<< Background >>Municipality of Silivri gives a considerable attention on enhancing women in this suburban area. However, according to the records of the Silivri Chamber of Agriculture in 2020, only 50 (there are many unregistered female farmers) of the 2000 registered farmers are women farmers. This huge gap between female and male farmers shows the urgent necessity of women empowerment in agriculture sector in Silivri. Agricultural Production and Research Center (TURAM), established by Silivri Municipality in 2011, which focuses on women empowerment in agriculture sector, has 255 acres of land for implications, research and trainings for farmers. TURAM conducts trainings to empower women farmers engaged in small-scale agricultural activities in the region, supports women cooperatives, provides machinery and equipment support for the production of value-added products, etc. However, although adult educators in our municipality are well enough in vocational sense, they are unfortunately insufficient in developing cooperatives trainings and other key skills. This is evident from the inadequate activities of women's role in cooperatives in our region and their inability to achieve sustainability.Being a member of agricultural cooperatives needs specific characteristics and basic skills that are missed the cut by female farmers because of the inadequate trainings about the cooperative system. These characteristics and skills can be counted as communication, understanding cooperatives, participation-learning-training (PLT) and digital competence. When there is lack of understanding the procedure of agricultural cooperatives, participation and sustainability decrease because members do not have the knowledge in basic rights, marketing, sales strategy management and organizing planning. If the communication in the cooperatives is not oughtness, members would not work in a harmony and cannot get the sustainability. Since there is no proper learning of these socio-behavioural concepts, learners cannot develop empathy, communication in business ethics, problem solving and critical thinking. Without these skills, they cannot be successful in the understanding cooperatives such as management, marketing and organizing. Importantly, digital transition which is a compulsory skill under the pandemic period as well as personal development is crucial for the agricultural cooperative systems.These trainings are provided at the university level and have no equivalent in adult education neither in Turkey nor in the countries of participating organizations. More active participation of adult educators is needed for women farmers to receive agricultural cooperatives training in a better quality and sustainable manner. In addition, through training and skills development, rural women and adult learners in general can play a much greater role in the development of agricultural value chains and, their cooperatives will contribute to the increases in economic and social value in their regions. The rate of European Parliament stated in previous question proves to needs of urgent intervention and innovative tools for women empowerment in agriculture sector in EU Countries.<< Objectives >>Since the project focus on women empowerment in agricultural cooperatives, the main objectives and expected achievements by implying it as follows,•To increase the agricultural cooperation and digital transformation skills of women farmers•To provide adult educators of the partnership organizations with methodology and tools which will help them to organize better their training courses on cooperatives and enhance their skills on training approach to women coming from rural areas.•To strengthen the capacity of the agricultural woman cooperatives through enhanced cooperation with adult education and providing innovative training•To encourage cooperative farming among woman and to raise of awareness of women entrepreneurship in rural areas.•Resolving the problems in the field of agricultural cooperatives by sharing the know-how and experiences of the participating institutions•Meeting the needs of the target group efficiently with a European perspective•Contribute to the empowerment of women in rural areas, which is a cross-border need•To generate innovative ideas from an international perspective•To provide women farmers with an improved training in agricultural cooperatives at EU level•Increasing the capacity and professionalism of participants at EU / international level•To reach wider audiences in disseminating project results•Contributing to the European Commission and Erasmus + priorities with women empowerment, rural development, sustainability and digital transformation.<< Implementation >>There are key activities for gaining the project objectives. If success is achieved in these activities, the planned results and project targets will be achieved. These activities are as follows,Development of Intellectual Outputs:The most important activities for meeting the needs of the target audience of the project and achieving the project goals are the development of the intellectual outputs. Three intellectual outputs will be developed in accordance with the project objectives as follows,Innovative Methodology for Agricultural Cooperatives Training,The first output in the project is an innovative methodology that contributes to other outputs. Thanks to this output, adult educators will increase the quality of agricultural cooperatives training and train women farmers with more effective methods. The know-how, experience and research of all partners will contribute while developing the output. In this way, the output will contain a comprehensive content from digital transformation to adult education.Training Module for Women Farmers,A training module will contribute to the development of women farmers in agricultural cooperatives and also increase their socioeconomic skills. With this module, women who are trained in agricultural cooperatives will also gain digital and communicative competencies. Thanks to the acquired skills, the