<< Objectives >>The main tangible result of the project is a theoretical-practical information kit for the transition from quality standards that adult consumers/users have, which are irresponsible towards the Environment, towards standards that take into account responsible consumption, for society to make a self-critical and conscious act when consuming products and services. In this way, we will improve the green economy, the health of adults, the environment...<< Implementation >>During the project, three workshops will be held, one in each participating country. Adults will receive training through the e-toolkit and AdultsEducators, in which they will become aware of the importance of responsible consumption and learn techniques and strategies to carry it out, Recycling, Reusing and Reducing. Subsequently, a project management will be carried out as a multiplier event with new invited participants so that the results have an impact on a larger scale<< Results >>We hope that adult educators know how to develop critical and self-aware thinking among adults who participate in non-regulated training activities, so that these adult consumers/users of products and services can then carry out good practices of responsible consumption in their daily lives. Thus, the whole society benefits from it, since responsible consumption affects all of us at different levels: health, economy, environment...

"<< Background >>The RIDE- Rivers of IDEas project derives from the observation that often few young people have the chance to participate in decisions that affect their lives and the lives of their communities. Their potential contribution to society is often overlooked, underestimating their role as agents of positive change. In particular, the RIde project will focus on the environmental crisis, we consider a complex global issue to deal with. In recent years, in many European countries and worldwide we observed the rise of youth organisations active on environmental issues and the fight against climate change: it is the sign that young people are interested in dealing with this critical issue. The project moves precisely in the direction of working on the empowerment of the young people in the community and promoting a sense of belonging starting from the rediscovery of historical-cultural values ​​and environmental resources.The main assumption starts from the issue that only by promoting an active involvement of young people in activities deeply rooted in the territory and providing them with the opportunity to feel ""active"" in the change, it will be possible to produce significant results of participation and active citizenship. And only by managing to activate local participation and making it truly effective it will be possible to create trust in participation mechanisms also at European level. In 2018 the European Commission, reporting a study that notes that more than half of Europe's young people (53%) are involved in organised activities, with participation in a sports club (29%), a youth or leisure-time club (20%), or a cultural organisation (15%). But this participation does not find enough space in decision-making spaces, in the places of politics. In addition to this need to involve young people in participating in decision-making processes, a great interest was noted in the themes of environmental recovery and the enhancement of small villages and natural resources. These two aspects can therefore be connected by using the desire to affect and enhance one's territory as an element of engagement and participation of young people.In its most recent speech (https://www.worldwatercouncil.org/en/publications/news-and-activities-february-2020) the World Water Forum underlined the commitment to promote the adoption of a system of rules in which the criteria of public utility, economic performance, social value, environmental sustainability also intervene in the search for effective solutions for the redevelopment of a river basin, in order to avoid environmental and economic risks. The communities belonging to countries partners of the RIDE project experience a lack of caring and protection towards river ecosystems. Also, a lot of traditions and history related to rivers and its communities is being lost and there is the abandonment of tangible heritage.In addition, in the countries of partner organisations few young people have the chance to participate in decisions that affect their lives and the lives of their communities.However, the partner countries of the project are representative of a similar European situation in which, in the face of a great opportunity for work on environmental recovery, young people are very little involved and youth workers need new tools for engaging and working on environmental issues.<< Objectives >>The main objective of the RIDE project is to empower young members of the rivers communities through the development of strategic skills. In particular, the aim is to increase their environmental awareness, especially about the critical issues and potential that the river represents for each territory.The project intends to work in the main direction of promoting the active citizenship of young people, supporting the sense of belonging to the community and the awareness of their choices on environmental sustainability. Young people will be configured as the main target, but also as promoters to involve the whole community. The objectives of the project are as follows: a) To promote knowledge and dissemination of the best practices at local and European level for the enhancement of rivers and local communities; b) to increase the competence of young people to plan environmentally sustainable river recovery actions able to involve and activate the whole community; c) to open a profitable channel of communication between young people and institutions. Firstly, a phase of research and exchange of good practices will be activated among all partner countries to compare the interventions already carried out and the representation of the community-river relationship: already in this first phase the active involvement of young people will be foreseen. In continuity with what emerged from the research, preferring an experiential methodology, workshops, training, seminars will be created with young people aimed at the recovery of history and at the acquisition of skills for exercise of active citizenship. In addition, a series of meetings with local stakeholders (citizens, and institutions) through non-formal and participatory methods will be planned. Also a campaign for the collection of ideas to plan future scenarios for the strengthening of the river territory will be launched. The ideas collected will be presented during a festival, created for each river of the communities involved, during which will be chosen the best and most sustainable idea to implement. Through an active involvement, it will be possible to strengthen the communities in the discovery of their resources and in the awareness of how it is possible to use them in a profitable way, by rethinking their relationships with the territory.