"Youth unemployment remains on an upwards trajectory across Europe. However, at the same time, young people are innovating and have strong motivation to create new markets and jobs. At a critical point for Europe, The Cultural & Social Youth Entrepreneurship (CASYE) project brings together a strategic partnership of four organisations from the UK, Belgium, Italy and Spain to address a number of sectorial and horizontal priorities for Erasmus.CASYE aims to develop innovative, CPD accredited tools to support marginalised young people in becoming entrepreneurs in the social and cultural sectors through the capacity building and certification of youth workers and other professionals by giving them new approaches to support and strengthen their work, improve their skills, and increase the quality of their interventions. We also know that ""culture"" is the fourth pillar of sustainable development, but not everyone can currently access this kind of knowledge for personal fulfilment. European talents should be able to have more opportunities through activities that are socio-economically diverse and inclusive. CASYE responds to this need by supporting youth entrepreneurship in the creative sector through the development and piloting a social economy model, with an emphasis on empowering young people with fewer opportunities (social obstacles, geographical obstacles and/or economic obstacles). To this end, CASYE will create a mentoring, CPD accredited programme for youth organisations and youth workers working directly with young people with fewer opportunities and who wish to become entrepreneurs in the social or cultural sectors. Through the CASYE programme, the development of a sustainable ecosystem in supporting youth entrepreneurs in the creative European cultural and social sectors will be guaranteed.Given the powerful influence of technology and virtual media on the young, especially adolescent population, it is important to develop methodologies that are adapted to the current situations they are living. The effectiveness of youth work methodologies and tools are closely related to the ability to motivate the recipient and promote their participation in the proposed activities. CASYE aims to help youth workers reach young audiences who have hunger for social and cultural entrepreneurship through actions that are widely followed by youth, and which directly and indirectly influence them and their behaviour. Our project will empower youth workers to upgrade their current work with young people, while also validating this new knowledge through the provision of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Certificates. CASYE will create and pilot an innovative e-toolkit to promote social entrepreneurship competences among young people . This will allow them to turn their creative ideas and solutions to current social problems into entrepreneurial projects. It is worth nothing, that CASYE itself will be run as a social entrepreneurship youth project by adopting a youth-led structured for its management and evaluation. Through the CASYE Youth Advisory Board, young entrepreneurs from all participating countries will quality control the project while also allowing the creation and selection of several potential business ideas in the sector of creative cultural industries. The young entrepreneurs who will be submitting them will be guided through the mentoring programme, using the CASYE model. This will not only lead to the piloting of the CASYE mentoring programme, but also the actual creation of new, youth-led businesses in the participating countries. We will use these examples to allow others to replicate them using the CASYE paradigm, while also sharing the learning from the CASYE results as a youth-led programme.In summary, the project will product and pilot 3 Intellectual Outputs:1. The CASYE Mentoring Model Programme for youth workers2. The CASYE Outreach Support Toolkit3. CASYE Implementation Handbook.It will hold three national open days and one international closing conference (multipliers) reaching at least 190 delegates. All multipliers will be CPD accredited. The project will be quality controlled and monitored through a Youth Scrutiny Panel, generating over 100 high quality volunteering opportunities that will be certified with YouthPass.Two CPD accredited Learning Teaching Training events have also been planned:1. Short-term joint staff training event with 12 delegates2. Blended mobility of young people with 12 delegates.It is expected that through the project's tailored communication and dissemination strategy over 20,000 individuals will be reached, while the publication of some of the IOs through the coordinator's publishing arm IARS Publications will reach 180,000 institutions from around the world."

