The main aim of the project is to develop the capacity of youth workers to foster the wellbeing of youth through nature connection. Nowadays, wellbeing of youth is being challenged due to increasing global, social and personal stressors. Parallel to this, natural environments have experienced an unprecedented level of destruction which is bringing nature to the edge of collapse while many species are in a process of mass extinction. On top of this, the current global pandemic is forcing human societies to change really fast, increasing the level of separation, distress and acceleration of whole communities. Thus, we are in need of making responsible actions to prevent the collapse of nature while cultivating lifestyles that will secure sustainable wellbeing for new and future generations in uncertain times. It came very strongly to our attention that young people who had the chance to keep a good contact with natural environments during the first wave of COVID-19, where the entire World was under the lockdown, had much better mental health and better wellbeing then the ones who lived in a urban areas, which had no access to the nature at all. This was a huge indicator of the importance of nature that helps us nurture wellbeing. We are also facing new trends that emphasize the importance of digitizing our world; however, we wish to balance this tendency by bringing youth work (back) to nature. Most of the youth work is happening in enclosed facilities or online, but there are rarely any natural approaches and activities that would bring nature, wellbeing, and young people closer together. Therefore, this project proposal also intends to raise the capacity building of youth workers in the youth field to develop activities, projects and networking focusing on the wellbeing and nature connection for young people.Objectives:1)develop a theoretical framework and a concept for wellbeing and nature connection in youth work (Erasmus+), 2)create a practical manual with the variety of methodology that derive from the theoretical framework and 3)develop a long-term training course programme for the youth workers/leaders who will benefit from our work and will be able to transfer their knowledge and experience to the young people their work with.The target group of this project are youth workers that will be participants in the training courses but also youth workers and youth leaders in general that will have access to the manual developed in this project and use it in their practice. The youth workers participating in our training courses will develop their knowledge about the theoretical framework and test the methods (collected in the practical manual).Young people are not a direct target group and will benefit from the methodology, action plans and networking that youth workers will carry on at international, national, or local levels. We plan to work on three intellectual outputs. First IO (IO1) is a theoretical framework that will connect wellbeing of the young people, nature, and youth work. This document will consist of the integration of many scientific theories that support our idea – the importance of using nature connection as one of the elements for fostering well-being in youth work. Second IO (IO2) will be the compendium of different methods that complements the theoretical framework integrated into a practical and interactive manual. IO1 will bring the reasoning (answer to the question “why”) to the project, while the IO2 brings the answers to “how to achieve” the change. IO3 will be a training course programme that will make a comprehensive learning experience for the youth workers.To reach these three results, we will organise one seminar for the core team to check the methodology we have come up with and to test the newly developed methodology. We will also execute the training course programme for some of the youth workers from our respective organisations and/or countries. They will be a part of the two TC events and a mentorship that will be provided during both TCs. All methods will be tested also on the local level with the local youth to check the efficiency of each method and the level of impact participants feel. This will help us modify and to improve our results.For the purpose of the dissemination, we plan to create a website, Facebook and Instagram account to promote and disseminate not only our results (framework manual and TC), but also to raise awareness about the philosophy we will be developing – the need to include nature in the wellbeing of the young person. A direct impact of this project will be seen as an improved capacity of youth workers to foster wellbeing in young people. Youth workers will be better equipped to engage young people in nature connection and wellbeing.Young people will also learn how to cope with some personal challenges, and how to be more active in their communities.

