<< Background >>CONTEXT: Although progress is visible and the status of women in Europe has unequivocally improved over the last decades, effective equality between women and men is far from being a reality. The gender gap and structural barriers persist in many areas.In fact, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), no member state has yet achieved full gender equality and progress is expected to be slow. Member states scored an average of 67.4 out of 100 in the 2019 EU Gender Equality Index, a score that has improved by only 5.4 points since 2005. The economic crisis has accentuated inequality, increasing the number of groups vulnerable to social exclusion. Now, marginalisation is no longer only caused by specific situations, such as unemployment, poor health conditions or low education. As Castel (2014) points out, the traditional risk groups (immigrant women, the disabled, those with low qualifications or victims of gender violence, etc.) are now joined by people who, until now, have been able to integrate into society and go from having been able to manage their lives to feeling the uncertainty of a future they cannot control. Social disadvantage has become a problem that has economic, social, psychological and cultural dimensions that cannot be separated. Thus, lack of social, economic, political and cultural participation also has psychological and emotional impacts, as part of a comprehensive state of mental, social and occupational health, on groups at greater risk of social exclusion (Escarbajal, Izquierdo and López, 2014).NEEDS: Faced with this situation, the trend in professional practice in the field of social services is to guide their actions with a comprehensive, person-centred and interdisciplinary approach. In this line, physical activity and corporal expression come into play, whose effects on self-esteem are scientifically proven thanks to the generation of dopamine, serotonin, endorphin and oxytocin, neurotransmitters linked to motivation, joy and personal satisfaction, as well as an antidote to depression.In addition, the development of physical activity tends to strengthen interpersonal relationships and expand the social circle of individuals, generating conversations and routines as a therapeutic element and female empowerment, as they allow women to signify their experiences, life processes and their evolution. Therefore, we can understand physical activity and bodily expression as a vehicle for change, reconstruction, organic phenomenon and encounter with oneself, constituting a mechanism of expression of our perceptual systems (Malchioni, 2010).Empowerment is a concept linked to self-esteem in the sense that it confers a pride in oneself, a sense of being able to do and is therefore inextricably linked to the level of personal self-esteem. For women, empowerment means taking control of their lives, defining their own path and gaining the ability to do things that reaffirm their identity. Together with the therapeutic power of physical activity and corporal expression, coaching and emotional intelligence hace also proved to be a key area in personal development and empowerment processes, establishing strategies for change, reinforcing self-concept and building healthy self-esteem by improving emotional management and reframing situations that have generated undesired results. Both actions (coaching and corporal expression) have also proved to be highly complementary tools due to their strong social and integration factor for groups at risk of exclusion.TARGET GROUP- Women aged 30-50 at risk of social exclusion- Professionals of sport, physical activity or body expression<< Objectives >>EMPACT wants to generate a positive impact on the target group through the development of an improvement in their living conditions based on emotional and psychological health, from which to rebuild a better personal and economic situation for their full integration as major players in European society. For this reason and because of the figures mentioned above, this project needs to be carried out in a transnational way, so that the European Union becomes clearly aware of the difficult situation of women at risk of exclusion and incorporates them as elements of value and decision making.THE OVERALL GOAL is to improve the emotional and psychological health of women at risk of exclusion and belonging to disadvantaged groups, empowering them and increasing their self-esteem and self-concept through coaching, emotional intelligence, physical activity and corporal expression as a therapeutic and social integration element:1 - Emotional management, to develop their ability to manage emotions and introduce new habits into their lives that reinforce their self-confidence and self-esteem.2 - Coaching, to create an action plan to help them apply their new emotional management skills through medium and long-term objectives.3 - Body expression, to help them use the most natural and instinctive means of identifying emotions. Through movement we allow all the emotional blockages that we do not consciously dare to recognise to come to the surface. The connection with the body is the complement is an effective resource of empowerment.On the other hand, the specific objectives of EMPACT are the following ones:- To give visibility to the group of women at risk of social exclusion.