<< Implementation >>The activities designed by the project in order to achieve the objectives are: - research activities at European level on good practices (through data analysis and interviews)- mapping on environmental and cultural heritage- group training and workshops with experts on environmental sustainability, green economy, green skills and active citizenships- meeting involving local stakeholders (citizens and institutions) through innovative participatory methods - labs for creation of proposals for the regeneration of the river- creation of a digital toolkit with youth workers - European river festivals in partner countriesThe activities linked to the achievement of the objectives are listed in more detail below.To achieve the first objective, starting from the recruitment of young people to be involved, the various project partners will carry out a research (R1), with the active involvement of the recipients, using both quantitative (questionnaires, metadata analysis) and qualitative (interviews with key people, systematic literature review) to determine a photograph of the current situation of territorial communities and rivers. The data and information collected will be divided according to factors and parameters that will allow you to discuss with young people: the strengths of the interventions and projects already completed and successful, the concrete actions of the improvement plans that can be transferred from a country to the other with the necessary modulations, the areas of improvement that can be kept in mind in the subsequent actions of the project to better calibrate them, the real knowledge of the historical and landscape elements of the community, the cognitive and emotional representations of the population in the relationship with their resources river. The results of the research will also be shared with the members of the community most directly involved, in order to prove the start of subsequent activities. In order to achieve the second objective, the young people of the reference communities will participate in experiential and informal training activities, where they will address issues related to environmental protection, green skills, sustainable tourism, the mapping of the strengths and weaknesses of their community, knowledge and enhancement of their historical memory. In particular, in this phase young people will be supported in planning meetings and workshops with citizens and institutions adopting participatory methods. The aim is to test different methodologies and tools in order to identify the best instrument to activate the local community. In parallel, workshops and laboratories will be offered to give space to the emotional and creative aspects, to the construction of active citizenship skills (agency, decision-making, knowing how to plan, collaborate, problem solving, act responsibly).The young participants will have to produce ideas for the redevelopment of rivers and their communities that demonstrate that they keep in mind everything they learned and experienced in the non-formal training process. The best idea designed to regenerate the river and the local territory, will be awarded during a European River Festival, a public cultural event dedicated to each community of each partner country involved in the RIde project. Group processes, expanded participation, experiential methodologies that also hold the emotional aspects of the participants together have been identified as elective activities for the achievement of the second objective: to interweave the increase in the capacity of active citizenship with the creation of sustainable and specific to the needs of the context for the rediscovery of its territorial identity and the enhancement of rivers and communities. The methodologies and tools used will be collected in a toolkit (R2) for youth and youth organisations, to involve other young people and the whole community in environmental issues.<< Results >>The projects results expected by the implementation of the project are:- European research on good practices in sustainable valorisation of river territories - Digital toolkit for youth and youth organisations to actively involve local communities on environmental issuesThe project results directly concern the specific objectives of the project. Moreover, at different level, we expect to obtain the following outcomes: - the acquisition in the youth population of skills for exercising active citizenship,- the construction of a culture of environmental protection in young people and in the community ,- greater clarity on the interventions that can be pursued for the improvement of the river communities to which they belong,- the opening of a dialogue between young people and institutions to continue environmental regeneration processes through - the active involvement of community members and all interested parties.The RIDE project aims to empower young members of the communities through the development of strategic skills in order to increase their environmental awareness, especially about the critical issues and potential that the river represents for each territory. Furthermore, transmitting strategic skills to young people means providing them with essential tools and knowledge to promote the participation and interest of the whole community about environmental topics. By sharing and comparing the different situations in the different partner countries, it will be possible to build a framework of critical issues and environmental, naturalistic and territorial values, local policies and projects on which to base successful intervention strategies. Strategies that obviously must be integrated with what is truly sustainable from the individual territories: for this reason strategies should be co-designed through the participation of the whole community. The research that will be carried out, which will immediately involve young people, will help achieve this result and will also allow us to engage with the next expected result: being able to responsibly and positively activate the younger members of the community. The expected result is a strengthening of active citizenship and social identification with the territory to which it belongs, intended precisely as an ability to be transferred to the youth population and to all the other members to make sense of the places that begin from historical memory to produce value for the present and the future. Through experiential and non-formal training methodologies, social cohesion and the rediscovery of their identities are supported as a starting point for young people's planning of development and innovation actions. All this will result in the production of a digital toolkit for the involvement of local communities on environmental issues. The toolkit will address youth, youth workers and youth organisations but also professionists, institutions and citizens. Young people will also be involved in the production of innovative ideas for the sustainable development of the territory, which will be a tangible resource for challenging institutions, associations, bodies and all the stakeholders. The ideas developed by the young members of the community will be shared in a public event, one-day festival, aimed at celebrating the rediscovery of river resources in the various partner countries. The final event wants to pursue the result of opening up a reflected audience, with a character more official with the representatives of local administrations to support the transition from the culture of protection to the implementation of concrete actions."

