"The project represents the continuation of ""The adventure of reading"", a proposal financed through the 2015 call, and it was created in response to the need to train professionals in the educational and socio-cultural field in terms of the use of non-formal education strategies in the field of dissemination of European intangible cultural heritage and, in particular, that of literary and oral heritage. The mission of ""BABEL"" is to develop innovative and high quality educational techniques for the dissemination of literary and oral heritage: to create and evaluate innovative techniques and develop capacity building initiatives for professionals in the fields of cultural heritage, community development and cultural and socio-educational intervention, in the use of non-formal education methodologies in the service of the dissemination of European literary and oral heritage, therefore stepping away from the academic tendencies that are not that attractive to a large part of the population. We understand that it is of general interest to update the techniques and methodologies used in the dissemination of cultural heritage, especially in that of intangible cultural heritage and in particular in the dissemination of literary and oral heritage. Our starting point was to reimagine the philosophy and strategies of non-formal education as innovative assets in the dissemination of cultural heritage, distancing it from the protectionist and didactic strategies, much needed and widely applied, but perhaps overused. We intended to work with techniques in which the partner entities have specialised in (Living Libraries, collection of traditional and popular oral literature, ""cantastorie "" and Labyrinth Theatre) and which make literary and oral heritage a living cultural component, with strong creative, active and participatory dimensions, which nurture the idea of building a more conscious, grounded, critical and active citizenship. The linguistic, literary and oral heritage represents a living, creative and dynamic collection which is part of the everyday life of the people, and not a static, unwavering, archaic element... susceptible to being locked in a museum or simply contemplated in a passive manner. Consequently, the four organizations proposed a research-training-action strategy for the development of innovative educational techniques in the dissemination of European literary and oral heritage, which implied: -Theoretical and practical training over a period of 26 mounths. Design, development and evaluation of local and transnational initiatives for the development of innovative educational techniques in the dissemination of European literary and oral heritage: it will be a process strongly based on practical training, on experimenting in different social and cultural realities (to test the versatility of the techniques) and on constant feedback and evaluation, guaranteeing the quality and transferability of both the activities and the intellectual product. -Field research and study visits. Identification, analysis and exchange of good practices.-The intellectual product of ”BABEL” was developed and disseminated as a result of this process: ""Guide BABEL: educational techniques for the dissemination of literary and oral heritage"", a complete online and multilingual guide where all this technical and procedural content has gathered and presented in a rigorous, coherent, comprehensive and didactic manner, aimed at people and organizations working in various social and cultural contexts in the field of education and of dissemination of intangible cultural heritage."

"This project was born in response to the need to exploit the opportunities offered by game-based learning methodology and strategies to disseminate and promote European cultural heritage. It has a double intention, inspired by two absolutely and necessarily complementary perspectives:a) It seeks to train workers from education, tourism, and socio-cultural fields to design and develop game-based learning strategies for the dissemination of European cultural heritage, while also helping them explore, renew, and improve their professional skills in their work environment through experimentation with tools that promote new scenarios and expression spaces and renewed channels of participation, connection, and dialogue.b) It seeks to disseminate and promote cultural heritage within society, promoting its transmission as a rich and diverse element, suitable in the present reality as an educational tool, for healthy leisure and social and intergenerational connection, with an integrative approach. It is important to break with the elitist, consumerist, and stereotypical idea of culture, heritage, and art, connect and integrate the elements involved in its transmission and seek co-responsibility among the agents involved it its dissemination.Therefore, our mission is to develop and renew mechanisms and techniques to promote European cultural heritage within society, with the aim of training workers from diverse social, cultural, and institutional contexts in the use of game-based learning strategies.Our starting point is to reimagine the philosophy and strategies based on social research, non-formal education, game design and user experience technique design as innovative assets in the dissemination of cultural heritage and as a complement to the widespread strategies of protection and exhibition. Recently, these areas of knowledge and intervention have been widely demonstrating their validity in connecting with people's intrinsic motivation in order to create more relevant and meaningful experiences and, therefore, contributing to achieving objectives more efficiently.This mission will materialize in a 24-month action plan devised as a unitary research-training-action strategy in which:- Game-based experiences that promote cultural heritage throughout Europe will be mapped and analysed.- A teaching-learning process will be developed in which the 5 partner entities will train and tutor each other in their respective specialties by means of the training action ""Let's play with cultural heritage"" and through online tutoring. These specialties are: a) techniques to search and select heritage contents to disseminate; b) implementation of game-based techniques, tools, and elements; c) implementation of performative and stage design techniques; d) graphics techniques to ensure game accessibility and replication.