<< Background >>We see it all around us, in the news, in personal stories, in studies: The challenges that corona entails are often difficult, and often even more so for young people. For months they have struggled through an accumulation of uncertainties and limitations, but the effects of the corona crisis seem to be increasing. That is precisely why time and attention for young people is extra important during this period. Because what about the future prospects of these young people? What do they get stuck in? And what can we do to help them?To address the social disengagement of young people and their low participation levels in civic and political life, people need to become more engaged into their communities, appreciate the values of volunteering and active citizenship, recognize their benefits, as well as focus on positive youth development. The enhancement and systematization of community engagement through digital tools, in combination with youth positive development is one of the ways for the target to be achieved, thus allowing to youths to gain a sense of competence, self-worth and belonging into the community.Hence, #UComE consortium, composed of of ZID Theater, NGO with a cultural, artistic and social scope (applicant), two NGOs with a social scope – CIP from Cyprus, IASIS NGO from Greece- and one SME with a focus on inclusive educational innovation through digitalization –Logopsycom from Belgium -, intents to provide youth organisations and youth workers with modern, digital tools that attempt to systematize the methodological framework that youth organisations use, so as to bring youth back to their communities, through the activation of ‘active citizenship’, ‘community-based learning’, and the use of creativity in youth work. ZID will specifically focus on the creative approach, thinking and developing different creative tools within the project. ZID sees the use and development of creativity as an engine for youth participationA rich array of #UComE project tools, taking also into account structural gaps in community engagement pointed out by the COVID-19 pandemic, would allow youth organisations to foster critical variations of actions, initiatives and projects, which target different levels of community engagement through systematic action plans that could turn into real interventions for the communities.<< Objectives >>An important element in creating the methodology of this project is the application of creativity as an engine for participation. A creative approach that is reflected in exercises, workshops, materials and the way of working, enabling young people to feel in their territory that they can express themselves in many fields and with different mediums (including online and offline). Thereby increasing their participation in society.Through the creation of this project and its intellectual outputs, the two main expected results on the project's completion are:I)The design and implementation of successful Action Plans through the #UComE Online Project Management Platform, which will mobilize local communities, spur community engagement creatively and address concerns such as youth democratic participation and the organization of youth volunteering structures, through the systematization of information, the provision of digitized project tools and the stimulation of dialogue by the mining tool.II)The development of social infrastructure through the circulation of relevant information and knowledge within the community, as well as the provision of guidance and training to support the organizations’ capacity to create and carry out initiatives that address community problems.In addition to those two main results, the project team expects to obtain three secondary pedagogical results i) creation of an online project management platform with supporting material and offline guidance for the planning and management of community engagement activities;ii) support the development of digital, creative and non-formal education skills for youth workers and members of youth organisations;iii) support community members who tend to be disadvantaged/socially excluded, such as migrants, refugees, minority populations, dropouts, NEETs, by placing emphasis on the thematic of community risk management and prevention.<< Implementation >>The project is organized in activities, output creation and multiplier events. Each activity is led by one partner, according to its proven expertise. The same will happen with the outputs: one is responsible and the rest will cooperate.Activities: needed activities to complete the goals of the project. A1.Project General Management and Coordination; ZID A2.Quality management, Research Validity and Evaluation of Content; Logopsycom (Log)A3.Platform, Design and Innovation Management; C.I.P Citizens In Power A4.Dissemination, Exploitation and Sustainability; ZID A5.Management and Evaluation of Training Activities; IASIS NGO A1.Project management and coordination; ZID M:1-24: Organizing the project, accomplishment of activities, objectives and indicators. This activity will last the 24 months of the project. ZID is responsible for overall budget control and time management and will provide templates for reports on budget and activity implementation which will be monitored every three months. A2. (i)Quality management by Log. M1-24. Fulfilment of the evaluation, monitoring and quality aspects. This activity will last for 24 months M1-M24 starting from the beginning of the project. A formative approach, linking quality monitoring and continuous improvement, will focus on ways to improve quality of all project aspects (including management of quality itself). (ii) Research validity: all the project's derivatives in terms of the quality of educational material/ training courses will be assessed and validated by the research staff (PhD Holders) of Log. A.3. M1-M24. CIP carries the overall responsibility to ensure that the project digital platform is ideally suited to serve the needs of all the involved groups, as well as that all the selected or constructed digital tools and web-platforms