"Images of the young carer can be traced as back as far as the 11th century. Whilst novels, and media images, tell us something about the changing nature and experience of young carers in Europe, surprisingly little knowledge has been gained from research or official statistics. So, whilst there is considerable literature which focuses on the lives and needs of informal carers in the community, most of this fails to examine in any depth the particular experiences and needs of young people who care (Fallon, 1990). This also means that the barriers and enablers for their educational, training and employment avenues remain largely unexplored. Due to this knowledge gap the extant curricula, methodologies, material, opportunities and courses are not always fit for purpose. Despite of being under the radar of educational and social justice policy, the number of young carers is not to be underestimated. Just in the UK it is estimated that there over 1.5 million carers below the age of 35. A quarter of them have being carers before the age of 16 (Parker, 1994). In Italy, there are 170,000 young carers and 25,000 (under 17) in Sweden. There are no national statistics on the young carers in Greece. We also know from evidence that young carers face additional barriers to education, training and employment. For example, according to a research by Carers Trust, young carers aged between 16 and 18 years are twice as likely to be not in education, employment, or training (NEET) than their peers. According to Eurofund, young people with an immigration background are 70% more likely to become NEET compared to nationals.Research has also showed that the majority of young carers tend to come from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups (BAME). For instance, in the UK young carers are 1.5 times more likely than their peers to be from BAME communities, and are twice as likely to not speak English as their first language. We now have enough evidence to know that BAME groups continue to be disadvantaged in our modern society due to discrimination. On the other hand, providing care can also enable a young person to develop personally and to gain life skills that can also facilitate the transition to adulthood and lead to very positive outcomes for young carers. It is also estimated that billions of Euros are saved by European public services due to young carers.Young carers need to be given the recognition, opportunity and support to flower as individuals and as carers. Guidelines for action need to be based upon up to date evidence that involves them.The Care 2 Work project aimed to respond to this knowledge gap through a youth-led methodology. Inspired and motivated by the priorities of the EU Youth Strategy, the C2W project will bring together young people and professionals to establish a cross-sector, transnational Strategic Partnership in order to design and implement innovative practices and come up with a set of accredited, reference documents that will: (a) empower young BAME carers (b) increase the capacity of service providers, notably in the areas of integration, equity and inclusion, and discrimination.Focusing on the Europe 2020 Strategy, C2W aims to foster integration, social equity and inclusion through a two-tier approach i.e. by empowering and involving directly marginalised youth in its delivery, while at the same time increasing the capacity of organisations servicing them. In line with the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty to ""encourage the participation of young people in democratic life in Europe"", through non-formal learning activities and the development of an evidence-based training programme, C2W will promote innovation, exchange of experience and know-how between different types of organisations providing services to youth with fewer opportunities."

"Youth unemployment across Europe remains on an upwards trajectory, and traditional jobs are being crowded out in favour of new technology-orientated roles. At the same time, young people as innovators, are creating new jobs and markets. Much has been written and done in the area of entrepreneurship. In fact, youth entrepreneurship has now become synonymous to ""innovation"" and many projects have been funded with this objective in mind. Our current youth projects and our standing Youth Advisory Board that has overseen this application pointed out that today's youth not only require skills in hyper-demand areas but also soft skills which are transferable and adaptable to a variety of working environments. In the last five years, empirical evidence suggests the rise of a new category of entrepreneurship: digital entrepreneurship. Digital entrepreneurship can be defined as new ventures or the transformation of an existing business through the creation and usage of novel digital technologies, such as social media marketing, data analytics, mobile usage or cloud solutions. Digital enterprises are characterised by a high degree of utilisation of such digital technologies, due to their ability to improve business operations, heighten business intelligence, increase customer and stakeholder engagement and invent new business models. To respond to this gap, the IARS International Institute has developed a strategic partnership bringing together 4 EU member states (the UK, Greece, Cyprus and the Czech Republic) to run EDEEY as a youth-led transnational project that will develop, test and implement innovative practices in a newly-emerged area in the field of entrepreneurship. With an ever-changing world, rising unemployment and the growing influence of social media and technology, understanding the ways in which digital technology can be harnessed for entrepreneurial pursuits is vital in both preparing young people for the future of work and giving them a toolkit to survive outside the traditional labour market. EDEEY responds to a number of sectoral and horizontal priorities, while it has been developed with the key aim of delivering the new Youth Strategy and Erasmus+ overall objectives.In summary, the intellectual outputs of this project are as follows:IO1: Curriculum development for young people and youth workers/ educationalistsIO2: The project delivery of the eLearning platform for participants including two accredited e-courses for (a) young people (b) youth workers/ educationalists.IO3: Face-to-Face Training for participants in all participating countries.IO4: A Final e-book developed by all partners reporting on findings of research conducted and results of the project. Published in all partner languages (English, Czech, Greek).EDEEY offers an innovative, accredited training course to prepare those without access to infinite capital on how to utilise digital entrepreneurship as a way of poverty alleviation, whilst also increasing