<< Background >>Imaging living on a junction where three streets intersect. The first one leads to a university, high quality food can be bought for low prices on the second street, while the flats on the third one are renovated and rent controlled. Now, imagine growing up on a completely different junction with one street leading to a prison, the second street with a damaged sewer system, while on the third one they sell unreasonably expensive groceries. How does living in these two different places influence your life choices and possibilities?Teaching Across Intersections (TAI) is a project focused on secondary school pupils whose lives are influenced by a combination of different kinds of disadvantage. Those whose identities are omitted by the mainstream educational systems. Those who were born on the “wrong” junction.Various studies of contemporary school curricula have shown that the portrayed identities and life trajectories reflect interests of pupils belonging to the normative majority of the society. Consequently, the experience represented is mainly white, cis-male, middle class, heterosexual and able bodied. The lack of intersectional approach in secondary school education is thus the main issue we intend to tackle. In our definition, secondary school entails pupils from the age of eleven to fifteen.Insufficient teaching methodologies negatively influence educational outcomes of pupils as well as choices regarding their futures. Mainstream teaching practices do not fully reflect on the social reality of marginalized pupils who are subjected to discrimination based on specific constellations of factors such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, culture and disability. Structural discrimination based on multiple intersections makes children’s specific needs invisible not only to the school curriculum, but also to the teachers and other relevant actors in the field of education. For this reason, the TAI project strives for integration of intersectional perspective into everyday teaching methods.Teaching Across Intersections is conceived as a three-year project implemented by four non-governmental organizations from four European countries: GIC NORA (Czech Republic), Sdruzhenie Walk Together (Bulgaria), Asociatia De Tineret Plantogether (Romania), and Idrisi Cultura e Sviluppo (Italy). Over the course of the project, three project results will be produced. Also, three international project meetings and one training activity will be held. Moreover, five dissemination events will take place.<< Objectives >>The main objective of the project is to expand secondary school teachers’ knowledge on intersectionality as a tool of inclusion and to provide them with a set of soft skills allowing them to fulfill the needs of pupils on various intersections of gender, ethnicity, economic status, religion, sexual orientation, disability and so on. By strengthening secondary school teachers’ competencies and cultivating sensitivity towards various intersections, they will be able to create a safe and welcoming environment in the classroom where children of all backgrounds will feel at home.<< Implementation >>The TAI project will be executed in three phases. Three project results will be produced over the course of the TAI project. A training activity in Romania and several dissemination activities in four participating countries will be implemented as well. All results will be shared on the EPALE platform.<< Results >>First, a comparative comprehensive research report will be written based on an intersectional comparative content analysis of selected secondary school textbooks and monitoring of intersectional awareness among school teachers. The analysis will be conducted in order to determine whether the authors included intersectional perspective in the textbooks and if they did, in what ways. Intersections of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, and ability will be considered. In addition, a monitoring of current knowledge on the topic of a group of secondary school teachers will be executed. Finally, a set of criteria for further assessment of different textbooks will be developed.Secondly, an open online educational resource will be created in order to centralize relevant stakeholders, problem sources and educational materials related to intersectionality and the application of its principles in secondary school education. The material will contain infographics including problem trees specifying and visualizing the role of stakeholders and sources of the lack of intersectional approach in school education. In addition, an inventory of currently available teaching manuals and methodological guidelines focusing on inclusive education, gender sensitive education, ethically sensitive education and so on will be included. This will allow us to map and view the materials not as separate documents but rather as a network of relevant resources which, when combined, adhere to the principles of intersectionality. At the end, a list of recommendations will be created and shared with NGOs and other relevant stakeholders.Finally, a handbook of methodologies to accompany selected secondary school textbooks will be produced. It will contain detailed teaching manuals directly connected to the exercises and activities that are already part of the previously analyzed textbooks and, consequently, of the schools’ curriculum. Thus, the teachers will be (1) able to incorporate more tasks related to inclusive and otherwise sensitive education in the classroom and (2) apply the principles of intersectionality in practice with special regards to the intersections of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, economic status, religion, and ability. Hence, the new activities, extensions of exercises and questions for discussion included in the handbook will be easier to incorporate thanks to their time efficiency. The topic of intersectionality is rarely addressed in school education, therefore, the methodologies will be beneficial as sources of new information for relevant stakeholders.Another expected outcome of the TAI project is a formulation of suggestions for future structural systemic changes. It will be based on raising awareness about the importance of intersectional approach in secondary school education among relevant stakeholders, the media and the general public.

