<< Objectives >>The EU Justice Insight project shall increase the interest in and awareness of the EU judiciary and law by enabling simple insight into judicial activities and history of the CJEU and introducing all relevant topics in an innovative way to EU citizens. It shall also foster active participation and facilitate the dialogue and exchange of information related to EU law and justice. It shall also improve the skills of students in judicial procedures and tackle misinformation about EU affairs.<< Implementation >>EU Justice Insight comprises creation of innovative materials, training course featuring lectures, workshops and roundtables, field study trip to CJEU in Luxembourg, simulation of judicial proceedings, and a final conference. The project will foster the engagement of young people, youth workers, law practitioners, academicians, and media, and thus facilitate the exchange of information and know-how.<< Results >>The main result of the EUJI project will be a website that shall become an interactive space opened to everybody. It will contain an interactive database and media, educational, and informational materials. As a result of use of the materials and participation in the activities, EU citizens will gain or improve relevant competences and thereby they will become more confident in the topic of EU law and justice. Last but not least, misinformation about this topic will be prevented and tackled.

New technologies emerge rapidly. Digital literacy and 21st century skills play a crucial role as part of modern-day citizenship and modern life in general. All young people will need technological skills and an agile mind-set towards technology in their future work and everyday life, and youth work should be able to encourage this.Undoubtedly, quality youth work that meets young people’s needs must include digital considerations. This does not mean that every youth worker should be a technical expert, but that recognition that young people are growing up in a digital era and need support to navigate the online aspects of their lives and critically analyse online information/interaction is becoming increasingly central to youth work.The best approach for that is transformation of traditional youth work methods and tailoring them to be delivered in digital environment. To address the existing need for digitalisation and to increase the quality of youth work, DiGi YOUTH partnership created the concept of an ambitious 22-month project set to improve the skills of youth workers and youth organisations’ staff who lack the digital competences or attitudes to fully benefit from the opportunities created by digital technologies for delivering high quality youth work and engaging with disadvantaged youth.Alongside the opportunities that digital youth work offers, there is also a lack of confidence, competence, strategic planning, and investment to enable the youth work sector to fully embrace these developments. DiGi YOUTH aims to increase those capacities by offering training and best practice sharing to youth practitioners and youth organisations’ staff to help them incorporate digital youth work. It also creates opportunities to showcase the value of digital youth work.DiGi YOUTH aims to promote quality youth work through supporting open and innovative practices in a digital era. The project objectives are as follows:– Share good digital youth work practices across Europe and provide networking platform leading to improved practice and innovation within the European youth work community via the DiGi YOUTH Work hub;– Build capacity of youth workers to respond to digitalisation through training that meets their needs, based on gamification, specifically via the DiGi YOUTH Simulation game;– Improve digital youth work planning and the development of relevant strategies and methods or tools through increasing awareness of requirements for and best practices in application of digital youth work among youth workers and youth organisations’ staff, summarised and shared as DiGi YOUTH Work manual;– Improve digital/social media and information literacy of youth workers and especially youth organisations to engage with and support young people, and enhance their capacities to use (multi)media as youth work tool via DiGi YOUTH Media manual;– Raise awareness of digital youth work within the youth work sector and among policy makers and funders nationally and EU wide.DiGi YOUTH will provide youth workers and youth organisations’ staff with the unique opportunity to obtain knowledge and practical experience related to digital youth work in a dynamic format. Moreover, they will be able to reach out to disadvantaged and non-organised youth and thus become more inclusive. The creation of the simulation game, which will be an innovative mix between real-life practices and a gamified experience, aims to immerse the youth workers in realistic situations and point them to the correct solutions. It is a precedent for this kind of training and will increase willingness of users to learn and predispose them to accepting new outlooks on life, open them up to intercultural communication more, and nurture in them a kinder outlook on engagement of young people from different communities. Hence DiGi YOUTH will provide a more interactive environment, based on situations of case studies related to initiatives with a more integrated approach to youth work and network activities.The target groups of the project are: - Youth workers - as they are expected to lead, inspire, and deliver digital youth work, most activities are aimed at training them via innovative approaches based on open education and innovative practices – the DiGi YOUTH Work hub, simulation game, and DiGi YOUTH Media manual.- Youth organisations staff – the project will increase the awareness of ethical and organisational considerations and requirements of digital youth work among this target group, their inclusiveness, as well as provide best practices for practical application of digital youth work and media tools, summarised and shared in two DiGi YOUTH manuals.- Young people – the project will promote digital youth work among young people who can benefit from its advantages via the planned multiplier events to showcase innovative practice in digital youth work and launch the elaborated project outputs – DiGi YOUTH Work hub, simulation game, and manuals.