- To raise awareness of their problems and their weight in European society.- Empower women at risk of social exclusion from an emotional and corporal perspective as therapeutic elements.- To work on disinhibition, spontaneity and possible bodily blockages. - To discover one's own body and feel at ease with it. - To boost the self-esteem of the target group. - To experience the great expressive richness of our body and give a voice to the target group.- Enabling reconciliation with one's own body: moving from self-destructive behaviour to constructive behaviour.- Discovering the other and in the other support, trust, reinforcement as basic elements of a good relationship. - To introduce relaxation and body massage techniques that help to have experiences of peace, serenity and well-being with oneself implementing coaching and emotional intelligence techniques in their sessionsThe vision we have for our project is to generate a comprehensive training programme that offers women at risk of exclusion the means to empower themselves, to enhance their skills, to discover how not to remain in the situation they are in and how to bring about significant changes in themselves and in their lives.<< Implementation >>Project is divided into 2 types of work packages:1. PROJECT RESULTS (PR), responsibility for each PR lies with a Result Leader.Detailed description of workplan, division of task and responsibilities of partners is included in section: Project Results.2. MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION WORK PACKAGES – (financed under the item Management and Implementation) cover whole project duration and are realised at two levels:a. transnational levelb. the level of partner country – responsibility is cascaded down and lies with each partner who realises tasks on this level based on own procedures, resources and tools, using own potential and practices.There are 3 main work packages under the item Management and Implementation including following fields of activity:1. MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION:- DOCUMENTATION: all templates and needed documents: project documentation, contracts, timesheets, reporting, etc.- COMMUNICATION AND MEETINGS: transnational meetings, internal staff meetings dealing with the project itself and the intermediate inline meetings, internal staff meeting organised by partners at country level. Communication is described in detail below.- PROGRESS REPORTING: reporting the work done and following steps achieved, milestones, reporting PRs, activities and events: progress of results, TPM, multiplier events and other activities by partners.- BUDGET CONTROL AND FINANCIAL REPORTING: tasks and responsibilities as well as procedure of reporting are described in section: budget control and time management- TIME MANAGEMENT - described in section: budget control and time management- HANDLING RISKS – described in detail below.The responsibility for work package 1 lies with Project Coordinator, who cooperates with Management Group (MG) on a regular basis, at country level is cascaded to partners to person responsible for management (members of Management Group).2. QUALITY ASSURANCE AND EVALUATION:- preparation of Quality Assurance Plan- setting qualitative and quantitative indicators- quality checks and quality assessment of the PRs.- evaluation of the project different than PRs: quality of management, communication, evaluation of meetings and promotion activities etc.- final evaluation of the project’s success – does the project meet the goals, the potential of results, potential to sustain.Tasks under this item are presented in details in appropriate sections of the applications.The responsibility for work package 2 lies with Quality Assurance Leader who cooperates with Quality Assurance Group (QAG) on a regular basis, at country level is cascaded to partners to person responsible for quality assurance (members of QAG).3. PROMOTION:- Promotion plan with measures and indicators- Graphic standards- Visualization of the project: logotype, colours, templates of documents- Project website- coordination of promotion in partner’s Social networks (FB, LinkedIn, YouTube)- newsletters- project leaflet / one pager for promotionThe responsibility for work package 3 lies with Promotion Leader, who cooperates with Dissemination Group (DG) on a regular basis, at country level is cascaded to partners to person responsible for promotion and dissemination (members of DG).Functional structure assumes following roles:MANAGING GROUP (MG). The group is led by Project Coordinator and cooperates with him/her to realise tasks of workpackage 1 described above.QUALITY ASSURANCE GROUP (QAG). The group is led by Quality Assurance Leader and cooperates with him/her to realise tasks of work package 2 described above.PROMOTION GROUP (PG) – The group is led by Promotion Leader and cooperates with him/her to realise tasks of work package 3.Finally, our project is fully aligned with the environment and the fight against climate change in the procedures we will follow from the start. All partners are involved in the project have agreed to protect the environment by taking all measures within its power and where necessary.