"With over 19 million carers in Europe (Source: Eurocarers), their mental well being is crucial for their cared for persons, who depend heavily on carers to have an acceptable quality of life.Associations between physical and psychological health and being a caregiver are well established and therefore need our attention.MENTAP addressed therefore the core issue at stake: caregivers are at elevated risk for developing mental health disorders.Carers do face the following challenges:- Stress and worry: often feels stressed and worried, spends a lot of time thinking about their illness and the impact it is having on both of their lives. Carer may always be thinking about things they need to do as part of their role as carer, and find it hard to switch off.- Social isolation: Many people find it hard to make time to socialise or carry on with hobbies or interests. They may also feel guilty if they take time for themselves. Over time, social isolation can lead to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.- Physical health problems: Caring can be physically demanding. If the role as carer involves lifting or carrying, they could suffer from aches and pains, particularly in your back.- Depression: The carer may find that the challenges they face while being a carer make them feel low or depressed. If they feel very frustrated or hopeless, they may also have thoughts of harming themselves or even of ending their life. They may also develop unhelpful coping strategies to dealwith these difficult feelings, such as using drugs or alcohol, or eating more or less than they need to.- Frustration and anger: They may often feel very frustrated and angry, especially if they have had to give up parts of their own life.- Low self-esteem: Being a carer can have a big impact on their self-esteem. They may feel that they are not worthy of care and attention, and that all their time should be focused on the person they care for. They may find it hard to interact socially, or feel that they are missing out on parts of having a normal life.In fact, carers often neglect their own healthcare needs and in many cases it is only a matter of time before they themselves become ill. They are at risk physically and emotionally with stress-related illnesses but it can be hard for them to admit that they are struggling. Carers are a ""critical asset"" who should be protected.MENTAP's core believe is that the psychological well-being is an important aspect for a carer in order to be able to perform their work to the highest quality (caring for people with disabilities, older people, etc.). One's psychological well-being is based on the individual's awareness of purpose andmeaning of life, the feeling for meaningful connections with other people, the awareness of self-determination and control over life, the reflections of the past and the future and the openness to own self experience, values, meanings and perspectives. Carers need assistance in this, especially asthey are prone to lack of mental well-being due to the hardships they face in their care work.Past studies (see Need analysis attached in Annex) have highlighted this mental aspect of carers, and MENTAP wants to address this by developing a dedicated curriculum, aligned with ECVET, that offers a modular training course, whereby carers can re-establish a mentally healthy lifestyle and well-being. The spillover effect of the project will be that this will also be beneficial for nurses, psychologists, etc. that are working with people with disabilities.To achieve this, MENTAP will establish following outcomes:- IO1: MENTAP curriculum and ""Train the trainers"" handbook- IO2: Coping strategies and relevant self assessment realised through interactive illustrated wizard embedded via mobile/online application- IO3: Impact and best practices methodological guidelinesThese outcomes will be developed by a team of 4 partners from 3 countries (Bulgaria, Belgium, Turkey) consisting of 1 University, 1 rehabilitation center, 1 carer consultancy body and 1 national umbrella organisation of professionals and carers of people with disabilities. All partners work closely with the carer community. The training course will be piloted in all 3 partner countries where feedback will be gathered as well as an impact assessment will be conducted."