do function properly and in an efficient way, whilst serving both the educational processes and project objectives. Additionally, theconstruction of the digital tools will be accomplished by the IT team of CIP.A.4. Dissemination, Exploitation and Sustainability; ZID. M1-24.This activity will last the entire project to ensure the maximum dissemination and exploitation impact. The Activity will be led by ZID. A detailed strategy and adissemination/exploitation plan will be set up to be agreed upon at the first and the second SC meetings. Each partner will participate dynamically, through ‘National dis and exploit. Plans’ in the process that will reach its climax with the final events and subsequent sustainability actions.A5. IASIS, M12-M24This activity ensures that all the training activities under the specific project will be well organized by following a commonly accepted pattern (template) and that will be evaluated within specially designed questionnaires created by the IASIS. IASIS is also responsible to develop the evaluation method for the training courses that will take place at a national level.As the activities, the responsibilities of the output creation are shared amongst partners. The leader will ensure the proper coordination, quality level and participation of the participating partners. To do so they will use the same tools as in A1.Partner meetings:-Meeting 1(M1)Mons, BE Kick-off Meeting. Share and gather material that will be used for the IO1’s enrichment.- Meeting 2(M7) Nicosia,CY Presentation of the work will have been accomplished on IO1, setting of the milestones for the accomplishment of IO2 and presentation of a proposed skeleton for IO3.-Unofficial Meeting (M13) (within C1 pilot testing) discuss the necessary alterations to improve the outputs;-Pilot Testing Activity C1 in Athens-Online Meeting 3(M17), lead by ZID Analyze reports on the materialized of the community engagement initiatives-Meeting 4 (M22) a) preparations for the final conference,b) finalize results, activities, dissemination; c)announce the competition winner-Monthly Skype meetings to fine tune the activities of the project<< Results >>The primary expected result of the project on its completion will be, through the scheduled activities and IOs: the design and implementation of successful Action Plans through the #UComE Online Project Management Platform, which will mobilize local communities, spur community engagement creatively and address concerns such as youth democratic participation in decision making processes and the organization of youth volunteering structures, through the systematization of information and the provision of digitized project tools.The most important practical results during the project will derive from the 4 IO's ( available in 4 Languages and in digital format):IO1:Guidebook on “Contemporary Methodologies and Tools on Community Engagement-1 Guidebook for youth workers that introduces the theories and concepts of community engagement from a youth point of viewIO2:#UComE Toolkit on Community Engagement for Youth Organisations and Youth Workers-1 DIY Manual for youth workers and organizations, entailing 16 training workshops relating to different forms of community engagement. The workshops offer guidance to the target group to develop their own workshops through non-formal simulation exercises, with the goal of producing ideas for innovative project scenarios.-1 Toolkit comprised by existing softwares and digital tools that are targeted for the management, coordination and communication processes involved during the lifetime of an initiative, with the goal of systematizing and modernizing the manner through which these processes are carried out.-1 Library (part of the toolkit) with special template formats for community analysis and mapping, media campaigns, conferences, development of creative tools and others, which are useful for the conduction of a community engagement activity.IO3:#UComE Online Project Management Platform-1 tailor-made OPMP offered in 4 languages, which will guide the user electronically on how to analyse, plan and manage her/his community engagement activity, in order to produce a custom-made, comprehensive Action Plan for Community Engagement;-20 formulated Action Plans (at least): Offline consultation to at least 20 youth organisations/youth workers (5 per partners org) during the preparation and materialization phase of their initiative-1 Publication (Case studies) summarizing the results of the offline consultation, along with an analysis of the 20 Action Plans, the type of intervention, the level of assistance and the context of offline consultation provided in each of the cases.IO4:#UComE on the ground-1 Transnational Pilot Session on the previous 3 IOs to guide 8 participants from local youth org on formulating an initiative/project/action in their local community, with the assistance of 4 mentors assigned by the project partners.-8 Initiatives relating to community engagement which will be implemented by the participants of the training in cooperation with their team members and at least 6-8 volunteers, achieving to engage at least 48-64 members of the local community on an EU-wide level. Additionally, for the implementation of the initiatives the involvement of two public stakeholders/decisions makers per initiative is foreseen, as well as the influence of minimum 20 persons, reaching out to at least 240 persons in total.-8 Media Campaigns on Community Engagement accompanied by 5-minute videos that illustrate the process of materializing the Action Plans and the outcomes of the initiative.-8 10-page reports composed by the partners, which describe each phase of the initiativeOrganizational results:-4 Local training sessions in partners’ country for at least 20 trainers/ youth workers/ educators per session-Project web-platform comprising all digital tools, the elements of the media campaign, the reports, the publication-4 TM-Multiplier events: 3 Final conferences (30 pax offline and 30 pax online each event) and 1 International Conference (50 pax offline and 50 pax online)