The theme of recognition and validation of competences from informal or non-formal settings is commonly understood as one of the most important challenges for educational and training sector nowadays.One of the most powerful informal learning contexts is represented by the volunteering sector, where young people of all education, cultural and social backgrounds, have the opportunity to experience different challenging situations, putting into practice their own skills and getting wide experience and new competences. Most of this new knowledge can represent an asset for volunteers in other areas of their life, as, for example, in professional career.Volunteering is an opportunity, not only to be socially active and to feel part of civil society, but it is also a way to gain skills and competences. Volunteering can be considered as a natural learning environment, especially for those that fall out of the formal educational sector or who find it difficult to re-enter the labour market. It is important to increase motivation for vulnerable target groups, such as NEETs (Young people not in employment, education or training) to approach the volunteering sector also as a way to re-engage in social life. Therefore, in order to improve their options, should they decide to re-enter the labour market, it is absolutely fundamental to properly validate those competences.Therefore, the overall objective of our strategic partnership is to provide an overview about projects, initiatives and methods for the validation of non-formal and informal learning, through volunteering, and to identify instruments, models, and schemes which validate and clearly identify the key competences that have been gained by volunteers. Providing this recognition could motivate volunteers to become either involved in additional learning activities or may also facilitate or improve their employability.In order to reach this overall objective, the specific objectives will be:1)To implement an e-platform with an interactive database that gives access to initiatives and learning information materials that have been identified and collected in the course of the project, especially concerning successful models and best practice concepts for the validation of key competences acquired during volunteering and systems of recognition of competences acquired through non-formal and informal learning 2)To elaborate a “Catalogue for Recognition of Competences Acquired Through Volunteering” which will give an overview about the current situation of the specific project environment in the partners’ countries, and present the initiatives, projects and materials, in English and with explanations in all languages of the partnership; 3)To organise an online interactive Forum for exchange of experience and good practice that will promote networking and exchange activities not only among the partnership and youth organisations in their countries, but on a European level. We will highlight and link to the new translation services such as Skype’s real-time translation in ten spoken and 50 written languages. In this way, it will become possible to break down language barriers between users from different countries, and to support ideas, foster exchange and assist initiatives that contribute to the European society as a whole. The partnership comprises a multidisciplinary, proven and successful team of four partners from Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia who have already collaborated in labour market related themes in various LLP and Erasmus+ projects.The project fits into the common underlying strategy of the partners insofar that the identification and selection of initiatives, materials and approaches for intercultural communication is in line with their operational strategies; and it will provide solutions to the needs of the associated public sector partners.During the implementation of the project, we will regularly upload news about the project’s progress in EPALE. We will also present the outcomes of the project, especially the interactive database of best practices, initiatives and projects dealing with volunteering and validation of competences, at the European Youth Portal which covers 35 countries and is available in 28 languages.

The topic of health concerns both individuals and society as a whole. While everyone wants to be healthy there is a strong connection between income levels and where you live with your health and life expectancy. The rising costs of health care, including for diseases that could actually be prevented or better managed, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease and cancer, mean that societies and economies have an interest in promoting better health. To be and to stay physically and mentally healthy is linked to knowledge about living a healthy life at all stages. Central to achieving this is having access to health care and understanding health information. Health literacy is a basic competence and needs to be recognised as such.Health literacy levels have an impact on the efficiency of healthcare systems. People that have low health literacy tend to go to the doctor more often, to be hospitalized more often or to take inappropriate treatment or prescriptions. Furthermore, they are less inclined to take preventative measures. Fostering health literacy of all citizens is beneficial for society at large as it reduces costs for public health systems which can, then, work more efficiently for those really in need of care.Tackling the health literacy issue also means fighting poverty, social exclusion, racism and discrimination, and promoting social justice and gender equality. It provides a very strong basis to improve the socio-economic situation of many people as a healthier population in all stages of life can contribute better to the social, cultural and economic development of its community and country. Thus, it is not only about educating people in health issues but about empowering them to attain a better life for themselves and society as a whole.The objective of the HEALTH@HOME project is to help transform areas of social and economic disadvantage into sustainable, healthy communities by providing a full range of age appropriate and accessible family education resources to promote health literacy.A) Resources: These will include a suite of age appropriate family learning resources that build health literacy related to the 4 thematic areas selected - Promoting Positive Mental Health; Diet & Nutrition; Preventative Health Promotion; Social Media in the Health Sector - to include: - a collection of 12 themed comic strips for younger children, 4 for each selected theme, will be designed and produced and presented as PDFs for download and printing and as flip-books for online reading;- a compendium of 32 web-quest challenge-based educational resources, 8 for each selected theme at introductory, intermediate, advanced and expert levels for learners between the ages of 13 and 25;- a series of workshop lesson plans, tip sheets and a learner manual to raise health literacy awareness among parents and guardians- induction training programme for parents and guardians so they can facilitate and manage the family learning model developed.2. An in-service training programme for adult educators to support their engagement with the new family learning resources developed and to ensure that they acquire the necessary skills to develop their own comic strips and Web-quest challenge-based educational resources.3. A bespoke on-line learning environment will be developed and populated with the innovative family learning resources.All resources developed will be presented in traditional and on-line formats in 4 partner languages and made available to all interested parties without restriction in keeping with the open access requirements of the ERASMUS+ programme.