<< Background >>In our times of increased multiculturalism and multilingualism though, there is a need for a way to build empathy, teach and understand, and communicate ideas through universal languages. While the number of migrants in the EU is rising (according to Eurostat, more than 5% of the population of the EU is non-EU citizens) and mobility within the EU has been on the rise (COVID-19 crisis), tensions are rising as well. These divides can be mended to a large extent through change of attitude, understanding and increase both of quality and quantity of communication between different groups. Inclusion and integration within the EU must be based not just on common interests, but also on shared values and insight into the differences, which make cultures richer. Not in the last place, diversity has many faces, through which we can see the need for flexibility and adaptability - accommodating people with various specific needs, like dyslexia (which is observed in between 9 and 12% of the population in the EU according to the European Dyslexia Association) or autism disorders (which affects around 1 in 100, according to Autism Europe) just to give an example. According to the European Council (2013) youth work plays an important role in preventing social exclusion and enhancing social inclusion. Social inclusion in its turn encompasses various aspects of one’s life, including mental health and control over levels of anxiety, ability to participate in discourse and decision-making, as well as ability to communicate effectively, share stories and express opinions. Comic books and graphic novels on the other hand, provide a method of work, which lowers barriers to entry for young people, and invites them in not only as consumers, but as creators of content, which may be crucial to integration into their communities. Studies of using comic creation as a tool, have shown a lot of promise in this idea. When used with Native American youth in 2012 shows that comic creation can lead to improved knowledge and behaviour, as well as healthier decision-making. The small-scale Comics Youth initiative in the UK has also shown promise in supporting young people express and discover themselves. It is also important to consider that consuming and creating comics promotes media literacy education, as well as learning and growth overall. Creating a bond between youth workers and young people; getting the interest of the recipient in order to intervene and provide support - those are some of the most important aspects of youth work. As a result, any approach that can be used to increase the connection between the youth worker and the young people has the potential to increase the impact of youth work and can be included in youth work. Regarding the target group of young people, CO-MIX intends to equip them with a tool that they can express themselves safely and freely. Nevertheless, the overall experience in comic book creating calls for a mix of various soft and hard skills. For instance, the creation of a comic book that focuses on a story, requires the “author” to organize thoughts, decide on what elements to use, perhaps communicate in the case of extra collaborators and as well lead them. For young people that face learning difficulties, the vibrant motifs, the ability to freely design their own visuals, will bridge gaps and eliminate constraints in communication. There is an ever-growing need for competencies and skills that are not necessarily taught in a formal educational environment. Just to be included in the process of creating a comic book (regardless of topic, length,) the author gains the experience and skills of communicating, organizing, delegating, creative thinking, sensitivity, and content creation. These skills are transferable to many industries and can lead to employment in fields such as digital design, directing, animating, graphic design, acting.<< Objectives >>CO-MIX aims to support cooperative learning in an inclusive and flexible way - by using comic creation in youth work. Through a specific focus on inclusion work and tackling difficult subjects in an approachable way, the project is going to address its overarching objectives: - to support young people and youth workers in integration, understanding, empathy-building and promotion of common EU values; - to build capacities in the field of youth by promoting the practice of creating comics as a methodology in youth work; - to expand the impact of youth workers even in limiting situations (such as the one of Covid-19) and in more situations that require versatility and flexibility; - through broad consultation and cooperation with many local actors, to create not only useful learning materials, but a means of useful connectivity and interaction in the field of youth; - through further local activities and international cooperation within and after this project, contributing to Sustainable Development Goals #3, #4 and #16.