iTech is a european cooperation project that aims to bring innovation in the field of youth work. The initiative is lead by Digijeunes, in partnership with Burgas Free University (Bulgaria), Fablab Pau (France), Asociatia Young Initiative (Romania), and Combustible Numérique (France). OBJECTIVESOver a period of 18 months the project cosortium produced a set of open educational resources on the topic of media and digital science. The project’s deliverables are expected to facilitate the implementation of educational digital science workshops across Europe, thus contributing to improving digital literacy among youth and challenging the digital divide. RESULTSWe have produced a number of tutorials and physical objects to enable youth workers across Europe to launch their own hands-on workshops on media and digital science.Our educational resources rely exclusively on free and open source hardware/software, and are dvided into 4 modules :- Coding and electronic prototyping- Connected objects- Social networking- Extra ressources for youth practitionersThe complete set of outputs is available on :http://www.digijeunes.com/projets/itech/as well as on Instructables.com : just type « Digijeunes » in the search barCOMMUNICATIONOur communication campaign covered all participating organizations’ countries, thus reacing several hundreds youth practictioners and young people across France, Romania and Bulgaria.The iTech team was notably involved in a number of public events on maker and digital culture such as the Toulouse Mini Maker Faire, the Bucharest Bookfest or the NASA international Space Apps in Burgas. Our disemination efforts culminated with a multiplier event, which took place in Burgas on 25/02/2019, and which gathered over 80 people from local educational institutions, instructional environments, and NGOs.If you’d like to comment on our work or get in touch with the iTech team don’t hesitate to contact us at : info@digijeunes.comYou can also gain further insights into our communicatio efforts by searching for #iTech on social networks, or by visiting the project’s facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/ITechproject2017/

Digital youth work and digital inclusion are fast moving from an “emerging topic” reserved for the most innovative organisations to something that is required more than ever in order to support young people at all times, even when physical contact is not possible. Young people are facing with unemployment, underemployment, mental health challenges and even worse, many of them are for the second time in just a few years going through a major crisis, which will have profound economic, social and political consequences in the years to come. As such, youth organisations need to increase their capacity and develop innovative strategies to reposition themselves and respond to the emerging needs much faster than before. There is a huge potential, there is and is going to be an increasing need, but there are very little tools available and there is a very limited capacity at the moment in the youth sector, which is hit in many countries by severe under funding, migration of workers to other better-paid sectors and other challenges. We want to bring our contribution in changing that, put digital youth work back in focus and provide the tools needed to start implementing digital youth work with minimal effort. AIM: Increase the capacity of youth organizations from Romania, France, Bulgaria, Belgium and the federated networks of the partnership consortium to serve young people (including vulnerable youth) extensively and intensively through digital youth work and digital inclusion and safety practices. OBJECTIVES:1. Develop a collaborative learning space focused on digital inclusion and digital youth work between 5 EU-based youth organizations through the sharing of best practices and national approaches in a 25-month timeframe.2. Increase the capacity of at least 100 youth workers from minimum 4 EU countries to engage in digital inclusion and digital youth work activities in a 25-month timeframe.3. Increase the capacity of at least 25 youth organizations from minimum 4 EU countries to improve or adopt digital inclusion practices for reaching out to young people with fewer opportunities from their communities in a 25-month timeframe.4. Raise awareness among minimum 100 youth workers from 4 EU countries around the opportunities, challenges and solutions surrounding digital safety and privacy (including humane technologies and algorithms) in a 25-month timeframe.TARGET-GROUPS:- Youth workers from participating countries and other EU and partner countries interested in engaging in digital youth work activities and/or willing to learn more about this topic;- Youth workers who are working or willing to work with vulnerable young people and wish to engage them with digital tools or through digital youth work generally;- Youth organizations and their management teams from participating countries and other EU and partner countries who are planning to develop or create their digital youth work capacity/strategy;- Secondary target-group: Teachers who are interested in organising digital activities with their students and can get strong inspiration from digital youth work and digital inclusion practices;KEY RESULTS (selection): - 100 youth workers from at least 4 EU countries have a better understanding of digital youth work and digital