Youth unemployment is one of today’s challenges facing the European continent. In wider Europe, the picture of youth unemployment is very diverse and the issue is not only limited to the concerns of national authorities, but also is dominantly present in European discourses vis-à-vis European institutions as well as youth associations and organisations. In the countries of former socialist block, the employability of young people has been influenced severely by a rather rapid shift of the structure of economy from socialist system to capitalism, very often leaving the young people unaware of how to transfer from the large-scale, highly industrial jobs to small scale, and often self-managed jobs in service sector or small scale production based on the assets of own community.Therefore, the consortium wishes to address the economic shift in transformative democracies through boosting creativity and entrepreneurship thinking among young people, enabling them to become an economically active part of the local communities, which is possible to facilitate youth work and non-formal learning as instruments to develop the creative and innovative potential as well as entrepreneurial skills of young people. As a window of opportunity for engaging young people in entrepreneurial activity at the same time activity contributing to the development of own communities and building up on the strength and interests of young people the consortium composed of partners from Armenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia and Ukraine sees the engagement of young people tourism sector, as one of the most rapidly development fields of economy in the countries of project partners. We acknowledge that having limited natural resources, developing human capital and infrastructure for tourism can be an effective instrument for sustainable development for these countries.The aim of “Cities of YOUth: increasing the role of young people in the development of tourism infrastructure” project is to enhance the role and involvement of young people in the build-up of their communities through actively engaging them in the development of tourism infrastructures.To achieve the aim we have identified two specific objectives: • To strengthen the capacity of youth workers in order to support young people to increase their entrepreneurial role and active community engagement through a trainingcourse, modules for coaching, a study visit.• To develop competences and self-esteem of young people to become active stakeholders in the economic development of their communities through 2 exchanges for 50 young people, long-term coaching, business consultancy and implementing business ideas. In the scope of the proposed project we would like to tackle two main aspects of tourism:1. Hospitality service (engaging young people and their households in hosting tourists and visitors) and2. Tour-guiding (creating youth-friendly routs for on foot and by bike trails, organizing tours and developing maps)

“Upgrade” is a project that will deepen partnerships between youth centres/youth NGOs from Georgia, Ukraine, Poland, Estonia and Sweden. The project will increase the operational capacity and participatory approaches of Youth centers in partner countries by creating youth work structures, developing professional competences and establishing/exchanging means of best practice, particularly in UA/GE where there is an imminent need to create and implement effective youth centre structures. “Upgrade” is a long-term project whose activities will be distributed and held in the various partner countries. The project includes a total of 8 learning mobility activities and 3 sets of long-term capacity building activities, using non-formal and learning-by-doing approaches. The activities will involve creating youth work methods, building competencies, developing and implementing structures, and reflecting and amending piloted ideas. The project structure is as follows: • Kick-off Meeting to confirm project aims and partner responsibilities • Training Course to develop a common understanding on what youth work is and how to develop the role of youth workers • Preparing Fellows (Youth Workers) from UA/GE for job-shadowing Fellowships• Fellowship which will expose UA/GE Fellows to the best practices of youth centre management within Estonia, Sweden and Poland• Meetings between youth centres and organizations on how to adopt and adapt best practices learnt during Fellowship (x4)• Training Course on how to use non-formal learning methods• 3-month phase (including a mid-term evaluation) that will implement agreed practices and strategies in practice• Youth Exchange to give youth workers the opportunity to act as group leaders and motivate youths (x2)• Seminar discussing 3-month phase and Youth Exchanges• Large-Scale event disseminating acquired knowledge to Youth Work stakeholders • Evaluation meeting confirming best methods which will be distributed to further partners in the youth work fieldThe project consortium has discussed and developed a set of evaluation and assessment procedures to measure the outcomes of the project ranging from daily reflection at each mobility, personal evaluation forms at the end of each mobility, written analysis report by the trainers/experts/coordinators of each mobility, feedback forms from young people, feedback forms of large scale events and assessment interviews with youth workers from Ukraine and Georgia. During the project, 29 youth workers will be involved in each mobility and 240 youths will be involved in local activities. The project will also target 100 stakeholders at the Large-Scale Event. At the end of the project, a handbooks will be distributed to youth work stakeholders with materials being accessible online so other organizations can implement the best practices adopted from the project, ensuring the project has a sustainable element.

