"Active participation of youth and their engagement is important challenge for Europe. European countries need active young people empowered by social media literacy and community media skills that will give chance them to reach positive impacts in local communities. Community media has a multiplying impact both in local and European levels. Because of this reason, European Union Member States cooperate to increase capacity of young poeple through active participation to society. Increasing media litearcy will help to build capacity of young people. Community media is include tools and networks that young people can use to transmit their voice with local media actions in the community to become more empowered. European Parliament described the importance of community media in Europe “as non-profit making and independent, not only from national, but also from local power, engaging primarily in activities of public and civil society interest, serving clearly defined objectives which always include social value and contribute to inter-cultural dialogue” (Resolution 2008/2011 INI). Young people's insufficient communication is an identified common problem in Europe, because they do not have enough necessary media literacy and skills to effective communication. Community media will encourage young people to develop their skills and increase their potential to turn into more integrated with public domain so that they will claim their rights better and remain actions to their social life better. Otherwise, young people will face risks of marginalization. They will effectively failing to sustain themselves as “learning individual” and therefore less likely to adapt in our era of social and economic critical points. Community media networks and tailored trainings are related with needs and expectations of young people and it will help them to participate in society, engage the public and contribute to a strong youth movement as a whole. Young people have limited access to media trainings or hands-on support activites in media tools. Lack of access to community media skills training effect young people and they are unable to give their messages to public. This issue limits young people's engagement in active participation processes to gain public support for their aims and viewpoints. The project's idea is to share educational approaches as youth community media models, exchange good practices in local, national and European levels and empower young people's active membership of local communities (municipalities,neighbourhoods, disadvantaged communities etc) and guide young people through a process, where they get to: 1. Gain socail media literacy and community media skills 2. Obtain entrepreneurship skills to establish their own media (such as local news website, newsletter creation for local communities, blogs etc.). The project aims to develop and assure young volunteers' community media into civil society. The project will design and implement community media approaches and tools to create grassroot community development transfer to young volunteers. Other innovative element is the utilization of a ""self organizing"" approach in the project aiming towards ""youth volunteers community media"". This youth approach to community media is not very common when compared to community media in general. Creation of community media networks and tailored trainings are related with needs and expectations of young volunteers and it will help them to participate in society, engage the public and contribute to a strong youth movement as a whole. The project aims to accord recent media literacy strategies implemented in project partner countries, so as to improvement access to social media and community trainings hands-on actions.The project aims to increase access to community media skills training to able young volunteers' message to wider audience. There are 5 intellectual outputs in the project. These are: IO1: Community media training scheme IO2: Community media volunteering training toolkit IO3: Community media youth volunteering e-learning platform IO4: Community media youth volunteering animation videos IO5: Self assessment mobile application on community media youth volunteeringThe project is targeting socially disadvantaged youth due to being located in areas with huge unemployment rates, and these include youth from poor families, minorities; youth workers fromdifferent types of organizations; young people who are interested in social media and community media as volunteers. Project partners are foundation, education volunteering youth association and training association of disadvantaged young people those have experience on youth work and non-formal education. Partners are active in community media in their country with their youth workers, media editors. Scope and scale of the project will be specific to young volunteers."