The covid emergency that hit the world at the beginning of 2020 has imposed radical changes in our society. Most aspects of everyday life have undergone changes caused by this emergency: from the emotional to the working sphere, there has been no area that has not to deal with restrictions, changes and new organizational structures.The area of training, of course, was one of the most affected, forced to respond quickly to a situation in which part of the skills and tools have proved obsolete. Of course having to face this crisis represented an opportunity to accelerate modernization processes, but it is undeniable that this situation has also exacerbated social inequalities and the difficulties of particular contexts of society: among these, certainly the prison context is the one that has suffered the greatest backlash.In the penitentiary system, access to training is of enormous importance both for the quality of life during their stay in institutions and for the possibilities that people can access once their sentence is over. As explained in the summary report created for the European Commission by GHK, a high percentage of prisoners in the EU have a rather low level of preparation and training and these low qualification levels have important negative effects on the job prospects of prisoners close to release, a condition identified as one of the key factors for relapse.Access to adequate and quality training was a central challenge for the penitentiary system in the pre-Covid era, with the explosion of the health emergency and its repercussions these issues have become of vital importance. In fact, issues have emerged that can no longer be postponed: access to the internet and digital education, the preparation of prison staff, the basic digital skills of trainers and learners, are aspects on which to focus our efforts, being essential tools to guarantee the right to training and therefore to an effective rehabilitation process.The STEP - Supporting distance Training and Education in Prison - project aims to support and enhance the use of digital tools and distance learning in prisons. To succeed in this aim, we believe it is necessary to support educators and prison staff in the acquisition of adequate skills for the implementation of these tools.A fundamental first step to succeed is to adopt a common methodology through the collection of European good practices in distance learning in prison and comparing the response that different contexts have given and are giving to training needs. With the STEP project we will therefore build a comparative research between at least 4 European countries, proposing short vocational paths hops in each penitentiary institution and monitoring the organizational and management methods of these paths in vivo. This research will lay the foundations for an analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of each intervention with the aim of building guidelines for the enhancement of distance learning in prison and ad hoc training courses for prison staff and for the civilian personnel working in institutions. The Step project will be divided into 2 years and 2 phases:Phase I: Inmate training and comparative research●Analysis of the training courses in prison in the partner countries●Distance learning course for prisoners in each partner country●Construction of a grid of observation and comparison of the paths: analysis of virtuous organizational processes and of the criticalities encountered●Collection of good practicesPhase II Guidelines and training●Guidelines for the enhancement of distance learning in prison●Training for prison staff and civilian staff working in institutions

"<< Background >>In today's cultural landscape we are witnessing the phenomenon whereby the community is excluded from active participation in decision-making processes relating to the choices that guide the programming and planning of urban contexts also linked to the post-pandemic process. In fact, in this historical-cultural-health and political moment in which individuals and the places they inhabit are often considered as endowed with passivity and anonymity, it is necessary to make the former more confident and aware of their potential and observe the latter with new gazes. and less reductive of the complexity that characterizes them. Anonymity and passivity are just some of the characteristics that describe young people at risk. In fact, according to the relationship they have with the socio-cultural environments in which they live, young people can assume two positions: being invisible (among the most invisible) or being agents of change.CROSS was conceived on these premises, which wants to contribute to the cultural and social change so that the community can in fact feel called into question and able to actively participate in the re-definition of the spaces it inhabits, focusing on its own young people, especially the most invisible. CROSS therefore proposes to develop a training model that uses urban re-qualification as a tool to promote participatory citizenship in young people at risk. Active citizenship becomes an objective that allows you to activate a path of identity re-definition and life path, the space and opportunity to weave positive relationships that can bring young people back into a proactive and active social fabric, the possibility of expressing needs and to seek strategies for their realization.CROSS, therefore, does not want to be an individual experience or a group of young people. The health emergency that we are experiencing seems to ask us for a new social cohesion, in response to the distancing necessary for the protection of health, and a renewed need to inhabit the typical spaces of the city of encounter (parks, squares ...) often abandoned to decay. Rebuilding the city, to rebuild relationships. Rebuild a sense of belonging (through active citizenship), to redefine one's life trajectory. These are the cornerstones of the activities of CROSS, which wants to use young people, those who live in the suburbs and the degradation of the city, to re-generate a cohesive and active community attitude. Young people brought back to the center (of the city and of attention) will be the generation that will bring about that cultural change of the community that inhabits and positively influences the places it lives.