goal of sustainability and empowerment of women in agricultural cooperatives will be achieved. As in the first output, all partners will work together and it will be ensured that the prepared module has an innovative and comprehensive content.AgroSis (e-Learning Platform),A platform will be developed for women to gain experience as well as theoretical knowledge and put what they have learned into practice. This platform will contain simulations, implication videos and online classes. All partners will work together to prepare and regularly update the contents, and will conduct developmental research at specific time periods. Thanks to this platform, women's empowerment will not remain in theory and will be put into practice. In addition, not only women farmers, but also adult educators will put their learning into practice through online education, cooperatives and simulations.Transnational Meetings:All partner institutions will take part in these meetings and the outputs will be evaluated in detail. Exchange of ideas and feedback will be made for these evaluations. In this way, the project outputs will be updated according to the feedbacks and they will be of the best quality. In addition, thanks to the transnational meetings, communication between partners will increase and the networks of participating institutions will expand.Multiplier Events:Multiplier events are an important activity for the dissemination of project results and to meet the needs of a wider target audience. Thanks to these events, the project outputs will support agricultural cooperatives training and women's empowerment in agricultural cooperatives both in Turkey and Europe. The project outputs, which offer innovative and modern agricultural cooperative education, will be able to reach policy makers and decision makers through these activities and will be used by many institutions in adult education.LTT Mobility for Adult Educators:Our partner AGACA, which has expertise and experience in the field of agricultural cooperatives, will host trainers training. In this way, adult educators will provide a more efficient education by developing on online education, adult education and new methods of agricultural cooperatives. Therefore, women farmers will be empowered in the field of agricultural cooperatives thanks to a higher quality education.<< Results >>The key goal of the project is to empower women farmers in agricultural cooperatives. To achieve this, the project seeks solutions to improve the profile and competencies of women farmers. In line with this purpose and need, tangible and intangible results will be obtained in the project. The most important tangible results of the project are the following intellectual outputs:- Innovative Methodology for Agricultural Cooperatives Training- Training Module for Women Farmers- AgroSis (e-Platform)In order to strengthen women farmers in agricultural cooperatives and to increase sustainability in these cooperatives, the project provides results for the development of women farmers. Thanks to these results, women farmers will increase their skills in agricultural cooperative with social, digital and managerial competencies. In order to acquire these competencies and achieve the project's purpose, an innovative methodology will be prepared to support adult educators who provide training to women farmers. While preparing this output, all partners will work together to bring the most innovative methods and modern perspectives. Thanks to the methodology to be designed, adult educators will provide female farmers with a content-rich training by transferring their knowledge more easily with effective techniques. Moreover, the LTT activity will also broaden the knowledge and experiences of adult educators to provide high quality agricultural cooperatives training. Training module, another output of the project, will be a comprehensive material for women farmers as a non-formal training. In this way, the competencies of women not only in the field of cooperatives but also in digital, social and administrative areas will increase throughout the training. This training module will be a learning material for female farmers and a teaching material for adult educators. In addition, it will be a learner-centered material thanks to the collaboration of local institutions that have information about the profile of women farmers and foreign institutions that are experts in the field of cooperatives. AgroSis platform will be prepared for adult educators and women farmers to gain experience and development as well as theoretical education. Thanks to the platform, women farmers and adult educators will put their digital skills into practice, gain experience through simulations, adapt to distance education and access auxiliary materials. With tangible results, obstacles to empower women farmers living in rural areas will be overcome by providing quality education and increasing competencies for success.The intangible results expected within the project are as follows:-The main target group of the project is women farmers living in rural areas. Thanks to the project, women farmers will have access to a better-quality education and will gain important skills. Thanks to these skills and effective training, female farmers will have economic power and will also be empowered in society.-Adult educators involved in the project will be more qualified than their colleagues in agricultural cooperative education and will expand the EU colleague network thanks to the transnational partnership.-The outputs of the project will be used by institutions such as public education centers, vocational training centers, associations, NGOs and will be delivered to adults who want to receive training in the field of agricultural cooperatives.-Thanks to the project, the networks of participating institutions and their recognition in Europe will increase.-With partnership, the outputs will be prepared with an advanced perspective and they will be used not only at local level but also national and international level.