Vocational schools, secondary schools and vocational training institutions are often confronted with learners coming from different social, cultural or racial backgrounds. Due to the big number of refugees who have arrived in the recent years in most European countries, we experience more inhomogeneity in schools and especially in vocational education. Under these circumstances, it happens often that frictions arise that are born out of prejudice, low self-esteem and latent xenophobia. When such problems emerge and difficulties escalate, and when young people do not see positive perspectives, a critical minority, but in rising numbers, is attracted by extremist ideologies, such as Neo-Nazi groups or the jihadist movement of the „Islamic State“. The Radicalisation Awareness Network of the European Commission states that „the best prevention is to stop people from getting involved in violent extremist or terrorist activities in the first place, or to convince them to turn away from such ideas and methods.... The people best placed to tackle the phenomenon of radicalisation are the so called first-liners – people in direct contact with targeted individuals or vulnerable groups of population.“ Teachers and trainers – called „first-liners“ above - need therefore new skills and competences to be better prepared to deal with intercultural tensions between diverse groups of learners and detect, at an early stage, indicators of radicalisation among their learners. However, many of them have had their vocational education years ago, and many of them are completely or partially unprepared to the changes in the way in which our society is organized and which conceptual aspects of radicalisation pose a threat. The objective of VETContra was to equip teachers and trainers with skills and competences to deal with intercultural tensions between diverse groups of learners, to detect indicators of radicalisation among their learners, to identify who is at risk and which is the best way of helping those who need support, to apply interventions in a preventive stage, to builds skills and motivation to take action against injustice and to reduce racism and xenophobia in the classroom. The Partnership consisted of six adult organisations which have been previously involved in several informal networks or European project collaboration with marginalised learners:E-C-C Verein für interdisziplinäre Bildung und Beratung (AT), coordinator, active in adult and vocational education projects for more than 20 yearsLesson in Happiness (NL), a non-profit organisation for research, training, consulting and education on wellbeing.INTEGRA Institute for Development of Human Potentials (SI), operates a counselling and rehabilitation instituteQUALED Qualification and Education (SK), actively involved in the development of innovative training tools in both vocational and adult education. ALDAIMA (ES), organisation of the Andalusian regional government, which facilitates family integration and protection of juveniles and adolescentsKTP Association for Qualification at the Labour Market (CZ), cooperation with various educational organisations in the Czech RepublicIn the 18 months of the project, we have identified initiatives, best practice examples and tools which provide support to deal with intercultural tensions between diverse groups of learners. They are available on an e-platform that gives access to initiatives and learning materials identified and collected in the project, especially for teaching in multicultural groups, and give background information how to handle groups with intercultural tensions, based on social learning, ethics of participation, social language, social and emotional intelligence, conflict solving strategies. We have also implemented an online interactive forum for exchange between educators and youth workers who are confronted with this situation and who can ask questions or obtain helpful advice. The platform gives also a link to the translation options through the Google translation service and the Skype translator for oral communication. The activities and outcomes fit into their strategy insofar that the identification of approaches, best practice examples and materials for intercultural communication is in line with their educational activities and course programmes. The transnational cooperation from different European countries with different approaches towards intercultural issues and radicalisation has enriched their transnational collaboration. The immediate impact was an amelioration of the intercultural competences for approx. 50 teachers and trainers working at the project partners.

