“Keep your EYES open, Youth entrepreneurship is spreading worldwide” is a Capacity building in the field of YOUTH coordinated by Eurasia net France in cooperation with Open M Vietnam, Virlanie Philippines, EHSB Croatia, and D'avent Romania, with the contribution of volunteers 12 volunteers involved in 7 organisations worldwild (Open M Vietnam, Virlanie Philippines, EHSB Croatia, Mitraniketan India, The European social entrepreneurship and innovative studies institute (ESI) in Lithuania, Friends International Cambodia, COB Greece).Keep your Eyes Open project reached various goals : -to strengthen a transnational and multidimensional network across Europe and Asia-to transfer innovative practices in the social business field link with youth and NGO sector-to foster youth social entrepreneurship and to increase awareness over the topic,The project integrated: -the communication tools created during the former EYES project, -a non-formal education approach and -the youth mobility by itself as a key to self-development and formal access to the social business sector. The project objectives were:- To boost cross-continental cooperation between 5 youth organizations and their local/ national network in Europe and Asia. - To promote an innovative exchanging of experiences and social business models between Vietnam, Romania, Philippines, Croatia and France. - To engage volunteers to send in mission with the international partners, offer a mentoring and a support for their social business projects. - To Increase the local impact of the project in each country involved, through the development of local partnerships and the local events connected to social business. - To enhance the outreach of the online communication tools launched as a result of the project EYES.- To create awareness about entrepreneurship and social businesses opportunities and initiatives among a high number of youth through local events. The project integrated 3 main phases for the youth workers:-7 days: training in France:Workshops on social business ideas and identification of successful and transferable practices in each partner country; Define the missions given to the volunteers; Meet the volunteers; Local visits to get inspiration in social business practices- 10 days: job shadowing:Transfer of good practices and innovative interaction between partners; Support the volunteer and mid-term evaluation of the project. -7 days :The closing seminar in Philippines:Final report of the work done by volunteers and youth workers; Make the video “How to launch my project”; Update the guide of good practices on social entrepreneurship and prepare a final event to spread the good practices and communication material identified/created during the project. And 3 main phases for the volunteers involved:-2 months of preparation in Marseille-6 to 10 months of international volunteering mission-1 month in Marseille: dissemination and skill/ knowledge gained by volunteersTrough theses phases, the consortium managed to take decisions on the expected results of the project, shared many good practices in the field of youth and social entrepreneurship and updated EYES platform with several new elements:- 6 new partners to EYES platform to support and enrich the network- 3 videos of 1 min presenting the project and EYES platform- 5 vidéos of 1 min presenting social entrepreneurship in Vietnam, Cambodia, Lithuania, India, Croatia- 1 Video of 5 min detailing the main steps to launch a social business

"The project overall objective was on one hand to conduct a comparative analysis of Youth Issues, Attitudes and Policies in relation with the social innovation processes from the perspective of various world regions, and on the other hand to promote the recognition of Youth Work by building youth workers’ and youth leaders’ capacity to empower young people for using social innovation in finding local answers to complex social and societal challenges in participating communities.Specific objectives were: -To investigate young peoples’ knowledge, opinions, attitudes and tendencies towards social innovation and raise the awarness amongst general public about its importance-To provide YWs an opportunity to engage in a debate on what is within the capacity of youth work when it comes to support of social innovation -To explore the bridges that can be built with other social innovation support structures/programmes and the business sector.-To empower YWs to initiate youth social innovation actions on local level in view of finding local answers to societal challenges in participating communities. -To provide youth with set of competences required to become socially sensible leaders and active citizens-To teach youth social entrepreneurship and the ways which they could be applied-To practice tools in relevant areas of management in order to plan actions for sustainable future development of participants at different levels ( personal and professional level (as entrepreneurs and active civil society members;- organisational level (to ensure local initiatives in the youth field) and at international level (via future joint transnational actions and entrepreneurial projects)-To develop creativity, innovation and teamwork capacity of participants, their sense of initiative, as well as their understanding of how to be good learners-Through sharing of the Change Makers stories in an Online Platform to articulate the purposes and value of youth work to policymakers and wider public by promoting youths’ and youth work achievements in the field of social innovationThe project consisted of a several international and paralel local acitivities of eight partner organization from Croatia, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Kenya, Poland, Peru, Thailand and Tanzania within a period of 22 months. Central activities were two transnational capacity builiding trainings for youth workers in Tanzania and Croatia; 10 mulitiplication seminars in participating countries, 8 job shadowing activities; conducting and publishing a reaserch results, production of one Toolkit and one Guide for Youth Workers and relevant institutions; two practical projects - one Online platform ""Youth Social Innovation Idea Bank"" and one International Market organized in Zadar, Croatia.Beside direct participants, with this activities we wanted to reach wider audience and to inform youth about the concept, methods, and values of youth participation, social innovation in the youth sector, as well as to provide general audience with real life examples of young social innovators in action. Project was imagined as social process in which participants voluntarily trough interactive non-formal methods develop personal, social, and professional profile as well as competences for further learning."