"<< Background >>Europe’s six million teachers have the essential competencies they require in order to be effective in the classroom is one of the keys to raising levels of pupil attainment; encouraging teachers to continue developing and extending their competencies is vital in a fast-changing world.As noted in the European Commission’s communication ‘Rethinking Education’ (2012), the reform of education and training systems is essential to achieving higher productivity and the supply of highly skilled workers. In this context, it invited the Member States to revise and strengthen the professional profile of all teaching professions by reviewing the effectiveness as well as the academic and pedagogical quality of adult education trainers, introducing coherent and adequately resourced systems for recruitment, selection, induction and professional development of adult education teaching staff based on clearly defined competencies needed at each stage of a teaching career, and increasing teacher digital competence”. (European Commission 2012a). The Commission’s document ‘‘Supporting the Teaching Professions” (European Commission 2012c) notes that a lack of clarity about what society can expect from its teaching staff can make it more difficult for the Member States to ensure that the same high standards of teaching apply in all education centres. Therefore, Member States increasingly acknowledge the need to define clearly what teaching staff is expected to know, and be able to do; such frameworks of teacher competencies can then be the basis for:- Assessing teachers/trainers’ needs for in-service training,- Arranging the provision of professional learning opportunities so that teachers/trainers continue to develop their competencies throughout their whole careers.The roles of trainers and adult education centres are changing, and so are expectations about them: Adult education providers are asked to teach in increasingly multicultural classrooms, integrate students with special needs, use ICT for teaching effectively, engage in evaluation and accountability processes (OECD, 2009). Furthermore, World Summit on Teaching noted that adult education providers need to help students/learners acquire not only “the skills that are easiest to teach and easiest to test” but more importantly, ways of thinking (creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and learning); ways of working (communication and collaboration); tools for working (including information and communications technologies); and skills around citizenship, life and career and personal and social responsibility for success” (OECD 2011).According to Eurofound (2015), the high number of NEETs (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) has cost the European economies an estimated €142 billion a year in benefits and foregone earnings and taxes. Moreover, 11% of young people around Europe lost their jobs due to the pandemic, along with 12% stating that is likely to lose their jobs in the forthcoming future. Considering the highly impacted NEET group and changing needs and requirements of the 21st century and post-covid era, a new perspective in teaching, especially in adult education is highly required, to prepare the European society for the future. An effective way to prepare the people of Europe for the future lies beneath the development of key competencies, especially the development of resilient, flexible digital abilities in adults and young adults.Therefore, ""Digital skills development toolkit for young NEETS to increase employability"" aims to improve the attention of NEETs by increasing digital competencies, increasing confidence in their ability to utilize information-communication technologies, boosting soft skills to increase employability and effectively solve problems by generating creative, practical solutions.<< Objectives >>Digital skills and soft skills are indispensable parts of individuals in the 21st century. A person's competence in using information communication technologies (ICT) and their ability to utilize ICT technologies as part of their problem-solving processes is the measure of the ability to prevail in today’s fast-paced, information-dependent society. High-level ICT competence, in the 21st century, especially after the COVID19 pandemic, gave people the ability to get things done in an effective, safer and sustainable way, making digital skills part of our social and professional lives and a pre-requisite for success."" Digital skills development toolkit for young NEET to increase employability"" aims to improve the competence of NEET by increasing digital skills and increasing their employability through the use of ICT tools and soft skills development. Also, it aims to increase their ability to create quality content on online mediums, create their own digital portfolio, produce engaging presentations and connect with other professionals.With the training in the project, NEETs will get techniques to apply with peers to improve their soft skills and hone their digital skills. Project results will introduce concepts and techniques that give the youth to learn anything in online mediums easily and be up-to-date all the time. Also, the project will provide practical exercises, tools, tips, and tricks to practice these skills. NEETs will use the products to improve their personal and social development.“Digi4You” Project aims to:- increase the quality of education and training of youth staff in project partner countries and Europe: combining higher levels of excellence and attractiveness in youth education through structured content and tools aimed at raising digital abilities and soft skills of youth.- improve professional competencies of NEETs through developing soft skills via digital skills education and ICT use.