READ is a 20-month capacity building project dealing with youth, literacy and social inclusion and involving 5 partners: 3 from Europe (CSC Danilo Dolci – Italy, RIS Mansion Rakičan – Slovenia, Amadeus Association– Austria), 1 from Asia (JRP – India) and 1 from Africa (ITF from Kenya).The aim of the project has been to promote reading to young people in an integrated manner. READ has been addressing the problem of illiteracy, the risk of school dropout and the lack of interest that young people have towards education and reading in an integrated manner, using creativity and non-formal education methodologies. The objectives are:- To promote marginalized youngsters ‘s appeal and creativity to decrease their risk of early school leaving- To enhance the socio-professional development of unemployed youth workers- To foster young people’s social inclusion through intercultural activities- To produce a freely available and sustainable Open Educational Resource (OER) for youth workers and organisations dealing with youth.READ foresees the following local and mobility activities:1) State of the art about: a) the situation of literacy/early school leaving levels of partners’ country and specific focus on local community; b) the specific learning needs of the target; c) background framework for project’s methodologies; d) best practices on non-formal approach to read, including the use of digital technologies and social media.2) 8-day International Training Course involving 36 youth workers with educational/artistic background working in youth centres. Goals: 1. to share the results of the research and learn non-formal methodologies in order to increase the appeal of education and the interest in reading for young people; 2. stimulating their creativity and participation and providing the basis of the method to be implemented in the following activities; 3. plan local activities .3) Local activities, involving youth workers, young people dealing with the educational field and youngsters with fewer opportunities. In each project country, youth workers trained young people on how to reinterpret reading through the arts.Local educational activities aimed at increasing the interest and appeal for the educational path, developing outputs, tools and methodologies to be used in the local community. 5) A Local Contest during which local teams has the opportunity to present their creative outputs and a jury selected the winning local team.6) Job shadowing: youth workers from each project organisation had the opportunity to live a short term mobility in a project country exchanging good practices on non-formal educational methods7) International READ Workshop and Festival (8 days): international mixed teams composed by the young people winners of the Local Contests work together to produce new READ products, showing the project results during a public event.Finally, an Open Educational Resource has been developed to capitalize all the outcomes and outputs of the project as well as to be used by any people and organisations dealing with youth and education.

Early school leaving is a real social issue. The unemployment rate among early school leavers is higher than 40%. Dale’s studies confirm that a student learns better when he acts: he retains 20% of what he hears, 50% of what he sees and hears, and 90% of what he does. Non-formal education, active education, make teaching more attractive, more “snappy”. Students change over the years, the same is true regarding their ability to pay attention and to be focused, but teaching methods often struggle to evolve to cope with it. While recent years have seen significant progress in tackling early school leaving, efforts need to be sustained and the focus must be put on prevention.This is the objective that DROP'IN gave itself by allowing the cross between the formal education and the non-formal education environment to keep students and teachers to be into in the educational environment.It is the question of keeping the students motivated that is worked here, in response to the fight against school dropout. DROP'IN is a long-term investment and is therefore a project that worked closely with teachers during 36 months to give them knowledge and skills in the non-formal education sector, to enable them to become trainers for their peers so that the dynamics continue beyond the project. The achievements of this 36-month project were: teacher training on techniques and attitudes / method of non-formal education, research and state of the art in the partner regions, test period and implementation through teacher-expert pairs of non-formal methods for students from 12 to 18, capitalization, dissemination and multiplication of good practices developed for opening up to other schools.The project developed a state of the art, a catalogue of techniques, a training in non-formal methods - a veritable vademecum for teachers - an analysis of the practices tested and their valorisation in the form of an online portfolio as well as a policy paper indicating the specific axes to develop to contribute to this fight against early school leaving. The partners gathered around the project combined expertise from the non-formal education sector with secondary schools as well as a University from 5 European countries impacted by the issues of school dropout (Latvia, Belgium, Italy, Bulgaria and La France). Transversality is a key word of the DROP'IN project: the partners are diverse and complementary in the consortium (associations, municipalities, schools and University) and in each country, a local steering committee was created and developed the adaptation of DROP'IN in the local context, involving all the stakeholders of the wider educational community (teachers, parents, institutions ...). In doing so, these steering committees facilitated the ownership of the project by a broad network of associated partners and the dissemination of results on a large scale.

