"Project ""European wetland ambassadors"" undertakes two European challenges:- to provide quality training and to offer very ambitious and sustainable professional perspectives to people currently excluded from labour market and who are integrated through work economic activities (long-term unemployed people, young adults excluded from school system, low-skilled seniors);- to protect and promote natural wetlands and European rivers. This objective is supported by the application of the Water Framework Directive, by which European authorities and Member States must (1) manage, pollution control and prevent natural hazards, as well as (2) inform the public.To meet all these challenges, project partners intend to establish and test a new set of competences, in addition to competences and training already acquired within social insertion organisations acting within the field of sustainable development. Within already existing training topics undertaken by active social insertion organisation on wetland development, this framework of competences fosters the new job ""European wetland ambassadors"" while adding new themes such as environmental mediation, knowledge about wetlands, ecological engineering.The European cooperation within the project will be of important added-value compared to the existing experiences because it will :- provide a common response to a dual common European challenge (wetland quality and long-term unemployment);- give access to a diversity of European practices and situations;- enhance recognition of this new profession within a common framework, fostering equivalences and mobilities.The project will be supported by a partnership of 7 organisations from 6 different countries (Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain). Each of them have complementary skills and statutes: representative of public decision makers, local authorities in charge of wetlands and rivers development and who are potential recruiters of “wetland ambassadors”; representatives of training organisations, who will contribute to give the profession specific reference and validation; and finally representatives of social integration organisations which will enable to test, to validate and to give credence to the project intellectual outputs and results.Different complementary activities will give national and European validation and recognition to the new Core Competency Reference Guide :- development of reation of a job reference system, with a detailed list of associated skills, based on a detailed report of existing practices, needs, contexts, issues and references at European level;- production and validation of a training framework and training content associated with this job reference system, - Production and validation of the qualification and skills validation framework and system;- test of training activities, during a transnational workshop for trainers and 6 local training sessions for integration groups. All in all, 22 trainers and 100 people in employment integration process will benefit from these innovative training techniques tailored for public in insertion with specific needs;- communication actions and dissemination of results for recognition of the conducted work and the emergence of this new job at European level and at the 6 partner countries level.In the end, project expected impacts will be at different levels :The target groups will benefit from stronger professional integration thanks to upgrade of their training and profiles, to easier access to higher level of training courses such as "" management of natural areas "" or “environmental education”.European economic integration organisations will offer higher expectation and quality to support their beneficiaries.European local authorities will benefit from improved level of services related to wetland and river maintenance and development that they have to manage."

"In the framework of Europe 2020 growth strategy, the European Union aims at reaching, by the year 2020, ambitious goals related to employment, innovation, education and social inclusion. To meet these goals, the project is targeted to trainers and policymakers. It aims at training to ""learning by doing"" pedagogy that is to say an articulation between ""teaching"" and ""results"" areas that can be divided into devices related to vocational training or integration through economic activity. The aim is to enable young adults excluded permanently from labor market to find not only a job, but also a social reintegration.In fact, each year many European young adults having ""dropped out"" of school end without any professional perspectives.This ""learning by doing"" pedagogy is a true alternative to dropping out of school by young adults and offers great opportunity to start tailored integration career.The development of this program will be a laboratory of ideas, proposals and initiatives for the 6 transnational partners; some act in the field of training and insertion, but are not specialists in ""learning by doing"" pedagogy and project construction, while others are using this pedagogy, but not as an alternative to dropping out; still others are training centers or associations acting for inclusion of disadvantaged people and are willing to acquire and implement these new methodologies.The aim of this project is to develop tools such a training module ""Training professionals to ""learning by doing"" pedagogy, to promote and develop this operative pedagogy with structures and organizations able to implement and offer this pedagogy within insertion devices for young adults in situations of fragility in labor market.Through this project, the partnership aims to promote work based on the concepts of ""learning by doing"" and project management pedagogies as factors for active social inclusion, to enrich existing methods and approaches within the partnership, to discuss specific devices and targeted to school dropout, to find out and promote good practices."

