<< Objectives >>The project’s specific objectives are: to identify, study and understand the practices, methods and approaches used by university students and related to information verification; to critically analyse, update and extend the existing fact-checking methodology by introducing emerging practices and cognitive impact vectors; to design an online course compatible with the updated and validated fact-checking methodology; to model efficient pathways for increased outreach and impact of fact-checking.<< Implementation >>The main activities are: 2 physical workshops; bi-monthly virtual PMB meetings; 2 physical trainings (for moderators and content creators); focus groups in 4 partner countries; desktop and online research; revision and update of fact-checking methodology; pilot-testing and validation of updated methodology; development of content for an online course on the updated methodology; modelling pathways for increased impact of fact-checking; fact-checking challenge contest as a dissemination activity.<< Results >>The main results are: a collection of practices observed in university focus groups and used by young adults; 4 moderators trained to run focus groups; revised, updated and extended fact-checking methodology, incorporating new practices and cognitive impact vectors; short-term staff training on methodology to prepare for the course creation; a comprehensive online course developed on the basis of the updated and extended fact-checking methodology and a collection of fact-checking digital tools.

"<< Background >>In today's cultural landscape we are witnessing the phenomenon whereby the community is excluded from active participation in decision-making processes relating to the choices that guide the programming and planning of urban contexts also linked to the post-pandemic process. In fact, in this historical-cultural-health and political moment in which individuals and the places they inhabit are often considered as endowed with passivity and anonymity, it is necessary to make the former more confident and aware of their potential and observe the latter with new gazes. and less reductive of the complexity that characterizes them. Anonymity and passivity are just some of the characteristics that describe young people at risk. In fact, according to the relationship they have with the socio-cultural environments in which they live, young people can assume two positions: being invisible (among the most invisible) or being agents of change.CROSS was conceived on these premises, which wants to contribute to the cultural and social change so that the community can in fact feel called into question and able to actively participate in the re-definition of the spaces it inhabits, focusing on its own young people, especially the most invisible. CROSS therefore proposes to develop a training model that uses urban re-qualification as a tool to promote participatory citizenship in young people at risk. Active citizenship becomes an objective that allows you to activate a path of identity re-definition and life path, the space and opportunity to weave positive relationships that can bring young people back into a proactive and active social fabric, the possibility of expressing needs and to seek strategies for their realization.CROSS, therefore, does not want to be an individual experience or a group of young people. The health emergency that we are experiencing seems to ask us for a new social cohesion, in response to the distancing necessary for the protection of health, and a renewed need to inhabit the typical spaces of the city of encounter (parks, squares ...) often abandoned to decay. Rebuilding the city, to rebuild relationships. Rebuild a sense of belonging (through active citizenship), to redefine one's life trajectory. These are the cornerstones of the activities of CROSS, which wants to use young people, those who live in the suburbs and the degradation of the city, to re-generate a cohesive and active community attitude. Young people brought back to the center (of the city and of attention) will be the generation that will bring about that cultural change of the community that inhabits and positively influences the places it lives.<< Objectives >>Acquire data and information on the needs, the level of well-being and development opportunities for the population groups less involved in local renewal policies;increase the involvement of representatives of institutions and local government bodies, so that they take into account the needs of local actors;improve agency skills, that is the ability to intervene on reality and exercise one's point of view on things;increase the spaces for meeting and reflection to stimulate active participation in the territories and active citizenship of young people; increase individual and group skills that can be put at the service of community empowerment and give sustainability to the project.Increase knowledge of the area and promote the exchange of good practices with European partners, increase the active citizenship capacities of the young people involved, build and support local networks (associations, committees, municipalities) to increase participation in the decision-making processes of the neighborhood, spread the culture of ""regeneration"" of urban spaces and choose a space on which to act in each participating country.<< Implementation >>In the current socio-historical context, the perception that active involvement in decision-making processes has been greatly reduced is very strong and permeating. The evolution of society has pushed towards new forms of commitment and participation that are often manifested more as symbolic individual action than as concrete and collective commitment, this phenomenon is biunivocally linked to the perception, increasingly rooted in common thought, that some processes are inevitable and that the real decision-making centers are increasingly distant and unreachable. In younger people, who often have not yet fully matured an economic and cultural independence from reference figures, all these trends have certainly an even greater impact, with the risk that a lack of personal self-definition process may create a large number of citizens without the necessary tools to actively participate in the activities and decision-making processes of the community to which they belong, both locally and nationally and supranationally, going to weaken the democratic fabric of the community, the state and the Union. CROSS wants to fit into this framework and reverse the trend, going to spread in five European countries the seed of youth participation, developing a project with young people that can provide them with the essential tools for active and informed participation, bringing them to the center of decision making processes and making them realize a concrete action of urban regeneration that may have immediate utility for the community within which they live. Specifically, the activities that CROSS provides are: • Recruitment of young people • Involvement