<< Background >>HEY project addresses the challenges young people,especially those with fewer opportunities face today,especially with the COVID-19 crisis, which may lead to social exclusion in the fields of education,labour market,living,health and participation in the society.The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted more the inexistent or limited social capacity in EU countries to confront the socio-economic consequences of a globalized epidemic phenomenon that is affecting a substantial number of people, especially young people: lack of social policy infrastructures in all above fields, uneffective private or governmental social inclusion and integration programmes, as well as legislations allowing provision of practical support to people in need. Thousands of young people,and not only, all around Europe and beyond have been suffering from the negative consequences caused, not only by the pandemic on health, but also by the negative socio-economical traumas,caused due to the prolonged enforcement of national measures adopted by countries to control the spreading of the epidemy. The youth work sector, in general, has been challenged to replace their in person services with delivering their work almost entirely online, using diverse digital tools, content and activities. This has been done rapidly and in a short period of time. In general, the life-stage in which young people move from adolescence to adulthood is a time of competing priorities. Young people make increasingly important decisions about their social and economic futures in moving toward adulthood, especially as they navigate formative choices about their education, work, relationships, and worldviews. According to different surveys, increasing unemployment rates among youth, precarious jobs and job insecurity, and difficult transitions from school to work contribute to young people’s disillusionment (Youth&Democracy CoE2018). Rising youth unemployment rates are regularly connected to migration to other European countries, particularly from Southern towards North-Western Europe. EU Youth Strategy proposed by the European Commission as the framework EU Youth Policy Cooperation 2019-2027 to foster youth participation in democratic life, supports social and civic engagement and aims to ensure that all young people have the necessary resources to take part in society.The HEY project, through the collaboration of 7 partner Organizations from 6 European Countries (CY, ITA, IE, FR, SP, PT) proposes a positive youth development approach focused on making young individuals stronger and more resourceful, as reflected in their behaviour and mind-set. HEY aims to inspire Youth in implementing social impact actions through a diverse set of activities, producing effective results and outcomes, which will contribute towards covering holistically the target groups’ needs.HEY will also highlight the importance of the youth work field and role in the current context, it aims to empower youth workers to feel themself ready to offer training, mentoring and coaching services and facilitate learning online for youth, setting up a transnational strategy for smart and digital youth work.Proposed actions will generate good practices exchange, local services and socio-economic opportunities mapping, youth work valuable skills and competences development, established networks with transnational youth organisations to strengthen collaboration for responding to COVID-19 more effectively,young people’s stories and experiences dissemination which will improve cross-disciplinary experiences, young people’s self-esteem, social connection, political participation and re-integration opportunities enhancing the role of young people themselves as catalysts of inclusive and resilient societies in crisis response, recovery, and in preparation of future shocks.<< Objectives >>The project aims at contributing towards the empowerment of young people, mainly those with fewer opportunities, those returning back to their country of origin from abroad, and regionally attached youth by a)supporting their positive engagement in building more equal and inclusive communities through innovative and transnational youth initiatives,b)improve the existing local youth work practice of the youth leaders and operators, through quality and sustainability of digital youth work and online and blended training and the recognition of the vital role the youth sector plays in helping young people recover from detrimental effects, overcoming poverty of hope, and to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and c)improving successful school-to-work transitions,as a potentially powerful way of weakening the intergenerational transmission of poverty and reducing inequality.In particular the project through its activities and production of results, envisions to achieve the following objectives: 1)To present data and information as well as presenting stories on how the pandemic is amplifying existing vulnerabilities among youth, and how youth work responds to the needs, providing suggestions at the same time on their role in the current context,through a comparative cross-border research including good practices mapping and exchange.2)To foster the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities,returnees and others creating a safe space to become active citizens.Inclusion will be fostered by increasing competences and self-esteem through storytelling,co-production methods.3)To empower youth workers through capacity-building to build synergies and equip them with effective innovative and digital tools to address youth challenges.4)To enhance skills and competences,through the provision of an open-access source of e-learning training tools for fostering smooth integration of youth in the society.5)To support young people through mentoring and peer-to-peer consultation.HEY is focused on the following main target groups to achieve these objectives: 1) Young people who are in the process of integrating into the society as active citizens, socially and financially independent. Targeting mainly a) Returnees to their country of origin, including students, financial migrants and those who are regionally attached, namely (students, EU financial economic financial migrants returning to their country of origin), and those who are regionally attached, who are in the process of re-integrating into society and becoming active citizens. both at a social and financial level.. b) NEETs (16,5% of the pop.Eurostat 2018), including unemployed, and others facing social/cultural or/and financial obstacles, including -youth suffering from substance abuse,youth from minority ethnic,racial,religious backgrounds, youth with disabilities. 2) Youth workers and professionals working with youth,including job advisors, coaches, and their NGOs, including Educational hubs, youth NGOs,social services providers and other institutions.Indirect Target Group: private and public multi stakeholders related with social service, socio economic inclusion, youth policies and youth national programs.