"Within a few weeks, the Corona crisis has led to developments in the field of volunteer work which for years seemed unthinkable and which have turned current developments that gave cause for concern into the opposite. Even though data cannot be available at the time of writing this application, it is already possible to say with certainty:-Voluntary work and the associated assumption of responsibility in civil society have gained a completely new appreciation.-The tools developed for this purpose (such as platforms for placing volunteers) were developed, activated and used virtually ""overnight"" thanks to digital technologies.People not only volunteer for the well-being of their neighbours, offer interactions with people who cannot leave the house or take on shopping services. They also take on activities that have nothing to do with their actual job: Those affected by short-time work or lack of orders are also involved as volunteers in areas outside their profession where support is urgently needed: in care, in agriculture, or in the mobility economy. Regardless how different in terms of professional background the volunteers are, they have one thing in common: Volunteering in times of the pandemic is an opportunity to proactively combat limited employment and loss of income, to be socially active and to feel being part of civil society. Equally important, it is also a way to gain new soft skills like team spirit, critical faculties, communication skills, intercultural competence, stress management, discipline, and self-confidence. Volunteering is an effective learning environment, especially for those people who had to realize that their professional activity is by no means systemically relevant in terms of crisis management. Strictly speaking, volunteering is a great opportunity, namely that of acquiring and validating soft skills and then being able to use it in any professional environment as an additional qualification. However, how can a volunteer recognize and validate those new skills? How can an employer be made aware of these skills as an added value for the creation of teams, stress situations or intercultural tasks? Consequentially, it is absolutely fundamental to properly validate those “soft skills”, i.e. new personal competences. Although the wording suggests otherwise, it is ""soft skills"" that can make the difference in working life.Therefore, the overall aim of the CRISISS project is to provide organisations which employ volunteers with support and guidance to implement internal systems of recognition of soft skills, in order to empower volunteers to recognize and appreciate their growth in soft skills. In order to reach this objective, the specific objectives are-to create Soft Skills Identification (IO1) and Assessment Tools (IO2), in order to support volunteers to recognize and validate their own soft skills, increase the awareness of the importance of soft skills in professional life, and to recognize informal and non-formal competences through evidence gathering;-to elaborate Self-Promotion Tools (IO3) which will assist volunteers in promoting their soft skills they have acquired in volunteering, and provide the instruments they need to use for presenting and taking advantage of their soft skills in an effective way; -These materials will be made available at a multilingual and interactive e-platform (IO4) and as mobile apps for smart phones (IO4). Parts will also be available as podcast or can be activated by smart-home voice assistants such as Alexa or Siri. All products will remain accessible at least five years after the end of the project, i.e. until 2027.The transnational collaboration will benefit from the various experiences and competences of the partnership which consists of 7 institutions working with volunteers, organisations working with people with disabilities, youth and family counselling organisations, social partners, adult education institutes, social research centres and ICT experts for the development of open educational resources (OERs).The primary target groups for our project are organisations which employ volunteers in their daily work. The secondary target group are the volunteers who will be able to use the assessment and promotion tools and for whom the visualisation, documentation and recognition of formally, non-formally and informally acquired soft skills in the field of volunteering during the pandemic will increase their career opportunities as well as their personal development."

<< Background >>Across Europe families are in crisis. Families are the primary environment of domestic violence; a scourge that is rampant in Europe. Research tells us that 1 in 4 European citizens knows a woman among friends or family who is a victim of domestic violence; and 1 in 5 knows of someone who commits domestic violence in their circle of friends and family (Special Eurobarometer 344, 2010). In the EU, 25% of all violent crimes reported involve a man assaulting his wife or partner (EU Campaign Against Domestic Violence, 2000); and worldwide, at least 1 in 3 women, or up to one billion women, have been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in their lifetimes. Usually, the abuser is a member of her own family or someone known to her (Heise, Ellsberg & Gottemoeller, 1999). In the UK, one incidence of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute (Stanko 2000). And across the EU, 1 in 3 women are victims of physical or sexual abuse (FRA, 2014). These statistics help to show the needs in our communities to address instances of domestic violence through a bottom-up approach; however, we also know that they do not show the full and updated picture. Throughout COVID-19, the lockdowns implemented in each partner country to contain the coronavirus led to spikes in domestic violence reports, as victims were often trapped at home with the perpetrators of the violence against them. On April 6, 2020 United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for measures to address a “horrifying global surge in domestic violence” linked to lockdowns imposed by governments responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reports from police and NGOs working on domestic violence across the globe suggest that domestic violence is rising in the wake of COVID-19. In response, a study by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in 2020 highlights that “every single country has introduced