<< Implementation >>The CO-MIX methodology for implementation will unfold in 5 distinct activity groups (A), structured in a manner to complement each other with the purpose to achieve the set by the current proposal objectives. The execution of these Activities will be coordinated by efforts, grouped under A1 Management and Coordination, which will be executed through the whole project lifetime. Each activity group will aim at a number of results to be achieved, linked to respective qualitative and quantitative indicators. A2 is concentrated towards the development of PR1 - Creating the CO-MIX online platform, which will be led by TFN. The tasks envisaged under this work stream aim to design and create the online platform, put it through rigorous tests, involving stakeholders, and adding to it useful materials (including templates) and information. Part of the activities in A2 will also contribute to the development of the methodology to be worked on in A3, but mostly the work done in this Activity group will address the objectives of:-to support young people and youth workers in integration, understanding, empathy-building and promotion of common EU values; -to expand the impact of youth workers even in limiting situations (such as the one of Covid-19) and in more situations that require versatility and flexibility; -through broad consultation and cooperation with many local actors, to create not only useful learning materials, but a means of useful connectivity and interaction in the field of youth. A3, the development of PR2 - Methodology on inclusive work through comics, will be led by HIGGS. As will be presented in further detail below, the methodology is aimed at youth workers,and will contribute to the same objectives as A2 but will build up on that by specifying approaches, examples and guidelines on implementation of comic creation in youth work, thus working to the objective of “to build capacities in the field of youth by promoting the practice of creating comics as a methodology in youth work”. It is extremely important for the project consortium that the created outputs are immediately useful and that value can be found in them throughout multiple uses.A4, which will work for the creation of PR3: Comic books for inclusive youth work, is led by MCC. This PR is aimed both at youth workers, and at young people, inviting them to explore the subject of comic creation through the lenses of the finished comics. This activity will lean on the practical expertise of MCC and will build on it with good practices, theory and engagement with interested stakeholders and of course, the cooperation of all partners. Through engagement of youth and youth workers and attention to connectivity, relationship-building, effective engagement and tools for capacity building, all activities of CO-MIX will contribute to the objective of the project to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals #3, #4 and #16.Simultaneously with the implementation of the aforementioned activities, a wide dissemination campaign will be undertaken to ensure on time update of the project progress and promotion of project results. Led by OFCI, Activity 5 will involve face-to-face meetings, online and offline dissemination of information related to the project, as well as maintenance of social media. The MEs play essential role for the achievement of the project results and objectives, as they will be attracting and engaging target groups in the project outputs; raising awareness on the issues targeted by the project and give the floor for discussion; and extending the potential to reach out to national and EU policy- and decision-makers and focus their attention and understanding of the needs in the youth sector. The dissemination efforts will contribute to the achievement of all objectives of the CO-MIX project and partnership.<< Results >>The CO-MIX project aims to enhance the experience of youth workers and the service they provide to young people by equipping them with a methodology, an online platform, and a series of pre-made comics on sensitive issues. During the creation of all these results we will be engaging youth workers in informal meetings and involving them at every step, gaining feedback and adjusting the outcomes in order to tailor to the needs of both the youth workers and young people.In depth, the project aims to create an online platform (available in 5 languages: the 4 partner languages and English) that will host a proprietary comic book creating application. The aforementioned application will be designed in such a way that the target group demographic will feel comfortable to use. In addition, the application will be equipped with text, character models, environments and a large volume of customizability. The platform will be available and free to use by anyone. Furthemore, on the platform, the methodology on “Inclusive youth work through comics” will be uploaded and available for anyone who wishes to use it. It will be created by organizations that host youth workers and will be including them on all relevant steps of the project such as brainstorming, testing, and use with young people. The purpose is to complement youth workers with a methodology that is aimed to be more inclusive. Given that youth workers have already a large repertoire of activities to use, the methodology will keep that in consideration and strive to provide the final reader