<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is to improve the skills of the partners in developing training courses on dance as a tool for social inclusion. Through both practical and theoretical dance training, it is intended to create an innovative model of dialogue and encounter between people from different cultures.<< Implementation >>The project activity consists mainly of a theoretical and practical training course on dance as a bridge of dialogue between different cultures. The theoretical course will take place in Ireland and will address the history and culture of dance as a tool for social inclusion, with particular reference to the history of lindy hop. The activity will be a 5-day practical, beginners' course in Italy involving partners and Indian communities in dance classes<< Results >>The project intends to provide two training courses on the practice of dance as a tool for social inclusion: a theoretical one in which 6 people will be involved, and a practical one in which the Indian community of Terracina (RM) will be involved. Furthermore, an e-learning will be produced, available online on the partners' websites, which will allow all interested users to download training material on the history of dance as a practice of encounter and dialogue between different cultures

Entrepreneurship is proven to drive innovation, competitiveness, job creation and growth. It allows ideas and innovative concepts to be turned into successful ventures, and furthermore unlock the personal potential of creative individuals. Youth entrepreneurship in the creative sector is vital to ensure the continued development of societies, and is at the heart of the wider creative economy. At least Until 2020, the creative sector represented growth and created jobs across the board, particularly for young adults, whilst also strengthening social cohesion. The sector drove innovation, acting as a catalyst for change and stimulating invention and progress across a diverse cultural and economic landscape. Further to being essential drivers for cultural diversity in Europe, the creative sector comprises highly innovative companies and was deemed to be one of Europe's most dynamic sectors. A 2018 study - Boosting the Competitiveness of cultural and creative Industries for jobs and growth shows that cultural and creative industries employed more than 12 million people in the EU, which is 7.5% of all persons employed in the total economy. Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are an important contributor to the economy with 5.3% of the total EU GVA and a further 4% of nominal EU GDP generated by these, often high-end industries. Where an economy is facing decline, CCIs can contribute to the emergence of grassroots economic activities, creating sustainable jobs and enhancing the attractiveness of European regions and cities, and EU cohesion policy has recognised the multi-faceted contribution of creativity to its strategic objectives of convergence, competitiveness and employment.SMEs are the engine room of the EU economy, and the critical role played by fledgling businesses in driving economic development and job creation is just being recognised. Across the OECD area SMEs account for approximately 99% of all enterprises and two-thirds of employment. SMEs account for 57% of GDP in Europe and 95% of all SMEs are in fact micro enterprises, traditionally the entry point for new entrepreneurs, and this is increasingly so in the CCI sector, where most new businesses employ on average 2 or 3 people. The cultural and creative sectors are important in their own right in terms of their economic footprint. Cultural and creative sectors are largely composed of micro-firms or non-profit organisations often operating on the margins of financial sustainability. Large public and private cultural institutions depend on this dynamic cultural ecosystem for the provision of creative goods and services. However, and arguably more importantly, they are critical to a shared sense of European identity, culture and common values. The labour landscape, where ‘jobs and skills for life’ were once predominant, has given way to a precarious job market, where entrepreneurial options should be, but often aren't posited as a viable alternative for some young people over dependent labour (OECD, 2018). In the EU-27 (exempting the UK) since October 2019 to July 2020 unemployment has risen from 6.6% to 7.2%. over 15 million people were unemployed as of July 2020. This incorporates a rise of 336,000 since June 2020. In the EU-27 in July 2020 average youth unemployment stood at 17%. The COVID-19 outbreak and the measures applied to combat it have triggered a sharp increase in the number of claims for unemployment benefits across the EU (Eurostat). This has disproportionately hit youth with unemployment (-25 years) by country as follows: TR 23.7%, BG 9.4%, IE 14.8%, ES 41.7%, IT 31.1%, LT 20.3% UK 12.5% Along with tourism, it is the cultural and creative sectors who have been the most badly affected by the Covid-19 crisis. Venue-based sectors such as performing arts, live music, festivals, cinema, etc. were hardest hit by social distancing measures. The abrupt drop in revenues has put their financial sustainability at risk and has resulted in lay-offs with repercussions for the value chain of their suppliers, from creative and non-creative sectors alike. The Ace Youth project will serve a crucial sector at risk, by building and sharing measures and materials to offer entrepreneurial competencies and resilience training for the young people most affected. Addressing poor in-school careers services, the narrow curriculum and industry misrepresentation in low socio-economic communities and cuts to arts education. People from lower socio-economic backgrounds all too often are not fully represented in the creative workforce, and to this end mentoring can play its part supporting budding, young entrepreneurs, and we propose to incorporate an inter-generational approach. It is also widely accepted that target group specific, coherent entrepreneurship education initiatives are in short supply throughout Europe, and now is the ideal time to blend entrepreneurial training with resilience training for young people in the creative sector.