<< Implementation >>Throughout the project a variety of activities will be organized and implemented under the following categories:A1-Project ManagementActivities with the aim to ensure the implementation of the project activities in high quality and within the allocated time and budget. This activity comprises by the overall management, coordination and administration of the project, risk management, communication with partners, and monitoring of the project progress towards its objectives.All partners will provide required information and documentation in order to ensure smooth and transparent implementation of the project.Project management structures,methods and tools will be set up in the Project Management Plan.A2-Project Quality Management Activities with the aim to ensure quality of the project results and implementation process through quality assurance, monitoring and control procedures. All partners will provide inputs for quality evaluation through internal perception surveys and during peer review sessions.A3-Project Dissemination, Exploitation and Sustainability Activities with the aim to raise awareness of the project and involve target groups and stakeholders in the project activities, thus ensuring further exploitation and sustainability of the project results. Activities will be implemented based on a Dissemination and Exploitation Strategy implemented by all partners simultaneously.In addition to the above activities during the project life span the following will be carried out,with the involvement of all project partners simultaneously in all partner countries:Activities related specifically to the production of the following project results and outcomes:PR1-Guide “HEY! What is Happening?”PR2-Short Video Documentaries “HEY! Tell Me Your Story!”PR3- Training Programme “HEY! Capacity building of the Youth work”PR4-HEY! E-Learning and Training PlatformPR5- HEY! Online Mentoring and Peer-To-Peer Support and ConsultationPR6-HEY! Now What? Policy RecommendationsLTTA: Learning and teaching Training activities: “H.E.Y! Heightening the Engagement of Youth”, organized in Italy with duration 5 days with 28 youth workers. The aim is to pilot test the training modules developed by partners during the project and enhance the skills and competences on the use of the training tools and non-formal methodologies.6 National pilot trainings will involved 60 youth workers and 35 young people in vulnerable states in total, they will be held in the 6 Country for 3 days.The aims -testing the training tools and approaches in the national context with youth operators and young people encouraging a co-production method and an opportunity for young people to act as both a service user and provider of services;- to foster a sense of shared responsibility for services, to incorporate a sense of mutuality, empathy and respect, to grow social networks,by creating opportunities to connect with other groups in the wider community.Multiplier Events: 6 HEY Dissemination Conferences in each partner country with the main goal to spread a word about the project results and share the knowledge acquired during the project implementation with private and public key stakeholders.<< Results >>Tangible results and outcomes:A1- 1)Partnership Agreements.2)Project Management Plan 3) Financial Plan 4)Interim and final reports.5)4 Partner Financial and Progress Reports.A2-1)Quality Assurance Plan,2)Impact Plan,3)Interim and final internal evaluation reports.6) 3 TPMs and four virtual partner meetings.A3-1)Dissemination and Exploitation Strategy (D&E),2)Interim and final D&E report,3)HEY website and Social Media,4)Project visual identity (logo and templates),5)promotional materials & exploitation pack,6)Reports on 6 multiplier events with > 224 participants in total,7) HEY Sustainability Plan. Outcomes under the PRs: PR1-1) HEY Research Action Plan.2)1 Methodology for desk and field research including guidelines for focus group interviews,templates for questionnaires.3) 6 National Field research reports about the 3 Focus Groups held per Country: 1st FG: 10 young people, 2nd FG:10 youth professionals, 3rd FG: 5 stakeholders, 10 interviews with Returnees or regionally attached young people per country (60 in total). 4) Guide “HEY! What is Happening?”-translated in all project languages. PR2-1)Call for youths’ participation,1 storytelling Spanish pilot action scheme.2) 1 Storytelling Compendium.3) Video resources from the national workshops activities and formal recording.5) 6 storyboards.6) 6 Short Video Documentaries with ENG subtitles. PR3-1 Training Scheme (Syllabus). 2) 5 Training Modules. PR4 -An interactive E-Learning and Training Platform. PR5-1)Call for Mentors and Call for Mentees,Call for Supporters.2)3 virtual Training Workshops for 60 Mentors.3)1 virtual Training Workshop for 60 Mentees.4) 1 virtual Training Workshop for 21 Peer-to-Peer Supporters.5) 6-month mentoring process. 6) 6 National Mentoring and Support Evaluation Reports. PR6 Outcome: HEY! NOW WHAT Policy RecommendationsTraining Course in Italy Outcomes: 1) Memorandum of Understanding and 2) IndividualLearning Agreements3) Info Pack.4)LTTA Agenda.5) Action Plans for NationalPilot courses and reports. 6) Report of the LTTA in Italy. Intangible results include:-Highlighted the role of young people as catalysts of inclusive and resilient societies incrisis response, recovery, and in preparation of future shocks. Mapping and exploring the successful stories during the Pandemic crises and the measures and solutions pursued to react to it.-Gathered and elaborated insight into the complex scenario and challenges that youngpeople face,in their Social and Community context and to their experiences of resettlement or return home (Research and Analysis activities carried out at local, national and international level);- Built an intercultural dialogue by gathering a large and diverse European community. Weaim to take advantage of e-platforms in order to put the youth in touch, strengthen and widen the global network and create new connections between countries.- Raised awareness of the importance of a positive youth development framework, able toinspire social impact activities; foster interest and abilities to develop skills and competences to help them to find their place in the labour market and in society as a whole (Final International Forum-PT);-Reinforced the involvement of youth in Europe by allowing them to build their own support network and thus to become the actors of change. We expect this project to promote self confidence by fostering youth ability to take direct actions and empower them so as to develop youth entrepreneurship.- Raise awareness about vulnerable youths' situation in Europe by getting to know moreabout their needs and expectations. Moreover, contribute to improve their social and professional inclusion by reducing the gap of inequalities and giving more opportunities.- Provided recommendations, as a contribution to the dialogue on how youth civic engagement can serve as an enabling force for young women and men in the development and formulation of youth-related policies (Policy recommendations