"Two years were needed to set up “Aladdin and the Intergenerational lamp”, the Erasmus plus project. Five European partner organizations have been working together to learn about the way storytelling can be used by seniors to improve language, motivational and entrepreneurial skills in young adults from underprivileged backgrounds. This project can thus be summed up in two key concepts: the use of storytelling in an intergenerational context.The different partners of the project have gathered their skills and developed a theoretical background as well as a methodology (encompassing interactive and fun activities) using stories and short story techniques. In this way, the senior volunteers, firstly, received a training on how to work with young adults and how to use methods of storytelling to improve the skills mentioned above, and finally intergenerational workshops were set up to allow the volunteer seniors to act as co-leaders.Elan Interculturel (France) and DEMÀ – Departament d’Estudis dels Medis Actuals (Catalonia) – have based their work on the development of motivational skills. Storytelling Center (Netherlands) and Superact (England) have organised workshops to develop entrepreneurial skills. The Aladdin project has two main objectives:- the development of basic skills (language, entrepreneurial and social skills) as well as the underprivileged young adults’ personal wellbeing. - giving value to seniors’ skills as well as acquiring new skills (short storytelling techniques’)Superact (United Kingdom) and the Storytelling Center (Netherlands) are experts in all kinds of activities related to storytelling. Superact (UK) sets up training courses for adults and young people in precarious situations, organizes large-scale events, and develops training and storytelling materials as an educational tool. The Storytelling Center (PB) organizes project design and implementation workshops; it also offers training programs around storytelling techniques in (conflicting) communities.Kepes (Hungary), Elan Interculturel (France), DEMA (Spain), Superact (United Kingdom) all have experience in working with Seniors and especially in intergenerational projects. The Storytelling Center (PB) and Elan Interculturel (FR) have experience in working with young people. Elan Interculturel (FR) is an expert in the field of intercultural communication, and all partners have experience in working with immigrants and / or minorities.Activities:- ""National Info Day"" held in each partner country to inform participants about the project's objectives, to present the various publications, products and activities within the framework of the project,- The senior workshop to teach them to use storytelling as a pedagogical approach to disadvantaged young adults,- Intergenerational workshops to develop language skills of young migrants adult, or entrepreneurial and motivational skills of disadvantaged young adults, using storytelling methods,- An international final conference, which disseminated project results and products to stakeholders and other target groups for operational purposes.Results:o A theoretical and methodological booklet on the foundations of the projecto A tool box: (exercises, games) based on short stories.o A Guide for Seniors including resources needed for the organizer of intergenerational workshopso A collection of intercultural stories to illustrate cultural diversity and highlight the similarities between cultureso A booklet of case studies coupled with videos made during different workshopso A dynamic, multilingual website with online educational resourceso Social networkso 6 newslettersYoung adults have thus increased their cultural and communication skills, their self-confidence, and, consequently, the improvement of their social inclusion. In addition to acquiring concrete skills on how to organize such workshops and develop storytelling training skills, this project has had a positive influence on senior volunteers’ self-esteem (the feeling of being “useful”) and avoids isolation.The participating organizations have acquired new skills, resources and networks at local, regional, European and international level. In the long run, many participants wish to continue the activities after the project, in different ways."

