"<< Objectives >>The main goal of “Young Thespians” is to play a role in fostering inclusion and diversity in the performing arts sector, focusing on youth and art educators and practitioners. The growing cultural diversity in the European populations, such as Austria and Iceland, makes it necessary to develop innovative educational methods based on evidence. This is to be achieved in the field of arts education through international cooperation with the aim of combining theory and practice.<< Implementation >>1)Project management for planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and dissemination.2)Transnational Partner Meetings for project development.3)Needs assessment for needs, challenges and opportunities of performing arts education.4)Toolkit with methods of performing arts education on the part of artistic educators, artist social workers working with youth.5)Transnational Training: train and apply the project results.6)Pilot courses: test the project results and objectives.<< Results >>""Young Thespians” will create two consecutive results:1)“Needs assessment on the inclusivity of performing arts education for youth” A transnational report on needs, challenges and opportunities in the field of performing arts education with marginalised youth2)“Toolkit to promote inclusion and diversity through performing arts by improving skills and empowering youth”A practice-oriented tool for imparting knowledge and exercises for arts educative work with marginalised young people."

"BACKGROUNDThe concept of ""co-creation"" has the last years been on the political agenda of the municipalities, both in Denmark and other Western European and Nordic countries. But still, we see a need for the culture associations to be more proactive and agenda setting in the co-creative cooperation in the sector of arts, culture and heritage, especially by focussing on empowerment and the 'transformative potential' for socially marginalised citizens. AIMThe aim has been to compile good practise and innovative approaches for a co-creative cooperation between volunteers and professionals in culture associations, public culture institutions and culture departments of the municipalities that promote the 'transformative potential' and the goal of creative empowerment. ACTIVITIES The 17 months project had three main phases: 1. Found 1.1 Desk research and feed from reference groups on state of the Arts 1.2 Publish Summery Survey Report, English PDF-ed. 2. Develop 2.1 Provide Curricula Guidelines and exemplary course packages 2.2 Design and test three national pilot curses 2.3 Design and test one transnational pilot course 2.4 Develop and publish Curricula Compendia, English PDF-ed. 3. Disseminate 3.1 Launch the project Portal at the start of the project and keep it updated. 3.2 Complete national 1-day multiplier events in each partner country. 3.3 Provide a sustainable dissemination including final exploitation of the results THE PARTNERSHIP CIRCLE:consisted of four partners from Denmark, Austria and Finland, and it included a Danish umbrella association for nine national culture associations, a Finnish heritage educational and development centre, an Austrian Research centre in the field of European arts and culture; and a Danish Lifelong learning institute working with cultural learning and civil society empowerment. TARGET GROUPSThe direct target groups were the managers, board members and other arts and culture providers (paid and voluntary staff) from culture associations in the civil society sector as well as the local culture institutions and culture departments of the municipalities from the public sector, which alone or in varied cooperation provide arts and culture services and activities for the citizens in the local communities. The Indirect target groups include decision-makers and policy-makers, researchers, and funders, on a local, national, and European level, that may support the activities with political, legal, ideological and financial means. The end-users or long term potential beneficiaries were citizens in the local communities in the EU member states that wish to gain better arts, culture and heritage services and activities to be involved in as audiences, participants or volunteers. OUTCOME:The impact asssesssment indicated that the project compiled good practise and innovative approaches and developed a new and useful curruicula for further education and training of culture actors in the public institutions and civil society associations to develop new forms of co-creative cooperation based on more equal terms, where citizens and other civil society actors can be engaged not only as co-implementers, but also as co-initiators and co-designers of new welfare services, especially in the field of culture and leisure activities.MORE INFORMATIONSee the project website: http://www.co-create.one/"

"The URB_ART project is a response to the COVID19 crisis that has inhibited intercultural exchange and severely affected the cultural and educational sectors. This project aims to support low-skilled adults in marginalized communities through activities and concepts of Urban Arts Education. Possible on-going pandemic constraints and changes will be considered in the project by implementing innovative formats of (digital) education, communication, participation, dissemination, etc. To achieve these goals, the consortium will carry out activities to manifest Urban Arts Education as a tool for social inclusion.URB_ART will stimulate social inclusion and empowerment processes through its project activities and results. By providing scientific studies, technical literature, further trainings, and audio-visual toolkits on the potentials of Urban Arts Education, a sustainable awareness of the different target groups shall be created.The definition of Urban Arts Education is based on the conceptual triangle of arts education, urban adult education and urban arts. Thus, it encompasses the creative and personal development of the individual as well as the understanding of regional and international arts and culture in large, densely populated urban areas with a diverse population. Dealing with arts in the community of low-qualified adults from marginalized groups overcomes socio-cultural barriers and provides access to new social