<< Objectives >>By implementing this project 65 rural heritage workers from RO will have their international cooperation, digital and green competences increased in order to make inclusive, sustainable, innovative use of the local heritage; 10 adult educators from RO and NL will have their competencies for engaging and innovative adult education increased; min. 70 rural cultural and community workers in RO will learn how their heritage can be an economic asset, a sustainability, inclusion and learning factor.<< Implementation >>We will implement a blended course for RO heritage workers based on a competence framework and curriculum designed for the purpose, including a training and study visit in NL. We will develop a Good Practices Compendium and 15 innovative local heritage projects, making use of free-source digital tools and apps. An Adult Educator's Guide will be developed for long-term sustainability and all the products will be shared on events, including a Regional Heritage Fair organised in RO.<< Results >>a. A Competence Framework for heritage workers;b. A blended course (online, on-site - training in NL - and follow-up phases), piloted with 15 heritage workers, min. 50 more will join the online course in 2 yrs;c. A good practice collection of sustainable, inclusive, resilient heritage projects;d. 15 replicable, green, multilingual activities, game packages and workshops implemented in 5 rural communities in RO;e. A practical guide for adult educators;f. An Innovative Regional Heritage Fair.

People working with vulnerable groups of youth are struggling on a daily basis with the problem of maintaining work-life balance. Youth with physical disabilities, behavioral problems or intellectual disabilities, youth from alternative care, NEET youth and minorities face difficult problems in their everyday lives that can trigger strong feelings of empathy, sadness, helplessness or anger in youth workers. It can be very hard for youth workers to get proper rest after work and don’t think about distressing problems that young people they work with face. Most jobs and many life experiences generate some degree of stress but it seems that this problem is exacerbated among individuals working in emotionally demanding environments. The professional sphere often spills over into worker’s private life, and worker experiences a burnout. In order to achieve work sustainability, workers should find a balance between work and private life. Considering that we are lacking tools to help youth workers to alleviate the stress and emotions arising from such emotionally demanding work, development of a modern tool that is easily applicable and simple to use is of utmost necessity.Youth workers who learn how to take care of their mental health will be able to teach these skills to young people they work with too. When adopted, these skills make our daily lives more meaningful and enjoyable, even when we are faced with difficult situations and circumstances. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a form of cognitive-behavioural therapy, an empirically based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies with commitment and behavior-change strategies to increase psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility is the ability to stay in contact with the present moment regardless of unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, while choosing one's behaviors based on the situation and personal values. Studies show that psychological flexibility is associated with quality of life and mental well-being.Unfortunately, the traditional face-to-face psychotherapy is usually too expensive or inaccessible to youth workers working with vulnerable groups of youth, especially to those living in rural or poor areas. Computerized cognitive-behavioural treatments show promising results in treating anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as in development of healthy ways of dealing with stress. That is why this project will use this modern approach to enable greater number of youth workers to learn and implement basic principles of ACT treatment for their own self-development and in their everyday work with young people.The objective of this project is to introduce psychological flexibility skills into youth work practices with the aim of empowering professional capacities of youth workers that work with vulnerable groups of young people. As a result, they will be able to cope with stress more successfully, protect themselves from burn-out and transfer those skills to the young people they work with. This objective will be achieved by development of an intellectual output: innovative tool for increasing psychological flexibility that will consist of 2 parts: workshop curriculum that will be used in synergy with the mobile application containing short excercise based on the principles of ACT therapy. The app will be available for use in 3 different ways: individually by youth worker, individually by the young person, or in group work.Target group of this project are youth workers from 5 participating countries who will take part in producing the described intellectual output, piloting it and disseminating it to the relevant stakeholders. In the beginning of the project, 10 team members will take part in joint staff training where they will learn the basics of ACT treatment that will enable them to develop the content for the curriculum and the app. The developed materials will be tested and revised in the second joint staff training that will be organized for additional 15 youth workers who will implement national piloting of the materials afterwards. Through these trainings, youth workers will develop their own psychological flexibility and with the help of the developed intellectual output, they will be able to transfer these skills in a systematic and easy way to young people they work with. The developed curriculum and mobile app will be freely available in the project website and widely disseminated to other youth workers who want to develop better ways of dealing with stress and transfer these skills to youth they work with. The expected impact and long-term effect of this project is raising awareness of the stress that youth workers who work with vulnerable groups of youth deal with in their everyday work, of the importance of adopting healthy ways of dealing with stress and taking care of own mental health for lifelong sustainability, especially in such high-demanding emotional work.