The number of elderly people living on their own is expected to increase as a consequence of the demographic change in European societies. Loneliness may become a huge health problem in Europe – elderly individuals are particularly vulnerable to it, especially the least wealthy who can experience the highest risk of loneliness. Old age, which is an inevitable consequence in the life of human beings, has been seen as a social problem in all periods of history. The most affected by the consequences of this fact are elderly people and their social environment. Participation in social activities may compensate for inequalities of loneliness.Social participation is much less common among the poorest, often due to the lack of financial resources. Increasing social participation among the least wealthy may fight inequalities in loneliness among older people in Europe. It is stated that negative attitudes are developed against elderly people depending on many factors such as daily life and self-care activities not being performed independently by elderly people and “Ageism” is becoming to be a major issue. Although the approach of current policies towards the phenomenon of old age is different in each society and culture, the common and important issue is 'intergenerational solidarity'. BEST FRIENDS focuses exactly on this factor and aims to break the isolation and exclusion of elderly people in our communities, by developing an innovative curriculum and collecting inventive games that promote intergenerational communication and learning. In this way, this project makes an important contribution and promotes awareness of social inclusion also for people with health problems. 6 partners from 6 countries (EN, IT, AT, FR, LT, GR) have been brought together to capitalize and build on each other’s knowledge and expertise, as well as experience from best practices in their national context, for future circulation and transfer of know-how.Aims and objectives of the BEST FRIENDS project are: - Provide an innovative method for social care workers, volunteers and educators. - Break the isolation of elderly people through social participation and inclusion in our communities. - Improve their physical and mental health through interaction with young children. - Enriching the learning processes of elderly people in interaction with young children. BEST FRIENDS primary targets are: - Elderly people (in total 160+ participants) - Care/Social workers, volunteers helping elderly (in total 252+ participants) Secondary targets are: - Early childhood educators and young children (in total 80+ participants)The BEST FRIENDS project will have the following results: - Comparative Research and Assessment of Current Needs of Care workers and Elderly People. - BEST FRIENDS Intergenerational Learning Training Program - ToolKit for Intergenerational Learning Activities and Social Participation - Mainstreaming policy of project results through consortiums European network - Stimulate elderly people to be more active in the community, enrich learning processes of older people in interaction with young children. - By having interaction with young children, improved feelings of wellbeing and derived great satisfaction from sharing knowledge and experience with the children. - Promote intergenerational relationships, overcome stereotypes and enhance intergenerational solidarity against ageism through fun activities - The benefits by improved mutual understanding, a reawakened interest in local social life and deeper community engagement. - Children’s increased self-confidence and sense of responsibility through respecting seniors. - A big contribution for social inclusion of elderly people through involving them in social life actively and letting others take part in their experiences. From above described reasons, BEST FRIENDS focuses on Intergenerational Learning as a path for Lifelong Learning and at the same time to improve the physical and mental health of elderly people. On one side to take elderly out from their isolation and bring them into the middle of learning process with their lifelong experiences and enhance their social participation. At the same time, constantly evolving global families mean children often grow up far from grandparents. Intergenerational learning programs have never been more important as the loss of social and emotional connection between children and the elderly leaves a gap in society.