- An ambitious experimentation process will be implemented in order to design, develop, and evaluate game-based strategies in each local community in collaboration with each organization's network of local partners and using a multitude of formats and mediums, including digital. A total of 8 game-based experiences will be designed and will be available via the project channels to be used, replicated and/or adapted by anybody who so wishes.- As a final result, the methodological guide ""Heritage at play"" will be developed, aiming to detail the steps needed to design and develop game-based strategies and/or experiences for the dissemination of cultural heritage while also reclaiming its social value.The quality of the developed game-based strategies and methodology will be assured by the experience of the partner entities, the large network of local partners, and the rigorous process of experimentation and evaluation that will be undergone.The results of this project will be of enormous use to professionals in the field of education (formal or non-formal), culture, and tourism, since these results will be supported by extensive experimentation and evaluation, and they will be suited for implementation in these professionals' specific contexts. We want the actions, products, and results of the project to be inspiring, practical, and perfectly transferable, and therefore they will be multilingual and available online under Creative Commons license."

AGORA’ is a Strategic Partnership project in the field of innovation, aimed to develop tools and pedagogical approaches to fight young people social exclusion, and specifically gender-based discrimination, in public spaces settled in isolated areas, by promoting EU values and active citizenship. Thus the project will have a specific focus on “public spaces”: areas potentially open and accessible to everybody where young people can encounter, gather and socialize. They can be the setting both for exclusions and ghettoisation, as well for the concrete practice of democracy and participation. Still the isolated areas we aim to involve in Italy, Romania, Greece, Spain and France, are marked by exclusion, becoming the stage for racism, sexism, bullying and different displays of discrimination. “Isolated area” stands for a big variety of spaces from the suburbs of big cities, “left-out” neighborhoods in small town, more remote or rural areas. AGORA’ will bring concrete actions in these spaces through the implementation of different specific objectives: to build up the local diagnostic to detect the reasons behind gender-based discrimination among young people; to share the existing tools and approaches to promote participation and inclusion; to up-scale them within a newly formed pedagogical perspective, to create an educational package to detect the youth gender-base discrimination and intervene; to empower young people and local communities from isolated areas and to transform them in promoters of new grass-rooted actions.Participants are: TG1 (youth workers, educators, activists), we expect to involve as direct beneficiaries an average number of 300. They do cooperate with their organizations in educational activities. In several cases they are active in urban, suburban, isolated and very populous areas where are more relevant the cases of social exclusion, bullying, racist and sexist discrimination. In the case of the TG2 (young people), we expect to involve as direct beneficiaries an average number of 450. They are youth aged between the 15 and the 25 years old, living in urban, suburban and rural, isolated areas where the youth workers, educators, activists are active. The following activities will be implemented: •A1.Transnational Project Meeting: Kick Off meeting for project coordinators •A2.Country Field Research: to build the local diagnostic and detect the reasons behind youth gender-based discrimination •Intellectual Output1-I.O.1: Toolkit with tools and interactive methods to detect the warning signals in the youth gender-based discriminative behaves and to understand the causes behind the display •A3.-A4. Training Courses: to share and test the existing tools, methods and approaches, to evaluate and up-scale them •A5.Tools Harmonization: to upgrade and systematize the tools and approaches shared•A6.Tools Testing through Street Actions (I.O.2): to test the efficacy of the tools upgraded and fine tuned, using them to activate public spaces in isolated areas •Intellectual Output 2-I.O.2: Handbook on tools and interactive methods, within a newly designed pedagogical approach, to promote gender equity within groups of young people in public spaces•A7.Multipliers Events in Public Spaces: to widespread the I.O.s produced among different relevant stakeholders•A8.Transnational Project Meeting: Evaluation meeting for project coordinators •A9.Follow Up: to wide-spread the project outcomes and implement actions in public spaces, revitalizing isolated areas.AGORA’ foresees the use of different working methods part of a pedagogical approach which combines field and desk researches, non formal education with Street Clowning, Body Movement, Labyrinth Theatre and Social Cabaret, to create an educational package to promote gender equality among groups of young people coming from isolated areas. This approach and package, within a newly designed pedagogical perspective, is marked by a strong flexibility, being based on the participants and learners feedbacks. It is shaped to guarantee the creation of tailor made and coherent learning processes for individuals, groups and local communities. The tools included in the I.O.1 and I.O.2 will be shaped accordingly to a permanent upgrading and up-scaling opening to the possibility of being adapted in different socio-cultural backgrounds taking into account the different specificities and needs.AGORA’ will lead to the following outcomes: better understanding of the reasons behind the young people gender-based discrimination; upgrading and up-scaling of the tools to fight gender-based discrimination; competences development of youth workers and activists to better favour inclusion; enhancement of youth participation and transformation of youth in change-makers; creation of a sustainable informal network and enhancement of interactions among partners to strengthen the capacity of youth work to respond to key societal trends and challenges.