- Expand NEET's ability on problem-solving, creativity, communication- Increase NEET's time management and team working skills- Improve NEET's digital skills and use of ICT tools on career development- Develop employability skills of NEETs through digital skills management and portfolio making - Increase competence in creativity through imaginative methods: giant leaps of creative intuition- Boosted knowledge and skills in harnessing the power of digital skills.- Develop strategic and integrated use of ICT for NEETs and Youth Trainers<< Implementation >>The project consortium will implement the following activities:1. Bilateral agreements2. IPR agreement3. Communication strategy4. Action plan with predefined Gantt chart for all activities5. TPM reports/minutes6. Quality assurance and assessment strategy7. Advisory board meeting reports in each partner country with school counsellors, school coordinators and experts from educational NGOs, training institutes, youth centres, universities, and community-based organisations8. Dissemination strategy9. Dissemination reports10. Exploitation report for short term and long-term sustainability of the project’s core activities and results11. Multilingual project web platform12. Digital dissemination materials (leaflets, flyers, banners etc.)14. Publications and press release15. Development of the R1: Digital skills training framework16. Development of the R2: Digital skills training toolkit17. Development of the R3: Guidebook for youth trainers to improve digital soft skills of youth18. Development of the R4: Digital skills online application19. Development of the R5: Usability and user experience evaluation tool20. Informative sessions21. Thematic workshops22. Pilot training23. Develop the project website24. Develop the application for memory coaching25. Arrangement of multiplier events ""Workshop on Digital Skills for Employment Practices""25. Arrangement of multiplier event ""Final Conference of Digital Skills for Employment; New Perspectives""26. Filling the Mobility Tool+ for progress/interim and final reports<< Results >>The objectives of the Digital skills development toolkit for young NEETS to increase employability Project are to:- Improve youth’s digital skills capacity by learning the methods of creating digital content- Expand youth’s soft skills through the use of ICT technologies and tools- Improve youth’s problem-solving skills- Improve young people’s employability through leveraging youth’s digital skills and ICT knowledge- Solve problems using logical methods of step by step analysis- Solve problems by imaginative methods: giant leaps of creative intuition- Solve problems by harnessing the youth’s soft skills and digital skillsDuring the project, 5 results will be developed by the partners to rapidly improve young people employability with the right training to use with students/learners. Results of the projects are:1. Digital Skills training framework: It will be designed for an intensive course on digital skills, practical strategies, creating digital portfolios, making presentations, and creating digital content. It will also include a comparative need analysis about the recent situation of the digital skills development of youth and their needs and expectations from the "" Digi4You"" and examples of good practices in 4 partner countries in soft skills development and digital skills enhancement for employability practices.2. Digital Skills training toolkit: It will include (minimum) 36 hours of training course content and it will be designed according to the result of the Digital Skills training framework.3. Guidebook for youth trainers to improve soft skills of youth: It will be created to improve youth trainers’ working skills with soft skills development concepts and techniques and also it will help to increase digital skills.4. Digital Skills online application: It will include videos, guidebooks, simple digital practical tips, practical exercises, tools, tips, and tricks on digital skills. It will be free of charge and compatible with Android devices.5. Usability and user experience evaluation tool: It will describe an evaluation plan for conducting usability during the implementation of the project. The goals of usability and user experience testing will include establishing a baseline of user performance, establishing and validating user performance measures."

<< Objectives >>Young learners in local communities will become digitally capable and self-assured by developing e-activism skills on engaging and user-friendly e-learning platform to learn & use the following tools:1. Tools for digital inclusion in local community services2. Tools for community media on green topics3. Tools for e-activism on social inclusionThe project will support the development of a digital education ecosystem with efficient planning for capacity improvement of youth through e-activism<< Implementation >>Activities during the implementation of the project are:1. General project management2. Powerful communication3. Seminars4. TPMs5. Blended mobility of young people6. Quality monitoring7. Dissemination8. Sustainability 9. Hybrid learning pilot training10. Final conference11. Work packages- WP1 Project management- WP2 Educational content (3 modules on tools for e-activism on green topics, local community services and social inclusion)- WP3 E-learning platform for e-activism for youth<< Results >>The concrete results of the project are:1. Learning outcomes and educational content (training content and curriculum) in 3 modules2. Accessible e-learning platform including curriculum, syllabus and learning content and self-assessment of 3 modules3. Instruction manual for the e-learning platform4. The work packages e-brochures5. Seminar reports6. Pilot training report7. Mobility report8. The piloting results’ impact report9. Final conference report and YouTube broadcasting link