BOEMI is an innovative capacity building project involving 5 partners from 2 different continents (Europe and Africa) that envisages to use non formal education, reciprocal maieutic approach and music as a tool for youth development, and more specifically to raise employability skills of over 270 youngsters. The project aims at promoting transnational non-formal learning mobility activities between the different countries, targeting both young people with fewer opportunities and youth workers, so as to increase their competences and active participation in society.In the current context of exceptional youth unemployment rates, skills mismatch and the need for new educational approaches, BOEMI will enable youngsters to boost their employability skills and confidence, using their own music traditions as a starting point for their professional personal development and active participation. With BOEMI, youngsters will learn and apply ICT and new media skills to music, raising their competitiveness and at the same time fostering their intercultural exchanges. 36 Youth workers from 5 countries (Italy, Spain, Denmark, Ghana and Senegal) will carry out a study on traditional music in their countries and take part in an International Training Course on non-formal education methods and music, where they will record their own music. A series of local workshops and dissemination activities will allow them to further develop and use the new methods and skills acquired locally. A Final Seminar will focus on media skills and their diffusion amongst young people with fewer opportunities. The latter will also benefit from job counselling sessions on music promotion and will organize 5 local concerts. Through BOEMI, youth workers will acquire a new non-formal learning methodology and be able to apply it in their everyday work; young people with fewer opportunities will foster their confidence, self-esteem and enrich their competences, becoming more competitive. Ultimately, BOEMI beneficiaries will gain new skills that will enable them to make an entrepreneurial activity out of music traditions, thus narrowing the gap between labour market needs and their qualifications. The foreseen pedagogic methodology will apply Danilo Dolci’s Reciprocal Maieutic Approach to traditional music and other non-formal learning tools. The study phase will be carried out «on the field» and, together with the International TC and local workshops will innovatively combine music traditions with new media investigations, promoting a flexible practice that can be used by and for youth universally.As part of our project’s deliverables, youngsters will produce and disseminate online a collection of traditional music from each partner country and of new recorded songs, a Training Manual in 5 languages for a «Best Practices Collection», and a music portfolio of each participant

The DigiVET Project aims to address the current challenges of the VET sector emerged from the transition to the digital era and the impact of COVID-19 in the provision of VET for both trainers and trainees. The pandemic outbreak accelerated the long-expected turn to digital technology in education and training, providing for a reliable solution during these turbulent times, while the VET sector has been disproportionally affected since its strong work-based component does not allow for much flexibility and reliance on digital tools. The need for innovative solutions is even more apparent to motivate learners to seek for quality VET opportunities and combat the increasing levels of early leaving. The unprecedented shift to digital tools and resources during the pandemic fed the development of the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) to reset education and training for the digital age, focusing on fostering the development of a high-performing digital education system, and enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation. The DigiVET Project aims to contribute to VET trainers’ professional development through improving their digital competences, in particular their capacity to develop digital learning resources to address contemporary needs of trainees. As clearly mentioned in the European Framework for the Digital Competences of Educators (DigCompEdu), professionals dedicated to teaching need to able to effectively use digital technology in various fields of teaching/training delivery. Taking into consideration the challenges faced by VET trainers in their efforts to adapt to the unfolding situation that requires high incorporation levels of digital technology in VET, the DigiVET Project aims to: - Develop VET trainers’ digital competences, in particular the development of digital learning resources for VET, - Build the capacity of VET trainers to adapt their delivery of VET in the digital era, through the incorporation of digital resources and tools, - Support the provision of flexible, high quality VET, adapted to correspond to the requirements of the digital era and the COVID-19 impact, - Develop an online VET Hub that will provide open access to digital learning resources in various VET sectors, - Motivate VET trainees to select quality VET opportunities that reflect their needs and interests, contributing to personal and professional development. To that end, the partnership will first of all, carry out a brief yet comprehensive research to identify in more detail the impact of COVID-19 on the provision of VET, involving at least 360 VET trainers who will respond to questionnaires, participate in face-to-face (or online) meetings and get in-person interviewed on their emerging needs. Based on the research’s findings, the DigiVET Training Programme hosted in the DigiVET e-learning platform will be developed to provide theoretical and practical skills and knowledge on the development of interactive, engaging digital learning resources according to the identified needs of trainees, aiming to keep them motivated in participating in VET, thus contributing to their personal and professional development. The DigiVET Hub, directly linked with the DigiVET e-learning platform and the Project’s website, will act as an open space providing free access to a variety of digital resources, courses, modules, etc. developed by VET trainers who will have completed the DigiVET Training Programme. VET learners and the public in general will have access to quality training opportunities in various fields, improving their personal and professional skills and knowledge, while at the same time having the VET sector adapting to the digital era. Once the Project’s results are pilot tested and finalised, they will be made freely available to the public in English and all partner languages. VET trainers will have the opportunity for professional upskilling through the attendance of the DigiVET Training Programme, hosted in the DigiVET e-learning platform. Once they complete the training, they be able to develop their own digital learning resources to use them in their every-day work on VET delivery, and if they wish, to upload it to the DigiVET Hub to be accessible for free. The Project foresees to equip VET trainers with all the necessary knowledge and skills to incorporate digital technologies in VET provision, thus increasing their adaptability to the digital era, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, VET trainees will have the opportunity to access a variety of VET modules and other digital resources that will be available for free in the DigiVET Hub. The variety of training opportunities offered will substantially contribute in getting trainees engaged with VET, contributing to their personal and professional development.