<< Background >>Climate change is a reality of our times, and its negative impacts intensify day by day. With their solution-oriented and valuable perspectives, social enterprises contribute to the activities to save the future of our planet. Today, rapid digital transformation offers opportunities to develop social entrepreneurship ideas to drive social and environmental impacts while creating sustainable outputs to fight against environmental challenges. New technologies hold the key to resolving many of the significant problems in our environment: access to drinking water, electricity, quality education and health, improving the quality of care and the quality of life in cities, and conservation of the environment, among others. Digital technologies allow social enterprises to contribute positive social and environmental changes while enabling them to sustain their livings through financially viable social enterprises. However, social enterprises are in a precarious position in terms of their sustainability. According to research, 71% of social entrepreneurs still struggle to make a living from a social venture. (https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2020/06/11/self-sustainability-the-dilemma-at-the-heart-of-social-entrepreneurship/). They experience difficulties in finding financial resources to continue their activities. While social enterprises work to a more sustainable environment, they suffer from sustainability problems in their business. Although digitalization offers enormous opportunities, environmental social enterprises can not exploit them adequately, and they lack digitalizing their business ideas or experiences.This situation reveals the urgent need to improve environmental social entrepreneurship activities through digital technologies. Digital transformation provides parallel growth of socioenvironmental and financial value for social enterprises. Using digital technologies in social enterprises serves as a supportive function to improve sustainability through enhancing convenience and efficiency while lowering costs of enterprises. (Gregori & Holzmann, 2020). Therefore, sustainability can be achieved through engaging digital technologies in the activities of environmental social enterprises. This aim has to be supported by comprehensive training materials, methodologies, and innovative tools for youth workers to improve their digital-based social entrepreneurship activities. Because youth workers are both insufficient and lack of resources in digital social entrepreneurship activities. The gamification approach is one of the most appropriate tools to access youth workers and strengthen their digital-based entrepreneurship skills. (https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/15495710/Games_final_JRC78777.pdf). For this reason, the gamification methodology, which attracts more attention of young people and has proven to be more effective concretely, needs to be adapted to the training materials for improving the entrepreneurship skills of youth workers. Consequently, accessibility and connectivity provided by digital tools enlarge the impact areas of social enterprises and equip youth workers with innovative tools to fight against environmental and social challenges.<< Objectives >>Accordingly, the overall objective of the project is to improve environmental social entrepreneurship activities of youth work through digitalization.The specific objectives are;•Enhancing the competencies of youth workers on digital-based social/environmental entrepreneurship training activities through increasing innovative and high-quality in-formal and non-formal training materials•Promoting social entrepreneurship spirit and raising awareness of environmental issues among young people; and encouraging them to become an E-MAKER for their local communities. •Building capacities of organizations on innovative social entrepreneurship training to work transnationally and across sectorsOther issues that we want to achieve by the project are as follows: ( for youth workers, young people within the institution and outside, social enterprises and other relevant stakeholders)- Strengthening the social entrepreneurship activities of youth workers and equipping them with educational materials including innovative digital tools- Developing advanced digital skills of youth workers (in terms of social entrepreneurship; marketing, financial strategy, digital environmental solutions, sustainable green communities, etc.)- To improve the professional and soft skills of youth workers, to increase their professional motivation and daily satisfaction- To increase the communication of youth workers with their colleagues and to improve their business skills to work at the EU level- Adapting the gamification methodology that may attract the attention of young people to the youth work of participating institutions- Creating a road map to contribute to the sustainability of Social Enterprises- Contributing to the internationalization strategies of institutions and promoting cross-border cooperation- To increase the opportunities of young people to benefit from digital opportunities to their green skills- To improve young people soft skills by increasing their communication with cross-border transmitters; For example, active citizenship, environmental activism, solidarity and social entrepreneurship, teamwork spirit, environmental awareness, digital / social entrepreneurship, communication, self-return, etc. (LTT activity)- To create a more sustainable society, in both a social and environmental sense, into an opportunity to build a professional future through entrepreneurship and social innovation.<< Implementation >>Activities were designed to meet the identified needs in the field of social entrepreneurship. Each activity and the output will support the objectives of the project. The main activity of the project will be the development of three intellectual outputs. Through transnational meetings, LTT activity, and multiplier events, the quality of the outputs will be intensified. Accordingly,The development of the intellectual outputs:The non-formal training toolkit of digital social entrepreneurship: will be produced for the youth workers to improve their skills and resources to train young people on social entrepreneurship and environmental challenges including digital opportunities. The training materials included in the toolkit will be designed by non-formal learning methodologies. In this way, the transversal and soft skills of young people will be enhanced as well as the social entrepreneurship skills. LTT activity will be significant to assess the quality of the training materials and to make necessary improvements.The manual for digitalization of social