<< Objectives >>The Afrodita project will address the gap in the non-formal education of disadvantaged adults in 4 EU countries and abroad, reflecting on extra-curricular aspects of the arts and sports as tools for improvement of the adult learners' key competences required by the contemporary multicultural European society. The project aims to facilitate the inclusion of adults in any disadvantaged situation (immigrants, refugees, NEETs, ESL, rural people, ethnic minorities) and improve their employability.<< Implementation >>The main output delivered will be a Training Toolbox for Adult Educators, meeting the needs of disadvantaged adults. Joint staff training will gather social workers from GR, DE, ES & IT to exchange best practices and acquire knowledge on sport & art approaches, which later will be applied in pilot workshops with adult learners in each country.Two partners' meetings, video conferences, focus groups, web & social media form part of the management, dissemination, evaluation & follow-up activities.<< Results >>As long-term benefits are expected the empowering and re-skilling of marginalised adult learners in the 4 partners' regions and other EU countries, thanks to the transferability of the developed outputs; equipping adult educators with new tools, using sport and art approaches; supporting the social inclusion of vulnerable adults, providing quality tailored education; networking at EU level for development of key competences and improvement of the basic and transversal skills of the EU citizens.

All partners in the “Otherness” project share the idea that every individual is unique, equally worthy and has the right to live according to their beliefs, customs, practices and established behavior rules. Nowadays we live in a world in which globalization and migration have brought together people from different ethnic origins, religious backgrounds, beliefs, traditions and languages. But sharing a common space does not automatically result in opening yourself to Otherness, trying to understand differences, valuing diversity and building common grounds for dialogue. Human rights, diversity, tolerance and non-violence related issues have become even more important considering the Charlie Hebdo shooting and all alerting January 2015 events in Paris and the following violence acts in other places round the world. All “Otherness” partners come from countries which are at the EU external borders and also have large minority groups, which makes project objectives even more relevant in the context they exist. The project involved 4 partners from Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Portugal. The participating institutions, 3 NGOs and a university, have strong background in designing training resources and providing trainings in civic education related topics and non-formal and formal education approaches. We believe that schooling could play a key role in overcoming the historically developed negative attitudes to human differences, which is one of the key objectives of the project. Project activities aimed at supporting students in being open-minded, understanding and valuing diversity, knowing and respecting human rights and being actively involved in community life. The realization of this role suggests that teachers have the knowledge, skills and tools which will enable them to provide training activities for students in the project subject areas. The target groups of the project are (1) Students aged 12/13 -15 (lower secondary school age) when they start consciously shaping attitudes and concepts; (2) Teachers and (3) Local communitiesProject activities and outputs comprised:1. Researching (Output1): relevant initiatives, strategic documents and available research papers on the way Otherness is reflected in school books and supplementary teaching materials in the participating countries and students' attitude to otherness in the allocated educational institutions prior to project activities.2. Designing a training programme (Output2) for raising students’ sensitivity to Otherness, cultural differences, skills for intercultural dialogue and active involvement comprising 2 complementary products: a Digital tool for students and a Teachers' manual. The themes are Human rights, discrimination and prejudice; Diversity and Identity and citizenship. Each theme is presented in the teachers' manual and supported by e-resources in the Digital tool with relevant activities. 3. Transnational training activity 1 (C1) for teachers from selected schools 4. Piloting the Training programme in the selected educational institutions during school year 2016-20175. Feedback and recommendations from participating teachers and students in the pilot trainings6. Upgrading the Training programme to meet teachers' and students' recommendations7. Transnational training activity 2 (C2) for teachers 8. Final implementation: teachers from C2 run trainings in the institutions they teach in during school year 2017-20189. Evaluation - survey on students' attitude to OthernessProject activities resulted in acquiring new knowledge and skills, and changing attitudes as follows:Students learned about Human Rights; to believe and respect human rights to a greater extent, i.e. no matter what a person does, or thinks, or likes, or looks like, they can live a life of dignity with all their human rights respected; to value better every member of society as a human being and feel valued themselves as human beings; feel able to contribute more and get involved in community life.Teachers got the knowledge of basics in Human Rights, Diversity and Involvement education; mastered skills which enableed them to discuss questions on existing notions of human differences in modern society and run relevant activities; responsibly accepted a code of behaviour so that all their actions and interactions bear respect to Otherness and students’ individuality; got to use modern non-formal education methods both in project trainings and their routine teaching jobs.In the long run, we expect the students who have participated in the project, to grow up and become open-minded and valuing Diversity citizens and build societies of non-violence based on collaboration, assertiveness and integrity.

EurAsian Social ActiveNation (EUASAN) aimed to foster trans-continental cooperation in community development (CD) between countries and organizations of Europe (Greece, Spain, Hungary) and Asia (India, Vietnam).The main aim was to enhance the quality of youth work’s impact on local communities in a measurable way in order to fight discrimination, exclusion, poverty and unemployment by using non formal education, sport and physical activity as a tool. We have chosen Education through Sport (ETS) methods as the combination of sport and learning provides and excellent opportunity to learn through activities that are enjoyable, highly emotional and based on active participation and involvement. It’s a natural way, a learning that even brings people close to each other. It’s full of fun and passion and with right planning and methodology it results in powerful learning outcomes for youth workers and leaders.In EUASAN we used the educational aspect of sport from pedagogical prospective to foster non formal learning practice and in it’s context provoke a positive social change. It’s part of the life-long learning process that aims to improve knowledge, attitude and skills of participants while fostering active citizenship and social transformation in the communities it may be applied in.During the project we trained youth workers to become trainers in NFE and in the field of Education through Sport and teach them how to apply it's methods in their various work area with communities (be it rural, marginalized, with fewer opportunities etc.). An e-toolkit has ensured dissemination and offered the possibility for other organizations to use it for their benefit even if they have no experience in NFE and ETS field. The website Euasan.org hosted the activities during the project cycle and it will offer information for three more years As an outcome, EUASAN project established EurAsian transnational long term cooperation and build up a network between Europe and Asia. This network will enhance intercultural learning, knowledge transfer, mobility and youth empowerment that will collect and disseminate information to other organizations interested in youth work field/education and cultural cooperation possibilities between these two regions. Activities implemented during the project:Kick off Meeting (GREECE, AENAO)Training Course I (INDIA, DISHA ) “Development & leadership for community development”. Training Course II (SPAIN, ACD LA HOYA) “Education through sport tools/methods for community Local Activities – Implementation round at home organizations after acquired knowledge on the 2 TC-sEvaluation meeting (VIETNAM, SJ Vietnam)