<< Background >>The term Martial Arts is often used as general phrase to describe many of the combat arts, which have developed in eastern cultures over the past millennium. If we review the Martial Arts from the original context of a trio of life skills, then we can identify the healing arts such as acupuncture, the self-exploration arts such as yoga, and the vital life skills such as meditation. Martial arts have a rich history, dating back many thousands of years ago. The arts developed not only in the eastern, but also in all parts of the world, with references of these types of combats arts in the writings of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. In modern times, the combat arts are performed for both exercise and sport. The health benefits associated with martial arts include strengthen and self-efficacy of the elderly, reduced falls, increased exercise capacity, and benefits to the immune system and autonomic nervous system.They are seemingly inappropriate for people with impairments. However, it appears that fencing and judo, as well as arm-wrestling are sport disciplines successfully practised by disabled people. They are a great alternative for those lonely, idle and helpless people. They are however also an opportunity for comprehensive rehabilitation. A sport training has primarily a curative, preventive and psychological function. Practising combat sports and strength sports give people with disabilities the opportunity to be more self-sufficient, assertive and financially independent. Their self-esteem improves due to the sport, they feel important and needed.Martial arts are as a physical and meditative discipline available as complementary strategies able to improve functional capacity, physical performances, postural control of patients suffering from chronical diseases. They can slow their clinical evolution.In Turkey as well as in other Balkan countries, persons with disabilities are generally excluded from education, employment and community life from a young age. Exclusion deprives them of opportunities to engage and develop relationships with others — opportunities essential to their social development and important determinants of health and well-being. Sport is well suited to helping persons with disabilities acquire social skills they may be lacking, but also for rehabilitation purposes. Martial arts teaches individuals how to communicate effectively as well as the significance of teamwork and cooperation, goal-setting, self-discipline, respect for others, and the importance of rules. Whereas many initiatives focus on making martial arts inclusive for them (e.g. MAINCLUSION project), we focus on the actual effects of martial arts linked to an active rehabilitation process, well structured and formally organised in martial arts sports clubs. It is a fact that certain martial arts have an effective complementary strategy associated with medical and rehabilitation care of chronic diseases and larger scale studies confirm this.Martial arts also enables persons with disabilities to take risks and learn how to manage failure and success in a safe and supportive environment. Martial arts teachers, sport trainers, rehabilitation experts in the field of CP, Medical and health personnel, physical, occupational and speech therapists, special education teachers provide important role models and can help persons with disabilities to develop skills they can apply in other aspects of their lives.The benefits of physical activity are universal for all children, including those with disabilities. The participation of children with disabilities in sports and recreational activities promotes inclusion, minimizes deconditioning, optimizes physical functioning, and enhances overall well-being. Despite these benefits, children with disabilities are more restricted in their participation and have lower levels of fitness (Murphy et. al., 2018).<< Objectives >>Our project aims to provide an ECVET based training on how to apply martial arts towards specific rehabilitation of CP (Cerebral palsy) affected people. Why? Cerebral palsy can be debilitating both physically and mentally for an individual. Doctors and researchers alike are constantly searching for new kinds of therapies for people afflicted with such a condition. In fact, martial arts are the total opposite of cerebral palsy with its uncontrolled moves an djerks. Martial arts is all about control of movement and control of power. Hence why martial arts offers the opportunity to counter many effects of CP and ensure a proper engaging and enjoyable rehabilitation. Martial arts thus provides an outlet to release negative energy and counter the rejection these people often faced in their life.For that purpose this partnership will develop the following project results in EN, NL, TR and BG languages:-PR1: MACPTraining handbook and ECVET compliant training course towards martial arts and the different intervention modalities required to apply them in rehabilitation-PR2: Dedicated MACPTraining videos that capture such rehabilitation exercises through martial arts, embedded in an online and mobile applications - for Android and iOS devicesOur target groups are:-Martial arts clubs-Martial arts experts-Rehabilitation experts in the field of CP-Medical and health personnel-Physical, occupational and speech therapists-Special education teachers-Respite, home health aides-Parents/siblings-Volunteer instructors-CP affected people-Personal assistants (including family members, etc.)-Entire communityThe above mentioned participants will participate in the following activities:-as members of the national advisory boards in partners' countries they will meet every six months to discuss the project progress and to provide voluntary a feedback for the development of the project results.-as participants in focus groups for iterative testing - the iterative testing concerns the alpha testing of the draft version of the project results before the actual piloting to validate that the outcomes are reliable and really addressing the preliminary described objectives and that the outputs are reaching the expected impact.