groups. Here, transdisciplinary art disciplines function as communication instruments for intercultural dialogue and social integration. URB_ART will incorporate linguistic concepts such as metro- and multilingualism to classify and implement an intercultural dialogue.URB_ART makes use of the correlation of these three concepts by realizing five project activities that build on each other:IO1: The ""Baseline Survey on Transdisciplinary and Multilingual Urban Arts Education"" will formulate national and transnational needs and challenges regarding marginalization in the fields of culture and education as well as success indicators with regard to Urban Arts Education, taking into account concepts of transdisciplinarity, metro- and multilingualism.IO2: The ""Compendium of Storytelling Resources Through Urban Arts Education"" aims to list success stories for transdisciplinary and multilingual Urban Arts Education based on the Baseline Survey. In this way, the Compendium will create specific knowledge about the resources of storytelling through urban arts and empower cultural and educational actors.IO3: The ""In-Service Training Package on Urban Arts Education"" offers opportunities for further education for adult education providers and community actors. The results generated from IO1 and IO2 are conveyed in a practice-oriented manner in training courses in all five partner countries, whereby the results and recommendations can be directly integrated into the thinking and actions of those involved in practice.IO4: The ""Toolkit of Video Case Studies on Community Urban Arts"" aims to present media-based successful transnational practices for the inclusion of marginalized communities in urban arts programmes and initiatives.IO5: The ""Policy Paper on Promoting Urban Arts Education"" deals with the potentials of Urban Arts Education regarding social inclusion. The aim is to develop operational and policy recommendations for decision-makers and policymakers in the fields of culture, education, and social affairs.In addition to these outputs, the partner consortium will regularly organize transnational meetings, a transnational staff-member training, national multiplier events to disseminate the project results and a European Symposium, to which policy-makers and stakeholders will be invited. In the project activities, artists will be directly involved to actively build a bridge between the educational and the creative sectors.The partner consortium consists of five non-governmental organizations from the United Kingdom, Iceland, Slovenia, Portugal, and Austria. In addition to the project partners, other stakeholders are directly and indirectly addressed by this project:1) associated adult and community educators, social workers, professionals from the cultural sector2) low-skilled adults in marginalized communities3) independent arts educators and artists of different art disciplines4) policymakers and decision-makersWith this transnational and transdisciplinary approach, URB_ART breaks down social barriers in times of COVID19 and promotes social inclusion through the concept of Urban Arts Education. URB_ART offers further training possibilities for associated adult and community educators, social workers, professionals from the artistic and cultural sector as well as for independent arts educators and artists of different art disciplines to establish access to culture and education and to achieve empowerment for low-skilled adults in marginalized urban communities."

CONTEXTDuring the last years, an increased European interest in the potential of amateur arts and voluntary culture in fostering social inclusion can be witnessed. This is reflected in a range of publications and projects focussing on this interconnection (Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe report 2018; European Commission 2018; European Research Partnership on Cultural and Creative Spillovers 2019; Matarasso 2018; Culture Action Europe 2018). Based on this data, own research, and results of the former Erasmus+ project BRIDGING, the rationale behind this new project is that amateur arts and voluntary culture enhances social inclusion. Many learning providers in the field know for the potential of their work to support social inclusion. Yet, how this can be done and what categories and practical questions need to be considered when working on this objective is often unclear. OBJECTIVESThe project BOOST aims at empowering learning providers in the sector of amateur arts and voluntary culture to contribute to social inclusion. It supports the self-reflection of learning providers on their potential for fostering social inclusion along different dimensions and categories in form of an online Benchmark Tool; and it provides practice-oriented options for learning providers in the field on how to develop an organisation’s level of social inclusion.ACTIVITIESThe first output of the project will be a Baseline Survey on good practice of benchmarking and recommendations on social inclusion. It will be carried out by all partners on relevant studies, reports, and literature and with expert interviews and focus groups with selected learning providers in the sector.The second step will be to structure the outcomes of the Baseline Survey into main relevant areas. That means that they will be clustered and divided along main relevant issues, like: access to activity, content of activity, outcome of activity, etc. Each identified issue will furthermore be divided into concrete questions, that will help the learning providers to ask themselves how they are currently ensuring inclusive access to the activity, inclusive content of the activity, inclusive outcomes of the activity, etc. A transnational training on the Benchmark Tool will be a possibility to train the partner organisations in benchmarking in the civil society sector and reflect with experts on the tool and adapt it.The learning providers that will help to test and develop the Benchmark Tool further will also be involved in the development of the Practice Methods. The development of the Practice Methods will happen in teams of three project partners in the framework of trilateral meetings. Each team consists of two practice partners and one consulting partner as well as one identified learning