with all possible explanations, templates and guidance in order to make it easier for them to start the comic book activity and make the learning curve less steep. Moreover, continuing from the second project result , the methodology, the CO-MIX project will produce a series of comics (created using the abovementioned platform) that will cover a series of sensitive topics with the ultimate purpose of being used for inclusive youth work. It is generally expected that taboo topics as well as topics of sensitive nature are not always easy to portray or begin exploring with a group of youngsters, therefore these comics will be already curated by experts of the relative fields and available on the main website-platform.Additionally, the project during its course will include Joint Staff Trainings where in total 8 youth workers from the partner countries will join. In 4 multiplier events it is expected that around 150 participants will be acquainted with the finalized products of the project. Also, at least 6,000 partners, target audiences, national and European stakeholders will be updated about the results of the project via the dissemination channels and events.Upon choosing the proper graphical art for the project CO-MIX, social media accounts (Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram for the general public) will be created providing to the public, updated regarding the project as well as opportunities for them to add their inputs if requested. For the group of professionals, LinkedIn will be used. This mix of social networks will ensure that a wide group of individuals can be addressed.Lastly, just as comic books have influenced the imagination of many young people, the ability for those same young people to create comic books, expanding their imagination, feeling included regardless of the demographic they belong in, and creating art that can be shared to their social circle, will influence their perception on inclusive and social matters.

When children move into early adolescence, they begin to take on new gender roles, often reinforcing socially and culturally conventional gender norms related to being women or men. These roles have an impact on the decisions that people in early adolescence make in relation to sexual and interpersonal relationships, which can affect their health and well-being throughout the rest of their lives. Gender norms and beliefs have significant implications for both girls and boys in terms of child marriage, early school leaving, pregnancy, HIV and sexually transmitted infection risk, violence exposure, depression, physical violence, substance abuse and suicide. Such differences are socially, not biologically determined. Mental health issues need to be addressed as part of adolescent well-being and in order to ensure health throughout people’s lives, it is crucial that countries address gender inequality, violence and healthy relationships in early adolescence. To answer these identified needs, through the adaptation and piloting of the Youth Group Methodology (YGM), developed by MARTA Center, as well as through qualitative and quantitative research in the field of youth well-being and violence, the project Re-GROUP has set as objectives to: - reduce risk factors for youth (ages 12-18) to become a victim or a perpetrator of violence;- build capacities in the field of youth work by adding to relevant research and adapting a culturally specific methodology thus prevent violence toward and among youth;- expand the size and impact of youth violence-preventing actors through training, popularization and multiplication of the methodology;- through broad consultation and cooperation with many local actors, create data-backed policy recommendations for each reality;- through further local activities and international cooperation within and after this project, take part in achieving Sustainable Development Goals #4, #5 and #16.The project, comprised of four project partners from EU countries (Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Spain) during its 22 months of implementation will engage youth workers, educators, young people, decision- and policy makers in the project countries and the EU. This will be done through the following activities: - Adapting and piloting the YGM in several communities in each partner country; - Conducting two international youth worker trainings, which will improve competences and support research efforts for the project; - National youth worker workshops in every country, with which to engage an even bigger number of youth workers and educators with the YGM; - Conductive an extensive qualitative and quantitative research on the well-being and violence in youth in the partner countries; - Creating Policy Recommendations together with a wide network of actors in the field of youth, with which to address the policy framework, as it relates to youth and their well-being (including violence prevention); - Promote the topic and the project results across youth and youth workers’ communities across Europe (via 4 National Multiplier events, an International conference and many informal meetings with stakeholders, as well as with a broad online