinKommunity' intervention model will focus on activities and services as follows: • enhancing the skills of children through laboratory activities in the educational and training fields, characterized by innovation, interdisciplinarity, inter-generationality and interculturality, with reinforcement of digital skills and STEM; • promotion and enhancement of educating communities, through paths and services to support parenting and interventions to combat social and economic exclusion, focusing on a networking strategy between all the actors of the educating community and horizontal subsidiarity aimed at experimenting with models of intervention of the cd. community welfare. The areas of intervention, taken as objectives of the project proposal, are:  strengthening the role of the school and all the actors in the educational process;  active involvement of families in educational services in the area;  contrasting educational poverty in areas of urban and / or social suburbs;  development of the sense of re-appropriation of common spaces, of the sense of citizenship and of the legality of minors; promotion of cognitive skills (STEM), relational skills and creative thinking of minors; WORKPLAN Phase 1 - Project management, Monitoring and Evaluation Phase 2 - MAPPING OF EXPERIENCES AND CAPACITY BUILDING OF EDUCATING COMMUNITIES Phase 3 - 'LINK LAB' - IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROJECT Phase 4 - 'KOMMUNITY Lab' - IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMMUNITY WELFARE PROJECT Phase 5 - DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS AND AWARENESS RAISING ACTIVITIES  Project management: 24 months  Transnational partners meetings: 4 meetings (2 per years)  C1: short-terms mobility for learners (systemic relational approach): teachers, parents and social operators  C2: short-terms mobility for learners (no formal education): teachers, para professional and social operators  C3: short-terms mobility for learners (social and educational communities): teachers, parents and social operators"

<< Background >>The EQstudents project is one-of-a-kind project which addresses the lack of a structured curriculum in national educational systems regarding the development of the EQ components in primary and lower-secondary schools, as understood by Goleman (emphasis on scientific achievements, development of cognitive intelligence). It adapts cross-sectoral approach, bringing together 7 EU partners coming from 5 EU countries from within and outside the education (specialization in neuro-science, game development, therapeutic intervention, development of innovative and creative teaching tools) - to create an alliance of different experts, organizations and sectors with diverse perspectives and resources to address complex educational challenges more effectively.The importance of EQ was already recognized in the Analytical Report of the EU (2018) “Strengthening Social and Emotional Education...”, which states that developing emotional competences has a positive impact on various aspects of children’s and young people’s life with regard to their education, learning, well-being and mental health. The emotional component of education is compulsory in some EU countries, while in others it’s not existent, e.g. the national guidelines on the Italian school curriculum describe the learning aims that schools have to pursue to develop social and emotional competences from early years across the mandatory school years, while in Poland the deficit of social capabilities is indicated as one of the key barriers in the long-term development of the country as low levels of emotional competences have been reported and still no guidelines have been introduced. Cultivating children's EQ to be better prepared for the challenges in life, recognize and manage their own emotions is especially important in today’s pandemic and tomorrow’s post-pandemic world.Additionally, the project corresponds to the Commission Recommendation of 20 February 2013 Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage (2013/112/EU) as it increases the capacity of education systems to break the cycle of disadvantage, ensuring that all children can benefit from inclusive high quality education that promotes their emotional, social, cognitive and physical development; addresses differences in the availability and quality of education and strengthens the link between students, teachers, pupils and other school experts. What’s more, the project addresses the needs of the future. Acc. to the Capgemini Research Institute “EQ - the essential skills for the age of AI”, 74% of executives and 58% of non-supervisory employees believe that EQ will become a must-have skill, 61% of executives and 41% of non-supervisory employees believe that it’ll become so in the next 1 to 5 years. People who have high EQ capacities, who can connect with others, display empathy and understand emotions are needed in the workplace. EQ is no longer an additional set of skills, it’s a core skillset of the future. Acc. to N. Frasquet of Coty Inc., “Only those people who rate highly on EQ skills will have a higher chance of retaining their jobs, compared to the ones who just have their basic technical and digital skills in place.” The EQstudents project is the answer for the detected needs as it aims to develop, test and implement a comprehensive system supporting development of emotional intelligence (EQ) of school-age children (6 - 15 years old) with active participation of primary and lower-secondary schools, parents, experts and project partners in the participating countries. It’ll directly address the need for the educating community (school, teachers, parents, etc.) to come and work together with the aim of supporting children and teenagers in the development of EQ by providing specific tools and models. In the long-term perspective it’ll contribute to building an emotionally intelligent generation, increase awareness of EQ, their significance now and in the future, in schools, in the job market.