<< Background >>Civil society organizations have been called in 2020 to answer the new challenges caused by the pandemic effects. This implied to design a new action plan for the upcoming years, identifying new strategies and alternative solutions to engage the target groups who are normally benefitting from the activities. In a framework where physical meetings have been drastically reduced to contain the pandemic, it became evident the need to rethink the way and methods to involve the youth groups. The digital sphere started to gain more relevance and organizations initiated a process to get equipped: both increasing the use of digital platforms and tools and also readapting the non-formal education methods previously used.Even though in the last year an enormous amount of work has been already implemented and a big variety of methods and approaches was applied, at the same time this work can be further fine-tuned. Specifically for what concerns the creation of a pedagogical approach (including different tools and methods for the digital and offline spheres) to strengthen intercultural perspectives among young people from different EU suburbs. Indeed, these spaces are still often the landmark of exclusion and the stage for racism, sexism, bullying and different displays of discrimination. Even though there is a quite strong heterogeneity at EU level, there are still common elements such as the tendency of being “ghettos” for the youth living there, with scarce possibilities of interactions with the other realities. They might become the setting for discriminative events, hate speech and harmful rhetoric. In these realities is getting more and more crucial the raising awareness action targeted to young people, to acknowledge the values of cultural differences and the importance of having open minded approaches toward what they do not necessarily know.Therefore, the consortium expressed the need to re-think some pedagogical pillars and methodological elements in their every-day work, to better meet the challenges, to strengthen the effectiveness of the action and bring innovative perspectives. For this reason the project will have a specific focus on two main axes: “smart youth work-SYW'' and “digital youth work-DYW”. SYW can be considered as the general framework of the project, offering an innovative development of traditional youth work encompassing digital practices, including research, quality and policy components and being built upon the needs of young people, youth workers, youth leaders and other stakeholders.In this perspective, youth work-YW will play a crucial key role in the learning process proposed to young people, built up on their needs and on the Project Results that will be created for this purpose. Moreover, it has been chosen to dedicate in the project a specific action to the KA1 (Youth Participation Activities-YPA) which was identified as a specific tool full of potentialities to enrich the youth work practices, both at national and international level. For this reason the P.R.2 and 3 will have a specific focus on activities that can be implemented to support the youth in the design, implementation and evaluation of this action.<< Objectives >>The main aim of Hotspots project will be to develop non formal education tools and methods, within a newly designed pedagogical approach, to enhance intercultural learning-ICL among young people, both online and offline, in general and, more specifically, in national and transnational Youth Participation Activities, within the Erasmus+ program. In order to achieve this goal, a set of specific objectives have been set:SO 1: to build up, in the suburban dimensions involved, the local diagnostic to better understand the situation, needs and profiles of the youth, the challenges they face in everyday life and with a specific focus on the subject of Intercultural LearningSO 2: to share the existing tools, approaches and the smart and digital youth work’s practices, with specific regards to the online and offline dimensions, the consortium members use to promote active participation and intercultural learningSO 3: to design a new, synthetic and innovative pedagogical perspective applicable to smart youth work in the participant countries, and including an educational package with tools and methods usable for the online and the offline sphere. These tools will be designed also for a potential use in the national and transnational Youth Participation ActivitiesSO 4: to strengthen the capacity-building of youth workers’ digital and offline practices, in order to have them ready to face the nowadays challenges and to be ready to offer a wider variety of activities to the young people they work with, motivating them for higher participation and bringing on board new onesSO 5: to connect, empower and engage young people from outskirts and isolated areas in different European outskirts, to equip them to act as agents of change and promoters of new grass-rooted actions.