<< Objectives >>The Main Objectives of the HOST Project are:1. To equip Hospitality Human Resource and Development Departments and Management with education and tools in order to enhance the training and support of staff with ASD.2. To reduce the employment gap between staff with disabilities and staff without disabilities by increasing employment opportunities and the development of skills for people with ASD.3. To enhance the role of VET Education in EU Hospitality and benefits to staff with ASD.<< Implementation >>1. Project Management and Quality Assurance Activities2. Dissemination Activities3. 4 Transnational Partner Meetings4. A Training-of-Trainers Activity in the Netherlands5. Activities for the Development of the HOST Board Game 6. Activities for the Development of the HOST VET Delivery Methodology7. Activities for the Development of the HOST VET Course and Training Materials Hospitality Human Resources Experts and Management8. 5 Multiplier Events in 5 different countries<< Results >>The deliverables that will be developed through the HOST Project are:1. A VET Delivery Methodology Document based on a) Target Group Learning Needs Survey and b) Partners' and Collective Findings Reports.2. A VET Course and Training Material for Hospitality Human Resources Experts and Managers.3. A Board Game addressed to Hospitality Staff with ASD, which will act as a team-building and soft/hard skills development training tool.

<< Background >>BACKGROUND & NEEDS | In this project we plan to provide a digital game for teenagers that will help them internalise a growth mindset and develop so-called grit. While growth mindset principles have become more popular and widespread since professor Carol Dweck first coined the term, research by PISA in 2018 showed that on average, around 63% of students in OECD countries can be described as having a growth mindset, believing that your intellect is something that you can develop. That’s a majority, but not a big majority. This is a shame, as students who believe that intellectual abilities are qualities that can be developed (as opposed to qualities that are fixed) tend to show higher achievement across challenging school transitions and greater course completion rates in challenging courses, even among students with less (educational) opportunities caused by poverty, as a 2016 national study among all 10th grade public school students in Chile showed. Growth mindset is an important topic to address especially for teenagers, as it enables them to fulfill their full potential and develop into happy, resilient adults. Currently there are some tools that use the growth mindset, but most of them take the growth minded principle as something that is already in place. We want to focus on really internalizing the growth mindset first. Also we are determined to get the adults and peers around the teenager involved, as consistency is key to internalising this outlook. During a short survey we did among teachers and youth workers, it was reported that the mindset of the parents play a big role in how children feel about their ability to develop their capabilities. If these parents become familiar with constructive ways to provide encouragement - focussing on process and not on ‘inborn’ talents’ - the game will have a bigger impact. Another issue we plan to address is the way in which the internet has had an impact on children’s stamina and willingness to put in effort in something for a longer time span. In our preoperational survey, different teachers reported their worries about the way children have become very used to immediate responses and successes. One teacher wrote: ‘Nowadays, young people even if they want to learn a new skill they don't have the patience, system and stamina to learn something from zero. As a generation they are used to easy and fast access to knowledge which doesn’t necessarily means access to learning something.’ As contradictory as it may sound, we believe there are ways to mitigate this tendency through a game app. We want to explore the right game mechanics for this. Ideally, the game would ‘celebrate’ failing and having different talents. By evaluating together, you get to directly experience that everyone has their own flaws and skills that they need to work harder at. This will make it less scary to try something new. We think the game format is a very good way to actively engage users with the material, addressing a need that also was mentioned in our orientation survey: teachers feel that growth interventions should play a role in the classroom, but as soon as the material is too ‘schooly’ it is considered boring by the students. They tend to get more excited if the material is presented in a technological exciting way. The game format is very fitting to internalizing the growth mindset, as it provides a safe environment to fail. The whole appeal of a (video) game is to keep trying without real consequences. You just start a new round or play the same level again. PERSONAL MOTIVATION | On a personal level, we’re very enthusiastic about this project because we truly believe having a growth mindset is key to a happy life (on an individual level) and innovative societies (on a global level). We actively promote a growth mindset on the workfloor and have seen the positive effect this has had on team members that weren’t very familiar with this before.