The Commission proposes a new framework for cooperation on youth over the period 2019-2027, to bring the EU closer to young people and to help address issues of concern to them. In this relation, needs analyses confirm that vulnerable young people face additional obstacles in the integration process, such as discrimination, lack of networking, mismatching job needs and qualifications, community-related commitments. In order to improve their social inclusion, they need support and guidance through their integration process, they need to be informed of their rights and obligations in the host society, they must be empowered, they should have access to trainings and be able to take full advantage of their skills.In this context the current project aims to apply a comprehensive approach providing networking opportunities, practical and transversal skills, and exchange of methodologies for the empowerment of young people in disadvantaged situation, assisting and facilitating their inclusion into the EU societies. The Youth Power project will be based on the practices that using the civics and culture, and especially the benefits of group coaching, could help to bring people from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds together and can contribute to the integration and inclusion of disadvantaged young people and therefore to the community cohesion. Youth Power aims to:- Support disadvantaged young people by providing non-formal education on leadership skills and empowerment, as a way of preventing social exclusion;- Empower and strengthen the role of youth workers/mentors/coaches, exchanging best practices on empowerment pedagogical approaches, making them able to deal with diversity in non-formal learning environment;- Build close cooperation between civil society, youth and local authorities to ensure the active participation of all members of the learning community in empowerment of the youth at risk of exclusion;- Involve the wider community in the promotion of EU strategies for LLL (life-long learning) and social inclusion of disadvantaged young learners.Main target groups will be the youth education providers (social workers, trainers, coaches, mentors, etc.) working with vulnerable young learners, and the disadvantaged young people in 4 EU countries themselves, where their social inclusion was identified as a challenge by the partners' experts.The consortium brings together 4 organisations from Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany and Spain, each of them with specific expertise in the youth education field. The transnational cooperation between public & private sectors is strengthen through the involvement of associated partners, where public institutions will ensure sustainability of the Youth Power outputs.The project duration is 18 months, calculated in order to implement correctly the planned action and achieve the project objectives. Main activities will be the development of Training Programme “Culture, Civics & Group Coaching for Disadvantaged Youth Empowerment” for youth educators in 5 languages; blended mobility where 24 young participants and youth workers from the partners' countries will exchange knowledge and jointly work to develop the planned training units; pilot tests with 120 vulnerable young people in 4 EU Member States; local/regional dissemination events, where total of 120 representatives of thetarget groups are expected to assist; creation of Youth Power cross-border cooperation Network, website & project social page, expected to reach around 4000 indirect beneficiaries.The methodological approach taken by Youth Power is based on common decision making, adopting the initiative of regular exchange of practices, aiming to ensure that all consortium members are involved in the project’s progress, being aware of specific strengths of particular partners. The working methodology establishes an organic approach where the local and transnational activities are in constant interexchange and nourish each other at the various stages of the project, while dissemination ensures its success and sustainability. By building a common training programme, addressing the needs of the target groups in 4 countries, provided in 5 languages, with the use of art, civics and group coaching, along with a training component on transversal skills, the Youth Power project answers the needs of disadvantaged youth integration, while countering for gender equality and civic awareness at European level.At long-term will be achieved improved independence, self-esteem and self-confidence of the vulnerable young people through empowerment sessions and civic engagement; better relationship between disadvantaged youth and the host EU societies; promotion of new tools in the youth education field for social inclusión of vulnerable learners; transfer of knowledge and best practices between youth educators in the partner countries and the rest of the EU, thanks to the planned Youth Power follow-up activities.