Research points that Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) are more likely to become marginalized and to suffer from poverty, social exclusion, crime and mental/physical health problems, while at a macro-economic level they represent a considerable loss in terms of unused productive capacity and a considerable cost in terms of welfare payments. In fact, low self-esteem and self-confidence, typically present in this target, seems to be linked with increased isolation and lack of belonging, what contributes to the perpetuation of this cycle of decreased motivation to assume an active role in the community and increased social exclusion. This project aims to increase NEETs’ Social Inclusion and promote Active Citizenship, by developing key competences in Youth NEET and train youth workers to address better to NEETs’ needs, namely: the need to break the cycle of isolation/social exclusion; lack of motivation to become an active citizen; lack of self-awareness of their passions/talents and, even, the low self-esteem and lack of key-skills that are required to take an initiative and build an action plan to concretize it. Therefore, the objectives of the project are:- To create and test an innovative LEARNING PROGRAM for NEET Youth to develop key social and personal competences that will allow them to become active citizens and increase their social inclusion;- To motivate NEET Youth to engage and discover their passions/talents;- To increase NEET Youth’s awareness of some key societal challenges; - To empower NEET Youth with key-skills to materialize their goals in a creative and organised way; - To foster the NEET Youth’s Connection to the local/global community through the creation of concrete volunteering action projects to approach societal challenges;- To promote the exchange of good practices among partners from 5 countries (PT, CY, RO, UK and SE), strengthening cross-cooperation and a multidisciplinary approach; - To invest in the capacity building of youth workers competences promoting high-quality work and innovative methods of reaching out to NEET Youth;- To contribute to the sense of belonging, as European Citizens and motivate participants to learn more about EU, creating a European Network;For these objectives, we propose:(1) Gathering different public/private institutions from 5 countries to exchange good practices, share knowledge, tools and efforts to build an innovative approach with NEET, strengthening cross-cooperation and a multidisciplinary approach, and, consequently, improving the quality of work with NEET in each organisation.(2) Building together an innovative learning program – YES: Youth Engagement in Society - that will gather not only all our methodology and knowledge, vision and good practices in the field of Non-Formal Education, Learning to Learn and Experiential learning principles with support of Psychology, Coaching, Entrepreneurship and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, but also that will challenge us to go further and search for innovating ways to combine these and other relevant methodology and experience. For the correct testing at local level with a minimum of 50 Youth NEET, we will train the staff in question, aligning a common strategy.(3) Investing in the professional development of youth workers competences promoting high-quality work and innovative methods of reaching out this target group, through local (multiplier events) and a transnational pilot/training course (involving 30 youth workers).At the end of this project, we want to contribute to the EU Youth Work Agenda, by promoting not only quality and innovation of youth work, but also to promote the engagement, empowerment and connection of NEET young people with the local and global community, making them feel more inclusive and European.

DiA is a cross sectoral project addressing the intersection of the key competences of Lifelong Learning through its methodology and partnership. By exploring the diversity of approaches of peace education such as peacebuilding, active citizenship, structured dialogue, and conflict resolution, social inclusion etc., our project will contribute to the development of educational methods teaching new skills leading to social innovation. The main patterns of EU peacebuilding practices pursued in the Instrument for Stability (IfS). This instrument was conceived as the Commission’s response to the demands of the greater EU’s involvement in conflict prevention and peacebuilding activities, following the notion of increased governance. The approach of governance is underlined by empowering local actors and citizens to participate in policymaking by improving adult civic education, as reflected in the Europe 2020 strategy and within the Erasmus+ objective to strengthen civic education for adults. The pre-assessment of the needs In the partnership found various scenarios, where peace education is needed:A. External Conflicts, with implications inside the EU- Dealing with refugees and military conflicts in the EUs’ Neighborhood (Ukraine, Syria, Libya etc.)