"Volunteering has a positive impact on economic development, social inclusion, and volunteers as individuals. It contributes to the social connections, and explores its role in helping to foster civic engagement as well as delivering public goods. Through volunteering community can become more cohesive, safer, and stronger. On a personal level volunteering can improve the life and career paths of individual volunteers, as it has the power of increasing their self-esteem, enhancing various skills and capacities, and becoming healthier physically and mentally. Through volunteering social isolation can be reduces, as volunteers become more involved with and in the community.But even if the positive impact of volunteering in the field of social inclusion and its empowering effects on individuals are clear, all across Europe disadvantaged target groups, especially disabled people, are less likely to volunteer. The reasons are manifold: people with disabilities don’t volunteer due to barriers of access and lack of opportunities, as well as a lot of disadvantaged see volunteering as a less than desirable alternative to paid work. Some also associate volunteering with stigma, as they already have less opportunities of obtaining paid employment. So the opportunities and the value volunteering are not used to its full potential by and for people with disabilities. But with the right understanding, awareness and support from volunteer managers and organisations, those with additional needs can bring a broad and often unique range of skills and experience as committed volunteers.Driven by the strong belief, that everyone, regardless of age, culture, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, social status or disability, is able to volunteer and should have the opportunity to do so, 4 non-profit organisations from 4 different countries representing expertise in volunteer work or working with people with disabilties formed this partnership ""Improve"". Together they want to identify and develop methods and ways to promote “Inclusive volunteering”. Their joint vision is, that disabled persons, especially with mental or learning disabilities, will participate actively in volunteering and not just being ""objects"" of volunteering. Volunteering can help people living with a disability to recognise and improve their existing skills, and develop new ones. This is important for disabled people who are often made to feel as though they can only be the recipients of care rather than active contributors. Volunteering can turn this perception around and focuses on people’s strengths and abilities. Therefor Volunteering is also a powerful social tool of inclusion: it introduces disabled people to new networks, experiences, and learning opportunities. They also gained key employment skills such as time management, communications and working in a team, or learn new “professional” skills like service, retail, gardening etc. – depending on the volunteer work they are involved in. Additionally volunteers with a disability find that volunteering is a way of ‘repaying’ and reciprocating the help they have received. In this way inclusive volunteering also raises the profile of disability in a positive way in everyday life.This positive impact of volunteering is the joint vision and practical experience of the involved partners, but it is not the reality for most disabled people yet. So the partners involved want to share their experiences and expertise in order to identify ways, methods and strategies to improve the participation of people with disabilities in volunteering, and to create an inclusive environment for volunteering. The result of this transnational IMProVE project will be an E-Book including an input on inclusive volunteering, the learning results between project partners, on how to engage people with disabilities in the community, the barriers and succes factors of inclusive volunteering, the benefits of inclusive volunteering, the impact it has on local communities and individuals, recommendations on how to implement inclusive volunteering, and of course many concrete examples of good practice. This E-Book will be disseminated on local, regional, national and international level in order to inspire many volunteer organisations and organisations working with people with disabilities, but also individuals to use volunteering as a powerful pathway into social inclusion."