of local associations and administration • Data collection on the local youth situation • Urban data collection • Collection of existing experiences (best practices) • International meetings • Dissemination press conferences • Neighborhood presentations • Involvement in research • Round tables with the municipalities • Building a ""regeneration"" network • Identification of a space in each country • Construction of an artistic mediation ""regeneration"" project • Training on urban spaces and citizenship • Round tables with the municipalities • Mentoring of children in schools or in aggregation centers • Identification of a space in each country • Construction of an artistic mediation ""regeneration"" project<< Results >>Through the project we expect a change of perspective: both as regards the activity of the youth protagonist and in the reinterpretation of the neighborhoods as living spaces where to rebuild the collective bonds and the skills to take care of the community. Youth participation is conceived in connection with the activities of active citizenship: understood not in an ethical sense, but as the ability to start from needs and consequently organize themselves in a multifaceted way, mobilizing resources and acting with different strategies and tools, to protect rights by exercising their powers and responsibilities for the care and development of common goods.The proposed interventions and activities will involve the peripheries, with all that is considered peripheral, which is recognized as having a significant social value, given by representing a ""border space"", within which innovation and change can be seen. Precisely because of being characterized by the possibility of different crossings, the suburbs have been and are places where, before than elsewhere, it was possible to see interests, trends, cultures, problems and, above all, innovative forms of search for solutions. Space will be given to research, dissemination of information, comparison, always starting from the experiences and needs of the participants.The aim of the project is to build knowledge and skills to catalyze energies in caring for the community, through innovation actions and awakening the self-determination of younger citizens. In particular, the project will focus on strengthening the links between the territorial associations that gravitate around young people and those that are more sensitive to the care of the social and environmental issues of the city, trying to improve communication with the institutions. The elective tools for implementation will be training, identification of shared objectives and sharing of working methods. In this way, the aim will be to intercept, in a virtuous and inclusive path, above all young people ""at risk"" (drop out, in conditions of marginalization, subjected to phenomena of marginalization)."

F.R.I.E.N.D.E.S.K. is a project aimed at reducing social exclusion of children 0-6 years old coming from marginalised contexts through the implementation of an innovative ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) model.The project brings together 8 partner organisations with longstanding experience in the field of social inclusion and children education, with the aim to create and test an integrated system where teachers and experts involved in ECEC systems could work together for providing children households with an inclusive and all-encompassing service.More specifically, F.R.I.E.N.D.E.S.K. consists of four core phases:1) a context analysis and benchmarking focused on best practices across the European countries partners on the main reasons of social exclusion affecting households with children aged between 0 and 6 years old;2) a transnational activity for external teachers and experts who work within the ECEC systems;3) a period of experimentation of the Friendesk Model consisting on physical spaces hosted by schools and aimed at providing parents with any information, contact, treatment or other services offered;4) a launching of an Integrated Web Platform useful to deliver training contents to experts ECEC.Considering the way in which ECEC systems are dependent on the responsible authorities at the highest level, which may be Ministries or Regions or Municipalities, at the end of the experimentation F.R.I.E.N.D.E.S.K. will try to engage public authorities in order to create guidelines improving on how to tackle child poverty and social exclusion through measures such as family support and benefits, quality childcare and early-childhood education.

In our modern society technological advances in photography have made the medium more ubiquitous and accessible to all. The project PICS (Photography Increases Creative-thinking Skills) aims at helping adult people get the most out of their camera, providing experts who can help them understand the fundamentals, get familiar with all the functions and achieve better results. Participatory photography places the medium of the camera into the hands of learners to democratize the image-making dynamic and give them the power to show and speak their own realities. The partnership deals with pedagogical issues, stressing the importance of a non-formal, learner-centered learning approach through the lens of a camera, the visual pedagogy, based on two techniques, Auto-Photography and Photo-Elicitation. Auto-photography offers researchers a way to let participants speak for themselves, in auto-photography participants take photographs, choosing images and representations of themselves; while photo-elicitation analyses how subjects respond to the images, attributing social and personal meanings and values. The project wants to improve creative-thinking and cognitive skills. Based on the Commission’s Communication on “e-Skills for the 21st Century”, PICS relies on the assumed true fact that adult people should be able to think and act creatively and critically. When they are encouraged to utilize critical thinking they can become active participants in the learning process because they are reflecting upon their current beliefs and knowledge and they are developing higher-order cognitive skills. Skills transform lives, generate prosperity and promote social inclusion. Without the right skills, people are kept at the margins of society. The partnership had the following results:-introduce genuine education about images in formal, non-formal and informal education, -teach how to appreciate images and photographs in adult education;-emphasize the role of amateur/professional photography as an art, as a tool for practicing active citizenship, and giving a different impression of Europe; and this long term impact:-promote new job opportunities, linking education with entrepreneurship.The project was based on those priorities:-developing basic and transversal skills-reducing disparities in learning outcomes affecting learners from disadvantaged backgrounds and with fewer opportunities, including migrants-enhancing digital integration in learning, teaching, training at various levels. Different