<< Results >>TANGIBLE RESULTS:To achieve the objectives of the project three Project Results will be developed, tested and multiplied:The project will develop three Project Results: - PR1: Audio manual in coaching and emotional intelligence skills for professionals on physical activity and body expression/artistic/sports.- PR2: Videos with real cases of body expression/art/sports instructors, where they explain their experiences with women included in the target group, what their needs are and how this kind of practices can help them.- PR3: Training system with a set of 36 practical tools on how to put into practice everything explained in the manual for trainers (PR1) by implementing coaching and emotional intelligence techniques in theirsessions- In the Multiplier Events (E1-E6) the project consortium will celebrate workshops in order to ensure the sustainability of the project results beyond the project partnership and project’ lifetime.RESULTS RELATED TO MANAGEMENT- Managing guidelines;- Reporting procedure and administrative guidelines;- 4 transnational meetings + meeting minutes.- 4 intermediate online meetingsRESULTS RELATED TO QUALITY AND EVALUATION- Evaluation tools: meetings evaluation questionnaire, project progress questionnaire, Project Results evaluation tools and multiplier events evaluation questionnaire.- Evaluation Reports: mid-term and final evaluation report, Project Results reports;- Project risks analysis.RESULTS RELATED TO PROMOTION- Project graphic design;- Social networks profiles;- Project website;- Project mailing list;- Newsletters;- Informative brochure;INTANGIBLE DIRECT RESULTS: - Developed knowledge and skills of monitors and professionals devoted to physical exercise or corporal expression in testing project outputs on how to manage their emotions.- Increased awareness of the need to manage women's emotions in their day by day. ADDITIONAL OUTCOMES FOR PARTNERS:- Increased capacity of partners and associated partners through expanded offer of their organizations with free solutions available to customers and recipients;- On the basis of international cooperation among diverse partners, experience exchange, and mutual learning, partners' experience and potential have been developed.- Partner collaboration should be strengthened.- Partners' image as those who undertake innovative initiatives and promote an innovative approach has been reinforced.

The artist within – Applied eMOTION was a long-term project with the aim of sharing best practices between sectors and methods connected to art expressions. We invited institutions, helping professional colleagues to develop their entrepreneurship and creative skills by using different artistic tools in individual and group work.During the years we managed to learn about and synthesise methods using different modalities of expression in helping professions. First we shared our best practices and approaches and we researched ways of possible integration into different helping fields. Then we started to develop curriculums in formal and non-formal education along a continuous discussion and debate based on our diverse realities and practices. It reached the moment when we tested them in three levels, involving university personnel and students and already practising helping professionals too. Furthermore, along the process we researched, noted and built on the reasons of burn-out in helping professions and the possibilities for innovation, entrepreneur skills and educating creative learning attitudes.The transfer and/or implementation of innovative practices with the partners resulted in a greater understanding and responsiveness to social, psychological and cultural diversity of the target groups. In addition to that, professional development and sectorial cooperation was reached at organisational, local, national, and European levels. Our findings were recorded in a publication and a toolkit, which is an extra bonus on to this kind of project. We found this very important to note and share our results with all working in the field of helping professions, being part of formal or non-formal education. We foresee the next step bringing these results to more specific groups and more detailed educational plans along new aims.Art does not solve problems, but makes us aware of their existence and through different ways of expression (especially having an integrative approach) we can work with the problems and lead them to another level of understanding.We reached our objectives to•Share and discuss methodologies•Skill, competence development of helping professionals•Re-developed methodology based on outcomes•Professional networking•Sectorial cooperation•Promotion of the use of art in formal and non-formal activities of helping professionsWe ran different activities to do so:I. International meetings (only for partners)II.ATrainings to share best practices (open for helping professionals)•Training I. “Integral expression and dance therapy training”, Hungary February 28 – March 8. 2015.•Training II. “Storytelling and cartoons”, Italy June 28 Sunday – July 6. 2015.