The IncluEdu project was launched against the background that smartphones and tablet computers are widespread representatives for mobile information and communication technology (ICT). ICT is expected to innovate learning and teaching in numerous ways, including individualised, anytime and mobile access to learning opportunities for all. Research suggests a profound effect of mobile ICT on pedagogy and on learners. For learners with special educational needs (SEN) mobile ICT allows for an even wider individualisation of learning materials and adaptation to personal learning styles. Inclusion for people with SEN in education is a primary goal in Europe. Analyses conclude that what is good practice and provision for learners with SEN is good for all learners.Yet, educational organizations were not ready to adopt mobile ICT and to realise the potentials of this technologies for broadening inclusion. To become more inclusive and to adapt teaching and learning structures and approaches correspondingly, deciders, managers and teachers of educational institutions needed new competences.Hence, IncluEdu aimed to create an innovative, European-wide, modularised further education programme for, and network of, education providers by exploiting the huge potentials of tablet computers for wider inclusion of learners with SEN. The aim was that these organisations gain the necessary competences to successfully introduce mobile ICT such as tablets to support inclusion within their offers.The Strategic Partnership developed, tested and implemented outcomes relevant to stimulate a wider uptake of ICT in teaching and learning to increase the level of inclusion of a wide array of educational organisations, with a particular focus on compulsory education. A set of activities and outputs formed the “heart” of this partnership: a Quality Guideline for customised courses; a competence model and set of key modules for individualized courses; a module on personalized learning with tablets; a collection of practical inclusive learning and teaching scenarios; a unique online community and resource platform for educational professionals; and a benchmarking approach that fosters a high level of quality to make this project a strategic partnership of excellence.IncluEdu followed a rigorous structure of developing, implementing, evaluating and re-working of a course programme with the active involvement of teachers, managers, and learners with SEN. The project duration of three years allowed for an iterative approach to develop high quality courses that fit the course structure and contents to the requirements of educational organisations. The overall structure during the project's lifetime had been aligned along the following clear and easy elements: Year 1: Planning and Development; Year 2: Piloting and Testing; and Year 3: Dissemination of Results. Towards the final project phase, 5 National and 1 European multiplier event have been performed to disseminate results and outputs to education organizations and other stakeholders.Education organisations that participated in IncluEdu courses were able to build up new competences in their staff to provide more inclusive, personalized education for learners with and without special educational needs. Participating teachers and managers were able to link to a community of likeminded organisations that are steering towards the same goals. Becoming a member of this community enabled them to network and exchange ideas on inclusive education and on the use of mobile ICT, and to find help when needed. The long term perspectives, formulated at the beginning of the project, are still valid, that the whole European education sector should benefit from the outcomes of this project in various ways: educational organizations will be enabled to better include all different kinds of learners in their educational offer; educational staff will gain competences necessary to use tablets in inclusive teaching and learning settings; learners with SEN will have better choices and will be more able to take part in mainstream education just like anybody else.The IncluEdu partnership consisted of five partner organisations. atempo (Austria) as the project's leading organisation is specialised in ICT training for educational professionals and people with SEN at the same time. The Rix Research Centre (London) works with people with disabilities alongside their teachers and supporters to explore innovative, inclusive approaches to learning. The Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (FAIDD) promotes education and participation for people with intellectual disabilities, and organizes training for professionals specialized in inclusive education. UrAbility (Ireland) is specialized in Assistive Technology solutions for schools. ITA (Germany) is a research institute with expertise in benchmarking and organizational development.

"<< Background >>The digital divide exists, and people with disabilities are some of the worst affected and left behind without digital accessibility knowledge. This was confirmed in the European Parliamentary Research Service report titled ""Bridging the Digital Divide in Europe"" that stated, ""one in three persons with disabilities had never used the internet"". This project proposal aims to build on a pilot programme running at atempo in Graz for several years. atempo, they have been training young learners with disabilities to become school assistants for digital education and supporting them to work in elementary schools across Graz. This is a very innovative idea and one that is not replicated anywhere across the Eurozone.The project partners and associated schools all agree that the proposal provides real solutions to tackle two significant challenges they face. The first is the ""Education and Training"" need identified within the school community to support digital accessibility and inclusion among pupils and the school community. This project also provides innovative education and training opportunities for people with disabilities enabling them to share digital accessibility knowledge with students. The second challenge is the lack of employment opportunities for people with disabilities. This project provides new roles that were not previously available in the education sector. Inclusion is the driver of this proposal, with all project elements co-designed with people with learning disabilities.