CONTEXTEarly leaving from education and training (ELET) is a serious issue in many EU countries and has attracted the attention of many researchers, policy-makers and educators. Although the situation varies between countries and the underlying reasons for leaving early differ from student to student, the process leading up to it has a number of common elements.According to the report of Eurycide and Cedefop, “Tackling Early Leaving from Education and Training in Europe: Strategies, Policies and Measures” (2014), one out of seven young Europeans leaves the education system presenting a lack of skills and qualifications necessary to prepare them for the labor market. Currently, more than 4 million young people in Europe are classified as early school leavers, only 40% of whom are employed.In the last two years, due to the pandemic, this problem has been emphasized, especially as regards Italy, one of the worst countries in Europe.Research shows that leaving education early leads to reduced opportunities in the labor market and an increased likelihood of unemployment, socio-economic disadvantage, health problems, as well as reduced participation in political, social, and cultural activities.On the other hand, abundant research indicates that a higher level ofn education can lead to a series of positive outcomes for the individual as well as for society. The benefits of young people staying longer in school are improved employment prospects, higher salaries, better health, less crime, improved social cohesion, lower public and social costs, and higher productivity and growth.Dealing with the underlying causes of early leaving and developing ways to overcome them has become a central issue in Europe.OBJECTIVESThe overall goal of motivatEyoUth is to develop a multi-intervention program for youth and youth workers and focus on the early school leaving phenomenon, to reduce the factors that create it and draw direct and indirect actions towards the target groups. MotivatEyoUth is based on two key pillars: Early School Leaving (ESL) Prevention and Intervention; through the project, prevention actions for youth prone to present high-risk behaviors was developed, as well as intervention measures and actions for youth classified as Early Leavers from Education and Training” (ELET), to prevent, remedy and reduce Early School Leaving. TARGET GROUPThe main target groups of the project have been young people between 14 -18 years old and youth 18-24, classified as Early Leavers from Education and Training & experts; teachers, educators, youth workers, trainers, social workers, healthcare professionals, coaches, social workers etc.It is estimated that more than 1200 youth and experts have been involved, directly and indirectly within the project activities, and around 90.000 have been achieved, through dissemination activities, during the three years of the project.ACTIVITIESFour main Intellectual Outputs are been designed and developed: O1: Experts Programme Toolkit O2: Online game “Journey to your Future” O3: ICT Tool for Competence Assessment O4: Online educational platform The project results are available in English, Italian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish languages. They are developed in such a way and method so as to have the availability to be transferred and adjusted appropriately to other EU countries in the future.RESULTS AND IMPACT Youth involved in the project have been developing digital skills; they have been motivated and encouraged to continue on education and training through innovative material, tools, and activities; they have been developing their interest in Educational opportunities and other opportunities in entering the labor market Experts and other stakeholders have increased their awareness of ESL, the factors that create it, and the risks that derive from it; they have new educational tools and methods that will be applicable in their daily work and will support them in addressing the risks and issues raised by ESL/ELET (both for prevention as well as intervention purposes); they have been the development of their digital skills and opportunity to make better use of digital technology. Partner organizations have updated, improve & widen their educational and training offer, putting their competitiveness ahead; they have new tools that will be applicable to their daily work; they have exchanged know-how and define the best practices in the field of ESL/ELET so as to incorporate them into the project products; they have participated in an international network across diverse professional fields and gain expertise in a demanding and important field.