Professionals from social and health sector working with vulnerable groups have a high absenteeism. This is due to stress and burnout, leading to increasing annual public expenditure in the participating countries. They are overwhelmed partly because they lack efficient tools to cope with stressful situations and to build resilience in themselves. Furthermore, their patients face problems originating from poverty and lack of education but also from mental health problems and cultural differences. To differentiate the effects of these factors is then a challenge. In the RESICARE project we aimed to develop educational materials for social and health professionals that can be incorporated in the vocational education system. These materials/tools will enable them to - better understand their relationship with their vulnerable patients (by reflecting on their patient’s and on their own cultural backgrounds, beliefs, and expectations) - notice the differences between signs and behaviors that suggest cultural differences as opposed to mental health issues - better understand how resilient behaviors can be manifested differently in different cultures/subcultures - learn how to use a wide range of activities (based on cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), art therapy, cognitive neuroscience and on the combination of these approaches) to better cope with stressful situations, to build resilience in themselves and to avoid burn-out Our primary target groups were - People working in the helping professions (social workers, health professionals) - Social and health profession students (future professionals). - Institutions, organizations providing continuous / initial education for health and social professionals Our secondary target group consisted of the vulnerable patients of helping professionals. Intended impact on the target groups: By getting familiar with these new approaches and techniques, social workers and health professionals can better cope with the stress inherent in their work and can help their patients more efficiently. In the long term this can lead to increased self-efficacy and higher job satisfaction. Institutions training social workers and health professionals will get acquainted with new methods that they can incorporate in their own pedagogical work. To reach our goals and achieve the intended impact we developed 4 Intellectual Outputs: - the Foundation Bricks (O1), that explains the main concepts (mental health, resilience, culture) and their intersections from both theoretical and practical viewpoints - the Manual of Critical Incidents (O2) that explains how the interpretation of problem situations between health professionals and their patients are shaped by cultural background, by one's beliefs and expectations, and how to differentiate the many possible factors (e.g., culture, mental health issues) behind problem behaviors - the Building resilience in social workers and health professionals toolkit (O3) that will equip these target groups with evidence based methods to better cope with stressful situations, to build resilience and to prevent burn-out - the RESICARE Open Educational Resource (O4) will ensure that the developed results, corresponding background materials and a series of video lessons are freely available to a wide audience for years after the project ends. We involved 616 social workers and health professionals and 79 vulnerable people directly to test our newly developed materials and we reached more than 245.060 secondary beneficiaries through project dissemination, exploitation, and transferability. The durability of the project is assured by the materials' long-term availability on the RESICARE website and on EU on-line platforms and also by offering future workshops and courses built around these results.

The SELFEE project aimed to give new tools for professionals to develop the transversal skills - namely social emotional learning (SEL) skills and digital competences - of unemployed people at risk of social exclusion (e.g. long-term unemployed, unemployed people from disadvantaged backgrounds). The program also included a practical training that will show/teach the unemployed people how to use these skills in searching for jobs and in keeping them. According to the European Commission (COM/2016/0381: A NEW SKILLS AGENDA FOR EUROPE Working together to strengthen human capital, employability and competitiveness) transversal skills and key competences (such as digital competences and entrepreneurship, the latter including self-awareness, self-efficacy or the ability to work with others) are essential for personal development, social inclusion, active citizenship and employment. These skills are also “the foundation for the development of higher, more complex skills”. Importance of SEL skills development for the unemployed: The consequences of longer term unemployment / repeated failures in reaching unemployment can have strong psychological impact: depression, loss of self-esteem, learned helplessness (a loss of belief in that the situation can ever change, giving up trying). People with a history of prolonged unemployment often lose their social relations. To reverse this psychological process the first step should be to give these people hope, to make them rediscover their strengths and resources. Within the broad concept of social emotional learning, we would like to focus on the development of specific skills (i.e. self-efficacy, self-presentation and relational skills) that were repeatedly shown to be positively related to finding and keeping a job. These are the very skills long term unemployed lack the most. The importance of soft skills for employability is also backed by a recent (2014) international research of the European Commission, which states that developing soft skills in unemployed people can be the first step and can provide a base for other programmes (e.g. workplace oriented training, vocational training and job search assistance). Importance of digital skills development for the unemployed: Digital competence is a transversal key competence as well, which is increasingly required in the labour market and also for the job search itself. More than 40% of EU citizens lack basic digital skills, according to the European Commission (European semester thematic fiche digital single market: digital skills and jobs. 2016), and this lack of skills has a negative impact on long-term unemployment and inequality. In this program we will develop tools that professionals can use to teach some basic digital skills for the unemployed. DigComp 2.0. (issued by the European Commission in 2016) identifies 5 digital competence areas and 21 specific digital competences we will develop throughout the project. TO ADDRESS these needs our project: • created a training that is suitable to develop social and emotional skills (using different art branches and applied psychology) and basic digital competences of unemployed people • harvested the benefits of the SEL trainings to develop more focused and realistic professional plans and more autonomy and effectiveness in pursuing them, increasing participants job searching activity TO REACH our goals we: 1) Created training materials that offer theoretical and methodological basis for the development of social and emotional skills for unemployed people at the risk of exclusion (IO1 “SEL Foundation”) 2) Designed four different methodologies to develop social and emotional skills in the unemployed 3) Desigedn methods to develop basic digital competences in the unemployed (IO2) 4) Combined the development of transversal skills (SEL skills, basic digital competences) with elements of practical job searching training 5) Tested and validated the developed methodologies involving unemployed participants to ensure that the methods are built to answer existing needs 6) Developed and used innovative methods to assess the impact of our interventions 7) Engaged in a series of multiplier events locally and internationally to ensure that our training materials and the results of our projects reach professionals. The SELFEE project will directly involve 246 participants in its activities (trainers, unemployed adults, experts and policy-makers) and aims to reach over 7600 secondary beneficiaries through project dissemination, exploitation and transferability. The SELFEE project will have an impact by broadening trainer's arsenal of methods that will help them to support unemployed people in finding a job and in increasing their (digital) job search capability. The sustainability of the project was assured by training and dissemination activities planned in the project linked to access to project outputs after completion.