<< Objectives >>Acquire data and information on the needs, the level of well-being and development opportunities for the population groups less involved in local renewal policies;increase the involvement of representatives of institutions and local government bodies, so that they take into account the needs of local actors;improve agency skills, that is the ability to intervene on reality and exercise one's point of view on things;increase the spaces for meeting and reflection to stimulate active participation in the territories and active citizenship of young people; increase individual and group skills that can be put at the service of community empowerment and give sustainability to the project.Increase knowledge of the area and promote the exchange of good practices with European partners, increase the active citizenship capacities of the young people involved, build and support local networks (associations, committees, municipalities) to increase participation in the decision-making processes of the neighborhood, spread the culture of ""regeneration"" of urban spaces and choose a space on which to act in each participating country.<< Implementation >>In the current socio-historical context, the perception that active involvement in decision-making processes has been greatly reduced is very strong and permeating. The evolution of society has pushed towards new forms of commitment and participation that are often manifested more as symbolic individual action than as concrete and collective commitment, this phenomenon is biunivocally linked to the perception, increasingly rooted in common thought, that some processes are inevitable and that the real decision-making centers are increasingly distant and unreachable. In younger people, who often have not yet fully matured an economic and cultural independence from reference figures, all these trends have certainly an even greater impact, with the risk that a lack of personal self-definition process may create a large number of citizens without the necessary tools to actively participate in the activities and decision-making processes of the community to which they belong, both locally and nationally and supranationally, going to weaken the democratic fabric of the community, the state and the Union. CROSS wants to fit into this framework and reverse the trend, going to spread in five European countries the seed of youth participation, developing a project with young people that can provide them with the essential tools for active and informed participation, bringing them to the center of decision making processes and making them realize a concrete action of urban regeneration that may have immediate utility for the community within which they live. Specifically, the activities that CROSS provides are: • Recruitment of young people • Involvement of local associations and administration • Data collection on the local youth situation • Urban data collection • Collection of existing experiences (best practices) • International meetings • Dissemination press conferences • Neighborhood presentations • Involvement in research • Round tables with the municipalities • Building a ""regeneration"" network • Identification of a space in each country • Construction of an artistic mediation ""regeneration"" project • Training on urban spaces and citizenship • Round tables with the municipalities • Mentoring of children in schools or in aggregation centers • Identification of a space in each country • Construction of an artistic mediation ""regeneration"" project<< Results >>Through the project we expect a change of perspective: both as regards the activity of the youth protagonist and in the reinterpretation of the neighborhoods as living spaces where to rebuild the collective bonds and the skills to take care of the community. Youth participation is conceived in connection with the activities of active citizenship: understood not in an ethical sense, but as the ability to start from needs and consequently organize themselves in a multifaceted way, mobilizing resources and acting with different strategies and tools, to protect rights by exercising their powers and responsibilities for the care and development of common goods.The proposed interventions and activities will involve the peripheries, with all that is considered peripheral, which is recognized as having a significant social value, given by representing a ""border space"", within which innovation and change can be seen. Precisely because of being characterized by the possibility of different crossings, the suburbs have been and are places where, before than elsewhere, it was possible to see interests, trends, cultures, problems and, above all, innovative forms of search for solutions. Space will be given to research, dissemination of information, comparison, always starting from the experiences and needs of the participants.The aim of the project is to build knowledge and skills to catalyze energies in caring for the community, through innovation actions and awakening the self-determination of younger citizens. In particular, the project will focus on strengthening the links between the territorial associations that gravitate around young people and those that are more sensitive to the care of the social and environmental issues of the city, trying to improve communication with the institutions. The elective tools for implementation will be training, identification of shared objectives and sharing of working methods. In this way, the aim will be to intercept, in a virtuous and inclusive path, above all young people ""at risk"" (drop out, in conditions of marginalization, subjected to phenomena of marginalization)."