Small NGOs (SNGOs, <15 employees) in Europe are facing rising operating costs in terms of new skills to acquire, accelerating competition for public funds, and shrinking government support, particularly in countries suffering from nationalism and restricting laws. SNGOs are facing higher operational costs and worse visibility (particularly with regards to refugee support). At the same time, in 2018 the EU Commission launched a plan to protect European values having a special focus on NGOs, launching a new Justice, Rights and Values Fund aimed at strengthening civil society facing several threats in several member states. In fact, as also the Fundamental Rights Agency stated in the same year, European civil groups are far from reaching sustainable long-term financing – this is expressed in short-term projects or in not-qualified personnel doing the fund-raising. As such, every year SNGOs face to quit as they cannot plan ahead – this is transversal in Europe and particularly evident in Southern states. The project regards particularly to the dramatic data regarding financial and digital education – 1 out of 3 adult Europeans are not sufficiently equipped to reach satisfactory digital competencies or with sufficient financial literacy. e-PATTERNS (E-learning platform for up-skilling in fund-raising practice, financial digital literacy in NGO management) wants to support poorly- ICT-equipped SNGO practitioners (30+ years old) who need to be up-re-skilled in ICT & financial literacy (budgeting, planning ahead, choosing products (brand) and using independent advice )to develop strategic competencies in fund-raising, crucial for the development of any social project. Gender makes the situation even more dramatic, both in Italy and in the rest of the partner countries. Fund-raising (as financial literacy) requires a broad approach - entrepreneurial techniques, financial analysis, digital knowledge and branding are required for social projects. Differently, SNGOs often see fund-raising just as limited tool to finance something, and not a permanent strategic activity that regards entrepreneurship strategies, financial and digital positioning as well as digital marketing techniques.e-PATTERNS aims to up-re-skill adult SNGOs practitioners (30+ years old) to support their work in fund-raising and strategic digital positioning through new technologies, developing a web-platform to help strategical planning and to incubate projects in a sustainable way, creating also a self-assessment tool to analyse the state of digitisation within the organisation. Indeed, the project wants to support concrete SNGOs projects in each partner country, improving also working flexibility of adults in SNGOs which face the hop-in/hop-out problem with regards to job market.Specific objectives:- Train low-skilled adults and develop their competences in financial literacy/fund-raising through simplified ICT tools developing a Step-by-Step Educational Framework connected to Open Badges System (OBS) to be tested/complete through two specific training sessions during the project life time;- Support local projects incubating them through fund-raising preparatory actions (or through crowd-funding, partnership building, budget planning etc.) during the project enhancing the impact of SNGOs (C1,C2);- Create a web-platform hosting an interactive online step-by-step web tool to guide target group users in learn financial basics to make a fund-raise plan, where they can train/consult FAQ/orienteer better. Learning qualification will be issued through Open Badge System.- Define/develop a self-assessment tool for digitisation of SNGOs in order to define areas of work and training patterns within organisations.The project main aim is to empower at local level SNGOs and to improve the project management, implementation and delivery of them in order to keep them alive within the European democratic system.

<< Background >>GreenTour project outlines as extremely important need to promote the social inclusion and better access of the people with disabilities to existing green tourism possibilities and foster environmental sustainability in tourism industry.A quick overview of the partners countries reveal following issues:The Plan for the Elimination of Architectural Barriers in Italy shows sore point-a scarcity information available at European level regarding the reception of accessible tourism in Italy. In fact, there are a series of barriers, not only architectural, but also cultural, communication and social acceptance, which hinder the full expression of the will to participate in social and cultural life and to devote oneself to leisure activities. According to Istat, there are 3.1 million disabled people in Italy, 5.2% of the Italian population, and it is necessary to create real opportunities for tourists with special needs to access certain tourist products independently and, respecting the environment and in the direction of accessible and eco-sustainable tourism.To inspire people with disabilities to lead active life is not only a social responsibility – there is a compelling business case as it can boost the competitiveness and capacity of business and EU society. In the last years in Cyprus, green and environmently responsible travels are considered very important in order to attract visitors with special needs. However, the solutions that promote green tourism it seems to lagging behind. According to National Tourism Strategy in Cyprus, in order to remain competitive tourism should be developed in a sustainable way, which positively impacts the economy, the society and the enviroment. So far a lot has been done on the coast in Cyprus, however focus should be dedicated also to tourism in remote, mountain areas and investments in eco-friendly initiatives accessible for all.Romania and Bulgaria needs to strengthen its institutional framework to better protect the rights of persons with disabilities. In both countries “While certain measures were taken to improve the legislative framework for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, serious shortcomings persist in respect of its implementation. Moreover, the current reform process which aims to decrease the number of institutionalised persons falls short of providing for the genuine structural changes needed to ensure their access to community-based services”.(Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights,2019).Spain is one of the world's largest tourist destination and tourism is one of the most important sectors of activity in the Spanish economy. In addition, in Spain, tourism is a cross-sectoral in nature and has a greater capacity to generate employment than others. This sector is able to generate socioeconomic growth, inclusive development and cultural heritage preservation.Therefore,GreenTour project underline as enevitable education models and materials provided in the area of green tourism towards disabled people will compete in an innovative way the insufficient measures existing at this moment. By participating in the project, GreenTour stakeholders will have access to useful information and tools in order to convert their businesses enviromentaly responsible and friendly for people with disabilities. Furthermore, all tourist service providers around the globe were hit hard by the pandemic outbreak, as they were unable to organise activity at all or not in the way they have done it in the past. Now, they need to switch quickly to being able to deliver tailor-made, more natural and sustainable green tourism offers, to specific target groups as well or in new manner - on virtual environment. And if the trend to have more and more online based solutions for doing business, the business owners have to build and enrich their toolkit and expand their capacities to deliver tourism service based on tailored solutions while keeping the stakeholders engaged.<< Objectives >>Sustainable environment friendly tourism has been recently brought to the forefront of the agenda for eco-friendly tourism development, as numerous research reports took notice of the spike in demand for accessibility, especially filling the gaps to people with disabilities’ needs.Even at well-equipped in some countries, accessible tourist destinations, attractions and recreation opportunities are often inaccessible and % of those services remains insufficient.Managers of tourism services providers tend to lack awareness of the access needs of customers with disabilities and have insufficient skills in developing and implementing innovative, sustainable solutions, which could help seizing the opportunities offered by the market of accessible tourism.Interactive map for green tourism for people with disabilities - GreenTour project set as general objective to promote the social inclusion and better access of the people with disabilities to existing green tourism possibilities and foster environmental sustainability in tourism industry. The GreenTour partnership set the following specific objectives to addressed and fulfill the target group specific needs through its completion. Specific project objectives should be outlined as inevitable to:-Development of Interactive map to enable people with disabilities to be able to plan, realise and enjoy green touristic travels, in more sustainable & environment friendly way and to explore all green tourism offers that the country can provide.-Motivate the people with disabilities to lead an active life, do tourism and become true agents of the environmental change through development and implementation of new and targeted teaching approaches.-Raise the awareness among people on the need to consider the environmental impact of touristic travels and to make green choices while organizing while being on the trip.-Encourage the tourist providers to create inclusive environment for people with disabilities and to include more sustainable offers for their guests in their portfolio services.-Support both target groups on how to utilize the available online technologies to their benefit and make the most of them when exploring the green tourism possibilities.Successful implementation of project activities and envisaged five intellectual outputs development will enable the achievement of the above mentioned concrete objectives, to positively impact the both target groups representatives - people with disabilities and green tourism service providers.<< Implementation >>The GreenTour project work plan is organised into set of activities related to the respective intellectual output and led by different partners, balanced according to their experience and expertise. Each of the six partners from Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain and Cyprus will contribute for the accomplishment of all project activities. There are 6 project meetings envisaged to be held in partners countries to monitor the progress and focus on project activities successful completion.Considering the needs identified at European and national levels, the GreenTour project has set the overall goal to promote the social inclusion and better access of the people with disabilities to existing green tourism possibilities and foster environmental sustainability in tourism industry. In order to accomplish this goal, the project will fulfil five specific pre-defined activities leading to the results realisation. Core activity within the project agenda is the development of Intellectual outputs IO1 to IO5 with dissemination and valorization activities involving project stakeholders and representatives of the target group - disadvantaged people and the eco-friendly oriented tourism service providers. In this sense, it is inevitable for project impact and successful realisation the involvement of associated partners to further collaboration and adaptation of project results throughout their network which is also set as an milestone activity of the current GreenTour project. In the process of implementation and reaching the final intellectual output results, a number of activities are envisaged to be accomplished within the project lifecycle:-Activity for development of a GreenTour interactive map dedicated to green touristic travels through knowledge transfer at a joint capacity building sessions; conduction of desk research and surveys among people with specific needs & eco-friendly tourism organisations; validation of findings with associate partners and external stakeholders.