- Helping to integrate traumatised refugees into host societies in Europe- “Imported” conflicts in migrant population (such as Turkish vs. Kurds)B. Internal within the EU- Reconciliation in the Balkans (Croatia, North Macedonia) - the frozen conflict on Cyprus- Minority Issues - Political and religious extremism - Negotiating social integration between different social groups C. Empowerment of EU Citizens- Creating new spaces for dialogue between decision makers and citizens- Analysing how to involve groups, which obstain the democratic process- Creating dialogue between social and ethnic groups- Creating dialogue between EU citizens in different countries to support a stronger cohesion within the EU The project is targeted on trainer, teacher and learner in all education sectors, staff and learners within the partnership, stakeholders and associated partnersThe indirect target groups are the usual groups, the partners work with:Adult learner and educators, refugees and migrants, refugee women, socially excluded children and young people, IDPs, youth leaders, students, women, NGOs, journalists, local authorities, Students, relevant ministries and agencies.The overall aim of DiA is to identify the main areas where peace education can contribute to help adult education institutions to mitigate conflicts, help to support community building and foster mutual understanding and social dialogue by turning citizens into bridge builders in their communities, and to gather and discuss smart practices and methods reflecting each of these areas. In order to achieve this main goal the implementation phase of the project will lead to 5 main results. Result 1: elaboration of at least 80 smart practice evaluations on peace education methods in the different sectors (youth, schools, adult) based on a commonly approved evaluation grid. Result 2: Organisation of 2 Impact Trainings. During the trainings the collected methods will be discussed, their transferability will be tested and finally the methods will be implemented outside the project. Result 3: The smart practices evaluation and the two trainings will lead to the identification of a large number of practices, that will be gathered and presented in an interactive map of European Peacebuilders, functioning as a database and methods toolkitResult 4: The DiA consortium is composed by partners who are all actively engaged in teaching and trainingResult 5: A European eBook on peace education for adults. The eBook will be the main dissemination product of the project. It will summarize the 50 most relevant smart methods, recommendations and inputs.DiA will implement two joint short innovative co-creation impact trainings. Co-creation typically involve hands-on activities in which a group of peers expresses experiences and explores potential solutions in a tangible way. Collaborating in this way provokes discussion and creates valuable insights.Impact trainings are a way to improve quickly the methodology of educators in a spec ifci group/topic. The aim of these four-day programs is to improve quickly teaching in a very specific area.The training is developed based on the participants’ normal way of working and adds improvements to this. We don’t strive for big changes, but for important improvements in the overall teaching. The training is based on the knowledge and experience of the participants.DiA will contribute with its open access practice s collection, the eBook and the digital map of European Peacebuilder to a more equal access to knowledge, by providing a new approach of participative learning, permitting to cross cutting skills and competences from different sectors.

Taking into account challenges youth work is currently experiencing, and brainstorming on how youth work and non-formal learning can enhance young people’s creativity and innovation, through their experimental nature, participatory approaches, and peer-learning in times of pandemic, our consortium came to the project idea of using the educational potential of outdoor escape rooms with thematic of traditional fairy tales and myths. Using the thematic of traditional fairy tales and myths brings more creativity, helps young people and youth workers to explore cultural aspects of their own national and European identity and naturally unites youth work and creativity sectors. In view of the above mentioned, this project aims to enhance skills development and competences of youth workers in creation and managing outdoor escape rooms with thematic on traditional fairy tales and myths, that reinforce creativity, as well as to boost quality, innovation and recognition of youth work that support the creative potential of youth, thus contributing to the recovery resilience of the cultural and creative sectors. The objectives of the project are to:- Develop capacities of youth workers to create outdoor educational activities with a cultural and creative component for young people to help them to acquire skills and competences for supporting their creative potential; - Build a guide and e-course on HOP platform, which enables youth workers to create their own outdoor escape rooms with thematic on traditional fairy tales and myths;- Create learning pathways/playlists of outdoor escape rooms with traditional fairy tales and myths thematic in partner countries to be places at Cities of Learning Platform (www.citiesoflearning.eu); - Stimulate social inclusion through the arts, by fostering innovative participatory and intercultural dialogue approaches linking youth stakeholders with organisations in the cultural and creative sectors; - engage young people in identifying learning opportunities and shaping the understanding of learning according to their needs, interests and passions;There are two main target groups of the project:● Youth