•Training III. “Humour strategies in helping professions”, Germany 3-11. October 2015.II.BAll trainings were followed by local pilot activities. The participants, as a follow-up to the courses, designed and ran workshops, events integrating and adapting the shared method into their work. The results were published and shared among the partnership, and used to create a new curriculum for the last training.II.C Training to develop and test new curriculums•Training IV. “Integration of the methods and piloting curriculums”, Poland, 2-10. April 2016.III. Research and publication on our results•burn out in helping professions•creative methodologies and innovation•recommendation on the use of art methods in helping professions•curriculums and learning outcomesPartnersAssociation on Refugees and Migrants, ARM-BG (www.arm-bg.blogspot.com), BulgariaSpołeczna Akademia Nauk, SAN (www.spoleczna.pl), PolandComparative Research Network e.V., CRN (www.comparative-research.net), GermanyTheater Vision e.V., (http://theater-vision.de), GermanyEURO-NET (www.synergy-net.info), ItalyHungarian Association for Expressive Arts and Dance Therapy, IKTE (www.ikte.hu), HungaryOur project website: http://www.theartistwithin.eu/Online shared folder for attached documents: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtFIY0-TSvLqgoNXwQ8YqI91pgglOA

<< Objectives >>Youth need to feel and be safe for exploring their interests, or expressing their opinions. Without safety no learning, development can happen (Maslow). Settings that do not provide safety, this basic need, will not be effective. Youth workers need to offer physically, emotionally, mentally safe environment to develop skills, to socialise with peers and adults, discover their unique identity. Youth workers need to be informed, trained to offer this. We aim to provide this via various tools<< Implementation >>We are going to share the knowledge and experience of the consortium and based on those develop outcomes useful for our organisations and other youth workers as well. Research, focus group interviews, writing recommendations, running trainings, piloting local educational activities, developing an online platform and awareness raising on social media will happen.<< Results >>Recommendations on safety in youth work (do-s and don't-s, etc.)Training curriculum for youth workers both on mental/emotional and physical safetyOnline platform supporting self-directed learning on our topic providing tools, resources, case studies, background materials, etc.Awareness raising using social media on the importance of safety in youth work and how it is more than calling 112

"""ERASVUS+: European opportunities for Raising Skills through Volunteering of Unengaged Seniors” is a 30 months long initiative for the exchange of practices, which involves 4 organizations from Italy, Spain and Hungary, with different socio-cultural backgrounds, all of them working for the education of the over-50s.As the final report on Volunteering in the European Union (2018) shows that the highest number of volunteers are represented by adults aged between 30-50 y.o., the Consortium aims at investigating what happens with the over-50s. Senior citizens have a crucial role in the development of the European society, from the social, economic and cultural point of view. They need to feel useful and their great baggage of experience is essential for the growth, in primis, of the youngest generations.In this scenario, how can educational institutions support unengaged seniors in enhancing their soft skills and key competences in an international environment, enriching, at the same time, the sending and hosting communities? Is European Senior Volunteering the right tool to answer this question? What if the methodology foresees an intergenerational approach? Could the young adults who had a previous EVS (European Voluntary Service) or ESC (European Solidarity Corps) experience help somehow the Institutions in developing Guidelines for designing and implementing senior volunteering projects in EU? ERASVUS+ will answers all these questions by adopting a structured workplan, counting 3 TPMs, each of them attended by 2 staff members per partner, 5 LTTAs, and 16 Local Activities (L.A.s).The idea is to involve young adults, who have already been EVS or ESC, in the mentoring and tutoring activities (total of 4 L.A.s) of 9 seniors per organization who will participate as volunteers to the 3 short blended mobilities in partner institutions, in an intergenerational and intercultural environment. A total of 36 over-50s will be engaged in the mobilities, together with their accompanying persons (coordinators/educators and translators), so they will be supported in the exchange of experience with senior peers and youngsters from the hosting communities.However, the involvement of the seniors does not end with their participation to the mobilities. In order to give sustainability and a wider impact to ERASVUS+, after each LTTA, the senior volunteers will:- organize ""experience restitution"" workshops (3 per partner, for a total of 12 L.A.s), so as to transfer the outcomes of their experience to the local communities- act as mentors for the over-50s volunteers who will participate to the next