provider. During a period of twelve months these teams will have time to develop, reflect, adapt, document and disseminate the Practice Methods. The Practice Methods are linked to the Benchmark Tool so that they can directly support an organisation’s development in social inclusion according to the result of its self-assessment. The Manual for the use of the Benchmark Tool and the Practice Methods will be developed based on the tests and the impact assessment. The impact assessment is led by a research-based partner in the consortium. In a first step, the partners will formulate recommendations and then create the Manual so that other learning providers can easily use the Benchmark Tool and the Practice Methods.The partner consortium will carry out a European Symposium in Krakow where external organisations and experts are invited to discuss the Benchmark Tool and the Practice Methods with the partner consortium in discussions and workshops.EXPECTED RESULTS AND IMPACTSThe project aims at initiating a thorough quality development process in the sector. In the short-term perspective the project supports learning providers in their orientation and development towards a socially more inclusive work, including the initiation of new socially inclusive activities. By these means learning providers will be enabled to define their strategy and possible activities regarding social inclusion in detail. On the long-term, we expect the project’s information provision, awareness raising as well as new possibilities for further education regarding amateur arts and voluntary culture will inspire the learning providers in the sector to be more societally engaged and to raise their efforts in social inclusion.PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONSThe project consortium circle includes 6 partners from 5 countries in Northern, Eastern and Western Europe, that represent four strong national umbrellas as well as two knowledge and research centres, representing a transnational European sum of varied expertise and experiences in the field, which we cannot find in just one of the participating countries. The project partners share the responsibilities equally.

The main problem the project addresses is little support available for recognition and validation of knowledge, skills and competences of international project managers active in Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the adult education sector, acquired through formal, non-formal and informal learning.AIMThe overall aim is to support recognition and validation of knowledge, skills and competences of international project managers active in Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the adult education sector, acquired through formal, non-formal and informal learning.PARTICIPANTSThe direct target group of the project includes the members, workers, co-workers, educators and volunteers of the Third Sector adult education organisations (i.e. Civil Society Organisations, including informal groups, Non-governmental organisations and other non-profit organisations).The indirect target group include wide range of education – related organisations, institutions and decision makers.The dissemination activities would reach, in total, at least 44.830 recipients.PARTNERSHIP CYCLEProject partners are six 3rd sector, civil society organisations, working in the field of lifelong learning adult education from Poland, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Portugal and Cyprus. Even though all the organisations involved are 3rd sector and working in the field of lifelong learning, they have various profiles and experience – which makes the Partnership composition somehow representative for the adult liberal education sector in Europe.METHODOLOGY & ACTIVITIESThe design of the work programme is chronological, divided into 3 main phases. Project activities are divided into 13 Work Packages, including transversal activities of management, evaluation and dissemination. There are 6 Transnational Project Meetings (TPM) planned: 1 introductory meeting (kick-off meeting), one summary meeting (aiming at establishing Exit Strategy for the project) and 4 working meetings aiming at exchange of good practices. The work flow during the 4 working meetings follows logical, subsequent steps of the process of competences recognition and validation. There is also one international Training Event (Short-term joint staff training event) planned, based on experiential learning. The work programme also includes one start-up package (WP01), short desk-research package (WP03) and concluding package (WP10) finalized in delivering final recommendations for future works of the Partnership and the International Support Network supporting first-time international project realisers development.RESULTS & IMPACTThe results of the project will be tangible and intangible (material and immaterial). The direct tangible results will be reached during the work packages, while the intangible will be illustrated in the field of increased of knowledge, skills and awareness, change of attitudes etc. The indirect, third level of results are those long-term ones, clearly connected with the varied project impact.The direct intangible results will be seen both on individual and organizational levels, referring to change of attitudes and values related to international cooperation realizing, introducing innovations, professionalization of the adult education staff, and developing long-term development strategies of the 3rd sector adult learning organisations.SUSTAINABILITYThere are two project results that will be especially sustained after the project ends:1) The Recommendations for building a new competence recognition and validation system;2) The developed International Support Network supporting first-time international project realisers.The project proposed is an element of a long-term strategic plan of the project core Partners, aiming at delivering sustainable support for international cooperation of the adult learning sector CSOs.Outcomes of this initiative will deliver a good ground for developing the new competence recognition and validation system in the field of international cooperation of adult learning CSOs, which will be outlined in the Exit Strategy concluding the project.