-as supporters for reaching as much as possible stakeholders in piloting implementation-as supporters for liaison on policy level-as participants in dissemination and exploitation activities - in each partners' country there will be a national dissemination campaign for information, awareness raising, mainstreaming and exploitation into practiceWhereas many initiatives focus on making martial arts inclusive for them, we focus on the actual effects of martial arts linked to an active rehabilitation process, well structured and formally organised in martial arts sports clubs. It is a fact that certain martial arts have an effective complementary strategy associated with medical and rehabilitation care of chronic diseases and larger scale studies confirm this.The novelty lies here especially in how martial arts can support those affected by Cerebral Palsy, with a range of dedicated exercises, that address e.g. muscle tone and strength, body posture, etc. Our project uses century’s old wisdom with modern 21st century education techniques to train CP affected people so that they can be in control of their bodies, thereby controlling their pain and their emotional and physical difficulties.<< Implementation >>The consortium is characterised by its experience and competences in project management and participation such as:-pedagogy / teaching: P1, P3, P4 have already extensive expertise in the area of pedagogy, sport and teaching, especially in the areas of rehabilitation and inclusion domain, and they will complement with input from their own expertise field, as well as ensure they can adjust the project outcomes to the local country needs.-martial arts: P5 ill bring essential training approaches, content and techniques.-inclusion: Participating NGOs (P2, P3) and SMEs (P4) will bring on board their expertise in the area of inclusion oriented to Martial arts teachers, sport trainers, rehabilitation experts in the field of CP, Medical and health personnel, physical, occupational and speech therapists, special education teachers, but also to young people with social disadvantages as well as those with disabilities.-technical expertise: In addition, the initiating team (P1, P3, P4)has all the technical expertise in-house to develop the mobile/online platform application that will host the dedicated educative videos, making them at the same time visually attractive and accessible both for the beneficiary/end-users, as well as sport teacher/end-users.The initiating team adopted the approach for full participation of selected partners and equality of the efforts in the contribution to the implementation activities. In this regard, the project tasks are distributed even among the partners, taking into account the strengths and expertise of each of them. In terms of responsibilities, following lead responsibilities have been defined per IO, while partners also lead activities under each PR:PR1: MACPTraining handbook and ECVET compliant training course towards martial arts and the different intervention modalities required to apply them in rehabilitation - overall lead by P1 with the support and chapter/content writing by the rest of the partnersTasks:YEAR 1:A1 - Outline and creation of the curriculum (lead by P1, P2 and P4, contribution by all partners)A2 - Outline and creation of the handbook (lead by P2 and P4, contribution by all partners)A3 - Adaptation for training via online learning platform/mobile app in EN, NL, BG, TR (lead by P4, contribution by all, and with support of P3)YEAR 2:A4 - Tryouts with beneficiaries - all partnersA5 - Feedback gathering, optimisation and finalisation - lead by P3PR2: Dedicated MACPTraining videos that capture such rehabilitation exercises through martial arts, embedded in an online and mobile applications - overall lead by P3 with the support and video development by the rest of the partners (at least 4 per partner - 2 videos + 2 testimonials) YEAR 1:A1: Functional analysis requirements of videos and mobile application/online portal (led by P3)A2: Prototype development of videos (led by P3 + contribution of all partners - 4 videos by each partner)A3: Delivery alpha version portal (led by P3 + contribution of all partners)A4: Delivery alpha version mobile app (led by P3 + contribution of all partners)YEAR 2:A5: Delivery beta version portal (led by P3 + contribution of all partners)A6: Delivery beta version mobile app (led by P3 + contribution of all partners)A7: Revisions based on piloting (led by P3 + contribution of all partners)A8: Iterative improvement of mobile app / online portal (led by P3)With regards to the Project management and implementation activities the distribution of responsibilities is the following:A1: Administrative and financial management - lead by P1 + shared participation by all partnersA2: Financial monitoring on 6-months base - provided by each partner and reviewed/approved by P1A3: Establishment of intranet platform - lead by P1 with shared participation by all partnersA4: Quality assurance activities - lead by P4 + all partnersA5: Organisation of dissemination and exploitation activities - lead by P3 + all partners.<< Results >>The project is unique, because it is proposing a range of innovative techniques to stimulate and facilitate the implementation of martial arts as rehabilitation technique. In addition, no projects were identified in Erasmus+ databases that use martial arts as a rehabilitation method. As such the project is new and can contribute with its outcomes to further vocational training (aligned to EQF level 4) for professionals, trainers, teachers and experts in the field of rehabilitation, sport and disability.Our project aims to formalise this and will provide a handbook and ECVET compliant training course (PR1) towards martial arts and the different intervention modalities required to apply them in rehabilitation, whereby dedicated videos (PR2) that capture such rehabilitation exercises through martial arts will be embedded in an online and mobile applications.Project result 1 aims to provide an ECVET based training (curriculum, training