In the Europe of the economic crisis and the current refugee crisis, one can observe the augmentation of nationalism, the intensification of stereotypes (promoted also by the media), the increase of feelings of xenophobia and racism (targeting mostly people of different cultural backgrounds, immigrants, etc) and the increased marginalization and intolerance towards certain groups of people (Roma, homosexuals, people living in extreme poverty, etc). The experience of social vulnerability and/or over culturalising of social problems, especially among young people leads to a negative self-image, mistrust of the society and social vulnerability. In the Balkan countries, this is even more evident, as the tension among the different ethnic groups is still visible and there is a growing skepticism towards both national as well as EU policies. Our aim in this project is to promote youth work and non-formal learning as a tool for overcoming these obstacles and a factor for the empowerment, personal development, activation and empowerment of young people, as well as to promote the collaboration among stakeholders from different sectors (local authorities, private companies, general public) for the creation of a more fruitful environment for the implementation of youth work practices and the recognition of non-formal learning. The coordinator of this project is NGO Training Center TARABA, Montenegro, and in it participate another 10 youth organisations from Greece, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, UK, Slovenia and Estonia.This project foresees 2 main activities: - A training course on developing and implementing youth work activities and non-formal education tools and methods that can be used as a tool for youth activation and empowerment that will take place in Podgorica, Montenegro from the 17th to the 21st of October 2017 and in which will participate 22 youth workers from the participating countries and 2 trainers, 1 from Greece and 1 from Montenegro.- A conference on the importance of Youth Work and non-formal learning that will take place also in Podgorica, Montenegro in the 22nd of October 2017.The methods used during the project will be a diverse combination of non-formal and formal education methods, as well as methods for communication, monitoring and evaluation that will be adapted and adjusted according to the needs of the project and the participants.The project is expected to contribute to the capacity building of the participating organisations, as well as to raising awareness on the importance of youth work and non-formal education, especially in supporting youth empowerment, activation and the broadening of their horizons.

Idea of GO_PRO! Network was positively recognized by United Nation. In the annual World Summit of the Information Society (Zurich 2015) it was nominated to prestige prize, as one of 30 best ICT capacity building initiates. It was also described in WSIS Stocktaking Report 2015 as one of good practises. In Poland the project was nominated to a prize: New Technologies Locally 2015, which is annually granted by Polish – American Cooperation Foundation. It was described as one often best initiatives of 2014. Network was supported also by Reading and Writing Foundation – Public Libraries 2020 initiative, as one of 6 best initiatives involving libraries. Our current project Regional Programming Centers was nomited to WSIS prize (WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY PRIZES 2020) in the capacity building category as one of 20 best ITC initiatives.Within Erasmus+, together with our partners, we wanted to promote this idea furthermore, allowing other Youth to develop their programming skills and fully participate in digital world. Partners all together agreed, that learning to code is important because of:1. The needs of the labour market – programming specialists are one of the most needed professional groups, basic programming skills will be useful for the majority of positions based on the computer work 2. Media education - computer illiterate group are vulnerable to exclusion;3. Innovative economy - creating software and new tools and services are the pillars of the innovation economy.Within the project GO_PRO! we built the capacity of partner organizations and they are able now develop ICT skills and support digital and social inclusion of Youth in local communities. We also wanted to create a special space (non formal education centers) for developing ICT and programmingskills. The basic idea for it - is to use the existing infrastructure, only reconfigure it. To create previous GO_PRO! Centers we cooperated with partner organizations – schools, libraries, NGOs. Well-equipped educational centers can create great conditions for modern programmingeducation, which especially important in developing countries and/or rural areas.Partners got the knowledge, skills and tools to organize interesting IT lessons, what also allowed(during so called Coder Clubs) youth to develop programming skills during their free time, using the equipment under the guidance of a volunteer. Coder Clubs are based on challenges. Each week there was a new problem, new challenge, which Club had to solve together! Youth needed to learn new things about algorithm, build a robot using Lego Mindstorms, and then program it properly. Sometimes the challenges had forced Youth division into smaller groups. They competed with each other to create best solution, this way they were stimulated to gave all their energy and enthusiasm to solve particular problem the best possible way.The project included 2 mobilities for Youth Workers, each of them helped undeniably them to be better teachers/ educators/ animators of ICT competences in their own communities. Each Partner organization received grant for proper equipment, in order to lead innovative and interesting ICTworkshops in their areas. During the Code Week (X of 2017 and 2018) we to organized collaborative awareness rising actions in order to promote network and for self-development purposes. We had in mind, that encouraged/empowered youngsters or children develop so quickly, that volunteers need to be trained constantly to provide quality ICT workshops.The project is extremely innovative but based on an easily replicable model - that we tried to share in detail with partner organizations. Another innovative element is that project activities were specifically designed to develop a new set of entrepreneurial and digital competences which are in today’s digital society crucial for both: employability and active participation of young people in the society.