The project “Specialized personnel for quality social services in Eastern Europe” is implemented in a strategic partnership with organizations from Romania – Humanitarian Organization CONCORDIA (non-profit association), Austria - Kardinal Köning Haus Educational Centre of Jesuits and Caritas non-profit Ltd. (educational centre), and Bulgaria - CONCORDIA Bulgaria Foundation (non-profit foundation). The project is aimed at a target group of management employees of organizations providing social services: 15 beneficiaries are professionals active in NGOs (including PP and P2) or in public institutions providing social services from both Romania and Bulgaria (20 organizations), graduates of bachelor’s level university studies, having administration and management responsibilities. Other 150 people will be informed about advanced professional training opportunities (indirect beneficiaries). The project is justified in the context and evolution of the social field: Both in Romania and Bulgaria the social services are currently affected by processes as globalization, demographic and social shifts, migration, economic crisis and the dramatic impoverishment of the population. In this context, there’s crucial need to reconfigure the function system and to tackle the social services strategically and professionally, which can be realized by developing new specialist trainings for professionals, based on professional experience and case studies, in order to adapt the working methodologies and to acquire new competences.Until now, there are no offers for further advanced training in the social services in Romania and Bulgaria. Bringing the know-how from Austria and adapting it to the national context, in order to develop a training course for social services manager aligned with the specific needs of the working professionals is the primary innovation element.The project aims to enhance the capacity of the social services providers from Romania and Bulgaria and also to develop the advanced training capacities in the management of social services matched with the specific context of South-Eastern Europe for one of the most qualitative training providers from Austria.Therefore the project seeks to achieve following objectives: OS1: To develop an advanced training course for management level – social services manager – for professionals from public and NGO sector, adapted to the Eastern European context. OS2: To provide in the management of social services an advanced professional training for 15 social service professionals, NGOs and public authorities and institutions in Romania and Bulgaria. OS3: To promote quality professional training and to inform 150 people regarding the training offers.The main activities of the project are: O1/ A3 To develop the advanced training course for managers in social services (Intellectual output O1), transnational training activities for the project team (C1) as well as for the direct beneficiaries of the project – C2 si C3 (15 professionals from NGOs and public institutions that provide social services), transnational meetings (M1, M2, M3), dissemination activities – A7- (2 national conferences in Romania and Bulgaria; continuous dissemination of the information regarding the project activities).Main results expected by the project are: the main result is an intellectual one – “Training course for managers in social services”. In addition, the project consists of activities that support the development of the intellectual product and that lead to achieving following results:• 15 social service managers trained, thereof 10 certified (results of activity C2 and C3)• 20 organizations and institutions informed regarding training opportunities of their professionals (result of activities A2, E1, E2)• 150 people informed regarding training opportunities in the management of social services (result of activities A2, E1, E2)• 1 accredited course in Romania (result of activity A3)• 4 transnational learning sessions (activities C1, C2, C3)• 3 partner organizations with a developed organizational capacity as providers of professional training (activities A4, A5, C1, M1, M2, M3)• 2 national conferences with 100 participants (E1, E2)• 6 members of the project team participated in transnational training sessions (activity C1)• 90% of participants are satisfied with the social services manager course (activities A5, C3, E1, E2)• 100 printed copies of the training courseAll organizations involved are key actors in social services and the results contribute to the strategic development of their resources, being essential for their own development but also ensuring improved quality of social services

MAGISTER project (Mental heAlth professionals’ learning community – continuous traininG program for practItionerS working with people affecTed by mEntal disoRders) brought together a strong partnership 3 NGOs (CONCORDIA Humanitarian Organization, Estuar Foundation from Romania and the Association for Cerebral Palsy from Coimbra, Portugal) and an Austrian university (Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences - FHV). The project aimed to improve quality of services provided by mental health practitioners at European level, in order to foster social inclusion of people affected by mental illnesses, anxiety and depression. The project has increased the capacity of mental health training delivery in Romania, Austria and Portugal, promoted the collaboration among mental health practitioners at European level and transfered good practices from Austria to Romania and Portugal. The joint development of training curricula improved practical competences, as well as the capacity to approach raising number of anxiety and depression cases, had offered work-based learning opportunities to professionals in mental health. The project has improved the capacity of 48 practitioners from Romania and Portugal in offering social services to people with mental disorders through short term joint staff training events. 11 among those 48 trainers also had the chance to participate at a ToT to further spread their knowledge.Over 250 professionals in mental health field at European have been informed throughout the project about the innovative toolkit of working instruments validated within the project and benefit continously of networking opportunities offered through the Online Practitioners Community.The project had a solid scientific base offered by the participation of the Austrian academic partner, which oversaw the validation of methods and working instruments and ensured evaluation in all phases of the project, including impact evaluation.Results: About 1.500 beneficiaries and their families will have access to better quality of services resulting in better social insertion. About 2.000 persons from public opinion, 350 practitioners, 30 trainers, 150 service providers and 15 authorities from 3 EU countries have been informed about project results. Partner organizations from Romania and Portugal have included the developed curricula in their existing training portfolio and will ensure training of other 120 professionals over a 3 year period, after the project's end.