enterprises: will be developed to enhance the advanced digital skills of the youth workers. The manual will cover all stages and the workflows in the social enterprises, including data management, financial management and marketing, education, research, and capacity building activities for the environmental issues. EU&PRO will be an associated partner for organizing virtual classes for youth workers after completing the output. Through these virtual classes, youth workers will receive training on digital opportunities to be employed in different stages of social enterprises. On the one hand, the functionality of training materials in the online manual will be tested, and on the other hand, youth workers will gain invaluable skills and resources to improve the sustainability of their enterprises.Virtual Board Game: will improve the social entrepreneurship skills of youth workers and young people in innovative and enjoyable ways. The game will be instructive for the target groups since players will learn the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship, the models of social enterprises, and how to achieve sustainability while playing the game. Playtesting sessions will be implemented to test the game with youth workers from partner institutions after completing the output. Through these playtesting sessions and feedback received from participants, improvements will be made to the game. Furthermore, the virtual board game will be available on online platforms without any costs or limitations. In this way, the project will reach more target groups beyond the European borders.LTT activity:The aim of the activity is to improve the social entrepreneurship skills of young people aged between 18-30. Young people who are working to fight against environmental challenges in youth initiatives, university clubs, or individually will be encouraged to implement their innovative ideas in social enterprises through this activity. All training materials will be designed to equip young people with the necessary skills and competencies. Moreover, through LTT activity, the toolkit will be tested whether the training materials are of desired quality or not. Transnational Meetings:Through the meetings, the quality of the project outputs, the time and budget management, and the general project management will be regulated by all partner institutions. These meetings will strengthen the coordination and communication between partners. In this way, a productive working environment will be ensured to improve the quality, effects, and scope of the activities. Multiplier Events:During the multiplier events and dissemination activities, project outputs and results will be introduced to the target groups, NGOs, decision-making authorities, and individuals. Thanks to these activities, the awareness of environmental problems and social entrepreneurship will be increased in society.<< Results >>The project will produce both tangible and intangible results on participants, target groups, participating institutions, and broader circles. Three intellectual outputs will be the most significant tangible results of the project.The intellectual outputs will be used by the participating institutions to improve youth workers' digital competencies and promote social entrepreneurship training of young people. The non-formal toolkit and the online manual to be produced as tangible results will enhance the quality of management, research, marketing, and youth work in the participating institutions by strengthening the social entrepreneurship skills and advanced digital competencies of youth workers. In this way, the partner institutions will satisfy the needs of their target groups with innovative and comprehensive resources. Moreover, the transnational cooperation will enable the participating institutions to produce quality results to improve the sustainability of the social enterprises and the social entrepreneurship skills of young people. Youth workers will become much more competent in managing all stages in and the workflow of the social enterprises by completing the project and integrating the intellectual outputs into the everyday activities of the participating institutions. Furthermore, a virtual board game will add value to the capacities of the participating institutions by increasing their recognition and reputation at the international level.The project activities will enhance the know-how for all partners, improving capacities and professionalism to work at the EU level, strengthening their networks across Europe.Furthermore, the participants from all partner institutions will benefit from the results produced during the project. The project's outcomes will create the ideal setting for participants from partner institutions to develop more modern, professional, and open working environments. Transversal and soft skills obtained throughout the project implementation will add value to the work culture in the institutions. The project results will enhance the management, team-working, and communication skills of managing staff and project working groups in all participating institutions. Other expected results of the project are as follows:Youth workers will be provided comprehensive training materials on advanced digital skills to manage the workflow of the social enterprises in all stages, including financial management and marketing, data management, research, education, and capacity-building for the environmental issues.Youth workers will be equipped with innovative tools, training methodologies, and materials to train young people on digital social entrepreneurship and environmental challenges.The outputs of the project will strengthen the non-formal training capacities of the youth workers and, in this way, the necessary quality human resources will be provided for the sustainability of the social enterprises.Through the implementation of the intellectual outputs, young people will receive quality tips, clue or information on social entrepreneurship.Through non-formal training activities, young people’s social entrepreneurship skills, as well as soft skills such as team-working, communication, and initiative skills, will be enhanced.The awareness of environmental issues will be increased among young people, and they will be encouraged to take action to solve these problems and to become E-Makers.The project results will be disseminated to the wider circles so that other social enterprises will benefit from the training materials and tools produced during the project. The awareness of environmental challenges will be increased in society. In this way, the social enterprises will be able to build relationships with other interest groups, institutions, and initiatives across the boundaries.