-Activity for realisation of new and targeted teaching approaches and guidance for the people with disabilities on how to plan, organize and realise their green touristic travels to motivate the people with disabilities to lead an active life, do tourism and become true agents of the environmental change and overall to raise awareness among people on the need environmental impact to be considered and to make green choices. The realisation will go through major activities: definition of methodology; content creation – articles, embedded case studies of green tourism; storytelling, video, interviews and first-hand user experiences.-Activity for creation of guidance towards tourist providers to encourage them to create inclusive environment for people with disabilities and to include more sustainable offers for their guests in the service portfolio. Development involves the following major activities: conceptual modelling of a handbook; development of “How to” guidelines, web-based performance, scenarios for practical sessions based on tailored methodology; pilot training with target group representatives based on the content and embedded materials.-Activity for realisation of guidebook for the mentors of the tourist providers to help to scale up green & eco-friendly tourism methodology into their current and future tourism business.-Activities for enabling usability and transferability of the project results to wider audience of stakeholders via teasing user-friendly presentation of good practices and success stories, related to stakeholder tourist green offers.GreenTour project envisages dissemination activities to be conducted throughout the entire life cycle of the project.All successfully implemented activities constitute prerequisites for the achievement of the project’s overall and specific objectives.<< Results >>The project intends to develop innovative, web based open educational resources, which is particularly important for the primary target groups and VET providers that comes in a flexible way. Project methodology envisages sequence of activities to implement project objectives with the active participation of all partners and stakeholders, as a result of which the following Tangible results will be developed within the project lifetime:Five intellectual outputs in six languages English, Romanian, Bulgarian, Italian, Greek and Spanish:-Interactive map for green tourism for people with disabilities - an online application that will provide information on the possibilities for green tourism in the partners’ countries- Green Travel Manual for people with disabilities how to plan, organize and realise their green touristic travels. - Green Touristic Handbook for tourist providers - how to be more sustainable in providing their touristic services and to expand the existing touristic portfolio with new green & ecotourism offers.- Manual for mentors - methodological instruction on how to interact with & support the tourist providers to improve their environmental sustainability.- Choose Green Tourism Booklet - to promote the green tourism among all stakeholders, to raise the awareness towards the green tourism, good practices, success stories Tips/ strategies for stakeholder co-design of accessible tourism offers.Intangible results include:- Knowledge transfer and exchange of good practices among project team members, coming from diverse backgrounds and professional fields- Improved organisational capacity for management and implementation of transnational collaboration projects, large-scale initiatives and events- Synergies between different types of organisations from business, educational, and social sectors for collective intelligence and complementary expertise.- Extended networks, resulting from collaboration with stakeholders at local, regional, national and European level, which could lead to new and sustainable partnerships.Implementing the GreenTour project within this European partnership will secure broad dissemination of project results and will reach a much larger representation of the target group, thus multiplying the impact of the project in geographical perspective. A desired result by GreenTour project completion is to present diversity of EU Member States, that affects also the various approaches, techniques and methods applied in terms of green tourism and accessible tourism offers provided, also to tackle common issues caused by the pandemic oubreak in the new tourism reality, with a view of climate change care.Inclusion of disadvantaged people providing them with better access to existing green tourism possibilities motivates their active life and foster environmental sustainability in tourism industry. There are no such support programmes like GreenTour that facilitate green accessible tourism, and as there are a small number of initiatives targeting accessible tourism, every interaction with them is a positive distraction from the daily activities. The GreenTour outputs will contribute to raising awareness among tourism service providers of accessibility requirements and barriers people with disabilities perceive or face in the process of planning and undertaking tourism activities in a sustainable green way. The project resources and tools will equip tourism professionals with knowledge, skills and attitudes required to remove these barriers, provide green tourism products and ensure accessible customer service. The GreenTour project strives to promote green measures, green tourism among all stakeholders, accessible for all.