kinds of organizations took part in the project: public/private education providers and associations: The Italian CPIA is a the largest public provider of adult education in the province of Taranto. It works with Italian people at risk of social exclusion (NEETs) and with EU and non-EU migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.The Association EUROEDUAS in Romania is a non-profit association located in a disadvantaged region with experience in integrating and re-integrating adults and former migrants in the local labour market. The Escola Tecnologica e Profissional da Zona do Pinhal in Portugal is a private professional, vocational and technological school with experience in the training of qualified personnel or technicians with highly demanding technical skills.FKEPEEP in Cyprus is a non-governmental association aiming at developing the region of Episkopi and using nature and documentary photography to promote the beauties of the territory and raise people’s consciousness.The Muratpasa Mesleki Egitim Merkezi Mudurlugu in Turkey a big public vocational training center/university with experience in the world of economy and technology.ARYP CIC in the U.K. is a non-profit voluntary organization based in a very disadvantaged community with long lasting experience in Youth in Action.EKPOL is a civil non-profit council of the Region of Thessaly in Greece, which aims at successfully tackling obstacles on society issues with experience with vulnerable groups and photography courses.The Städtische Berufsschule II Regensburg in Germany is a municipal vocational school center with a Photostudio and final journeyman degree in Photography, working with young refugees, asylum seekers and other youth at risk. Project activities included: digital class archive, a student portfolio, a website, photo-books/albums, a pedagogical toolkit, e-books, exhibitions, contests and social events. International workshops dealt with: the art of photography, rules and tips of photo composition, rule of thirds, use of light, ISO diaphragm, exposure time, landscape photography, digital photo editing, portrait photography and European cultural heritage through photos.

"Creative teaching refers to teachers using imaginative approaches to make learning more interesting, exciting and effective; (NACCCE, 1999).Learning through games is ideal to stimulate creative as teaching methods.The game is a means of knowledge, the means of familiarizing students with life surrounding a means of recovery, the creative application of acquired knowledge, a means of moral and social education. The games provide challenging experiences that promote intrinsic satisfaction and provide opportunities for an authentic learning; Increasing skills and developing new tools would allow for the development and implementation of projects using attractive methods tailored to the scale of the problems of education.In response to above and organizational's needs,the general aim of the project was to make the educational process more creative, creating a tool as method to work for teachers and students, such as kit ,using games;The project was addressed to this priority:""Supporting schools to tackle early school leaving (ESL) and disadvantage as well as addressed all students from the lowest to the highest end of the academic spectrum, aiming to improve collaboration internally as well as with parents and other external stakeholders, projects aiming at improving transition between different stages of education, projects supporting networking of schools which promote collaborative and holistic approaches to teaching, projects aiming to develop methods and to create conditions for personalised teaching and learning in order to support each pupil, and projects developing monitoring and assessment suitable for such approaches"".The partnership had the following result: -an innovative tool of work such as Kit with games as creative tool wich will be used both teachers and students and to involve a large number of teachers and students from different countries ,able to combine old and new skills by giving the students a new motivation for learning in a playful and creative way;The project included as well presentations and exchange of good practices between EU institutions, in order to revitalization educational system;Different kinds of organizations took part in the project: public/private schools, adult education providers and associations: -Euroeduas is an NGO in field of education,has an experience in co-ordinating and managing EU projects, expertise in educational competence ;-MOTML from Tukey,is a public school wich organises different vocational courses for the students and adults. Some courses deal with vulnerable or disadvantaged target groups as well.-The Italian CPIA is a the largest public provider of adult education in the province of Taranto. It works with Italian people at risk of social exclusion (NEET) and with EU and non-EU migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.-The primary goal of Ekpaideftiria Vassiliadis is education and the proper preparation of its students for knowledge, seen as the best asset to promote culture and value of the students;-Positive Changes Association from Poland has trainers and coaches involved in adults and youth education for more than 10 years and have gained experience in European projects;-The IES HIPONOVA offers the best to their students trying to apply new methodologies and technologies into our everyday teaching;-County Inspectorate from RO has Knowledge of other European education systems, taking from it some modern elements present (based on competent ICT), in line with European standards in education;-The Agrupamento from Penacova has experince in teaching with students in risk of abandoning school;The target groups of the project:-400 students from schools or member-volunteers from NGO's aged 6 to19(primary, gymnasium, high school level and adults) ;We already involved more than 50 students from each participating institution in the activities of the project;-6 students from each participating country aged more than 14 in the blended mobilities;Total 126 students and more than 100 teachers as staff in implementing/piloting KIT as educational tools-300 participants as indirect beneficiary with fewer opportunities, -21 accompanying teachers from participating countries for the students in the blended mobilities-48 teachers,6 from each partner countries involving in each training session -32 staff,4 for each institution participating in the project meetings -10 school inspectors participated in the training activity and piloting to the kit with games;We consider that the involvement of students and staff helped by different online tools such as a website and a Facebook page where students and staff could exchanged their feed-backs on the project and their proposals. This network, especially among students and staff,gave them the chance to improve their knowledge of English and to exchange information about culture in all Europe;"