<< Objectives >>The SAID project aims to train people with disabilities to become School Assistants for Digital Education within the school system. This project aims to show that all people are experts in certain areas and that in a community, all people can learn from each other and with each other on an equal level.Vocational inclusion is directly lived here through the collaboration with people with learning difficulties, who will be actively involved in the project and who will act as school assistants for digital education. This provides:A new innovative curriculum to produce School Assistants for Digital Education within vocational education and training.New employment opportunities for people with disabilities.A more inclusive society.People with learning difficulties will work directly in schools as experts and key personnel supporting digital accessibility in education. This makes a significant contribution in the area of professional digital transformation as they bring in new skills, accessible digital tools and a new professional attitude. Forming a curriculum and corresponding training provided for this professional field will be a vital objective of this project. The added value of having the active school assistants from Austria involved as consultants and co-designers will endorse the value of inclusion and support the project's success.<< Implementation >>The project activities undertaken by the consortium will all lead to the successful execution of four project results. The initial efforts make up the Analysis Phase and will be led by Uni Graz with input from all partners. The team will gather the experiences from the assistants who have worked in schools and look at the support that atempo provided to establish and sustain the initiative. They will analyse the challenges and qualities of the school assistance program. Uni Graz will also explore the appetite in the partner countries and expose any barriers to success. These activities will provide vital information needed to support the other project results. The second set of activities are overseen by atempo, with each project partner designing and developing one of the modules producing the curriculum for the professional field “School Assistants for Digital Education. The first phase will heavily influence the development of the four concrete modules. The developed learning modules will run over 80 hours exploring general didactic principles, competencies to achieve with the training, and the job description will be defined. The already experienced school assistants (2-4 Peer Experts) act as consultants and test groups during the project and provide a sounding board. The board meets for training to prepare the experts for their tasks in the project. And during the development phase of the curricula, they will meet together at least five times to review the developing phase and to test the materials.Trycamp will lead the activities during the third result phase by creating the SAID methodological guidebook for pedagogical staff, which will be used as the basis for the local training of teachers. The activities of the third phase will be informed from the results of phase 1, the evaluation phase. This will be followed by the design and development of the guidebook on the curriculum and four modules. Other activities embedded in this phase will include the practical testing of the methodological guidebook and the adaptation & translation of the guidebook for partner organisations. The activities will include 2-3 teachers from 2-4 partner schools = 4-12Teachers and 4-6 PwLD to the deployment as school assistants of digital education in primary schools (SAID Methodology) within six months.The final set of activities directly linked to the project results will be the compilation of the Handbook for Schools. These activities will be led by SJOG and support the innovative roadmap to support the sustainability of the professional field of school assistance for digital education. The project consortium will share the instruments that enable this support role to become anchored in the education system. It will share the opportunities for higher inclusion standards and how the school Assistants for digital education can become an integral part of the school community, along with alternative recommendations for transfer to different contexts and managing expectations.Other vital activities engaged by the consortium include communication management, both internal with the partners and associated partners and the meaningful dissemination of the project updates with the broader community. Each partner will also take on the project management activities, e.g. timesheet and budget, and ensure the project governance is adhered to at each stage of the project. The final products developed will be presented to a wider audience at SAID conferences (Multiplier Event2). During the project, we will disseminate news and information about the curriculum and its content, the project itself, the partners’ work and other topics on the website and in newsletters (available in any language used by the partners). Other outputs of the project management and documents: e.g. partnership agreement, financial guidelines, templates for reporting, communication plan, dissemination plan, Project Delivery Plan, an interim and final report.<< Results >>The main outcome of the SAID project will be a new professional field of ""school assistants for digital education"" filled by people with disabilities and learning difficulties (PwLD) for children with disabilities and learning difficulties. Leading to more opportunities for PwLD in everyday work. The project will kick off with analysis, and the reports and papers (project result one) produced will help inform the rest of the three other project results. The second project result will be the creation of a formal training curriculum for school assistants for Digital education, including corresponding manuals and teaching and learning materials. The content of the curriculum is divided into four content modules (media competence, basic digital skills, toolbox, social and communication skills) and a general part with the didactic and methodic. The curricula and their content will be available in all partner languages.In a test phase, in which the developed curriculum is tested within the partnership in the context of a learning-teaching-training activity (LTTA -Train the Trainer), the project result three, a training concept with the SAID Methodological guidebook for pedagogical staff to support people with disabilities is created. As part of this training (Train the Trainer), a training team is formed in each partner organization to train PwLD and teachers from partner schools on-site afterwards.During and following on from the implementation phase, the fourth project result will be produced in the form of a Handbook for Schools. The handbook will provide vital recommendations and implantation guidelines for Schools on using and implementing digital school assistants and support for VET Providers. Other significant results include the local Multiplier events that will facilitate the partners to share the developed curriculum and project results with other PwLD and teachers. After completing the project, a new concept and a curriculum for the professional field ""school assistant for digital education"" will be available, and training for School assistants can be offered Europe-wide. Each partner can and will offer the VET training in their organization after the project duration, regardless of the partnership.The SAID project leads to a change in societal attitudes and a better integration of people with disabilities into the world of work, and a change in the quality of life of those involved."