the creation of jobs for their peers. Non-formal education is just as crucial as formal education for the development of young people to suit the new future of work, therefore EDEEY is a vital initiative to adequately prepare young people for the labour market. In addition to the youth-led, innovative training programme that the project will create and pilot, it will generate numerous entrepreneurial social action activities through youth volunteering and internships. EDEEY will utilise the concept and practise of digital entrepreneurship as a means of increasing social inclusion for young people who are economically marginalized in society. Responding to the priorities set aside in the Lisbon Agenda and the Europe 2020 strategy treating digital entrepreneurship as a primary component in smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. EDEEY will target young people between the ages of 16-25 with a particular focus on young people from low-income households, females and those from marginalized backgrounds such as Roma. Adopting a youth-led methodology, the project will construct and implement evidence-based, well-tested and replicable educational and training curricula to develop young peoples' practice, creative and entrepreneurial skills to enable them to harness the power of digital entrepreneurship and offer economic empowerment. Many studies have recognised the role in which entrepreneurship aids poverty alleviation, enabling those from disadvantaged backgrounds to break away from their underprivileged positions and seek their own solution to unemployment or discrimination in the labour market. While acquiring these new skills and competencies, our target groups will also receive accreditation as the courses will receive a CPD status. Where applicable we will also offer an ESC Certificate and YouthPass."

"At present, school education in the law and basic rights that would allow young people to lead their lives equally in modern European societies is almost non-existent. However, research supports that when people are given the basic legal knowledge to deal with everyday situations not only they stand a better chance in society, but also avoid consuming public services unnecessarily (IARS, 2010). The question of what make us legally capable becomes particularly timely in the current financial climate where more and more young people are struggling to cope, and the demand for legal advice is ever increasing. For young people, a legal problem – let that be crime or debt related, domestic violence or employment – will have a bigger impact. Starting out in life presents young people with enormous new challenges. Marginalised youth are even less likely to receive help or want to engage with the system and what is available to the mainstream population. However, communicating law related information through formal education or training to marginalised youth and those servicing them is not an easy task. International projects (e.g. Street Law, PLENET, Youth Empowerment Project) have shown that to achieve basic legal literacy among the public, including young people, it must be carried out organically and in a user-led fashion. Therefore, in Europe, a gap is identified in the field of training, education and youth that could be filled through the free dissemination of a youth-led programme for service providers and young people with the aim of increasing their legal capability. The Abused no More (AnM) project will help to bridge this gap by focusing on increasing legal capacity in the areas of gender-based discrimination, exclusion and abuse against some of the most marginalised youth groups and in particular those who tend to be disadvantaged due to their gender and cultural differences (e.g. immigrants, refugees, descendants from immigrant families) and other social obstacles e.g. sexual orientation and ethnicity.Inspired and motivated by the priorities of the EU Youth Strategy, the AnM project will bring together young people and professionals to establish a cross-sector, transnational Strategic Partnership in order to design and implement innovative practices and come up with a set of reference documents (online & in print) that will: (a) empower marginalised youth (b) increase the capacity of service providers, notably in the areas of integration, equity and inclusion, gender-based abuse and discrimination.Focusing on the Europe 2020 Strategy, AnM aims to foster, migrant integration, social equity and inclusion through a two-tier approach i.e. by empowering and involving directly marginalised youth in its delivery, while at the same time increasing the capacity of organisations servicing them. In line with the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty to ""encourage the participation of young people in democratic life in Europe"", through non-formal learning activities and the development of an evidence-based training programme, AnM will promote innovation, exchange of experience and know-how between different types of organisations providing services to youth with fewer opportunities.AnM will be carried out in key EU locations (UK, Poland, Italy, Romania and Cyprus), building on the learning of partners' projects. It will:1. Map and analyse key concepts in the areas of marginalised young people' legal literacy, focusing on gender-based discrimination and exclusion2. Identify relevant innovative educational and training practices in the participating countries and produce a free report3. Organise seminars with partners to exchange learning and to perform cross-training activities4. Design a free, user-led, face-to-face training package and pilot them in the participating countries5. Involve young people directly in the design and piloting of the programme engaging at least 20 young volunteers in each country6. Design and deliver an elearning course reaching at least 1000 organisations and individuals across Europe7. Set up and facilitate a wider network (database) in order to disseminate its practical results, exchange further best practices and ideas and ensure multiple effect and sustainability.8. Publish a book (online and in print) bringing together its 3 year learning and practical results, launch it at an international conference and disseminate internationally. The project will not only help the employability and social inclusion of the young people directly involved, but also bring positive and long-lasting effects on the participating organisations. Moreover, through the transfer and implementation at national and European levels of its innovative practices and training programme we expect to help bring about EU-wide institutional and cultural change, improve services provided to marginalised youth experiencing exclusion and discrimination, while fostering social equity and inclusion."