European mobility programs have played an important role in the transformation of young people who have participated in them. Over time, these programs have become more flexible, with newly implemented measures to allow young people with fewer opportunities to participate and also take advantage of the experience. However, these young people need more preparation to overcome difficulties and frustrations, as well as a more step-by-step process of participating in these programs. The GAIN project aims to offer this gradual engagement through a training process that gives youth the opportunity to learn about the different program possibilities while they are empowered with a basic set of skills to be able to participate successfully. In turn, it aims to offer these young people international experiences that allow them to transform themselves and to overcome the difficulties of their social situation. Finally, it aims to offer the possibility of devising, planning and implementing a group entrepreneurship initiative as well as identifying and collecting all the learning of this process.The planned activities are related to this preparation of young people with fewer opportunities, including a training period (A5), an international training experience in a group (C1), an international or national individual experience (A6 and A8) and the possibility of carrying out a group entrepreneurship project through the CES program (A7 and A11). These young people, together with the tangible results of the project, will be the main element of dissemination of the process so that other entities and young people can replicate them and take advantage of the experience.This project not only aims to act with the young participants, but also to empower the partner organizations (and non-formal partners) by facilitating access to resources and tools, to strengthen the GAIN network that aims to connect motivated entities for the development of projects with young people with less opportunities and, above all, to detect the good practices of the project, ensuring strong results and disseminating them for their exploitation.The activities will always be carried out based on non-formal education methodologies so that the impact on young people is greater and more adequate. The involvement of young people in the different phases of the project as an element of learning and entrepreneurship will also be strengthened. In this sense, the youth themselves will be of great importance during the design of the training process, as well as in the training activity and, of course, in the choice of the individual mobilities and the idea of ​​the solidary project.The GAIN project is a joint initiative with entities from Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Portugal, Poland and Spain with a wide spectrum of areas of activity, but with experiences in mobility projects, work with young people with fewer opportunities and experience in inclusion. That is why entities from different territorial areas have been chosen who can provide a different view of the realities of these young people at European level.Some of the promoting entities have previously participated in another Strategic Partnerships project that has promoted the training of entities, the creation of tools to offer a preparation of adequate mobility projects to young people with fewer opportunities as well as the creation of a network (GAIN Network) that aims to facilitate the identification of entities with motivation to participate or promote inclusion projects within Erasmus + and CES. The current project aims to use these tools created to strengthen them, disseminate them and initiate direct action with young people.The project will consist, not only with the existing partners, but of other non-formal partners who will share and participate indirectly but actively in the project. These entities will be part of a dissemination plan that aims not only to transfer the results to other organizations, to motivate new ones, to empower entities that work with the inclusion of young people, but also to raise awareness among National Agencies and decision-makers of European programs on the needs of young people with fewer opportunities. It is for them that we believe that the GAIN project has a significant potential impact, either by the young people themselves and entities that will participate directly or by the expected results that can help multiply the impact at the local, regional and European level.

<< Background >>Current health and economic crisis related to the Covid-19 pandemic, growing trend of overconsumption, and degrading environmental situation on our planet, are some of the triggers why we, partner organizations involved in this project, think that we need to develop ourselves and use new approaches, more holistic and inclusive tools and methods in education and youth work, in order to be up to date and responsive to the current actual challenges for the youth.Being youth workers, trainers, and VET teachers, working on different areas such as civic education, vocational education, human rights education, Outdoor adventure education, etc. We are in constant search of the best fitting methods and approaches in our work. While each organization has its own approach and style, within this project, we would like to explore, enrich, and promote the wider use of Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) throughout the activities we are involved in.Evidence, backed by numerous studies carried out in prominent universities around the world, as well as supported and fostered by vocational education schools, youth organizations and Outdoor Education practitioners, shows that using OAE in youth work and education has solid positive results and the potential to improve the engagement of both, learners and educators, increase sensory range, and in general, raise the quality of learning and development of young people. Moreover, we think OAE is ever more relevant especially now, in the context which is clearly highlighted by the pandemic. One of the main symptoms and consequences of it being high levels of stress, anxiety, mental breakdown, over-digitalization of work and leisure time, exhaustion, etc. among young people. OAE is an effective methodology for stress reduction, increasing motivation, and mental hygiene. Besides, OAE brings about its own value system which is important for youth work, in general, and relevant to the context of this project. Namely, sustainable living, respectful coexistence with the natural environment, humble and introspective attitude, readiness for the challenge, etc.The project addresses the needs of different involved stakeholders, which is described in detail throughout the application form. In short, we would like to summarize some of the most common needs below:Needs of the organizations involved in education and youth work: - To improve competencies of staff, linked to their professional profiles. - To share and adopt good practices and successful frameworks among the organizations involved in the field of education and youth work;- Increasing the organizational capacity and international network;- Capacity to apply the competencies within the organizations and their staff in local youth work.Needs of staff (Youth workers, Teachers, Educators):- Increased motivation and satisfaction in daily work.