modules and accompanied handbook) on how to apply martial arts towards specific rehabilitation of CP (Cerebral palsy) affected people. Martial arts is all about control of movement and control of power. Hence why martial arts offers the opportunity to counter many effects of CP and ensure a proper engaging and enjoyable rehabilitation. Martial arts thus provides an outlet to release negative energy and counter the rejection these people often faced in their life.Initial outline of ECVET compliant modules:Module 1: Specific health benefits of Martial ArtsModule 2: The history of Martial Arts and rehabilitationModule 3: Specific rehabilitation needs towards CP affected peopleModule 4: Applying martial arts to the rehabilitation of CP affected peopleModule 5: The importance of Martial Arts to the sports and health community.Module 6: An ABC to organising CP rehabilitation martial arts exercises and sessionsModule 6: Case studies, illustration how martial arts positively affect rehabilitation of CP affected peopleThe novelty lies here especially in how martial arts can support those affected by Cerebral Palsy, with a range of dedicated exercises, that address e.g. muscle tone and strength, body posture, etc. Our project uses century’s old wisdom with modern 21st century education techniques to train CP affected people so that they can be in control of their bodies, thereby controlling their pain and their emotional and physical difficulties. The material can be also useful for their work with clients with other disabilities such as: Autism Spectrum Disorder; ADD & ADHD; Crouzons Syndrome; Down Syndrome; Sensory Integration Dysfunction ;Spina Bifida; Traumatic Brain Injury (source: David Reicher M.S. Co-Founder Martial Arts Therapy).Project result 2 will consists of at least 10 videos, which will present a captured testimonials by martial art trainers as well as 10 actual rehabilitative exercises (ELEMENTS OF INNOVATION) will be identified and filmed, and shared through the mobile/online platform. The novelty lies here especially in how martial arts can support those affected by Cerebral Palsy, with a range of dedicated exercises, that address e.g. muscle tone and strength, body posture, etc. All videos, testimonials, mobile/online platform will be available in all partner languages, as well as English, so they can be easily transferred to other countries.(See in section annex: Examples of implemented martial arts activities with children with Cerebral palsy).

"CONTEXT/BACKGROUNDAccording to ESMA (associated partner): ""Social marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviour that benefits individuals and communities for the greater social good (French and Russell-Bennett, 2014)SIM project tackles the challenge to improve the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups by developing social marketing pedagogical tools fully adapted for the social sector professionals.The direct target group of these pedagogical tools are the social educators in charge of improving the competences of disadvantage groups (midstream level) ; and their supervisors (strategic level).OBJECTIVESa) To improve the competences of social educators and coordinators to tackle the social exclusion of disadvantaged groups.b) To adapt social marketing methodologies and strategies to be used by the social services professionals in order to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged groups.c) To offer to the market free several SIM pedagogical tools: SIM handbook, SIM pedagogical strategy (based on the use of SIM case studies) and a SIM MOOC course.d) To explore the possibilities to develop a new field (or sub-field) of work to tackle the social inclusion: SOCIAL INCLUSION MARKETING.e) To contribute to lay the foundations of the first postgrade course of social marketing in Europe.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTSTarget groups addressed are two:1.Social sector educators: Midstream social marketing (Psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, employment mediators...)2.supervisors of educators, professionals responsible of planning and executing training and social programmes (Upstream social marketing or strategic level)19 learners of these two target groups will take part in a transnational learning activity during a week in Lugano. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIESO1. SIM Training needs assessment of social educators and its supervisors. This document states the real training needs of professional on social marketing and the preferred training methodology to be trained (the case study)O2. SIM handbook.Contents to carry out a course on social inclusion marketing. It can be used both by trainers to give the lessons and by educators as a self-study book. It is divided into two sections: a) introduction to social inclusion marketing; b) 4 real SIM case studies.O3. SIM pedagogical strategy: the case study.Systematic method for supporting the acquisition of SIM learning outcomes through the use of the case study methodology. The pedagogical strategy will be based on the adaptation of social marketing techniques and strategies to be used as a case studies for social sector professionals.O4. SIM MOOC COURSEThe most important SIM training materials and methodologies will be adapted and uploaded to the platform of University of Valencia to launch a course on social marketing fully adapted for social educators.In addition, the project will develop 4 multiplier events and a project plan formed by: a) management plan; b) dissemination and communication plan; c) an impact, sustainability and transferability plan.PROJECT METHODOLOGYSIM is a project where experts from two different disciplines (social marketing and social services) are willing to share their knowledge, skills and different perspectives to find innovative training solutions.Putting these two disciplines together, the project has coined a new term: social inclusion marketing (SIM).The two participating disability organizations will propose real social challenges to the two universities to be resolved by using the social marketing