workers, youth leaders, educators, representatives of creative sector working with young people;● Young people;In order to achieve the defined objectives, three intellectual outputs will be produced and will be available as an open educational resources (OERs) during and after the completion of the project: ● IO1 - A step by step guide on creation of Outdoor Escape Rooms with thematic on traditional fairy tales and myths including outdoor escape rooms scenarios; ● IO2 - E-course on HOP platform on the How to Create Outdoor Escape rooms with thematic on traditional fairy tales and myths;● IO3 - Learning pathways/playlists of outdoor escape rooms During this project we foreseen 3 transnational meetings, and LTTS and local multiplier events.We expect the following results: -youth workers capacities to create outdoor educational activities with a cultural and creative component for young people to help them to acquire skills and competences for supporting their creative potential are developed to great extent; Staff members involved in this project are able:-to exchange and learn from our working practices’- to share youth work and creative sector realities and systems in participating countries;-to improve competences to work in international teams and partnerships, manage complex innovation development, international project management, challenges and opportunitieswhen working with Erasmus+ support;Staff members who are involved in IOs will benefit:-by developing their confidence and capacity to innovate with solutions, practices and technology that contributes to quality improvements in their education programmes;-by learning design thinking practice;-by developing their intercultural and teamwork competences when collaborating in international team of experts;-by using the digital technology to improve their working practice in youth work programmes, especially in creating learning opportunities; -by developing their agile mindset when implementing innovation in youth work; ORGANISATIONS will benefit from new practices, development and technology as a result of involvement in this innovation project:-by exchanging and learning from best practices of creating outdoor escape rooms with thematic on traditional fairy tales and myths and learning pathways based on them; -by accessing and developing capacity to use the newest digital technology to their target groups;-by improving their work programmes with integrating new practices, skills pathways and digital technology available through Cities of Learning platformYoung people will benefit: •from new learning and free time opportunities created by the developed outdoor escape rooms thematic on traditional fairy tales and myths; •from using learning pathways created

"<< Background >>Climate change is alarming and no longer underestimated: nearly 75% of EU citizens now see climate change as a very serious problem, shows Eurobarometer 2019. At the tail of the problem recognition, the impact of Greta’s movement cannot be underestimated – while the students are already on the streets at “Fridays for future” – we believe it is time for the youth work sector to step together in the race for the Sustainable Green Planet and invest into insetting responsible and sustainable living mindset into non-formal education sector. Being anchor in implementing Union’s Youth policies and having the opportunity to reach young people directly through Erasmus+, youth work must adapt itself to respond loudly to the global challenges in order to be the example young people can refer to.At the same time, taking into account rapidly changing world, teaching sustainable living becomes indivisible from digitalization: #GoGreen - Youth Navigator will bridge 2 programme objectives– to support awareness raising on the environmental and climate goals and taking up innovative practices in a digital era.The European Green Deal states: “The environmental ambition of the Green Deal will not be achieved by Europe acting alone” – the consortium is based on 7 countries from South, Central and North, as the environmental problems cannot longer be tackled only from European-central perspective since are part of current global problems – we find it crucial to invest in building capacity of a global partnership, so the youth worldwide can benefit from solutions gathered 7 countries. The proposal contributes directly to the achievement of objectives of EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027, in particular 10th Youth Goal – Sustainable Green Europe: “empower the entire society especially young people to act as agents of change for environmental and sustainable development”, UNDP Empowering Youth agenda, UN SDG-2030 agenda, European Climate Change Programme. By doing implementing the proposed project activities we will directly move towards the EU objective of “achieving a society in which all young people are environmentally active, educated and able to make a difference in their everyday lives” (COM 456/16)<< Objectives >>#GoGreen - Youth Navigator will bridge 2 programme objectives– to support awareness raising on the environmental and climate goals and taking up innovative practices in a digital era. The project main aim thereafter is to contribute to the just and inclusive transition to sustainable living throughout empowering youth work sector across the globe to raise awareness on environmental issues by personal example and digital tools – the