special measures to protect women from intimate partner violence during the pandemic. Yet persistent under-funding of shelters and domestic violence hotlines has resulted in sometimes patchy support”. This is why our intention through IRENE is to support families from within, to prevent instances of domestic violence in the future. Although awareness about the rate of domestic violence is increasing, most of the medical literature to date has focused on the effect of domestic violence on the primary victim (University of Maribor, 2014). However, we also need to assess what effect witnessing domestic violence has on secondary victims, such as children who live in homes where partner abuse occurs? One of the great tragedies of domestic violence is that children who grow up in homes where it occurs are more likely to resort to the behaviour themselves, continuing the cycle of violence into the next generation. Nearly 90% of batterers saw violence in their own households as children, and many were victims of it themselves. As such, there is a well-established link between childhood exposure to violence, and the rate of abuse and violence in adulthood.These are the unique needs that the IRENE project aims to address through the family learning model is proposes. IRENE project partners are applying for this funding so that we can develop and pilot a new approach to supporting families to address instances of domestic violence in the family, so that European families can provide a safe-haven for all family members and so that peaceful family life can prevail in the communities where the project will initially be piloted, and further afield through the sustainability and transfer of project results once the project comes to an end.<< Objectives >>Irene is the Greek Goddess of peace. Through the IRENE project what we want to achieve is to promote peace among European families and to protect vulnerable members of European families from experiencing, and witnessing, instances of violence and abuse.Witnessing domestic violence can lead children to develop an array of age-dependent negative effects. Research in this area has focused on the cognitive, behavioural, and emotional effects of domestic violence. Children who witness violence in the home and children who are abused may display many similar psychologic effects. These children are at greater risk of developing internalized behaviours such as anxiety and depression, and externalized behaviours such as fighting, bullying, lying, or cheating. They also are more disobedient at home and at school, and are more likely to have social competence problems, such as poor school performance and difficulty in relationships with others. Child witnesses display inappropriate attitudes about violence as a means of resolving conflict and indicate a greater willingness to use violence themselves. It is a never-ending cycle of violence and pain, that perpetuates. Through the IRENE project, our intention is to support families to address these issues within their family unit, and to support their children to recognise positive relationships and behaviours and to model these as they grow.Research from Portugal tells us that almost 90% of cases of domestic violence involve violence against women; however, a report published by the charity, Parity, in the UK in 2014 found that almost 40% of all victims of domestic violence in the UK were male. This shows us that domestic abuse can affect all members of a family unit, regardless of gender or age. Across the EU elder abuse has become a growing concern over the last few years. Although information on prevalence of elder maltreatment in the EU is incomplete, findings from the Abuse and Health Among Elderly in Europe study show a prevalence of 19.4% for mental abuse, 2.7% for physical abuse, 0.7% for sexual abuse, 3.8% for financial abuse and 0.7% for injury of older people. Statistics also show that approximately 70% of the perpetrators of abuse are members of the family, including their partners and children.Parents have a pivotal role to play in the education and development of their children; and also, in supporting senior adults in their life to recognise unhealthy relationships in the family unit and to address instances of abuse. As the primary caregivers for both young children and elderly grandparents, if suitable family-centred educational interventions are developed, parents can take a lead role in supporting all members of their family to develop positive behaviours and relationships within the family unit. Through the IRENE project, our intention is also to develop a suite of pertinent education materials that will support parents in this role. A report titled ‘The Value of Family Learning’ by EPALE in 2018, states that this model has ‘traditionally been embraced as an effective means of addressing the learning needs of children and adults, and that advocates, stress the “double-impact” of working with two generations together to break the cycle of underachievement in basic skills’. In the IRENE project, as well as supporting parents in their role as primary educators of their children, we also aim to integrate grandparents and senior adult learners into the family learning model; piloting a ‘whole-family approach’ to addressing instances of domestic violence and abuse, which represents a significant innovation in the field of family learning. Through the proposed family learning model, we will thus achieve a ‘triple-impact’ by working across three generations of a family, to promote peace and protection of vulnerable members of a family, while also supporting the fight against domestic violence and abuse.