REBELAH is a two year strategic partnership involving 6 organizations in 4 countries: Storytelling Centre (NL), University of Groningen (NL), Elan Interculturel (FR), Kepes (HU), Ibn Battuta Foundation (SP) and La Xixa Teatre as project coordinator (SP).CONTEXT AND NEEDSExclusionary narratives that surge throughout Europe are entering the learning environments, negatively affecting religious and ethnic minority learners. In a training group with 15 adults: in Spain, 3 participants would feel uncomfortable with a Muslim or a Roma peer; in France 2 and 3 respectively, in the Netherlands, 1 each; and in Hungary more than half the group would be uncomfortable with either a Muslim or a Roma peer. In such a context, cultural heritage is an essential tool for both trainers and learners to recover Europe’s plural past in favour of inclusive and safe learning spaces. OBJECTIVESIn the context of adult trainings, we will: -Foster inclusion, diversity and non-discrimination, particularly in regards to religious minorities-Promote the social and educational value of European cultural heritage and its potential to generate interreligious co-existence-Extend and develop competences of adult trainers to foster inclusion through their teaching practice, particularly in multicultural learner contexts.PARTICIPANTSREBELAH’s main target group are adult trainers. Secondary target groups are adult learners, activists, community leaders and local minorities. Policy makers, heritage and adult trainer organizations will also be targeted by the project to assure increased impact of project activities and outputs. We expect to involve 444 participants from the different target group in project activities, and disseminate the project to the over 50,000 people that compose our consortium's social network base.ACTIVITIESThe project main activities are: -Continuous management, assessment and dissemination of project progress, quality and impact, including 4 transnational partner meetings-Development of 2 multimedia outputs to promote inclusive learning environments-One joint staff training -8 local pilots to co-construct project outputs-An international final conferenceMETHODOLOGYPartner experience in adult education shows that the Critical Incident Methodology, Forum Theatre, Process Work, Storytelling, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Metacognitive Therapy are methods which allow for a profound transformation of the learning environment, and are useful in building trainer and learner skills on how to comprehensively address conflicts, discriminatory behaviours and cultural shocks. We will bring these embodied methodologies into the field of cultural heritage, to generate an innovative approach to inclusive adult learning environments, in particularly for minority learners. RESULTS, IMPACT AND LONG-TERM BENEFITSWe will develop two intellectual outputs jointly with the target groups, produced in English, Hungarian, Spanish, French and Dutch, and made available through the project website and the Erasmus+ Results Platform: -IO1: “Fostering inclusive learning environments through cultural heritage: Tool-kit for adult trainers.” The toolkit is composed of an interactive map with multi-format narratives about cultural heritage elements, infosheets, and an activity handbook with related teambuilders. -IO2: “Inclusion, religion and beliefs in secular adult learning environments: a train the trainer handbook.” The handbook contents include a theoretical introduction on the educational value of cultural heritage to generate inclusive learning environments with special attention to religion and beliefs, followed by modules on different tools that are relevant for the trainer to gain intercultural competence in their teaching practice. Each module should work as a “learning journey/path of self-discovery” where trainers can gain awareness about their heritage, their identity, how this impacts their teaching practice, and how to make their teaching practice more inclusive.Additionally, over 400 participants will be trained in REBELAH methods, and over 20 organizations will be involved in the project through stakeholder committees. In terms of impact, -adult trainers will experience and acquire new methodologies to promote inclusive learning environments-minority learners will acquire tools to reappropriate their experience in relation to their territories of residence-involved organizations will be able to incorporate innovative trainings and methods, and expand their networks to promote inclusion, religious diversity and European cultural heritage We will develop strategic guiding tools such as a dissemination and stakeholder plan, and an evaluation framework which will serve to assess the progress, quality and impact of all project activities and results. Outputs will be credible, valuable, accessible and adaptable to our target groups to assure the sustainability and long-term benefits.