language of young people. The specific objectives are:1.To build capacity of consortium and foster networking and cooperation of the youth work sector on global level in terms of environmental-responsible and sustainable living education;2.To provide participating youth workers with knowledge, skills & attitudes necessary for sustainable living education and support their professionalization in the area;3.To build enabling environment for creating together best practices on how youth workers can be themselves ambassadors of sustainable living;4.To contribute to the Union’s pool of learning recognition tools throughout creation & promotion of the GreenBadges – learning badges system focused on acquainting sustainable living skills and attitudes and promoting these attitudes during Erasmus+ activities: at long term perspective badges can be used in any in-country or learning mobility, as part of European Solidarity Corps STEC;5.To create a catalogue of “planet-friendly” tips that can be incorporated into daily life of youth organizations and young people across the globe; 6.To promote responsible and sustainable living on the personal example of the youth workers and their organizations; 7.To explore potential of the digital tools & gamification in reaching youth via Cities/Regions of Learning; 8.To practically contribute to the implementation of the European Green Deal, Our planet – Our future Union youth initiative, European Youth Goals – Goal n.10 – Sustainable Green Europe, 2030 SDG strategy of UN.<< Implementation >>The project will have the following activities: Transnational Project Meeting: - Kick off meeting in Cyprus; - Final evaluation meeting in Greece. Development of the intellectual outputs: IO1: Best Practices of Environmental and Sustainable living education (webinar style): IO2: Green Badges and Practical Guide Book on Use of Green Badges:IO3: Learning pathways/playlists for Cities of learning on Environmental and sustainable living: Learning, Teaching and Training Activities: - Training course in Belgium; - Short term staff exchange - job shadowing. Multiplier events: in every country except for Ireland and dissemination activities.<< Results >>""#GoGreen - Youth Navigator"" will impact participating youth workers and their institutions first of all by raising awareness on the responsibility towards world’s natural capital and resources and practically creating environment for their own transition to organizations that are protagonists of Green planet. Consortium will build its capacity in terms of environmental awareness, European project management, global networking, development of intellectual outputs and quality learning products, development of recognition instruments, digitalisation and gamification in youth work, social media and communication strategies.The youth workers will foster their understanding of global challenges and policies in terms of combatting them, environmental friendly lifestyles, daily responsibility towards the planet and how to transmit this responsibility to the young people. They will foster their analytical skills, presentation skills, The youth workers, especially throughout the job shadowing mobility (short term learning and training activity) will foster their intercultural skills, better understanding of own culture and other cultural environments, as added value they will gain comprehension of different environmental contexts and green policies around the world. Thanks to the project activities, the participants will learn how to live a sustainable, responsible and environmental friendly lifestyle in a corporate culture – at the same time they will be able to foster their ICT and digital skills, creative and critical thinking and communication skills. Development and Testing the Intellectual Outputs of the project, Learning and Training Activities (Training course and job shadowing of staff), capacity building activities, but also challenge and collection of eco-tips will positively impact the team spirit of participating organizations as well as build capacity of participating organizations, foster cohesion among consortium and peer organizations worldwide. The peer organizations will benefit from the User’s guide – ideas, practical examples and tools that can be incorporated into the daily life of their teams but also used widely during mobility and local activities they organize for young people. Young people worldwide will benefit from the eco-tips – as they will practically receive 101 idea on how to live more sustainable and responsible and from the increased quality of youth work. Young people from participating countries will benefit from the eco-labs learning creative ways to be sustainable and responsible.At long term perspective the project will make Erasmus+ activities more environmental-friendly and the sector more mindful towards planning and implementation of mobility/in-country activities. GreenBadges as recognition tool and User’s guide will offer a framework that is easy to recreate, both by peer institutions and by young people themselves.The stakeholders, such as EC, UN, national and regional public institutions that work on environmental issues will benefit from increased interest, engagement and responsibility towards Planet among young people on global level and active in-kind contribution of the youth work sector, even throughout activities not directly focused on environmental protection."