ART-SPORT HYBRID COMMUNITY is a strategic partnership in youth developed between 1. 06.2021 - 30.06 2022 in international partnership with organizations from 5 European countries ( Romania, Germany, Italy, Irland and Belgium).Our proposal aims to promote social inclusion and cultural consumption among disadvantaged young people from the partners countries through knowledge cooperation and synergies between youth, sports and cultural and creative organizations from 5 partner countries. The cultural-creative sectors and sports are important drivers in terms of their economic contribution and employment. They stimulate not only economic development but also social development, through the benefits they produce on people but especially for marginalized or vulnerable groups. The Covid19 pandemic severely affected these sectors through social distancing measures that led to complete closure and later on to the restrictive operational capacities of these sectors. They suffered a sharp drop in income and led to a reduction in earnings and layoffs. At the same time, the youth sector has also been severely affected by distance measures, closing schools, businesses, blocking of social life in general, lack of youth activities, emphasizing inequality of opportunity in all areas, and putting their mark on the well-being of young people in all areas. In the context of the imposed measures, young people faced the lack of access to education, socialization, lack of leisure activities, etc. Therefore the partners believe that a strategic intervention building on the potential of youth, sports and culture is needed to address challenges and maximizing opportunities in the recovery of these sectors. Our project propose a growth intervention, inclusive and sustainable that creates synergies between the 3 areas and promotes mutual learning, exchange of good practices, partnerships for cultural transformation and social innovation with a view, on one side to jointly develop more efficent and coherent community programs to disadvantaged young people and on the other side to contribute to the sectors recovery by building a shared understanding of synergies and benefits of co-operation. The project objectives are: To engage 20 youth operators/ youth cultural educators in a process of co-designing and co-delivering of art-sport hybrids community projects by means of 1 international workshop. To deliver 1 art-sport hybrids community project in 5 partners countries through exchange of practices, concepts and activities that fosters social inclusion and cultural consumption among disadvantaged young people. To empower cultural and creative organizations to create synergies and knowledge cooperation with youth/sports sectors with a view to jointly develop more efficient and coherent community programs to disadvantaged young people. Learning activities will focus on: - 1 international workshop for 20 youth operators and youth cultural educators that offers an international space that nurtures mutual learning and joint contribution in development of an international community project that combines sports, arts, culture and fosters innovation and cultural transformation. It will be the main tool through which the staff in the field of youth and the creative and cultural sector will cooperate and communicate, will offer their perspective on the project subjects, thus becoming able to promote European dimension in youth education, fostering a common understanding of the synergies and benefits of cooperation in the 3 areas. Within the international activity but also during the project, the links between youth, arts and sports will be analyzed, which can increase the strategies for developing participation in each one and promoting the cultural citizenship. - Creation and Implementation of the arts-sport hybrids community project -the participants will create 1 project concept around common themes but having different program activities developed in each country at local level build on the characteristics of partner communities. Specific objectives will be to promote the access of disadvantaged young people from the partner countries to art-sport hybrid activities, cultivate interest in culture and art among disadvantaged youth communities, empower synergies and knowledge cooperation between youth, sports and culture sectors. The partners will involve in the delivery of the project other local public and private actors, fostering innovation and cultural transformation building on clear sense of shared values, aspirations and common ground for arts-sport as instruments to foster social inclusion and cultural consumption among disadvantaged young people. As result an art-sports policy brief will be developed by those involved in the delivery of the project and submitted to policy makers to foster interest and further actions in research and joint policy integration of the sectors.

As Europeans we all know that culture and creativity are essential elements of the European identity, but perhaps few of us are aware of just how important they are to the overall growth and prosperity of the European economy. This knowledge gap, or general ‘misbelief’ has deep roots in our histories, as politicians as well as professionals have long overlooked the importance and economic potential of the cultural and creative industries, as well as creativity more generally in everyday civic life. In more challenging times such as during the Covid crisis, we have all relied on creative and cultural works to get us through the toughest days, whether literature, radio, music, films or TV they have been our solace and our comforter. They stand as a 'beacon of hope' to overcome the despair for many people and communities; but do governments or local policy makers give the creative sectors the credit they deserve for their civic service? After all, the creative and cultural sectors are the second most impacted after tourism in the ongoing Covid crisis. Across Europe, entrepreneurship drives innovation, competitiveness, job creation and growth. It allows new innovative ideas and concepts to be turned into successful ventures and furthermore can unlock the personal potential of individuals. Entrepreneurship in the creative sector is important to ensure the continued development of societies and is at the heart of wellbeing of the wider economy. Aside from entrepreneurship, encouraging creative and cultural dialogue can be developed as key components of local economic development. Cultural and creative industries are often strongly dependent on location, they feed on local traditions, and therefore they are especially suitable channels to, not only share the energies of place, but also further serve communities and contribute to community cohesion. Making Space 365 partners believe that by employing creative methods in community contexts by bringing different decisions makers together can benefit wider society by creating shared creative spaces and projects that explore the common needs of society in a 'bottom-up' development process. Just as creative and cultural industries act as a catalyst and an innovation engine, employing their approaches and