campaign).The impact of Re-GROUP will span across the following target groups: - Youth workers, who will be participants in the Re-GROUP activities will increase their capacity for working in relation to gender equality, violence issues and youth sexual education. Participants will improve awareness of all forms of violence, experienced among and towards youth, and gain concrete methodologies, to prevent and combat it. - Youth (as direct beneficiaries) will gain competencies of building healthy interpersonal relationships through experiencing YGM; gain understanding and knowledge when, how and where to ask for help and search for support mechanisms for victims, perpetrators and/or bystanders of violence among and towards youth. The application of YGM also leads to numerous other positive results in youth. - Intervention sites of YGM implementation will raise awareness and increase sensitivity towards violence, acquire methods and educational tools on how to address a variety of topics, important for youth, and support them in creating and maintaining healthy relationships. - Policy makers engaged through dissemination activities and presentation of national policy recommendations will be invited and advised to critically analyze existing situations in local and national level and take needed steps towards combating violence among and towards youth. The Re-GROUP project partners are highly motivated to create worthwhile products and activities for this topic and will work to provide the best possible assistance to youth workers and educators, as well as the best strategically-aimed guidelines for policy makers and for the future of Europe.

<< Background >>Youth work is a field which demands constant improvement and innovation, in order to support the dynamic and vibrant needs of target groups - young people. Often neglected in their need for personal support, understanding and education not only in formal manners but also in questions of self-awareness, self-knowledge, as well as interpersonal relationships and boundaries, and, most important for the purpose of this project - experiencing violence in their lives, youth need youth workers to be prepared, open and understanding. Especially in times, which show us how gaps in the previously discussed knowledge lead to gruesome results of violence, self-hatred, self-harm and worse, we need to be addressing the needs of youth and supporting their development in a personal perspective, empowering them to lead healthy lives and have powerful and flourishing relationships, to promote common values of support, understanding, empowering, as well as to encourage young people to take active part in how these processes happen. In the EU, 1 in 3 women and girls over the age of 15 has experienced physical and/or sexual violence. 1 in 2 has experiences sexual harassment, 1 in 5 has experienced stalking, 1 in 20 has been raped. (EIGE, 2015) A quarter of LGBTI+ people have been attacked or threatened with violence (FRA, 2012). Gender-based violence is, horribly, a part of everyday life for too many. Beyond the numbers, we can see a culture of inequality creating a very different life environment for anyone in a vulnerable position or deemed outside the established gender norms. Even as we, the organizations in the partner consortium, like so many others, keep working to prevent violence - especially in youngsters - there is an ever-growing need to support victims, create spaces for them to be safe, heard and understood, as well as create mechanics for improvement, sharing, community and support. We need to support both victims of GBV, and organizations, working to combat it. We need active and dedicated warriors against gender-based violence. The partner consortium has a real chance to make a lasting difference for victims of gender-based violence and all organizations, working to combat it.<< Objectives >>The current project proposal aims to contribute to the fight against gender-based violence in several, we believe, very important and sometimes overlooked aspects: -connecting and uniting organizations, working in the field; both equipping them with new tools, providing them with new opportunities for learning, networking and collaboration, exposing them to different problems and solutions than the ones they face daily; -working with young people on understanding what gender-based violence is, as well as recognizing it with more ease, as well as acting against it; empowering young people to be proactive parts of supportive communities, as well as agents - warriors - for positive change and combating violence; -promoting and expanding on the concept of safe space and its potential broad uses, reliant on some of the pillars of youth work like open communication, lack of judgement, support through community, empathy and engagement. Warriors against GBV, above all else, aims to promote community and empowerment through communication and exchange - both on the individual, and on organizational level. Through the platform, created by the project, young people and youth organizations will have not only a meeting spot, but also a space, in which they are safe, encouraged to share and be