"<< Background >>Volunteering is an excellent example of non-formal learning for young people. The EU Youth Strategy promotes:- Greater recognition of the value of voluntary activities and the skills it promotes- Good working conditions for young volunteers and opportunities for enriching work- Intergenerational solidarity- Transnational volunteeringThe European Union offers such an opportunity to young people because volunteering is valued as a non-formal learning experience enhancing volunteers' professional skills and competencies, thus contributing to their employability. At the same time, it increases their sense of solidarity, develops their social skills and promotes active participation in society. It is a win-win situation, where both the volunteer and the community benefit. The Commission has held a long commitment to supporting volunteering opportunities for young people.Starting in 1996, the European Voluntary Service has allowed more than 100.000 young people to gain a life-changing experience as a volunteer. During the course of the Erasmus+ programme, many more will get the same opportunity. Youth volunteering is usually thought of as a typical form of non-formal learning: the processes and the learning environment are usually organised according to professional principles, learning outcomes are not evaluated using top-down methods and young people engage in the process on a voluntary basis. The educational aims of youth volunteering are broad rather than specific; they are grounded in responses to the needs, cultures and interests of young people rather than being pre-set; the emphasis is on the process instead of the learning outcomes. Youth volunteering is not about producing learning results; it is more about providing an environment where different young people are able to engage in groups and are able to communicate and share ideas. In order to provide an effective, sustainable environment for volunteering, the EC recommends that the EU institutions and Member States take steps to ensure that national and EU legislation enables and encourages volunteering, protects volunteers and removeslegal impediments to their activities. A volunteer-based/centred approach towards youth volunteering will be implemented in order to ensure the quality, recognition and competence development of young people.The rights, dignity and responsibilities of youth volunteers should be recognised and respected and volunteers and their organisations should be aware of them. Specific attention is given to youth volunteering recognising it as a tool for achieving the EU 2020 targets. It is therefore vital that youth volunteering is also included in the national reform programs in Spain, Austria, Turkey, Slovenia, Cyprus, and Greece to ensure its support.The project will be managed on the four main topics of youth volunteering that was defined by the EC in EYV 2011 Alliance. These are:1. Value and recognition of youth volunteering2. Quality of youth volunteering and infrastructure for youth volunteering coordination3. Legal framework for youth volunteering4. Employee volunteeringThe main aim of the project is to develop to enhance and strengthen the competencies, skills and qualifications of young volunteer coordinators with online training and mobile assessment.<< Objectives >>Youth work can be seen as an alternative to the education that takes place at home and in schools. Because of the open-ended nature of such work, the outcomes are to some extent unpredictable. Youth volunteering is not about producing learning results; it is more about providing an environment where different young people are able to engage in groups and are able to communicate and share ideas.Youth volunteering can have benefits for young people’s personal development; building self-esteem and confidence as they are experiencing a sense of achievement and personal satisfaction from being a part of something meaningful, helping others, and seeing the positive results of the work carried out.Youth volunteering is viewed as a form of social capital, with particular reference to the role of volunteering in promoting social inclusion, assisting marginalized social groups, its relationship to other forms of civic participation and unpaid work, creating a civil society, social action, in community building and community renewal.The character of the cooperation of the sector with all kinds of other key social players such as government, business, communities and young people as individuals has given the voluntary sector strong power to affect the society as a whole.In conclusion, the main goals of youth volunteering are :- Enhances the social connections between different sectors, builds the bridges among young people- Makes a significant contribution to the global economy by helping to build a more cohesive, safer, stronger community, increase the social network between communities and neighbourhood.- Promotes youth to be more active in civic engagement and concerned about citizenship.- Delivers some part of public services, encouraging more young people to work in the public section, helping raise the educational performance of youth, push forward sustainable development, solve environmental problems, and respond to climate change etc.The main aim of the project is to develop to enhance and strengthen the competencies, skills and qualifications of young volunteer coordinators with online training and mobile assessment.The project will be sought to provide new resources to identify and recognise skills and competencies developed by young people during their volunteering experience.The concrete objectives of the project are:- Recognise and support the contribution of volunteers and highlight the potential for youth volunteering.- Support the continued gathering of good practice recognition tools around Europe.