START project aims to develop innovative digital tools and methods for increasing the capacity, knowledge and skills of youth workers, teachers, educators, and training professionals, to acquire the appropriate professional and quality level to support young people, especially with fewer opportunities and/or disabilities for promoting social change through initiatives based on the Arts. The main objective is to provide comprehensive training material and sustainable tools to youth workers, based on modern, artistic and creative methods, as well as competences, in order to engage young people with the Arts, as a way to foster their active participation in EU societies, increase their interest about global issues and recent social crises and enhance their social motivation to develop actions with social impact. The project will engage youth workers who wish to better understand and participate in actions for social change, but also the START project's scope will be widened as even more people could be benefited from the project outcomes and developed material.The project has been designed based on the partners’ experience in matters related to youth workers, trainers, teachers, and organizations active in the field of non-formal education and lifelong learning. The project will bring together five partners from five different countries, France, Italy, Cyprus, Spain, and Lithuania, wishing to promote the importance of creating social change and embracing social inclusion in EU societies through engaging young citizens with the Arts and other creative media. The partners believe that qualitative youth work that meets young people’s needs must link digital considerations with creativity, thus quality learning material and creative tools will be developed. Since the needs are common between EU countries, the transnational character of the project will produce valid tools that could be transferable and applied in other EU contexts with minor modifications and added benefits.This will be done via the following outcomes:-START Empowerment digital Curriculum (IO1)-Digital START tours for Social Change (IO2)-#STARTathon Methodology (IO3)START project is expected to have an overall impact on the youth workers, trainers, or educators working in the field of active participation, social dialogue, and social inclusion promoting social cohesion, respect, and collaboration among several stakeholders in EU societies. In particular, the most important impact on the direct target group will be their enhanced competencies. The project focuses to develop responsible, active, and inclusive societies by enriching youth worker’s capabilities and knowledge in the subject, as well as inspiring and motivating them to use Arts and creative methods and media in order to make social actions that foster social cohesion and participation. The proposed project promotes the implementation of interactive digital tools to increase knowledge, skills, and capacity of youth workers and other stakeholders on a better understanding of contacting training that enhances social awareness and active participation of youth citizens about recent global issues. The biggest impact of the project is to recognize the importance of using modern methods that adapt to the demands of society's needs and socio-economic challenges. This project will also include three transnational project meetings that will contribute to the preparation, implementation, and evaluation phase of the project as well as five Multiplier Events. Also, a pilot workshop for youth workers will be held in order to transmit the knowledge, motivation, and inspiration among youth workers, enforcing them to assess their professional level about their personal knowledge and skills on implementing actions through artistic and creative media. Moreover, a short-term joint partners' staff training event will be held in Lithuania with the participation of professionals trainers, tutors, and/or educators in order to train individuals on the developed educational material and tools for engaging young people with the Arts. Furthermore, a local #STARTathon activity will be developed, with the aim to engage youth workers/leaders to create Art projects for social change, following the provided #STARTathon Methodology. START will provide equal opportunities for everyone to participate, in educational tools, interactive practices, and networking opportunities. All the information and material gathered through this project as well as the developed innovative tools will be digitalized and uploaded on the START website. The partnership will capitalize and build on each other’s and expertise, as well as experience from best practices in their national context, for future circulation and transfer of know-how. Last but not least START the project's results and outcomes will have both international and local impact as well as clear and tangible benefits and more opportunities for all stakeholders.