<< Objectives >>The aim of the EQstudents project is to boost EQ of children and adolescents by developing, testing and implementing a comprehensive system supporting development of EQ with active participation of primary and lower-secondary schools, parents, experts and project partners. Also it’ll directly address the need for the educating community to raise an emotionally intelligent generation.The EQstudents project will aim to:- develop, test and implement a comprehensive system supporting development of emotional intelligence (EQ) of school-age children (6 to 15 years old) with active participation of primary and lower-secondary schools, parents, experts and project partners in the participating countries- increase capacity of school teachers, specialists for teaching children emotional intelligence- support parents in raising emotionally intelligent kids- protect the most vulnerable children from the impact of pandemic threatening their growth and development- strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation (schools, partner organizations, stakeholders) across project countries in order to stir innovation in the education sector- promote inclusive education providing all primary and lower-secondary students with equal access to high-quality , free of charge services, diagnostic tool, activities, resources- promote the development of the emotional intelligence components in national education systems- contribute to raising emotionally intelligent generations in the long-term perspective.The objectives of the project are fully in line with the detected needs in the project countries (PL, CY, IT, GR, RO) as well as respond to EU call of action and recommendations. It will increase the capacity of education systems to “break the cycle of disadvantage”, support children and young people's emotional well-being during and after the pandemic, and provide high-quality support programmes and tools to primary and lower-secondary schools across countries. The consortium also wants to raise awareness in local communities on the importance of development of EQ from early years and how it affects the quality of lives, influences human behaviour and relationships, and drives future success.<< Implementation >>The EQstudents partnership will implement the following activities: (1) MANAGEMENT, (2) SHARING, PROMOTION, (3) QUALITY CONTROL & EVALUATION activities, which will take place during the whole lifetime of the project implementation.1) MANAGEMENT. To ensure the proper project management, OIC Poland will develop the Management and Financial Plan which will include the timetable defining all activities, project outcomes, time limits, project milestones, risk management etc. It will also describe the reporting requirements and the communication rules and tools. Management will be supported by communication, meetings and reporting. The Project Management Group (PMG) will be formed involving a representative from each partner. The project management will be based on the PRINCE2 methodology. Transparent rules of management and direct contacts between all project partners will be the foundation of effective project coordination.2) SHARING & PROMOTION activities coordinated by OLYMPION with the support of OIC Poland. These activities will be carried out during the lifetime of the project for the benefit of primary and lower-secondary schools, relevant stakeholders and engaging the end-users. They will be based on the Communication Plan, approved and executed by all project partners. The exploitation activities will be focused on integrating the project results into national practice and provision in their respective countries as part of the overall strategy. 3) QUALITY CONTROL & EVALUATION led by COMCY will aim to ensure that the project has a robust quality management plan and a culture of continuous improvement achieved through regular evaluation. The project partners will establish a quality board to support evaluation of the project results and peer review group for evaluation of results and activities in terms of the planned products, time limits, budget and communication between them. Within the QE Plan, all evaluation indicators, tools and criteria used in the project evaluation will be included. The project products will be assessed taking into account their usefulness, accuracy, impact as well as keeping international requirements and standards too. The evaluation results will be used to improve and adapt the project results to the needs of the target group. They will be presented in reports and discussed during each transnational project meeting.The production of the project products will be divided into 3 phases:Phase (1): Design, development & capacity building - The PR1-5 will be designed and produced with active involvement of all project partners, experts and end-users (participatory, bottom-up approach: focus groups, consultations) to elicit their perceptions on the planned results and have their recommendations on the design from the early stages of the project. In this phase, all products will be tested internally and evaluated. To exploit the products, FPP will organise a short-term joint staff training event (Italy) to facilitate working with the tools, training materials and methodology developed.Phase (2): Pilot testing and evaluation - coordinated by FPP. The products elaborated in the 2nd phase will be tested among end-users (PR3, PR4, PR5) and subject to evaluation by the experts (PR1-2) in every project country according to the provided guidelines and milestones. The trainers participating in C1 will be engaged in this phase, in order to support the process.Phase (3): Fine-tuning, translation and adaptation - Based on the testing results, PRs will be fine-tuned and translated/ adapted to national context. Adaptation is especially important to ensure that the results are found to be effective in the national school setting. The products will be made available on open license in EN, PL, GR, IT, RO.<< Results >>In the course of the project, there will be 5 project results produced i.e.:PR1:Model of working with a pupil aged 6-10 for development of emotional intelligence- EQ Kids- it will define processes, tools and rules of working with a pupil aged 6-10, especially the ones with adaptive difficulties, for development of emotional intelligence in educational environment and at home involving teachers, tutors, school pedagogues, psychologists and parents. The addressees of the model will be school personnel i.e. teachers, tutors, school pedagogues, psychologists, parents but also sociotherapist and other experts working with a pupil aged 6-10 experiencing difficulties. PR2:Model of working with a pupil aged 11-15 for development of emotional intelligence- EQ Teens- it will define processes, tools and rules of working with a pupil aged 11-15, especially the ones with adaptive difficulties, for development of emotional intelligence in educational environment and at home involving teachers, tutors, school pedagogues, psychologists and parents. The model will concern older pupils being at different stages of cognitive development than younger children where there are new opportunities for development of emotional intelligence and new problems and issues connected with the specificity of the adolescence period.PR3:Emotional Intelligence Assessment Tool for a pupil aged 11-15 - a multidimensional psychometrical electronic tool designed for diagnosis of 5 dimensions of emotional intelligence of students aged 11-15 based on Goleman concept. It will measure the following key components of emotional intelligence: Self-awareness , Self-regulation, Social skills, Empathy, Motivation. The accurate diagnosis of 5 dimensions of emotional intelligence would allow to tailor teaching methodology and to develop the child support programme. The tool will automatically generate individual feedback on the subject of 5 dimensions of emotional intelligence.PR4:Emotional Intelligence: What Teachers and Parents Can Do - training and professional development - The training toolkit for teachers and parents will be available in the form of asynchronous on-line training on emotional intelligence, in multimedia form (videos, exercises, practical tasks, podcasts, live short webinars for teachers and parents on the topic (recorded) OER, etc.) available via on-line platform (not Moodle). It will concern how to nurture and develop 5 key dimensions of emotional intelligence of pupils aged 6-15- the topics are not included yet in curricula at universities and the training offers. It will include 30 short trainings for teachers and 20 short trainings for parents.PR5:Hybrid game for children aged 11-15 (story, script, cards, coach's manual etc.)