heard, and an opportunity to support other people in need of the same treatment. Active participation in such a space can prove to be a trigger for expanding ideas of active citizenship and civic engagement, as an additional benefit to specific outcomes, related to combating violence. The project’s specific objectives are: -increase of the capacity, skills, knowledge, reach, motivation for youth work in the partner organizations;-increase quality of services and practices among organizations, working in the field of combating gender-based violence, especially with young people; -support understanding and identification of gender-based violence in victims and in perpetrators; -build a sustainable community, engaged in the topic of gender-based violence, created by individuals and organizations in the EU; -expand the impact of existing efforts combating gender-based violence through awareness-raising, good practices exchange and collaboration with various actors in the field;-through further local activities and international cooperation within and after this project, take part in achieving Sustainable Development Goals #4, #5 and #16. The partner organizations are dedicated to developing the project so that its implementation also supports the EU and Erasmus+’s goals of environmental sustainability and adheres to ambitious principles of inclusion and diversity.<< Implementation >>The implementation of the Warriors project will unfold in 5 distinct activity groups (A), structured in a manner to complement each other with the purpose to achieve the set by the current proposal objectives. The execution of these Activities will be coordinated by efforts, grouped under A1 Management and Coordination, which will be executed through the whole project lifetime. A2 is concentrated towards the development of PR1 - Warrior platform for organizations and individuals, which will be led by TFN. The content of the platform consists of important milestones for the project, including the creation of the quizzes for self-assessment, the establishment of online spaces both for organizations, youth, community-building, safe spaces, as well as project results. A3, the development of PR2 - Guide with best practices for youth work in the field of combating GBV, will be led by MARTA. Activity 4, which will work for the creation of PR3: Methodology for creating and operating safe spaces online and offline, is led by MIC. This PR is aimed mostly at youth workers, inviting them to explore the subject of safe spaces, to learn a new methodology and appropriately use it in their everyday activities, as well as to participate in the Warriors platform to support young people from across Europe. Through engagement of youth and youth workers and attention to connectivity, relationship- and community-building, effective engagement and tools for capacity building, all activities of Warriors will contribute to the objective of the project to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals #4, #5 and #16.Simultaneously with the implementation of the aforementioned activities, a wide dissemination campaign will be undertaken to ensure on time update of the project progress and promotion of project results. Led by MosaiQ, Activity 5 will involve face-to-face meetings, online and offline dissemination of information related to the project, as well as maintenance of social media.<< Results >>Warriors will work to achieve the following outcomes: -Support: Building a community of “warriors”, people that are determined to prevent GBV and aid those that seek help, as well as people that have overcome their troubled past and proudly narrate their story in order to inspire others. The platform will also enable the creation of a community of organizations, working on the topic, across the EU, in which they can learn best practices, exchange ideas and further collaborate, as well as use the provided tools to support their work. Support may be found in creating or participating in safe spaces, taking or disseminating the quizzes, sharing own stories of GBV, adding to the Guide of best practices against GBV and volunteering either as moderators in the platform or directly in the organizations that help prevent GBV. -Education: Warriors aims to educate on the topic of GBV and acting against it both youth workers (through local workshops, informal meetings, educational materials), and young people (wide dissemination efforts both by the partners and the engaged youth workers).-Awareness-raising: Through dissemination channels of each project partner, as well as all engaged stakeholders, the collaboration against GBV will raise awareness on the topic.-Looking into the future: By understanding and documenting the current situation, we will uncover what is missing for future action. At completion, the project will produce a platform to host all the project results which are:●the self-assessment quizzes;●the interactive map of services;●the methodology in creating online and offline safe spaces, as well as the space in the platform for that purpose; ●space for exchange and community building between organizations in the field of combating GBV;●the guide on best practices.