<< Background >>For many PwLD, most leisure activities take place in a segregated form. Various examples like this accumulate into the social marginalisation of many PwLD & eliminating all of these are crucial to supporting social inclusion & diversity. Moreover, pandemic-induced restrictions have severely limited the few previously existing leisure opportunities, which exacerbates such social marginalisation. So, rebuilding community-based, participatory activities becomes an even more important social necessity. The need for reducing marginalisation of PwLD related to their leisure time will be met by developing the ACCESS to Leisure training manuals and courses. The key to better participation rates is improving access, involving both human & technical innovation. There is a need for professionals & informal helpers to be better equipped to help PwLD access services (e.g. using supported decision-making, online & offline tools) & improve their community participation. The need to increase the community participation of PwLD will be met by working together with the three target groups and strengthening their cooperation regarding the leisure time of PwLD. Also, digital devices offer many opportunities that could help PwLD spend their free time in a more inclusive, freely chosen way. During the ACCESS to Leisure training, we help to consciously expand the possibilities and forms of leisure by exploring new opportunities. The methods and good practices developed reinforce active, inclusive leisure of PwLD. Participation in leisure time is a healthy alternative for positive behaviour that leads to learning & living a balanced & socially inclusive life (Nkwanyana, 2020). The new European Disability Strategy 2021-2030 emphasises that PwD should have equal opportunities, equal access to participation in society & the economy. We believe that supporting leisure activities in this way contributes to increase the social inclusion and participation of PwLD.<< Objectives >>We believe that PwLD have the same preferences for leisure time activities as their non-disabled peers. Empowering PwLD, enabling them to organise their leisure independently & making it possible for them to enforce their rights described by the UNCRPD are very important issues for all partners. Based on Article 30 of UNCRPD, we want to empower PwLD to participate to the fullest extent possible in cultural life, recreation, leisure & sport. We attribute a crucial role to ICT tools in this process. Due to the prolonged presence of the coronavirus pandemic, a variety of social deficits have emerged that substantially affect the lives of PwLD. In order to remedy these, it is crucial to promote innovative ways of encouraging PwLD to spend their leisure time within local communities. The partnership with our wider stakeholders will develop the ACCESS to Leisure methodology & training package that helps to strengthen the supportive network PwLD need for spending their free time as inclusive as possible, taking advantage of online opportunities. During the training & methodology, we are committed to developing the social & digital competencies of PwLD, related professionals & informal local supporters, as well as expanding/teaching knowledge transfer methods. Our aim is to develop new opportunities for PwLD to become 'leisure facilitators', helping both their learning disabled peers access leisure facilities as well as also the wider community. This will involve new training & qualifications, curricula, training for professional assistants & training for local informal supporters. In doing so, PwLD become leisure facilitators in the local community, while related professionals & local informal supporters will be co-facilitators. It is crucial to work together with a supportive natural environment to effectively support social inclusion & diversity, so we involve the local community members & professionals in this adult learning process.This project aims to develop the competencies of PwLD, as well as of the informal supporters & professionals working with them. Teaching & learning materials will be made available for everyone (in an easily accessible form & as an e-learning curriculum). Following the principle of lifelong learning, this project enables them to participate in flexible, inclusive & collaborative training courses. Leisure is a significant part of the lives of PwLD, & its development by experiential experts in an informal way can contribute greatly to the improvement of their quality of life. Regarding adult learning opportunities, we undertake to develop the digital & social competencies of the three target groups, who will be provided with an innovative, collaborative teaching environment based on the leisure activity needs of PwLD. The adult learning process based on joint learning & research at an international level provides an opportunity to create a shared knowledge base from a European perspective. An international co-operation can be realised, in which national best practices will be shared & used in order to develop a global version of the ACCESS to Leisure training program. Global versions would be localised by each partner organisation, based on local needs & individual factors. The partners have solid knowledge in working with PwLD within community settings & they are also experienced in providing & developing adult learning courses. Sharing the country specific views brings an added value to the project. Moreover, by involving PwLD in the phases of the development we create social opportunity for them to find friends from other countries.