- it will aim at developing and nurturing 5 key dimensions of emotional intelligence in social relations i.e. Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Social skills, Empathy, Motivation. The game will be addressed to children aged 11-15 who will be taking step by step in the game according to the developed story to learn how to adapt to a changing environment, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges or defuse conflict correctly.The hybrid game means that some part of the game will take place in a virtual environment (on-line groups via laptops, tablets) and some part of the game will be in a form of outdoor game with printed materials (e.g. maps, tasks) moderated by a teacher. The game will be accompanied by a moderator’s manual, cards, maps according to the tasks included in the game.All the project products have potential for transfer and exploitation in other EU countries.The products will be available in EN and national languages of the partners on open Source licence. They could be easily taken up by individuals to their everyday work and organization. The partners will also create powerful promotional material targeted at schools,pedagogical staff, learners,stakeholders,multiligual www, social media.

European society is pretty new to the topic of sexuality in the context of persons with disabilities. For the most part, it was considered not relevant, ethical or appropriate to be involved in a discussion regarding persons with disabilities and normalisation of their desires. It was a common misconception, that persons who could not satisfy their natural desires, do not have them. This fact shows that people with disabilities have the right to sexual experiences and adapted assistance that allows them to experience their sexuality as they deem to be fit. Sexual assistance for those disabled adults who request it and feel the need for it we can affirm that it contributes to their inclusion.Even due to the change of events shaped by COVID-19 pandemic, the consortium stood strong and implemented all the planned activities as well as created all the necessary outputs. Switching some events OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS Specific: - The project aims at transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications by recognizing the learning outcomes through informal ad non-formal learning pathways about Assisting differently abled people with the improvement of their sexual and emotional needs. It is envisaged that this network will reach out through specific communications actions and by customising the message according to different target groups. DIRECT TARGET GROUPS includes adult people dealing with people with disability (families, educators…), that will benefit from a free and online training course to help them acquiring skills and competences recognised at European level for the expertise in emotional and sexual education aimed at disabled people. MAIN INDIRECT TARGET GROUPS are made of groups of families and organisations of people with disability, that will indirectly benefit from the project, being social educators have to deal with them daily, along with the people with disability themselves. ACTIVITIES Events and dissemination Intellectual Outputs: 3, The new role of the Special Intimacy Needs in Europe, methodological framework and main points profile - The European Special Intimacy Needs Educator Training Course - The European Special Intimacy Needs dissemination knowledge platform METHODOLOGY ReportingTwo reports were created during the first part of the project (Best Practice Report, Comprehensive Survey Report) to better understand the real situation in European Union regarding training courses and competencies of the stakeholders and the target group. The Best Practice Report involved information on educational courses, projects and initiatives regarding sexuality for persons with disabilities available in Europe. Learning activityThis C1 activity involved two persons from each partner organization, who tested the classroom activities of the developed online course in person and discuss possible improvements. After this activity the persons involved gathered focus groups within their own organisations and trained the persons involved, as well as facilitated discussions to promote the theme of sexuality of persons with disabilities. The members of focus groups were active in some organisation regarding rights and interests of persons with diisabilities. Later on they acted as ambassadors of the project and had organised promotional events and discussions to inform target groups. Training activityTraining activity was carried out via online means with support from the whole consortium. As it was planned, the main facilitators of the event were COMCY and Ist dei Sordi, each of whom gave their unique input to create the best experience for our learners. Amount of learners was significantly greatter than planned due to the event being online. Each country gathered at least five stakeholders and the event itself lasted for five days. Each day included uniuque presentations by each member organisation of the consortium, as well as testimonials and activities facilitated by the Trainer. The trainer was brought forth by Ist dei Sordi, she was a vastly competent individual with impeccable experience in psychology and sexuality education for persons with heard of hearing.Therefore she could manage a wide range of topics and Pilot testingWas carried out within the scope of IO3 by online and face-to-face techniques during the COVID-19 pandemic. A unite online evaluation form of the course created within the project was created by the member of the consortium responsible for quality control (Eurocrea), which was used as an online course validation and improvement platform. Even regarding the restrictions in some municipalities, a few partners could carry out piloting in face-to-face sessions, where the pilot test and presentation were carried out in small groups and online form was filled in on the spot.