"The ""Young learners Embrace Social Inclusion and Social Involvement"" (YESI) project is meant to teach pupils aged 6 to 11:- about human rights and children's rights;- to be open-minded and to value all people regardless of the differences among them; - to be empathic and to feel ownership of values like tolerance and social inclusion;- to get the initial skills of being active members of the small communities they live in.The project is set in the environment of a widening gap of inequality between social classes, especially in the partner countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Portugal), big numbers of immigrants in Europe, and steady rise of populism and nationalism at European level. The project will design a Teacher's Toolkit aimed at supporting primary school teachers in delivering training activities for their pupils so that they become more tolerant, open-minded and responsible citizens. The Toolkit will comprise a Handbook for teachers (a step-by-step guide leading the teachers through 36 training sessions) and a Digital Tool (a collection of supporting multimedia resources specially designed for the project by using cutting edge technological solutions). The training methodology is based on non-formal educational approaches which could be used by teachers not only in the project activities, but also in their everyday teaching. Some 1200 pupils will be involved in piloting the Teacher's Toolkit for two years on a regular basis. Teachers and pupils will provide feedback on the suggested activities which will be considered by the authors of the teaching units for upgrading the Teacher's Toolkit within the project life cycle. The project outputs have a good potential for sustainable use after the end of the project through the planned Erasmus+ KA1 training course for teachers' professional development and the eTwinning projects the participating teachers will launch."

Unemployment is still one of the strongest challenges EU youth are facing and the fight against remains a priority issue for ensuring the well-being of young people. Organizations actively involved in the education sector have identified concrete problems related to the inconsistency between competences acquired through the completion of traditional educational paths, and the real needs of the labor market. The transition into adulthood represents a turning point in the life of young people and involves a multi level process: transition into the world of work, from the education system on to the labour market, leaving parental home and developing independent living, taking the role of active citizens by developing skills and competencies for civic engagement.The project Mind the Gap is a Strategic partnership between organizations active in youth field from UK, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania and overall goal is to develop and implement strategic approaches to support disadvantaged youngsters and NEETs by facilitating their transition to career paths whether through further education or through work based learning opportunities. Specific objectives:-By November 2021, 16 youth workers from the partner countries will review organizations approaches and design and implement process changes through sharing practices, concepts and activities, resulting in more efficient and coherent educational programs that facilitate transition to career paths for disadvantaged youngsters whether through further education or through work based learning opportunities-By May 2021, partner organizations will have delivered 1 international mobility focused on professional exploration, personal development and reflection to 32 disadvantaged youth participants aged 16-22 years old with a view to understand their status as potential employee and to take acknowledge of practical means to benefit of learning and work opportunities.-By August 2021, 32 disadvantaged youth from the partner countries will be involved in work based learning schemes (Volunteering/Work placement/Training) at local levels.The project will focus on 3 key aspects:Multi level cooperation with stakeholders to find solutions in reducing discrepancies between the employees and the employers and matching young people skills with current and future labour demand. The project strongly connects our organizations and youth staff with key factors in youth education through the development of round tables sessions. Having stakeholders from different areas, will allow us to create a sharing&learning community wherein participating organizations, youngsters and stakeholders will exchange information and best practices as well as cooperate in identifying and pursuing improvements in adulthood transition and integration into the labour market. Partners through their youth workers will therefore collect, evaluate relevant practices, experiences and content produced by civil society actors across their communities in terms of youth adulthood transition and labor market integration to develop a comprehensive vision and common standards of action in the field. Our Youth workers will participate in an international seminar aiming to build up competences of youth workers from the partner countries to create strategic approaches that facilitate transition to career paths for disadvantaged youngsters whether through further education or through work based learning opportunities. The seminar will help us to identify support currently or potentially available to disadvantaged young people and consider how this might be aligned and packaged to ease their progress into and within the workplace and also to transfer different supportive services that facilitate young people transition into labor market such as: professional development program targeted to disadvantaged young people that facilitates professional exploration, development and reflection among them and work based learning strategies.Provision of career awareness and exploration opportunities in the labour market with a particular focus on disadvantaged youth categories from the partner countries.- through local and international mobility, 32 youngsters will be given the opportunity to understand their status as potential employees and to take advantage of practical means to benefit learning and work opportunities. Partners are committed to provide them 1 international training mobility which will be focused on exploration of the participants skills and interests and supporting youngsters to understand their status as potential employee and to take acknowledge of practical means to benefit of learning and work opportunities as well supportive services - Mind the gap program - education and work based learning opportunities: work placement, volunteering and training in different fields, both in own organization and/or facilitating entrance in another relevant organization at each one local level.