<< Objectives >>The ‘dream impact’ of this project is to increase the use and knowledge of growth mindset principles throughout all socio-economic backgrounds, thereby contributing to more equality of opportunity in education and encouraging innovativeness in European societies. To make sure the project contributes to this goal, we need to reach the following objectives. 1. The game to be developed is well-researched and co-created with the target audiences. It addresses a) informational needs by visualizing ‘brain development’ in a way connecting to the children’s b) provides gamified ‘growth’-exercises to bring in practise the learnings c) dares players to challenge each other in a fun way - especially on subjects you’re not necessarily good at d) encourages a longer, more focused attention span while doing the exercises (i.e. social media block, timer) 2. Children using the Growth Game report that they believe their capacities can be developed and have a demonstrable deep understanding of growth mindset theory. 3. Children using the Growth Game report putting their knowledge of the growth mindset (i.e. how to hand out compliments to peers, siblings, parents) to use in their social circle. 4. In all participating regions, 10% of the schools have implemented the Growth Game within a year of completion of the project.<< Implementation >>The activities that we’re going to implement can be roughly divided in four categories: PREPARATION & RESEARCH | Including: Discussing detailed timetables for all PR’s during transnational strategy meeting(s), desk research on theoretical background, expert interviews in all countries involved, survey among teenagers aged 10-14 in all countries involved, setting up a zero measurement method.CONTENT DEVELOPMENT | Including: Analyzing PR 1: BEST PRACTICE REPORT and adjusting course during transnational strategy meeting. Start working on PR2: CURRICULUM and PR4: User Guide, including desk research, expert interviews, pilot tests in all partner countries. GAME DEVELOPMENT | Including: development of PR3: GROWTH GAME, research on game incentives fitting to growth mindedness, graphic design tests with target audiences, pilot tests with target audiences in all partner countries. Analyzing and optimizing PR2, PR4 and PR5 during transnational strategy meeting(s).FINALIZATION | Including: finalization of all PR's during transnational strategy meeting(s), Multiplier Events to launch the game in all involved countries, Plan of Action for long term sustainability and implementation in existing training programmes.<< Results >>After the completion of the project, there will be a very clear and well-founded output that’s fitted to be distributed all over Europe through youth work organisations and schools. We intend to produce the following project results: PR1: BEST PRACTISE REPORT | Interviews and desk research on current growth mindset interventions and their bottlenecks for both teachers/parents and childrenPR2: CURRICULUM | A set of researched and tested exercises/mini-games that stimulate grit and growth capacities + information on neuroplasticity, the working of the brainPR3: SERIOUS GAME | The Game connects PR1 en PR2 and uses the right incentives, game mechanics and art styles that speak to a teenage audiencePR4: USER GUIDE | For teachers, educators, parents.PR5: ASSESSMENT METHOD | Method to conduct a zero measurement at project start, method to measure impact in different stages (tests) of the development process and optimizing the evaluation method for implementation in the User Guide. Other outcomes are a set of (promotional) articles on our research efforts and pilot tests and a project website. We will disseminate and maintain the project results and other outcomes through this website. All needed instructions and content for promotion can be downloaded from the platform. The Growth Game itself will be made available through the App Store and Google Play Store. The User Guide will include an evaluation method for professionals and parents, which will continually provide the community of users wirth insights and tips. We’ll explore ways in which these insights can be shared in the long run, for example through the project website or during informal meetings after completion of the project. This can potentially be combined with measuring the extent to which our objectives are being met.

"<< Objectives >>The project ""E-playing in Social Entrepreneurship"" aims to develop pedagogical techniques in social entrepreneurship through gamification, oriented to youth. The project will create innovative training materials in game-based social entrepreneurship education and will deliver serious video games which will help youngsters engage in learning the essentials of social entrepreneurship, by playing and interacting digitally with their peers.<< Implementation >>WP1 – Project ManagementWP2 – Research and Curriculum creationWP3 – Creation of the platform and the video games. In this WP a Training of Trainers will be implemented.WP4 – Piloting and fine-tuning of the gamesWP5 - Dissemination<< Results >>The expected results of the project are:-Developing the entrepreneurial skills of youngsters-Creationofinnovativedigitaltoolsforeducationinsocial entrepreneurship-Empowering youngsters to start their own business-Decrease unemployment across Europe"