My Town Your Town [MTYT] is a training project to raise youth employability, skills and inclusion through intergenerational tourism development. The key feature of the project was for youth, aged 18 to 30 and formed a wide range of backgrounds including disadvantaged, to work with older mentors to produce a new interpretation, a new narrative, for an existing or new tourism or cultural destination in their local area, positioning it in a way to better represent the values of the EU and the multi-cultural facets of the host community, and to better appeal to 21st century visitors. The active learning and mentoring programme was developed by partners, representing Cyprus, Italy, Croatia and Greece, and an expert partner from Scotland, UK. It is notable that the 4 delivery partners also represent the 4 countries in the EU with the highest youth unemployment [as of May 2018] and all have large tourism and heritage sectors. It is the key objective of the project to link and address these factors to provide more opportunities for young citizens. MTYT has exploited the excellent potential that this wide sector offers and delivered a wide range of positive outcomes and benefits for young people. Youth increased their skills, unearthing talents, were provided with new opportunities and connections, and helped them feel more a part of their community by bringing new life to tourism. To achieve this, the project, run a sustainable tourism training for the young people, developed and piloted the innovative interpretation tool together with the youth, the mentors and local SME tourism related businesses. The project published a new website that hosts the interpretations and tools, thus disseminating the outputs in an accessible, simple and fun format. The website enables youth organisations from across the EU to participate in shaping and capturing opportunities for tourism in their local area. The methodology of the project was based on using two techniques, successfully piloted for the PLAN project, an Erasmus+ funded project which developed and tested: an Intergenerational Employability Mentor Model for youths and the experienced older generation/retired (EOGR); and the Cluster, a network hosted by the project partners, youth, mentors, SME businesses, and other local stakeholders. The cluster acts as a new player in the local area to support employability, social integration and mobility for youth. The project’s training programme is based on the youth entrepreneurship training developed in PLAN, and the new MTYT tourism training and outputs. A minimum of 10 youths, 5 mentors 4 businesses and local partners participated in each area. The Partners and Cluster worked together across nationalities to share good practices and experiences. The rich mix of participants enabled a rich mix of outputs. The innovative approach was designed to ensure that the learning, though not in a formal educational setting, is supported by educational professionals, and it is enjoyable for all ages. The Cluster took place in a real active marketplace. Partners worked with industry players who can use the outcomes from this shared experience. Our rationale for this approach was based on our experiences in other projects where the outputs and dissemination does not always lead to uptake of the products and innovation, as it does not have a role in an active marketplace. Participating youth, was offered training and workshops in many areas in order to develop their skills and competences. Along with the direct benefits for the participating youth, the project brought positive and long-lasting effects for the organisations directly involved, and indirectly for the local communities and tourism businesses in which the project was held. The interpretation examples included highlights for:- health and wellbeing tourism; - monuments for future peace;- stories beyond regional traditions and culture; - hospitality and accessible cuisine in restaurants that are making their premises more disability friendly; - tourism through a migrant’s eyes; My Town Your Town’s top priority was to provide opportunities for all young people, through innovative and smart design. It has directly addressed a top challenge in tourism, as identified by the EU, the need to constantly innovate and develop new attractive products in a sustainable manner for local communities and the environment. Europeans can have a strong tourism sector for economic reasons, but also to better know each other and better see what unites them.

"<< Background >>Becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 is the greatest challenge and opportunity of our times.The green economy is a complex process, which not only represents the transition from a traditional economy to a greener one, but it presupposes a radical change in the structure, culture and practices that characterize societies, it is a cross-cutting challenge and an opportunity for the recovery of Europe.Over the year, youth-led protests mobilized millions of people in the EU and around the world, and the new Eurobarometer shows that nearly six out of ten European citizens are confident or convinced that youth-led protests have a direct impact on policies at both national and European level.Moreover, the European Union stresses the need to promote entrepreneurship in the green economy, especially among the younger generations, more collaborative business models such as cooperatives and social enterprises.Green startups find their natural outlet in different sectors. However, there is an untapped potential to take a path that can create other green jobs. Green companies need qualified personnel to be able to expand their markets and very often they fail to meet their demand.The main goal of the project will be to create ""green young entrepreneurs"" on one side and equip young people with employability green economy skills and knowledge on the other side thus<< Objectives >>contributing to entrepreneurship development and creating new job places.This will be reached through a set of practical solutions: capacity building of partner organizations, design of the open innovative accelerated educational program for green and entrepreneurship skills, and mentorship.Specific objectives:- To develop an open innovation program that will equip young people with skills and knowledge in areas: green economy and entrepreneurship- To train young people for specific green and entrepreneurship skills- To create an online mentorship platform for young people who will need support in the further development of their business ideas in the green sector - To establish successful mentorship relations between young people and mentors in the green economyThe target group will be Youth workers, staff members, young people, stakeholders (policymakers, green businesses, consumers)unemployed young people, potential entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs, organizations working in public, educational, nonprofit, and business sectors. At the end of this project, the young people will gain green knowledge and skills to start their own business or find a job in the green sector; new and existing entrepreneurs will gain practical advice from mentors for taking their business up to new level; the organizations from different sectors will have practical tested acceleration program for green and entrepreneurship skills for creating new job places and economic growth.<< Implementation >>The project to achieve the objectives set will carry out 2 IOs:O1. Green economy and entrepreneurship Program (Green Genesis Startup Camp).The main goal of this program (GreenCamp) will be to equip young people with skills and knowledge in areas: green economy and entrepreneurship.O2. Green Mentorship Platform.The Green Mentoring Platform as a new initiative will be aimed at encouraging and motivating youth through the shared knowledge and experience of senior community mentors, who have made positive contributions to society.<< Results >>Impact on the target group (young people and organizations working in green sector and entrepreneurship development)- new green entrepreneurs working in one of the industries with the highest growth potential;- increasing their competencies for easily fining quality job places- opportunity for young people to receive online mentorship from business experts and to advance in their careers and increasing their chances to become entrepreneurs or acquiring quality and needed green skills- business, educational, nonprofit, and public sector (working with youth) will have a chance to see the impact of the innovative educational Acceleration program, methods for creation of support programs for a boost green entrepreneurship, and creating job places for young people in the green industry, thus contributing to the reduction of the unemployment rate- to attract young people to green, which offers rewarding and enjoyable careers to both women and men;- Innovative learning and teaching – to offer more aligned degrees and curricula at vocational and university level education so that students get the skills for success;- ease transition between education and labor market.TRANSNATIONALITYThrough the possibility on a European scale with different partners, through different visions and contributions to a common problem, we believe we can specifically provide non-formal training based on thematic content relating entrepreneurship to the circular economy and thus presenting a single worked package for the “green jobs”."