- Standardise the outcomes of recognition tools and other opportunities to gain supplementary European Credits at universities through volunteering.- Develop in partnership with other stakeholders national standards for measurement of personal competencies gained through volunteering.- Raise awareness of the contribution that employees engaged in volunteering can make.- Ensure that the methods of recognition continue to reflect volunteers’ needs.- Develop systems to recognize the knowledge, skills, and competencies acquired through volunteering.- Establish systems of volunteer management that also develop and sustain a culture of recognition within the organization.<< Implementation >>Project management and implementation activities with the support of the grant will be used for the development of: 1. Bilateral agreements 2. IPR agreement 3. Communication strategy 4. Action plan with predefined Gantt chart for all activities5. TPM reports/minutes6. Quality assurance and assessment strategy 7. Advisory board meeting reports in each partner country with youth workers, youth volunteering coordinators and experts from youth NGOs, training institutes, youth centres, universities, and community-based organisations 8. Dissemination strategy9. Dissemination reports10. Exploitation report for short term and long term sustainability of the project’s core activities and results11. Multilingual project web platform12. Digital dissemination materials (leaflets, flyers, banners etc.) 13. Paper brochure of the volunteering benchmark 14. Paper brochure of the volunteer training management toolkit for volunteer coordinators15. Publications and press release16. Informative sessions17. Thematic workshops18. Pilot training19. Multiplier event ""Youth Volunteering Management Seminar"" in partner countries20. Multiplier event ""Recognition of Youth Volunteering Management Conference"" - responsible: All partners 21. The progress/interim and final reports<< Results >>The expected results of the project are:- Greater understanding of the recent situation and individual needs of youth workers and young volunteers;- Greater understanding of the training needs and gaps in recognition and assessment of competencies;- Increased knowledge on good examples of youth volunteering with relevant methodologies, pedagogical approaches, reached goals around Europe;- Increased knowledge on the volunteering benchmark to compare youth volunteering organizations’ practices, processes and products;- Develop knowledge, skills and competence of youth volunteer coordinators with volunteer training management toolkit that will include 8 chapters;-- Promote awareness of the volunteering and management of the volunteer activities;- Develop knowledge, skills and competence of volunteer coordinators with volunteer training management toolkit that will include 8 chapters;- Support acquisition of transversal and key competencies by youth workers and volunteer coordinators;- Promote awareness of the volunteering and management of the volunteer activities;- Implementation of self-planning, self-learning and self-assessment of the voluntary civil cervices by young people (youth workers, young volunteers and youth coordinators);- Understanding of the developed competencies with a mobile app checklist for youth workers, young volunteers and youth coordinators;- Interactive facilitation of competencies monitoring in the voluntary civil services;- Promotion of the exploitation at European level of youth volunteering management system which recognizes validation of competencies, skills and qualifications.Results of the project will be developed according to the non-formal education and training principles. This process will be done by aggregation of competencies into qualifications by using descriptions of learning outcome. There are 4 results.R1: Volunteering benchmark Duration: 6 months (01.01.2022 - 30.06.2022)Leader: P2, Austria- Consolidated survey findings of individual needs, training needs and gaps in recognition and assessment of competencies.- Good examples of youth volunteering with relevant methodologies, pedagogical approaches, reached goals around Europe.R2: Volunteer training management toolkit for volunteer coordinatorsDuration: 5 months (01.07.2022 - 30.11.2022)Leader: P1, SpainIt will be comprehensive approach training to volunteer coordinators on how a program integrates successfully across the organization and interfaces with all stakeholders. There will be 8 chapters in the toolkit. These are:1. Youth volunteering program management2. Leadership management3. Effective communications4. Public relations, social media and campaigns5. Project management6. Volunteer management software7. Developing corporate partners8. Volunteering program evaluationR3: Online learning platform for volunteer coordinatorsDuration: 12 months (01.12.2022 - 30.11.2023)Leader: P7, SpainThis online learning platform will include:- User registration- Curriculum of 8 chapters- What you'll learn in each chapter- Enrollment to the training course- Quizzes- Automatic online certificationR4: Self-assessment mobile application for the competencies monitoring in the voluntary civil serviceDuration: 5 months (01.01.2023 - 30.11.2023)Leader: P6, GreeceIt will include self-planning, self-learning and self-assessment of the voluntary civil cervices by young people (youth workers, young volunteers and youth coordinators).Totally 360 young people will attend the 120 hours pilot online training about youth volunteering program management, leadership management, effective communications, public relations, social media and campaigns, project management, volunteer management software, developing corporate partners, volunteering program evaluation. During the project, 360 young people will start to use self-planning, self-learning and self-assessment of the voluntary civil cervices."