methods can bring benefits that strengthen the human economy. Local councils and municipalities, as the most local forms of the government have a key role to bring together the disparate elements of entrepreneurship, culture and creativity with young people and decisions makers at all levels to explore the potential of implementing shared creative activities and the diverse units of economic and social activity contained in the civic space. Making Space 365 partners propose 4 intellectual outputs:Making Space 365 Framework for Social, Civic & Community Education and EngagementMaking Space 365 Creative Skills & Entrepreneurship Youth Training CurriculumMaking Space 365 Civic Action and Creative Youth Event GuidebookMaking Space 365 Creative CalendarAn international training event will be hosted with participation of front-line youth leaders and workers and a Making Space 365 Festival & Showcase Event will be held in each partner country to celebrate the project results.Making Space 365 resources will be the tools with which young people, youth leaders, community organisations and local stakeholders can create grass roots movements and momentum to ensure the communal voice is heard. The project will develop a new working model and methods for devolved decisions that involves shifting the burden of decision making from municipal leaders to include a spectrum of local voices; e.g. community members, local businesses, youth and community organisations in a creative space where different perspectives are valued. This is a two way methodology and we want to support whole communities to engage in more meaningful, locally relevant discussion, that not only increases community engagement with the cultural and creative sectors, but that traditional civic and community roles also become invested in creative approaches and share the methods within their civic and community structures.Making Space 365 will develop tools, training and approaches that can help communities, youth and community organisations celebrate a pride and ownership of something that is ‘of’ and ‘with’ the community rather than just ‘for’ the community. The impact of engaging with the Making Space 365 model will be long lasting and create a model for long term engagement that can be sustainable and transferable to new settings. The Making Space 365 materials will be designed for face to face or online delivery, essential in such uncertain times; and it is intended that by targeting young people we can make a difference that will be transferred to new settings as those involved embark on their working journey, taking up employment within the community or starting their own creative businesses.

"<< Background >>Eurostat puts the number of asylum applications in Europe at approximately 1.8 million, of which 11.9% will be Syrian and 8% Afghan.Looking at their realities, as well as taking into account the reality experienced across Europe, the partners consider that new mechanisms for integrating these migrants into the communities where they have been placed are necessary. The partners consider that the focus should be given to young people, since most of them will not be participating in the academic, social and cultural life of the communities. Thus, and taking into consideration that sport is one of the activities which most involves young people, but it is also a practice to be instilled for the healthy development of young people, the partnership wishes to study how sport among young people is being used at European level to break cultural barriers and promote active citizenship. The aim is therefore to develop curricula and working methods, which do not yet exist in a structured and mechanised way, which will allow in all European communities to integrate and create programmes for the integration of migrants into their communities through the practice of sport for young people.<< Objectives >>Throughout Europe, thousands of young people are involved in sports, in all disciplines, whether professional, amateur, federated or not. There are therefore a huge number of possibilities to instil in them a social entrepreneurial mindset that leads them to start grassroots integration programmes through sport in their communities.Thus, the aim of this project is to use sport as a way to connect and strengthen communities, share common values, break cultural and ideological barriers, and ultimately trigger structural and systematic changes to introduce across Europe the development of grassroots programmes that follow the study and development done in this project, led by young people who want to impact the present and future of their communities.<< Implementation >>During this project, the consortium will first conduct a good practice survey in order to understand how communities use sports programmes for the integration of migrant or refugee communities, thus understanding what is being done well but also understanding where these programmes are failing.After this research, the project will develop a curriculum ""From Theory to Practice"", which will bring together all the knowledge and material needed to develop and implement youth sport programmes in a structured way in communities dealing with the integration of migrants and refugees.The project will also develop an in-service training programme to ensure that training is available for social workers, youth workers, and coaches to successfully implement in their communities the curriculum that has been developed.Finally, because we want this project to have a systemic impact, a Policy Paper will be developed to present to key stakeholders and policymakers the project, the materials developed and the conclusions reached, in order to kickstart the implementation of the work developed in their communities.<< Results >>IO1: Best Practices ResearchA research of best practices done in the world of sports will be gathered. Partners will research their unique national realities, comparing them to the European panorama, create a database of what has been done and analysing what can be improved.IO2: From Theory to Practice After gathering information on what has been done, partners will develop a curriculum that will create a new approach to the integration of migrants and local youth communities, addressing how to operationalise this curriculum for any organisation to take part in a new approach to community development.IO3: In-Service Training ProgramAs the EU intake of refugees and migrants continues to evolve youth workers are increasingly expected to provide new integration programs, however, in many cases appropriate in-service training for youth workers is not provided. The project will strive for a comprehensive intervention where the formation of youth workers as key intermediaries is considered to be just as important as the needs of end users. IO4: Policy PaperThe Policy Paper will be the document that will advocate the implementation of this strategy for affirming sports as a gateway to cultural integration at European and national levels. This document is focused on advocacy at a policy level, aiming the main decision-makers and policymakers at national and European levels."