"According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) report, 38% of young people are not very hopeful about their career futures, as the crisis will create even more obstacles in the labour market and prolong the transition from school to work. 50% of teens are likely to experience anxiety or depression, with an additional 17% likely to be affected. In this context, urgent measures are needed to support the mental health of young people, among the others. Artistic work is one of the most effective ways to improve people's mental health. Performing art helps a person to express himself and provides physical, mental and emotional well-being. Digitized artistic works are an important tool to support young people in the global epidemic crisis. Unfortunately, youth work has not been able to keep up with the digital transformation and not sufficiently include young people.When the mental effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on young people are taken at the centre of the project, the focus will be on Digital Storytelling. As an innovative and artistic approach to teaching and learning that integrates human creativity and technology, it enables the creation of learner-centred and technologically rich interactive teaching and learning environments. Digital Storytelling includes all artistic elements such as scriptwriting, music, literature, photography, animation making. Digital storytelling allows individuals to tell their own stories, learn digital media skills, build confidence and self-esteem, develop language and literacy skills, foster higher-order thinking skills. In addition, digital storytelling supports non-formal education method with C-L-A-SS (Communication-Language-Art-Social Science) approach and perfectly fits as a solution of the impacts of Covid-19 in youth work.In order to achieve these goals, the various activities will be carried out such as the development of intellectual outputs, transnational meetings, virtual LTT activity, the online festival and various dissemination activities. The project will offer two intellectual outputs which are The Non-Formal Training Set of Creation Digital Storytelling and ""xPress Yourself"" e-platform.The training set will be a tool for youth workers in order to support their work in the Covid-19 process. This output will enable online non-formal activities through Digital Storytelling. This will also contain the basics of photography art.“XPress Yourself” focuses on digitalized artistic works and strengthening the mental health of young people. It will provide users with the opportunity of self-learning in photography and digital storytelling. The aim of the platform is to bring young people together with creative remote activities in the Covid-19 period, to increase their dialogue with their peers, to enable them to develop transversal skills and to show new ways for them to express themselves. While showing this way, it is to expose creativity through photography and digital storytelling.These intellectual outputs will support youth work not only in Covid-19 period but also the digital transition of youth work which will be widespread next years. These outputs perfectly fit e-mobility/virtual mobility aspects which encourage by Erasmus+.The online festival which will bring together young people and youth workers from all corners of Europe will be carried out. The theme of this festival will be culture. Participants will prepare digital storytelling videos for this festival where they will tell their local stories, heroes, histories, lifestyles, etc. These digital storytellings will be published in a certain order at the festival. Young people will get to know their peers' cultures while promoting their culture. This cultural transfer will strengthen EU Awareness and common values. It will also strengthen the EU identity among young people.Some of the expected impacts of the project as follows;- Young people in our main target group will discover and develop their creativity through photography and digital storytelling. While engaging these activities, they will strengthen their mental health affected in the Covid-19 period.- Young people will gain the ability to express themselves through photography and digital storytelling. Producing digital storytelling will enable them to discover much more different artistic talents. In addition, they will develop many soft skills and transversal skills as their communication and dialogue with their peers will strengthen.- Youth workers will gain alternative tools to support their work which affected during the Covid-19 period by using the project outputs. In addition, they will be inspired by the project and bring innovative ideas to your career.- The project will have long-term impacts on those who conduct training activities in different disciplines and branches. For example, digital storytelling can be used in various training such as mathematics, science, foreign language, etc."