<< Implementation >>Based on the three chosen objectives, we would like to implement the following activities during the ACCESS to Leisure project:1 - SOCIAL INCLUSION & DIVERSITY: to improve social inclusion of PwLD & diversity in society by: 1a) setting up an inclusive project team in each partner country, through which the target groups of the project develop the training materials together; 1b) based on the developed ACCESS to Leisure methodology and training materials, 15 leisure facilitators, as well as 15-15 professionals and local informal supporters as co-facilitators will be trained during the international training; 1c) during the pilot cycle, 75 people will be involved in the inclusive leisure cooperation1d) during the first multiplication event, the already trained leisure facilitators and co-facilitators will impart their knowledge to 100 people during the local training, who will also become leisure facilitators and co-facilitators in their communities1e) during the second multiplication event, 200 people will learn about the developed materials and experiences of the ACCESS to Leisure project.2 – DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: to contribute to the digital transformation by developing the digital skills and competencies of the participants by:2a) collecting good practices where digital tools help PwLD to spend their free time2b) mapping and expanding the methodology of digital devices in the field of leisure of PwLD2c) developing an e-learning course based on the ACCESS to Leisure methodology.3 – NEW, INNOVATIVE CURRICULA: Improving the availability of high-quality learning opportunities for adults by:3a) creating the ACCESS to Leisure training method: developing 3 training manuals for the 3 target groups3b) organising 3 types of international training for the 3 target groups3c) preparing a local adaptation of the training3d) organising local workshops based on the developed curricula3e) transforming the training into an e-learning format.During the ACCESS to Leisure project, we help to consciously expand the possibilities and forms of leisure by exploring new opportunities in a specific community. The methods and good practices developed reinforce active, inclusive leisure of PwLD.<< Results >>The main result of the project will be the establishment of the conditions required for the preparation of the production. The first exploratory phase (PO1) will be divided into three parts: (1) we will analyse the specificities of leisure time for PwLD, (2) we will collect & analyse good practices in the partner countries involved, (3) we will implement a photovoice project to collect & analyse visual material on the specificities of leisure time in the partner countries. These will be the starting points & parts of the content of the training manuals, which we will prepare in the next phase. These are training manuals (facilitators’ guides) for (1) PwLD (facilitators), for (2) professionals (co-facilitators) & (3) informal local supporters (co-facilitators) containing the methodology of teaching the three different stakeholders. Besides these, the collection of practical methods & tools (PO5, PO6) will help support the leisure time activities of PwLD with practical tools & easy-to-read guides. We will also produce an e-learning version of the training materials (PO7), making the developments more widely available (in English). All training manuals will have English, German, Slovenian, Hungarian, Dutch & Finnish versions & each will contain country-specific information besides general information (PO8-13).We train 9 leisure facilitators, 9 professional assistants as co-facilitators and 9 local community co-facilitators during the international training sessions. The people who participated in the international trainings will pass on their knowledge to further 15 local people (5 per target group) in each partner country within the frames of local workshops (pilot cycle). After the workshops, as a first multiplier event (ME1), a local training will be organised by members of the three target groups (20 new people involved per country). So we will train 9 Leisure facilitators and 18 co-facilitators in the international training, and then 100 more leisure facilitators and co-facilitators in the local training (ME1). The final products developed will be presented to a wider audience at a conference (ME2). Other benefits of the project include: a proven change of attitude to better involve PwLD in leisure activities and changes in the quality of life of those involved. Finally, every partner organisation will investigate if the training can be accredited or officially approved by their national body as an extra curriculum, & if so, start the accreditation process. The successful accreditation could guarantee the open accessibility of the teaching & learning materials & the training itself.