European society is pretty new to the topic of sexuality in the context of persons with disabilities. For the most part, it was considered not relevant, ethical or appropriate to be involved in a discussion regarding persons with disabilities and normalisation of their desires. It was a common misconception, that persons who could not satisfy their natural desires, do not have them. This fact shows that people with disabilities have the right to sexual experiences and adapted assistance that allows them to experience their sexuality as they deem to be fit. Sexual assistance for those disabled adults who request it and feel the need for it we can affirm that it contributes to their inclusion.Even due to the change of events shaped by COVID-19 pandemic, the consortium stood strong and implemented all the planned activities as well as created all the necessary outputs. Switching some events OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS Specific: - The project aims at transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications by recognizing the learning outcomes through informal ad non-formal learning pathways about Assisting differently abled people with the improvement of their sexual and emotional needs. It is envisaged that this network will reach out through specific communications actions and by customising the message according to different target groups. DIRECT TARGET GROUPS includes adult people dealing with people with disability (families, educators…), that will benefit from a free and online training course to help them acquiring skills and competences recognised at European level for the expertise in emotional and sexual education aimed at disabled people. MAIN INDIRECT TARGET GROUPS are made of groups of families and organisations of people with disability, that will indirectly benefit from the project, being social educators have to deal with them daily, along with the people with disability themselves. ACTIVITIES Events and dissemination Intellectual Outputs: 3, The new role of the Special Intimacy Needs in Europe, methodological framework and main points profile - The European Special Intimacy Needs Educator Training Course - The European Special Intimacy Needs dissemination knowledge platform METHODOLOGY ReportingTwo reports were created during the first part of the project (Best Practice Report, Comprehensive Survey Report) to better understand the real situation in European Union regarding training courses and competencies of the stakeholders and the target group. The Best Practice Report involved information on educational courses, projects and initiatives regarding sexuality for persons with disabilities available in Europe. Learning activityThis C1 activity involved two persons from each partner organization, who tested the classroom activities of the developed online course in person and discuss possible improvements. After this activity the persons involved gathered focus groups within their own organisations and trained the persons involved, as well as facilitated discussions to promote the theme of sexuality of persons with disabilities. The members of focus groups were active in some organisation regarding rights and interests of persons with diisabilities. Later on they acted as ambassadors of the project and had organised promotional events and discussions to inform target groups. Training activityTraining activity was carried out via online means with support from the whole consortium. As it was planned, the main facilitators of the event were COMCY and Ist dei Sordi, each of whom gave their unique input to create the best experience for our learners. Amount of learners was significantly greatter than planned due to the event being online. Each country gathered at least five stakeholders and the event itself lasted for five days. Each day included uniuque presentations by each member organisation of the consortium, as well as testimonials and activities facilitated by the Trainer. The trainer was brought forth by Ist dei Sordi, she was a vastly competent individual with impeccable experience in psychology and sexuality education for persons with heard of hearing.Therefore she could manage a wide range of topics and Pilot testingWas carried out within the scope of IO3 by online and face-to-face techniques during the COVID-19 pandemic. A unite online evaluation form of the course created within the project was created by the member of the consortium responsible for quality control (Eurocrea), which was used as an online course validation and improvement platform. Even regarding the restrictions in some municipalities, a few partners could carry out piloting in face-to-face sessions, where the pilot test and presentation were carried out in small groups and online form was filled in on the spot.

During the last years of the financial crisis that threatened the European Union (EU), the economic activity and employment seem to have improved in EI countries, but this recovery has not been beneficial for everyone equally. On the contrary, inequalities became more evident and long-lasting, particularly due to the years of the continuing financial crisis. Considering this scenario, due to the migration flows from the last years, the EU highlighted the inclusion of immigrants in the labour market is key to ensure their effective integration. The project addressed a significant gap in knowledge and provision for immigrants with disabilities. Many EU countries have recently adopted anti-discrimination laws, although usually limited to multi-discrimination in relation to employment and occupation. Despite this change, there is still a lack of visibility and understanding of intersectorial discrimination, thus, knowledge how this may cause discriminationthe sectorsctor such as education, access to goods and services, social protection, etc.Adult educators working with immigrants with disabilities and long-term health conditions are facing a challenge insofar as traditional pedagogy is no longer relevant or inclusive in the context of the specific needs of this group of learners. To become inclusive, the teaching/learning environment should be adjusted to the learners’ needs and to fit this environment, educators working with this group should have a much wider range of competences to be able to organise personalized learning and involve in it their adult learnersThe project objectives, and therefore, the needs addressed were:•Build the capacity of educators to recognize cases of double discrimination.•Strengthen professional competences of educators of how to recognize and handle cases of double discrimination in an educational context.•Promote social inclusion of immigrants with disabilities and long-term health conditions through non-formal and informal learning.•Strengthen the capacity and ability of organisations providing learning opportunities to immigrants with disabilities