- Better access to professional educational resources and tools; - Professional training, sharding practices, exploring the methodologies and approaches used across different partner organizations;Needs of young people:- Better quality, more relevant, engaging, and participatory education and youth work;- Improved competencies for learning, employability, and personal development;- Healthy and sustainable ways of spending their study/work, as well as leisure time for their physical health and mental hygiene. It should be noted that this project was first applied in 2020 in the German NA and was not supported. After carefully reflecting on the received feedback and analyzing it, our consortium decided to modify the application accordingly and apply again. “Natural Curriculum” consists of 4 stages and various types of activities, therefore there are different groups targeted on different parts of the project. Namely:- Youth workers, teachers, educators representing partner organizations and their close networks;- Young people, students, target groups of the partner organizations;<< Objectives >>Natural Curriculum sets the following objectives:- To increase the quality of youth work and education by deeply exploring the framework and practices of OAE methodology and enabling partner organizations and their close networks to implement them in their local youth work.- To Promote OAE as an efficient, highly engaging, and holistic methodology to be used in education and youth work widely, on local (Partner organizations) as well as European/International level.- To improve professional competencies of the staff of the organizations by training, study visits, joint sessions, exchanging practices, resources & materials within the consortium and beyond; - To create quality educational opportunities for young people on the national and international level within/as a result of the project, using Outdoor Adventure Education methodology;- To develop intellectual outputs as concrete tangible results of the project, which are in line with its idea and topic and can have a more long-term, sustainable impact on the partner organizations and their wider professional networks; - To enhance cross-sectoral cooperation among the actors involved in formal and non-formal education and youth work by involving them in the project and facilitating the exchange of the best practices;These objectives will be achieved throughout the 4 stages of the project:1. Training & Capacity Building;2. Producing Project Results;3. Testing and improving of Project Results;4. Dissemination & multiplying of the results.<< Implementation >>Activities of the Natural Curriculum are planned upon the objectives and consists of the following stages:1. Training & Capacity Building;2. Producing Project Results;3. Testing and improving Project Results;4. Dissemination & multiplying of the results.More specifically, we plan to implement the following activities:3 Transnational Project Meetings;4 Learning, Teaching, Training Activities;Production of 2 Project Results;2 Multiplier Events.3 Transnational Project Meetings(TPMs) are crucial for quality management, smooth planning and implementation. During TPMs, the “Steering Committee” will meet each other face to face and work together to discuss, track, analyze, plan and conduct different aspects of the project.The 1st TPM will be a Kick-off Meeting in Potsdam, Germany in late Autumn 2021. The 2nd TPM will take place in Lupeni, Romania roughly in Autumn 2022.The 3rd and final TPM will be an evaluation meeting, which will close the whole project, evaluating the whole process and concluding the results.Apart from TPMs, the Steering Committee will have ongoing communication through different online channels, including regular video conferences, in order to ensure quality communication, which is very important for a large-scale project. 4 Learning, Teaching, Training Activities (LTTA) - During the 4 LTTAs, one hosted by each partner, participants will go for a study visit to one of the partner organizations. During the visit, they will get to know the host organization closely, their activities, methods, target groups they work with, educational modules and training programs they use, daily activities, topics and areas of work, specific contexts, get to know their staff and volunteers, etc. In some cases, get involved in the daily work of the organization, support carrying out activities with young people, take part in training module(s), and so on. This stage will serve to train the participants, increase their competences, exchange best practices, build common knowledge and explore different ways of using OAE methods and quality civil education.Production of 2 Project Results - E-library of Open Educational Resources (OER) - Collection of research, books, Teaching & Learning literature, and resources in Outdoor Education and relevant related fields. (Such asAdventure Education, Experiential Learning, Environmental Education, Adventure Therapy, Place-based Learning, etc.) OER will be collected, analyzed, filtered, and categorized in a way that is accessible, user-friendly, easy to use for learners, researchers, educators, young people, etc. - E-Learning platform & an Educational Module. (Based on the principles of OAE methodology) The topic of the educational module, in a very brief description, will be “Civic Education through Outdoor Methods.” This will be a “Ready to Use Product” envisioned for a certain timeline, (e.g. 15 lessons/ working hours) logically structured and built up, including concrete theoretical framing and resources, set of activities & exercises, supportive materials for the educators, guidelines, Homeworks, step-by-step description of the process, possible adaptation tips, etc. In other words, it will be an educational curriculum that can be taken, slightly adapted according to the context, and used by multiple stakeholders as their extra-curricular material.Once the Educational Module has been created, it will be tested by each partner organization on a local level, with local young people in order to increase the outreach and impact of the project, but also to collect feedback and improve the module for its final shape...2 Multiplier Events, held in Germany and Georgia, will mainly serve to disseminate the project results to the wider range of stakeholders, reach out to more organizations, educators, young people, create a wider network, spread the idea of the project, and thus - increase its impact<< Results >>We expect Natural Curriculum to have concrete tangible and intangible results during and after the project timeline. Namely:- Improve professional competencies of educators, staff, and representatives of partner organizations directly and indirectly involved in the project.This will be achieved especially during the 1st stage of the project, through Learning, Teaching, Training activities, and Transnational Project Meetings. Also during the 3rd stage,where the educators will put their learning into practice through local and international training.