techniques. The social theoretical framework will be based on the ""quality of life model"" and ""individualized support model"". RESULTSThe project is expected to have tangible and intangible results on three levels:1. To improve the competences of 19 social educators and coordinators taking part in the transnational learning activity.2. Participant organizations. Enhancement of the participating organization know-how by developing SIM methodologies. Improvements of the quality of the services offered by the two social/disability organizations. The Universities will be able to improve its knowledge by developing marketing techniques with a more social approach. It is expected some elements developed by the project will be transfer to the University curricula.3. Community impact. Through the project dissemination activities, it is expected community-based and specific disabled/social services use, implement or benefit from the SIM training materials, tools or methodologies developed by the project. In addition, and thanks to ESMA and Università della Svizzera italiana, it is expected the project will have a huge impact among academic and researchers of the field of social marketing."

School starting ages vary across Europe. The experience of transition to school can be very supportive for children and their families, setting them up for future academic and social success. However, it can be a difficult experience for some children, particularly those with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND), those who have already experienced multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences, or those from hard to reach communities such as migrant, refugee and Roma and Sinta groups. Transitions have been identified as an important focus area as a result of the partners’ work on previous Erasmus+ projects, such as ITIDE, PROMISE, and PROLEA. This project aims to synthesise and develop best practice around transitions to school for dissemination across partner countries to support positive outcomes for all groups of children. Whilst acknowledging individual regional contexts and investigating best practice in our partners' regions, we will find solutions through collaborative transnational knowledge exchange. We will be addressing the horizontal priority of supporting educators, and the school education priorities of tackling disadvantage and increasing access to high quality early child education and care. Cross-cultural research on transitions to full time compulsory schooling argues that these experiences relate to social competence and academic achievement (Tizard et al., 1988; Ramey & Campbell, 1991). Preschool children with SEND often experience a more challenging transition to school than others (Janus et al., 2008), with success depending on the child’s adaptation to the new environment and on the parents, teachers and school facilitating the child’s learning. Parents play a key role in providing information about their children whilst teacher attitudes and expectations and communication with parents and other members of the transition team are highly important in determining the quality of the transition (Salend, 2008). Hard to reach and vulnerable communities include children who have experienced trauma, looked after children, refugee and migrant children, marginalised groups such as Roma and Sinta, and children who experience intergenerational poverty. For them, transitions are particularly hard as they are less likely to attend early years care settings (Gilley et al., 2015). The family may also lack experience of schooling, or have negative expectations that the home culture and language may not be valued. Schools may make 'assumptions about levels of cultural familiarity and contextual knowledge' (Vickers, 2007). For these children and families, transdisciplinary networks to support transition are valuable (Krakouer et al., 2017) as well as a focus on partnerships and professional learning for early years professionals and school teachers. This project focuses on supporting educators: we will work collaboratively with early years educators and primary school teachers to link education practices with research and innovation through the planned knowledge exchange on transitions practices in the partner countries. These professionals will work with us in developing and evaluating individual learning units: learning and professional development resources for the teaching profession. These will enable professionals to engage more effectively and support learners from disadvantaged and diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The project aims to tackle school disadvantage by strengthening collaboration amongst early years professionals at different stages of the educational system through the workshops and learning units. These training opportunities and best practice guidelines at the regional and transnational level will improve transition into formal compulsory schooling and support relationships between schools, early years settings and families.The project partners have extensive experience of working with schools and educators to provide training and psychological services for Early Years, SEND and vulnerable populations including refugee and marginalised groups. Each organisation has established access to networks to access participants in these groups regionally. Proposed activities are: knowledge exchange on transitions policies and practices in the partner countries with a literature review, resulting in policy guidelines; training materials disseminated free of charge; workshops to evaluate the materials, leading to an evaluation report; and transnational best practice guidelines. The resources will be embedded within existing structures within the partner organisations to ensure continued impact and life for the materials beyond the end of the project. The expected impact is to improve transition experiences for those groups who find them most difficult, by equipping Early Years practitioners, teachers, and families with knowledge, tools and ideas to promote positive transition experiences.