Digital tools, social media and ICT are everywhere in the daily life of our students. Digital teaching is shaping the world heading into 2030, but how will teachers effectively use digital tools to provide future generations with digitally-critical thinking skills that help them meet the challenges of an unknown future? The teaching methods used by teachers may not be effective if they aren’t based on a solid pedagogical understanding, and so our STDE Project Proposal aims to ensure the best use of technology in teaching, based on a solid understanding of pedagogy and careful consideration of changing demands, devised through a carefully designed methodology and teacher training programme.The vast majority of students are digital natives, while most of their parents and teachers are digital immigrants (Prensky,2001), although 35% of educators believe they are good role models for the use of technology (Instefjord-Munthe,2017). However, there is a gap between the current use of ICT in the classroom and the expectations of students and other digital natives. Therefore, the overall objective of Strategies for Teaching in a Digital Era (STDE) is to contribute towards tackling the socio-economic changes that face Europe and to support the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy. Our cross-sectoral partnership structure adds much value to the project. The partners consist of a regional Education Authority, University, and technology school (TR) an NGO (AU), and VET Colleges (UK, DK). Dudley College will manage project compliance, while the new STDE methodology will be developed by academicians at Boğaziçi University (BU), who will also produce a Guide Book as an intellectual output. ATEMPO (an NGO working in the field of adult education) will develop training modules to introduce the new methodology to 18 teachers from partner institutions, who will then become Digital Coaches (having been trained via 3 short term training activities to transfer the methodology to teachers from the six partners).These teachers will teach their students using the new methodology and prepare portfolios which will be uploaded on an onlıne platform; academicians will then evaluate the results.revising them where necessary.TEC will be responsible for the quality management of the project. All the activities, outputs and results will be uploaded on the STDE online platform, an open education resource for dissemination, valorisation and sustainability. An International Conference will be held by the university as a Multiplier Event. KDNE will be responsible for the management of dissemination and valorisation. During the two-year project lifetime each partner will participate in at least 3 international/national events, thereby increasing dissemination.Digital methodological systems equip teachers/trainers with strategic digital teaching skills so that they equip their students with a wide range of life skills, enabling them to interact between digital and human/DIGIMEN culture and to cast a vision of a better living environment in the multicultural digital era. For the common future of European nations, common education strategies will be developed by this cross-sectoral strategic partnership, which creates synergy to support the 2020 Strategy of the Commission. This is necessary, as young students will go on to structure society around SOCIO-TECHNOLOGICAL interaction with the internet of things or robotics with artificial intelligence; and have the ability to analyse big data, and to produce and consume virtual/augmented reality in various sectors. The project supports the Commission's Improving and Modernising Education strategy. In addition to the planned sustainability activities, the project partners see the strategic partnership as an important opportunity to launch a network titled EducationRD’r BDA (Educational research and development for big data analysis), with activities aligning to the evolution of new technologies.The STDE Project Proposal will be funded by Erasmus+ and achieve its overall objectives over 24 months of activities. At the end of the project, valuable information will be produced by the cross-sectoral partnership and added to the database of the Erasmus+ Program, thereby supporting policy making procedures. The Project will include actions that promote innovative pedagogies and methods for teaching, learning and assessment, and that support educators and learners to use digital technologies in creative, collaborative and efficient ways as mentioned in Program Guide 2019.