<< Implementation >>HOTSPOTS is structured on logically connected actions to involve different beneficiaries and achieve the project’ outcomes through the implementation of the Project Results.A1. TRANSNATIONAL PROJECT MEETING: aimed to ensure a smooth and efficient cooperation and set the ground for the research criteria and implementationA2. PROJECT RESULTS 1-Toolkit for diagnostic and tools sharing: aimed to share the analysis on the YW’s role, practices, needs in the participating suburbs and to upscale different activities used to work with marginalized young people promoting ICL. The P.R.1 will include:* A2.1. COUNTRY FIELD RESEARCH: diagnostic run by the researchers’ team, covering the participating urban dimensions and showing the YW practices * A2.2. TOOLS AND ACTIVITIES GATHERING: run by the trainers team to gather the different YW tools currently used in the online and offline perspectiveA3. TRANSNATIONAL PROJECT MEETING: to define, with the trainers' support, the main outcomes for the P.R.2 and design its structure A4. PROJECT RESULTS 2-Handbook for a smart youth work: aimed to offer a variety of tools on ICL, within a newly designed pedagogical perspective for SYW, applicable for the online and offline versions. The P.R.2 will include:* A4.1. SUBURBAN HOTSPOTS-DESIGN: run by the trainers team to design the new pedagogical perspective and create the tools combining the offline and online spheres* A4.2. SUBURBAN HOTSPOTS-LOCAL TESTING: local workshops run by youth workers, targeted to young people, for sensitization on ICL and tools testingA5. TRAINING ACTIVITY-TOOLS TESTING (part of PR2): EU training course to run the first tools testing and train participants for the local testingA6. PROJECT RESULTS 3-Blended Learning Board Game: BLBG, combining physical and digital elements, to allow the facilitation of learning events both online but also onsite.A7. MULTIPLIERS EVENTS: opened to different stakeholders to present the main outcomes and P.R.s and further promote the use of these tools in new YPAsA8. TRANSNATIONAL PROJECT MEETING: targeted to PCs to run the overall evaluation of the project and set the ground for the follow up activities (including the new YPAs design)FOLLOW UP: after the formal end to further wide-spread the outcomes creating new synergies to implement the YPAs in suburbs, revitalizing these areas.<< Results >>The project structure is conceived to achieve the following outcomes and results:BETTER YOUTH INCLUSION IN SUBURBS: at least 900 young people from more diverse backgrounds, in particular those with fewer opportunities facing obstacles to participate in EU projects, will be reached out. It will be increased accessibility and the possibilities for participation. Better opportunities for exchange and for interaction among peers from the outskirts of different EU countries will be offered, being the project aligned with the EC Inclusion and Diversity Strategy aimed to enhance the involvement of young people facing barriers.CREATION OF NEW ACTIONS IN FEWER OPPORTUNITIES BACKGROUNDS: the innovative pedagogical perspective designed and including the educational package with tools and methods for the online and the offline sphere, will contribute to bring new actions and workshops in the suburban isolated dimensions of the participating countries‘ main cities. It will be used to design, in a bottom up perspective, new national and transnational Youth Participation Activities, within the E+ program, leading to a stronger impact of the action and a better knowledge of the program in the realities normally more left out. STRENGTHENING OF THE YW QUALITY AND IMPACT: the capacity-building of youth workers’ competences and skills in the use of digital and offline practices, will be enhanced, in order to better meet the current challenges. A bigger variety of activities will be offered to local young people coming from fewer opportunities backgrounds, with the purpose of further encouraging the development of new activities and interactions with peers from other suburbs of the same city and of other EU cities. Local organizations, youth centers and CSOs will also benefit, in terms of YW quality increase and better capacity to apply SYW practices to respond to the causes of exclusion, consequentially involving a higher number of young people and local communitiesSTRENGTHENING OF NETWORKING: both at local level as well as at EU one. The different local associations, youth centers, CAG and youth groups settled in the different suburbs of the participant cities will develop new chances to cooperate and interact, benefitting from tools and methods developed for a better involvement of their target groups. This will reduce youth isolation and contribute to overcoming some of the factors leading to the exclusion of young people. Moreover the EU, transnational dimension of the consortium will contribute to enhance the interactions among international organizations and local one, favoring the virtual interaction and the physical mobility of young people and setting the ground for the creation of an informal network of actors active in suburban dimensions.The Project Results have been also conceived to lead to the achievement of the project specific objective and the expected outcomes and, specifically:P.R.1: omni-comprehensive diagnostic including the analysis of the urban and suburban dimensions’ needs and methods actually in use. It will contribute to better understand the challenges faced by youth workers and young people and strengthen the incisiveness of the upcoming YW actions.P.R.2: educational package to better equip youth workers, peer educators and young facilitators with tools and interactive methods for ICL, where the digital and the offline spheres are combined. The manual and its newly designed pedagogical perspective will be a useful resource to promote meaningful ICL processes among young peopleP.R.3: the Blended Learning Board Game - BLBG, combining physical and digital elements, will allow for the facilitation of learning events both online but also onsite. The aim is to create an intrinsically motivating gaming layer between learners and the learning material as well as provide a hybrid representation and access to the learning content through both physical and digital means.