The overall project objective is the development of competencies of trainers and teachers working in the educational and social fields to transition towards blended learning in a European context.Given the constraints of the current global pandemic and the fact that online training and mobile learning is becoming more and more important, the aim is to adapt existing training curricula to a blended form of learning – face-to-face and online.All three partner organisations involved in the project – Organizatia Umanitara CONCORDIA (OUC) in Romania as the lead applicant, as well as the Centro per la Cooperazione Internazionale (CCI) in Italy and Human Rights Campus (HRC) from the Netherlands – have extensive experience in training and also in online and blended training. The new component for all of the organisations is the structured development of a Training of Trainer’s curriculum which allows teachers and trainers – independent from the target group they are working with and the content they have to deliver – to partially train their target group online. An additional objective is to exchange on existing knowledge about pedagogy, tools (e.g. platforms, applications) and training methods among the partners.In order to reach the objectives described above, the main activities are going to take place as follows:- Development of train the trainers’ curriculum and participants’ manual including a toolkit for blended training.- 10 days’ Train the trainers’ programme (8 days face-to-face and 2 days online) for 13 teachers and trainers 8 from OUC, 3 from CCI and 2 from HRC. The scope of training will be to provide to participants methodical and didactic skills, knowledge about blended learning planning and preparation of teaching-units.- Development of a blended learning curriculum & toolkit on Human Rights and Global Education.- Teachers’ training with a minimum of 15 trainers/teachers/instructors (2 modules, 3 days each plus 2 days virtual exchange in each country). The training objective will be to develop theoretical and practical competences of participating teachers regarding the transition towards blended learning. The agenda will blend theoretical lectures with exploration of case studies and examples. Different teaching methods will be used: single and team teaching, group-works. The learning methods will include self-directed learning, collegiate case consultation, reflection units, application of mediated knowledge to practice.Regular progress meetings are assuring the compliance with the project objectives as well as the on-time implementation of the activities. The multiplication events in the three countries and at European level are going to make sure a proper communication and the visibility of the project. Information related to training module implementation will be published on all partners’ websites and social media.About 58 trainers and teachers will benefit directly through the project and enhance their capacity to instruct in blended methodology, while other 400 educators from 200 organizations at European level will be informed about project results. As the blended learning curriculum & toolkit will be made available in English, Dutch, Italian and Romanian and disseminated widely in digital format, thousands of teachers and trainers in Europe will be supported to implement blended learning in the classroom.

Education and training welcome learners from different backgrounds facing social integration difficulties, with a low level of education and limited employment prospects. Tensions in society interfere with the creation of a favorable learning climate. A growing number of young people are losing their critical attitude by adhering to conspiracy theories and seeking answers in extremist ideologies, most often religious or political. The lack of visibility of positive role models in the media can lead some of them to fall into violent radicalisation.For many experts, teachers and trainers, in direct contact with vulnerable groups and potential targets, are best placed to combat radicalisation.They must be able to conduct their work in a peaceful, non-discriminatory and optimistic environment in order to prevent radicalisation. But they also need to be better prepared to deal with tensions with and between learners. They must be able to detect indicators of radicalisation at an early stage and act appropriately. They must be able to counter conspiracy theories that disrupt the educational process. However, they are not always prepared and all of them do not have easy access to appropriate lifelong learning opportunities. Our aim is to provide teachers and trainers with tools to:- transmit to young people the desire to live and work in a pluralistic society,- create a learning climate favourable to all,- deal with tensions between learners and between groups of learners,- detect indicators of radicalisation,- identify who is at risk and how to help those in need of support,- to reduce racism and xenophobia.The partnership brings together 9 organisations from 9 different countries to cover different radicalisation contexts. They are all active in the education, training and youth sectors.Based on an analysis of needs in each country, we have developed guidelines and a set of resources to intervene with groups of young people facing difficulties, with social, cultural and religious differences generating risks and tensions. These resources include theoretical and practical elements, case studies to prepare for different situations and pedagogical activities to be implemented in the classroom, usually with a view to preventing radicalisation.Guidelines and resources are available in 9 languages (DE, EN, ES, FR, IT, GR, PT, RO, SL). They are organised on the multilingual platform www.allo-tolerance.eu providing open and free access, without registration. The whole was tested in real situation in all participating countries in order to validate the concept, to improve its ergonomics and to propose actions for the future, the platform being designed to easily add new contents and to facilitate exchanges.