The European Mobility Advisor (EMA) is a youth worker (paid employee or volunteer) specialized inadvising young people willing to go abroad (mainly in EU countries) for a learning experience, eitherby studying, working or volunteering. The EMAs deliver mobility guidance, defined as a range ofactivities that enables young people to make mobility decisions related to study, working,volunteering and to manage their staying abroad. The EMAs play a fundamental role in promotingmobility abroad and assuring mobility is a fruitful experience for the youths, however this role /occupation has not been standardized at EU level and there are no tools to assess the competenceof those working in this role. The competence of youth workers, including the ones working as EMAsis a constant concern for the European Commission considering that in many European countriesthey: • comes from heterogeneous backgrounds, especially among volunteers • don’t hold formalqualifications for working with youths • are mainly trained by the organizations employing them, asformal and not formal training programs are scarce • don’t have the possibility to see their expertisevalidated. This project will improve the current situation by mapping the competence profile of theEMA at European level, and by developing a methodology for assessment of their competence calledExpertise checkup, a E-training course for assessors, a European certification and a Europeanregister for assessors and EMAs that have passed the Checkup. The description of the Competenceprofile of the youth educator working with EMAs will be based on ECVET, and the checkup on theEuropean Council recommendation on validation of non-formal and informal learning and to theEuropean Guidelines for Validating Not Formal and Informal Learning developed by CEDEFOP. Theconsortium is composed by organizations working with youth mobility in FR, LV, SK, IT, PL, and canrely on a wide European network. Approximately over 400 EMAs will be involved in the project andover 10.000 EMAs and other members of target groups will be informed about the project. Long termbenefits will be the professionalization of the EMAs, and delivery of better quality mobility guidance.

"Europe faces a real and ongoing threat from violent extremism. A small minority of groups continue to present false arguments and reasoning that seek to justify attacks on innocent civilians. Radical extremists have shown a mastery of global communication networks, using the Internet to disseminate graphic videos and electronic magazines to spread anti-establishment rhetoric and volumes of ‘fake news’ items to attract potential sympathizers. The radicalization of vulnerable youth within Europe is a relatively new issue and the latest one that youth professional and front-line staff are being asked to address. CONCORDIA provides an innovative and comprehensive response to support youth professionals, front-line youth service providers, educators and trainers and migrant support workers. The consortium comprised eight partner organizations: Romania, Austria, Czech Republic, Ireland, France, Cyprus, Finland, Germany. It included organizations with expertise in front-line youth development work; the design and delivery of education and training materials and programmes; the development and provision of continuous professional development training; digital and social media production training; web development and the design of intuitive e-learning environments. On this basis, following concrete results were achieved: (1) A Summary Research Report - The report identified that while the radicalization threat differs from country to country. But digital and social media are extensively used by subversive and extremist groups in each partner countries to engage vulnerable youth. (2) A Countering Radicalization Continuous Professional Development Training Curriculum - a completely new continuous professional development training curriculum that empowers front-liners to deal with the threat of radicalization. The curriculum was designed as a blended learning training course and comprises a total of 100 hours of study. (3) Sample Media Content Tool-kit with Tip-sheets - a suite of sample media outputs. These samples were developed as prototypes that the front-line workers according to their requirements can copy or emulate and include a series of short viral videos; 3 short audio files; a sample web-blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed and Instagram account. (4) The E-Learning-Portal - offers access to all CONCORDIA resources. The portal is optimized for online self-directed learning and for mobile access and works equally well on laptop, tablet or smartphone devices. (5) An On-line Observatory of Best Practice – include projects, methodologies, tools and resources. The observatory provides instant access to a library of tools and resources that support the fight against radicalization and extremism. (6) A Policy Paper ""Countering the Radicalization of Vulnerable Youth - A Front-line Approach"" - The key issue that the policy paper addresses is the essential role that appropriate continuous professional development plays in supporting front-line youth professionals to achieve quality outcomes in social and educational terms especially when faced with issues like the radicalization of vulnerable youth where specific skill sets are essential. All training resources can be accessed through the project website www.concordia.website where there is a link provided to the e-learning portal which has been developed. All resources developed are available in English, German, French, Czech, Greek, Finnish and Romanian. There is also a link to the project Facebook page where front-line youth workers can connect with like-minded individual throughout Europe."