- Improved personal and professional competencies for young people, who are target groups of the partner organizations, taking part in Learning, Teaching or Training activities withinthe project, as well as, in the longer term, being beneficiaries of better quality youth work and education opportunities provided by the partner organizations.Concrete tangible Results/Outputs will be produced through the Natural Curriculum project:- E-library of Open Educational Resources (OER) - Collection of research, books, Teaching & Learning literature and resources in Outdoor Education and relevant related fields. (Such asAdventure Education, Experiential Learning, Environmental Education, Adventure Therapy, Place-based Learning, etc.) OER will be collected, analyzed, filtered, and categorized in a way that it is accessible, user-friendly, easy to use for learners, researchers, educators, young people, etc. We saw a need to create such an E-library, based on the experience of ourselves and our colleagues working in this field. We think it will be useful for educators, OAE practitioners, project managers, students, teachers, anyone who needs such materials for teaching, learning, or research. It will be useful to have it in one digital space, organized and structured, easy to search and use. - E-Learning platform & an Educational Module. (Based on the principles of OAE methodology) The topic of the educational module, in a very brief description, will be “Civic Education through Outdoor Methods.” This will be a “Ready to Use Product” envisioned for a certain timeline, (e.g. 15 lessons/ working hours) logically structured and built up, including concrete theoretical framing and resources, set of activities & exercises, supportive materials for the educators, guidelines, Homeworks, step-by-step description of the process, possible adaptation tips, etc. In other words, it will be an educational curriculum that can be taken, slightly adapted according to the context, and used by multiple parties such as Formal & Vocational Educational teachers, Youth Workers, Youth Centers, NGOs, Special Educational institutions, etc. as their extra-curricular material.The module will be accessible on an online E-learning platform, which will have a simple, user-friendly & interactive interface & Supporting audiovisual materials. The module will bedisseminated and promoted not only within the partner organizations and their close networks but in wider professional channels on national and European level through such platforms as SALTO.Besides the aforementioned results, we think that the project, in general, will promote wider use of OAE methodology in youth work, specifically in local contexts/regions of partners organizations and also within the Erasmus+ programme, as it will be promoted and disseminated by the partner organizations, participating youth workers and educators and other stakeholders in their professional networks, shared a successful practice, which will make its modest contribution in the general progress of youth work in Europe.

“Youth entrepreneurship in a Modern Society” project is a multi-measure initiative consisted from a Kick off meeting, a Large scale event: Conference - Forum “Youth entrepreneurship in a Modern Society”, followed by the study visit Study Visit “Enterprise to Learn” and involving 5 partners from 2 Progeamme and 3 ENP cuontries. The Project is to gather decision makers (government, ministries and state agencies), innovation experts (universities, research and development centres, technology transfer centres, start-up centres) , practitioners (SMEs, business incubators and business support organisations) and youth organization promoting entrepreneurship to generate discussion and exchange on the business environmental improvement and development of social and youth entrepreneurship aiming to impact social, economic and ecological development. In order to achieve better and more sustainable results as well as to support participants in their practical implementation of competences gained, the following project has been divided into 3 distinct stages:- Kick off meeting aiming to ensure that all stakeholders have a shared understanding of the project goals, deliverables and workflow.- 2 days Large scale event: Conference – Forum to gather more them 130 young entrepreneurs to connect, learn, share and grow. In addition to dynamic and engaging speakers, the conference will offer networking opportunities, business matching and mentoring sessions with potential partners, investors, start-ups and ecosystem builders, all in all having the possibility to attend:- Exposition to promote and share their products and services.( the event will give the possibility to entrepreneurs to meet the potential customers, set cooperation and expend their business) - 12 trainings and informative seminars, parallel panels and inspiring speeches - Presentation of DCFTA (EU-Moldova trade Relations) and meeting young entrepreneurs from the countries which signed the agreement. - Exchange of good practices among youth organizations promoting youth entrepreneurship and education and those sustaining SME’s. - Find out about the European programs and funds supporting youth entrepreneurship in its diverse forms. - Network and develop national, regional and cross-border cooperation - Study Visit: Within the proposed mobility we aim to increase the understanding of the need of entrepreneurial literacy and education among young people and the way it can impact their employability skills. The connection of the Study Visit with the conference for young entrepreneurs will contribute to bring entrepreneurial reality into the non formal education and youth work and maximize the awareness, participation and outcome. This very structured approach was thought to be the optimum way to foster the synergy between entrepreneurs, policy makers and customs thus sharing a vision for enterprise in education and enable youth works to play a part in achieving that vision.