blended mobility.The direct engagement of the seniors in their sending Institutions, as mentors, is the key to ensure that the mobilities are not just spot initiatives, but, better, a starting point for a long term collaboration between the senior volunteers and their organizations, for a wider impact at personal (for continuous learning) and local level (for growth of the communities where they live).All the experience collected after this phase, will be analyzed and elaborated and they will merge into the “ESV: European Senior Volunteering Guidelines”, a Vademecum for the designing and implementation of volunteering initiatives for the over-50s, based on an intercultural and intergenerational approach.During the last LTTA (the 5th), 4 participants per partner will be trained on the use of the ESV Guidelines. Each of the 4 delegations will be made of 2 staff members (coordinator/educators/teachers/facilitators) and 2 senior mentors.Based on the cooperative learning methodology, this Training Course aims also at refining the Guidelines before to officially release them through a structured dissemination campaign. Working as recommendations, the ESV Guidelines will not only be addressed, thanks to a proper Social Media Campaign and the uploading to the EPALE and the ERASMUS+ results Platforms, to those organizations willing to use new tools and methodologies for involving the unengaged seniors in educational activities for raising their skills and competences, but they will also be addressed to relevant EU Institutions, with the hope that the importance of the European senior volunteering initiatives will be recognized and specific measures for granting and supporting these initiatives will be devised accordingly, in the near future."

"CONTEXTThe ""Europe City Teller - cultural mediation and storytelling for tourism, between theater, multimedia and storytelling"" project (acronym ""EU-ACT"") operated within the renewed context, which sees policies in the European cultural tourism sector, adapt to the new trends of tourists in search of authentic cultural experiences, with the aim of developing a quality offer, promoting local habits and customs, paying attention to sustainability, protecting and enhancing the local heritage, landscapes and culture. The EU-ACT project is part of the transnational strategy on cultural tourism promoted by the European Commission, which aims to implement a series of activities to promote transnational tourism skills and products in relation to specific issues with significant growth potential and respond to concerns social, territorial cohesion and protection / enhancement of natural and cultural heritage. AIMSSpecifically, EU-ACT has set itself the main objective of transferring new knowledge and skills in the field of cultural mediation and theatrical and digital storytelling to operators, educators and mediators, with the aim of co-creating new tourism products. marketable cultural heritage.EU-ACT accompanied the creation of these products, through international experiences, promoted by a strategic partnership, made up of organizations expert in the fields of theater, design and digital programming, of storytelling methodologies applied to cultural heritage, coming from Italy, Poland, Hungary, Germany and the UK.The partnership developed and shared the good practices developed by the individual organizations, to create a collective working methodology.The project had a total duration of 33 months (having had an extension of 6 months granted by INDIRE NA due to the covid-19 pandemic), and has developed:- training activity- various project meetings (some in presence, one in mixed mode and one exclusively online due to the pandemic),preparatory to the creation of three intellectual products, subsequently presented in the context of multiplier events that each partner organized in their own country (in presence and / or online) and which were aimed at a wide audience, far exceeding the numbers foreseen in the project and almost doubling them altogether. DEVELOPED PRODUCTS The project produced the following 3 intellectual products: 1. Live interpretation: path of theatrical visits, with ""guides"", who in historical clothes, tell the main points of historical-artistic interest of the European cities involved 2. An online platform with an in-depth analysis of the contents produced by the project (to encourage the experience both before and after the events) 3. An augmented reality APP, for mobile devices, connected to a paper / game guide, to: - enjoy the contents created in real time - lead the public to discover the imagined route with video animations and audiotours. IMPACTThe project activities have generated a great impact in terms of acquiring new skills and interest from the public and the media, as well as knowledge and experience in the field of cultural heritage enhancement and promotion. RESULTS The project succeeded in: 1. implementing new training methodologies 2. increasing knowledge of the European cultural heritage 3. giving access to the European cultural heritage through the web 4. increasing accessibility to the European cultural heritage through digital technologies 5. transferring educational methodologies"