EpsiLon is responding to two current and urgent educational needs in Europe i.e. (1) the rise in migrant and refugee numbers (2) the persistent inequality and persecution of Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans-gender groups (LGBT). Combined together these two characteristics make LGBT migrants and refugees one of the most vulnerable groups in modern Europe. Our project aims to help address this issue by increasing the knowledge, skills and awareness of all those adult professionals and volunteers who come in contact with them. According to UNHCR, in 2015, over 1.1 million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe. In 2016, this flow continues at a rate of 55,000 per month. Violence at the collective and personal level is the key driver that forces these individuals to abandon their homes. While doing so their basic needs and human rights are compromised. This also includes their free choice of identity, dignity and respect. It also includes being free to exercise their sexual orientation, have a partner from the same sex and develop a family life. It also includes exercising this right without being killed or bullied. However, the reality is different as a considerable proportion of refugees and migrants is in fact made homeless because of their sexual orientation (whether this is kept hidden or is revealed). The EU and modern Europe have signed treaties and Directives that aim to protect all individuals from persecution and discrimination on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Examples include the Right to Private and Family Life in the European Convention on Human Rights as well as the 2004 Directive stating unequivocally that those who face persecution for their sexual orientation and gender identity qualify as refugees and many reports showed how minorities, including LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual) people. The European Parliament EU (2015/2325(INI)) also called on all Member States to adopt asylum procedures and endeavor to develop training programmes, which are sensitive to the needs of LGBT persons and especially women.These high-level, EU-wide policy initiatives must be complemented with on-the-ground, national and local educational efforts targeted at adult professionals and volunteers who work directly with LGBT migrants and refugees. This complementary work needs to have an EU wide impact and must be evidence based and user-led. Responding to this need, EpsiLon brings together key partners from 5 case study countries to develop a training programme for professionals and volunteers working with asylum seekers and refugees in asylum centres, camps, other shelters and in local communities. The partners come from key locations in Europe where the two cross-cutting themes of migration and LGBT discrimination are particularly acute. While we will look at Italy, Greece and Cyprus as locations where not much progress has been made for LGBT rights, we will explore the Netherlands and the UK as member states that have introduced progressive practices and policies in education and training for gay issues and rights. At the same time, Greece, Italy and Cyprus are case studies for migration flow and the so called crisis.EpsiLon will adopt a user-led methodology by constructing educational tools that are based on the voices and real needs of LGBT migrants and refugees. Through theses voices, learning will take place in the form of face-to-face and online. This will be promoted both internally (between partners) and externally (nationally and EU wide). We will develop an innovative, evidence-based, user-led training methodology and contents targeting professionals and volunteers working in services for asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in order to raise their awareness and sensitivity to the needs of all those with LGBT background. The educational tools will enable the professionals to identify these LGBT groups' most current and urgent needs some even reaching on issues of survival, dignity and respect. It will also help them challenge their own biases. The need for the development of such training programme is highlighted at top level by all competent organisations such as UNHCR and the EP. The intellectual outputs of Epsilon will (a) reach widely outside of the participating countries through free, online access Europe-wide (b) continue being delivered after the project's funding is finished (c) reach groups in society that would not have been otherwise able to receive the face-to-face package and in print material (d) reward and formally accredit its target audiences.