“STAGED! Struggling Against Gender-based Discrimination through Youth Work in EU and Asia” is a Capacity Building project_KA2, designed to answer the needs of empowering women and young girls in Europe and South East Asian countries, identifying and redressing power imbalances and giving them more autonomy to manage their own lives. The project aimed to enhance gender equity and young women empowerment by providing youth workers, peer educators, local organizations and international NGOs, in EU and SEA, with new tools and methods to favour young women participation in projects and international voluntary service activities. In order to achieve it specific objectives were set:•to raise awareness on the need of promoting young women empowerment, equal rights and opportunities for men and women in EU and SEA;•to deepen the different gender role models so to draft and propose new role ones based on equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities;•to exchange good practices in the field of gender equality and women empowerment, among EU and SEA CSOs;•to develop NFE tools and working methods to favour the raising awareness process and the young women participation in EU and SEA;•to provide participants with new competences and know how on project planning and project lifecycle to create an effective set of actions and IVS initiatives in the gender equality framework.The project lasted 20 months and involved: Lunaria–Italy, Concordia–France, Asociatia Universitur–Romania, Charity-Oriented Myanmar–Myanmar, Center For Sustainable Development Studies–Vietnam and Perkumpulan Gerakan Kerelawanan Internasional–Indonesia.The project included a set of different actions conceived to achieve the above mentioned aim, the specific objectives and the needs of local partners detected during the Itinerant Feasibility Visit and the Study Phase. The actions implemented were: Itinerant Feasibility Visit in SEA, ITC course on gender issues and non formal education methods in Vietnam, Youth Meetings in SEA, ITC on project management in Indonesia, Study Phase in SEA, Local actions implementation in SEA, ITC restitution and methods sharing in Italy and Follow up activities in EU and SEA.The consortium designed, developed, tested and assessed a methodological package, including NFE methods, tool kit, short video and graphic facilitation to approach different target groups and to facilitate the gathering, capitalization and transmission of different outcomes.The project involved 1.542 participants, allowed to achieve the following outcomes and results, answering the specific objectives, crossing the horizontal priorities (HP) and the sectorial ones (SP) of the program:•empowerment of youth workers and young people, by developing transversal skills and capacities, complementary to those offered through formal education, including the comprehensive understanding of the gender’s cross-cultural nature in EU and SEA and the development of new working methods (HP 1 – SP 2);•development of the young people and young women skills and competences, particularly for those at risk of early school leaving, by encouraging the validation of NF and its permeability with formal education paths, creating new learning opportunities (HP 5 - SP 1);•enhancement of the young women’s role, as main agents of local development in the gender raising awareness and promotion of human rights (SP 4)•development of new transversal skills and competences for young women in different social spheres, creating new practical entrepreneurial experiences, with a cross-sectorial perspective, in education, training and youth work (HP 2).Deliverables produced: •Hand Book with the description of the NFE methods and activities implemented in the 3 ITCs; •Video presentation, to show the project’s steps and to ensure visibility •Prezi presentation