<< Implementation >>To inform the development process and validate the outputs developed, key stakeholders will be integrated into the project work-plan and partners will return to their local family learning support groups at regular intervals for testing, peer reviews and feedback. This process will help ensure that key local stakeholders feel a sense of ownership of the results developed. This will encourage them to act as local advocates of the project promoting the results achieved within their peer groups.The IRENE consortium will follow a bottom-up approach to working with local families to address the issue of domestic violence, and to build their resilience to address this issue within the family unit. Partners will implement each of the following activities on a monthly basis to ensure all project objectives are met and all results are developed on time and within the proposed project schedule.In months 1 to 2 the following activities will be undertaken:The team will host the first PM online; GSVO95 will set the key learning outcomes to be achieved on completion of the first PR - Induction to Pedagogy Programme for Parents and TRH will discuss the key learning outcomes to be achieved by the Programme for Parents to Build Positive Family Relationships (PR2). ALDAIMA will discuss the key learning outcomes to be achieved by the Family Learning Toolkit. The Project Management Plan, Quality Assurance Plan, Promotion Plan and the Impact Plan will all be drafted by their respective partners. The first press release, developed by ALDAIMA, will be shared online. The project website and Facebook page will be developed by IoD and TRH will develop the branding strategy.Between months 3 and 6, the following activities will be undertaken:Partners will complete financial, administrative and promotion reports in month 6. Partners will complete quality assurance and evaluation activities. The first newsletter will be produced and distributed. The team will plan and host the TPM in Ireland. Prototype modules for PR1 and PR2 will be developed by respective partners. Prototype content for the Family Learning Toolkit (PR3) will be developed by partners. PM will lead the development of the In-service Programme for Adult Educators (PR4) and set the key learning outcomes to be achieved.Between months 6 and 12, the following activities will be undertaken:Partners will complete financial, administrative, impact, quality and promotion reports in month 12. Partners will complete quality assurance and evaluation activities. The team will plan the second TPM in France. The second newsletter will be produced and distributed. Content for PR1 and PR2 will be signed-off in English, produced in English. Partners will prepare for the C1 in Poland in month 17. Between month 12 and 18, the following activities will be completed: Partners will complete financial, administrative, quality and promotion reports in month 18. Content for PR1 and PR2 will translated into all partner languages and produced in all partner languages. The content of PR4 and PR3 will be signed-off in English, translated into all partner languages and produced. GSVO will develop a draft Sustainability Plan in month 18. The third newsletter will be produced and distributed. VIVA FEMINA will host the LTTA in Poland in month 17. Between month 18 and 24, the following activities will be completed:Partners will complete financial, administrative, impact, quality and promotion reports in month 24. Partners will deliver PR1 and PR2 to 10 adult learners; PR4 to 10 educators and will plan and host the Family Learning Open Days and the Final Conference. The fourth newsletter will be produced and distributed. Partners will support 10 families to use the Family Learning Toolkit in a family learning environment.<< Results >>Central to the success of the model proposed in IRENE is the empowerment of parents to take on the role of ‘family educators’ and to support all members of their family to develop and maintain healthy relationships. While a large percentage of domestic violence cases reported comprise instances of intimate-partner violence and instances of child abuse by a parent, guardian or family member, in the last decade there has been a sharp increase in the number of cases of adolescent to parent violence (APV) and even child to parent violence (CPV). At the same time, analyses of community surveys from Europe have confirmed the extent of abuse against children in the family unit; showing a prevalence rate of 9.6% for sexual abuse (13.4% in girls and 5.7% in boys), 22.9% for physical and 29.1% for mental, with no real gender differences. IRENE proposes to develop induction training for parents to support their role as facilitators of learning in a family learning model. While the pedagogic approach traditionally used by educators might differ considerably from that adopted by parents the desired outcome is that parents develop the same understanding of the issues related to online learning and the use of dynamic online tools, like those to be developed in the Family Learning Toolkit – Comic Strips, Interactive Magazines and Audio Books.By providing basic instruction in best practice pedagogic approaches and including some guidelines for safe online use, the adult educators delivering the IRENE curriculum and the parents facilitating the family learning process, will be able to relate to each other.Educating and empowering parents so that they can nurture healthy relationships in their family, so that they can resolve conflicts peacefully and so that they can teach the children, young adults and senior adults in their lives about how to develop their own positive relationships with all family members, through a family learning programme, can have a long-term impact in terms of family cohesion and the prevention of instances of domestic abuse and violence across all age groups in the family unit. The approach envisaged and resources developed will be relevant far beyond the reach of the initial partnership and the potential transferability of this result is significant.The sustainable approach to family learning proposed by the IRENE project is to first deliver a project that is specific to the needs, competences and interests of adult learners and parents in our region, where the project will be initially piloted, and then to build a model of family learning that can be transferred to other communities in the region, nationwide and then throughout Europe. As previously mentioned, instances of domestic violence affect 1 in 3 women across EU Member States, sexual abuse affects 18 million children under 18 years, physical abuse affects 44 million children under 18 years and mental abuse affects 55 million children under 18 years. In addition, instances of elder abuse are on the rise – with 70% of all cases of elder abuse committed by a family member. These are frightening statistics that demonstrate the crisis that many European families find themselves in. We believe there is a way to prevent this violence, and that education and a change in attitudes, behaviours and relationship dynamics within a project are key interventions to support families in preventing such violence from scarring their family life.