inclusion and are more capable, motivated and competent of using it in their practice under conditions of safety and quality;- Minimum 250 young people from minimum 4 EU countries and minimum 250 youth workers have contributed to the “Shaping Digital Inclusion and Safety in the Post-Pandemic World” research;- Minimum 250 relevant learners have subscribed to the MOOC course on digital inclusion and safety and are better prepared to implement digital youth work activities in their own organisations;- 100+ youth workers are more aware and more capable of supporting their young people with elements related to deepfakes, fake news, (in)humane algorithms, digital privacy and safety;- 25+ youth organizations from minimum 4 EU countries are now better equipped to implement digital inclusion and digital youth work methodologies or strategies;- 30 youth workers from 4 EU countries benefit from a comprehensive digital youth work and digital inclusion training course hosted in Bulgaria, developing both their topic-related skills in an intercultural context, as well as having the opportunity to attend co-creation innovation labs to improve the Intellectual Outputs of the project; - 5 gamification tools are created and freely available for youth organizations to interactively enage and use them to develop their digital inclusion strategies;- 1 research paper/brief related to how young people and youth workers perceive digital youth work and digital inclusion in a post-pandemic context is published and freely available to youth organizations;

"<< Objectives >>Main objective: to promote intergenerational transmissions in rural areas and to foster rural pride among young peopleSpecific objectives:1. To develop a training program on youth work for heritage organizations2. To involve young people in intergenerational activities to recover the memories of their local communities and territories3. To interpret, illustrate, digitize, map and promote local heritage related to sustainability<< Implementation >>- 5 training courses on youth work for Heritage organizations in Spain, France, Finland and Lithuania- European training encounter in Corsica for young people on the organization of human libraries in rural areas;- Organization of human libraries activities by local young people;- Workshops for young creatives for the reinterpretation and illustration of ""sustainability stories"";- 3 project coordination meetings in Spain, Finland and Lithuania<< Results >>Main results:- a training programme for youth work in the heritage sector- a digital training environment- a methodological guide for the organization of intergenerational human libraries in rural areas- 1 international training course for young organizers of human libraries- local activities and training on heritage education- 15 creative interpretations of local stories related to sustainability- a digital map of rural memories for youth"

The project OVERHOPE (hope, anticipation, expectancy = OVERcome HOmelessness of Young PEople) draws attention to the problem of homelessness of young people. Obviously homelessness prevents the personal and professional development of these young people sustainably. Therefore the project analyzes the different cultural perspectives on the phenomenon first. Furthermore it identifies, develops, proves and disseminates innovative methods to overcome homelessness among young people.Without a living space of their own young people are prevented from obtaining professional qualifications, completing an own vocational training and start working. Housing is one of the basic human needs.Therefore the project aims at detecting the scope and extent of the problem of homeless young people in the different countries as well as the different perceptions in these countries. The projects wants to identify best-practice solutions of social work, transitions in training/work and requirements for an infrastructure to overcome homelessness and thus to improve social work and the infrastructure. Furthermore an empirical survey determines the subjective situation of the young people concerned and their own life prospects.A milestone planning structures the project execution. On each of the partner meetings all partner work on the topics mentioned. The respective host organization provides content input concerning the own country providing lectures, expert discussions, visits and participant surveys. Under the auspices of the applicant all the partners develop a best practice guide for the working with homeless young people and for policy recommendations for the prevention and overcoming of homelessness for young people. In each partner country additional congresses will be held, where the dissemination of project results will be discussed with representatives from politics and administration.The project results should contribute effectively to the improvement of integration rates of the young people concerned (housing, training and employment) in all participating countries, in order to the participating organizations can cope better with the problem of homelessness of young people by means of new methods of social work. There should also be created or increased awareness among the representatives of politics, administration, business and other societal interest groups has been concerning this problem. Finally, all countries of the European Union should be able to benefit from these findings.