A psychological disorder (anxiety, depression, suicide tendencies, depersonalization, derealisation and self-harm, hallucinations, trauma and stressor-related disorders) is a pattern of behavioral or psychological symptoms that impact multiple life areas and create distress for the person experiencing these symptoms (American Psychiatric Association). “5 of 10 of the most serious diseases of the 21th century concern psychological disorders: schizophrenia, addictions, depressions, obsessive-compulsive disorders. They are one of the primary causes for long-term health disease, disability and sick leave in Europe (source: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Mental_health_and_related_issues_statistics). In countries such as Turkey, Bulgaria and Spain the percentage of people aged between 16-29 is progressively increasing in the past years due to different type of political and/or financial crises. Regardless of the severity of his/her problem, most of the times a person affected by a psychological disorder faces learning difficulties and needs special support throughout his/her training period. However, a big number of trainers do not have enough experience and skills to deal with behavioural attitudes of people with psychological disorders (source: EUFAMI). As a consequence, they are not always able to adopt the proper attitudes or to adapt their tools/methods to the needs of these people. This situation produces a sense of powerless and a lot of frustration in the trainers; besides, it undermines the success of the training and trainers’ transition to work. This project traind and allowed trainers to raise their awareness about the behaviour and learning problems that such learners may experience in order to implement relevant coping strategies to ensure their full inclusion into the VET learning process and to avoid any possible dropout because not adapted learning strategies have been applied. Together with professionals (P2) and inclusion pedagogical university (P3), we equiped VET trainers with knowledge, skills and competences to implement strategies towards career development and social inclusion of disadvantaged learners. The project partners achieved this goal through the development of 3 intellectual outputs: IO1: Manual for VET trainers dealing with learners affected by psychological disorders aiming at raising awareness on behavioral characteristics of psychological disorders and related learning difficulties IO2: Handbook with coping strategies for VET trainers to provide reliable training to learners affected by psychological disorders IO3: Policy recommendation guideline for improving vocational training of people affected by psychological disorders The main results of the project lead to: - Significant improvements in the way VET staff (especially trainers) deals with people affected by psychological disorders (more confidence, adapted posture, more effective training strategies etc.) - Increased collaboration between VET structures and other players working in the field of psychological disorders - The emergence of a constructive debate on the topic of better understanding/supporting VET learners with psychological disorders in the VET sector, at the scale of the partner organizations, but also at regional, national and European level. The provided coping strategies and better understanding of the learning difficulties that learners with psychological disorders experienced, provided better opportunities to reduce the educational drop out and potentially unemployment as a coincidence. Bringing this project at a TRANSNATIONAL level allowed partners to:- Exchange experience and practices with other VET structures and any other actor active in the social and professional integration of people affected by psychological disorders/disability; - Equip VET trainers to better understand the learning difficulties that their disadvantaged learners expressed and enable them to implement coping strategies as part of development of new training approaches for people affected by psychological disorders- Allow different European actors to sit around the same table and engage an open and critical discussion on this issue. From 3 countries (TR, ES and BG) the partners are: P1: Leading regional educational directorate responsible for all educational units (schools, centers etc.) on the territory of Istanbul region P2: National umbrella organisation of psychologists, educators and social workers that are supporting people with disabilities and their parents from Bulgaria P3: Leading inclusive education university with dedicated department working directly with parents of people with disabilities from Spain P4: VET school from Istanbul area that is training students with psychological disorders and would like to further train their staff to equip with necessarily knowledge and skills