“ECCAY - EMPOWERING AND CO-CONSTRUCTING AGENCY OF YOUNG PEOPLE AT RISK OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION” aims to empower young people at risk of social exclusion in an innovative way in training the professionals working with these young people. More specifically, the training aims to help professionals empowering the sense of agency in young people at risk of social exclusion and in developing a solution focused mindset that can help to use their agency to improve their active citizenship. Active citizenship supports social inclusion and helps fighting poverty and is one of the European Commission's strategies for increasing social cohesion and reducing the democratic deficit. We believe that the process of improving and facilitating active citizenship in young people at risk of social exclusion must take into consideration their sense of agency, as single individuals and as members of a larger community. As “sense of agency” or “agency” we mean the subjective awareness of initiating, executing, and controlling one's own volitional actions in the world. Active citizenship can be seen as a consequence of the sense of agency: the stronger the sense of agency is, the more effective are the actions made by an individual and/or a community in terms of solidarity and social inclusion. Empowering young people’s agency facilitates their active citizenship as members of EU society, who can contribute to the improvement of the European society by acting as responsible citizens. In other words: If young people feel that they a part of a society and they can actively shape their life and the society, they will involve more actively and try to be part of it.PARTICIPANTSThe project involves 5 partners from 5 EU countries. They incorporate numerous professionals, experienced in working with disadvantaged groups. MAIN TARGET GROUP- Professionals working with young people at risk of social exclusion: e.g, educators, teachers, professors, coaches, trainers, social workers, social-health workers, professional workers in employment, occupational therapists, management in different educational & social organisations, psychologists, psychotherapists, HR managers of NGOs- 20 directly involved in implementation, >240 in multiplier events, >5000 indirectly involved in dissemination.MAIN FINAL BENEFICIARIESThe final beneficiaries of the ECCAY project are young people at risk of social exclusion (NEETs, young people living on the verge of poverty or in areas in decay, etc.). They will be active players throughout the project (>100 directly involved in implementation). PROJECT AIMS, OBJECTIVES, ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGYECCAY's aim is to develop a C-VET curriculum and learning programme which gives the professionals working with young people at risk of exclusion the knowledge, skills and competencies to develop a solution and creativity focused mindset, which will allow them to empower the sense of agency among their clients/beneficiaries and enhance their inclusion and involvement in society.ECCAY will provide an effective framework of practice based on solution-focused and co-constructive mindset in working in working with youth at risk of exclusion that will teach professionals how to formulate effective and transformative questions and empower their clients’ skills and abilities in solution building and effective problem solving. LONG-TERM GOAL of this project is to foster inclusion and active involvement of youth at risk of exclusion in their local but also in EU-society. This should be the result of the improved quality of the service professionals offer to their target group (youth at risk of inclusion) after the doing the ECCAY training.The curriculum and learning programme will be provided online, so that they can download the units and apply them easily to learn easily also when the project will be finished. The project activities will be implemented in 4 Intellectual Outputs (O1-4)- O1: Compendium of literature and best practice about working with youth at risk of exclusion- O2: ECCAY - Curriculum for empowering and co-constructing agency of youth at risk of exclusion- O3: ECCAY Methodology Finalization- O4: ECCAY Learners Handbook with an online platformMultiplier Events- E1-E5: ECCAY - Curriculum and learning programme- E6-E10: ECCAY - A programme for change, presentation of the IOs- E11: ECCAY Final ConferenceIMPACTThe project is expected to have impact on:1) PROFESSIONALS dealing with youth at risk of exclusion. They will get new knowledge and skills to facilitate and empower agency of their clients/beneficiaries2) YOUNG PEOPLE AT RISK OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION, marginalization, stigma and discrimination.3) ENVIRONMENT. The project will have Impact on stakeholders (VET provideres, professionals´ associations,.etc.) through 11 multiplier events and Dissemination, Exploitation and sustainability activities. The partners as members of relevant networks will also use these to spread the outcomes of ECCAY.