The lockdowns measures to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 have unprecedented social & economic impacts on people's lives, affecting hardest those at the bottom of the income such as ex-prisoners. It is well known that most of the prisoners have low literacy and that upon release they face difficulties such as finding a steady job, that is a key dimension to stop re-offending. In fact, changes in economic factors can be associated with changes in crime, leading to identifiable crime ‘peaks’ during the time of crisis.Self-DESIGN is a proposal focused on assisting prisoners’ early self-reflection and preparation for release, giving them the necessary tools to gain self-awareness of their current strengths and needs at different levels. The project proposes to use design thinking processes to generate prisoner's self-awareness, empathy, creativity on mapping he/she future pathways, and doing so ability them to lead a law-abiding and self-support life.The project has two main goals, namely (1) to develop an innovative methodology that being creative, active, experiential and productive, enhances prisoners’ self-awareness of their individual’s unique re-entry needs and mapping existing resources to develop core competences for re-entry; (2) to enhance the job performance of justice practitioners that work in prison contexts, empowering them with new tools, templates and digital possibilities, increasing the level of resources available to invest in prisoners’ rehabilitation and social reintegration. A set of objectives was defined to achieve the goals: Obj1: By Sept 2021, to develop a reference framework of competencies for re-entry that includes the new re-entry barriers created by the COVID-19 pandemic, consulting at least 30 ex-prisoners, 75 prisoners and 50 justice practitioners.Obj2: By March 2022, to develop an innovative methodology for developing prisoners’ self-awareness, critical thinking and creativity on their re-entry process that focuses on using design thinking tools and templates to map, plan, monitor, evaluate and optimize the prisoners’ first paths upon release. Obj3: By Sept 2022, to deliver 5 pilots involving at least 100 prisoners, increasing prisoners’ levels of self-awareness, creativity, and motivation towards their reintegration process by 80%.Obj4: By Oct, 2022, to make available a mobile platform that supports the sustainability of the project, namely that helps professionals to replicate the methodology, to be validated through 5 workshops, involving more than 90 professionals working in the CJS. Obj5: By January 2023, to increase the number of professionals that use design thinking processes to enhance prisoners’ self-awareness and creativity on their reintegration process, downloading on average 120 times the mobile platform. Obj6: During 2-year long, under a strategic partnership, bring together interdisciplinarity and crosstalks between European justice practitioners, discussing the challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic on prisoners’ reintegration processes, organising in total 10 validation workshops and 6 multiplier events, directly involving at least 337 justice practitioners across Europe.During the Self-DESIGN lifetime, 3 Intellectual Outputs will be developed: ‘Reference framework of competencies for prisoners' re-entry aligned with the interviews’ results and including the new barriers created by the COVID-19 pandemic‘Design Thinking for Prisoners’ Reintegration – including the Methodology & a toolbox of design thinking templates targeting the individuals’ unique re-entry needs’‘Self-DESIGN mobile platform’During and upon its implementation we expect to have a positive impact on promoting prisoners’ self-awareness of their current and future individual skill needs upon release. Using a creative methodology, the project will increase prisoners’ human and social capital, namely their capacity to solve complex problems that configure their trajectories when they return to society (e.g. restructuring family ties, finding a house and/ or employment, health issues, others). Moreover, it will impact the justice practitioners, equipping them with alternative styles of teaching that use both innovative pedagogical concepts and a learner-centred approach and, therefore, are more attractive, engaging and relevant to the prisoner. It will also strengthen justice practitioners' knowledge, competencies, and experience in design thinking processes and how to use these principles to develop prisoners’ competencies for re-entry.By creating experiences and offering new knowledge, methodologies, templates and digital means that can be used when applying the prison treatment programmes, we expect an increment on both quality and results of rehabilitation programmes and staff’s job performance, motivation and satisfaction. In a long-term period, the aim is to reduce prisoners’ probability of re-offending, by increasing their probability of social inclusion upon release