CONTEXT/BACKGROUND/NEEDSMost Europeans believe their countries are more polarised than 10 years ago, and people increasingly perceive and describe politics and society in terms of “Us” versus “Them.” This phenomenon has become especially prominent in the countries of this consortium (the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Turkey) in the last decade.The more polarized a society, the more people view difficult issues through a tribal lens rather than in terms of the common good of all. People grow less able to comprehend opposing views, they get increasingly prone to regarding dissenters as incompetent and depraved, or at worst motivated by bad intentions. Despite growing polarization in the selected countries, common grounds still exist and this can give hope that creating an efficient intervention is possible. People belonging to opposing groups often overestimate their differences („false polarization”), believing that the two groups are farther apart in their views than they actually are.There is a need for tools that can effectively deal with intergroup conflicts, that offer low-barrier and cost efficient ways to engage ordinary citizens more meaningfully, that create opportunities to foster empathy by exposing people to others with different backgrounds and beliefs to their owns.OUR OBJECTIVESOur intention is to develop methods and materials that could be used to reduce polarization in the local communities. The developed methods/materials should be easy to sustain and to be upscaled and useful for a wide range of adult educators, organizations, or even by the general population (without the need for trainers/facilitators).METHOD We chose applied storytelling to reduce polarization as trainings/games using stotyelling methods:- helps to build trust between participants and raise their interest in each other- invites people to share their subjective experiences with others that has the potential to touch others on a personal level- avoids theoretical debates, exchanges of beliefs about how lives should be lived – that could raise resistance and hostility- offers equal status for participants (no story is more important than another)- gives opportunities for the participants to uncover shared identities- offers techniques to deal with topics that divide groups in a non-offensive way ACTIVITIESTo achieve our goals we develop:- a study on polarization and a method book on how storytelling can be used to polarization that could be used as a source book for developing further interventions- a storytelling tabletop game that help players/participants to finding common grounds- a storytelling training toolkit that help players/participants to bond and build trust but which also dives into difficult topics (the ones that cause tension between the groups)- an Open Education Resource that gives access to all the materials TARGET GROUPSOur primary target groups are adult educators/storytellers/community workers and those professionals whose work is linked to conflict resolution and community building (e.g. faith communities, municipalities, neighborhood organizations). We also target high school/university teachers of sociology, political science, pedagogy, psychology, community development.Our secondary target group involves adult learners (laymen interested in the topic of our trainings, playing with storytelling games).INTENDED SHORT AND LONG TERM IMPACT ON THE TARGET GROUPSAdult educators (and other stakeholders) will have access (and will be trained) to a method and to a game they can use in their work to decrease distrust and negative feelings between group members, to increase understanding, empathy, communication between participants from opposing groups. They will also have comprehensive source books (about polarization and about the possible use of storytelling techniques to reduce polarization) that they can use to build their own interventions on.Adult learners involved in storytelling groups and in the storytelling game will experience the above mentioned impacts (decrease in distrust, increase in the understanding of self and others, etc) on a personal level. They will also have access to a game that they can play at anytime with anyone without the need for any previous training or the presence of facilitators.In the long run, adult educators and other stakeholders can have access to new materials and methods to reduce polarization in the local community. During the project’s lifetime we will involve 12-16 adult educators and 160-184 adult learners through pilot workshops, personal interviews, focus groups in the development of the intellectual outputs.We will reach an additional 280 people from our target groups through local and international multipliers and more than 10.000 people through our promotional activities linked to the project activities.Sustainability will be ensured through the STOP Platform and European platforms and networks.