"""EFFECTS"": Experts for Families find effective concepts of training and support Context:The concept of ""family"" and - as a result - of family work is constantely changing in all of our societies. The great number of refugees from many different nations, cultural, ethnical and religious backgrounds is a challenge to family work in every participating country and is prompting discussions in our nations. The participating institutions realize, that all of us have to rethink our concepts of inclusion and family support. The participating organizations from Sweden, England, Bulgaria, Crotia and Germany are working througout their states and/or countries and develope concepts on how to best support (disadvantaged) families and youth, also families with migration and flight backgrounds. Because of their very different historical and cultural matrix they have developed varying perspectives and concepts/training programs in different fields of family work, that the partners profited from.Number and profile of the participants:1. Sweden, 2 representatives: The President of FEFAF, European Federation of Parents and Carers at Home, an umbrella organization with 19 member organizations in Europe and at the UN and nationally. A board member of the institution ""Haro"", that organizes seminars for parents, professionals and policymakers. Publishing magazines for members four times/year. 2. England, 2 representatives from Everton Nursery School and Family centre: The Headteacher, National Representative of Teaching School Council, the lead school within the North Liverpool Teaching School Partnership, working locally and nationally, one staff member. 3. Bulgaria will be represented by the Director of Tulip Foundation and two more staff. The organization enhances co-operation among civil society, the corporate sector, national and local authorities in Bulgarian to improve the quality of life and developmental opportunities for the families. Tulip Foundation provides grants, expertise and technical support, information, various trainings, opportunities for sharing experience and practices among NGOs on a national level.4. Croatia: The Youth Association Breza from Osijek was represented by their president, experienced in training youth workers, establishing innovative social services and the Director of Community Service providers centre. The organization Breza supports independent living for youth at risk and provides a counseling center as well as non-formal education of young people and professionals in a fields of LLL, culture and art, sustainable development with accent on multiculturalism, experiential learning and cooperative relationships.5. Germany is represented by: The lead partner, the Diakonisches Werk Baden in charge of more than 600 Kindergartens and family centres, an educational centre, cooperating among others with Protestant University of Freiburg, represented by two leading professors/researchers, and BAG, an organization implemeting the federal program ""Chances for parents are chances for children II"", a training programm for educators, social workers etc., supporting parents. Activities: Six meetings in five countries, visitations of best practice institutions, to better understand the rationales behind the concepts, reflect them and apply aspects to their own training programms and/or fields of work. These discussions and presentations were meant to be the basis for the reviews of the curricula of the partner organizations.Methodology: Presentations, discussions, viewing research/ teaching material; Documentations: photos, films, sharepoint; Results/long term benefits: The partners got a greater understanding of the social/cultural diversity, profiting from innovative methods of participative and inclusive training programs and practical social work in line with individual needs/needs of society. They had an opportunity to discuss new methods of working with disadvantaged, refugees and displaced families and youth. The output is influencing their training programms and daily work.Motto at the end of the project: Participation instead of activation!Common goals: - Empowerment and strengthening resilience of families- Focus on living and training an awareness of prejudice as a basis of building (transnational) relationships - Ressource-orientation as an essential for (re-)building positiv experiences in social work and personal development Recommendations: - Learning to view ourselves as professionals being part of the community of giving and taking.- Considering also the basis psychological needs of people as a starting point of social work! (Autonomy and self-determination; Competence and effectiveness; Affiliation/A sense of belonging)- Addressees should be viewed as partners in the process of the joint development of a community.- Educators, social workers, medical staff etc. should work together and try to find a common language. No ""lonely islands""!"

"""Below 10"" is a three-year project promoted by a Partnership of nine Organisations in six different EU countries. The Partners comprise schools and school networks, NGOs, and University research centers. It aims to address the challenge of early school leaving (ESL) by focusing on an approach aimed at the prevention, through new pedagogical strategies for co - operation and strategic planning between actors of formal and informal education, between school and local community. Taking as term of reference the statistical data for 2013, stating that 12 % of young people aged 18 - 24 in the EU are Early School Leavers, the title of our project recall the objective of ""Europe 2020"": reducing such rate below the 10%. ESL is a tragic phenomenon for young people because it can lead to social and economic exclusion, low employability, low self - confidence and often deviance. ESL is a tragedy from both the social point of view since in a modern democracy, responsible and active citizenship requires high levels of education ; and it is also a problem for economic development because it depletes the ""human capital"" necessary for the ""Knowledge Economy"". The international scientific community agrees that ESL has a systemic nature. Starting from this concept, our project aims at developing transversal and multi - disciplinary solutions and methods so as to develop the skills which both schools and informal education actors need to work together; and to introduce didactic methods oriented to re - motivating all students, included those more disadvantaged; and to develop local strategic medium and long term plans to prevent and counteract ESL. Notably our project intends to achieve the above mentioned objectives through the realisation of two Intellectual Outputs:1. a social qualitative research of drop - out aspects and causes in the Partners' countries that can be considered paradigmatic of the generality of European contexts;2. a model of training and participative co - project planning based on an Action / Research approach to problem-solving and which allows and enables the local actors to study ESL in their territory, to innovate learning systems and to elaborate together a local integrated plans of action. Such plans will be developed through:- an initial phase of local workshops for joined training of ""first level stakeholders"" (teachers, professional educators, volunteers and social workers);- a second phase of practical work, i. e. implementation of what has been learnt and projected during the workshops: so pilot - experiences developed by the participants to the workshop with young people, inside and outside the schools (not only with young drop - out, but also those that can be a positive example for peers de-motivated or border - line);- a conclusive phase during which the ""second level stakeholders"" come back for further training to reflect on the lessons learnt by working with young people, and propose to ""first level stakeholders"" (principles, headmasters, local institutions representatives, CSOs manager) local and multi-annual integrated plans to prevent and reduce ESL. As for expected results, our project purposes are:to update the frame of knowledge on ESL and drop-out causes, in order to reach more effective policies and practices;to create or enhance local networks among schools, local institutions and associations involved in the work with and for young people;to elaborate Local Integrated Plans against ESL;to spread innovative methods both in formal and informal education;to empower and increase school success for disadvantaged young people involved in the pilot - experiences. The long - term expected results and impact are:- to enhance the capacity of formal and informal education systems to work together by planning objectives, methods and action tools. - to optimize the use of financial resources, towards a new ""education community welfare system""- to contribute at the definition of more effective policies against ESL - at national and European level - in order to meet the objective of ""below 10%"" as more as possible in all the EU countries."

"Since the end of the Second World War, migration flows have increased in all EU Member States, either through immigration or emigration. Today migrants from third countries account for around 4% of the total EU population. Europe is confronted with an ageing population and a shrinking workforce leading to labour and skills shortages that will challenge economic growth prospects. Increased migration is seen by many economists as a positive factor to growth. Consequently countries that make best use of their migrant population have the best prospects to develop. The current situation concerning migrants, refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflict from the Middle East and North Africa is part of an ongoing narrative. This narrative will seemingly continue and managing migration flows will continue to be a challenge for all EU society. Youth work has a key role in forming a society in which citizens have equal rights and opportunities with a view to ensuring social cohesion, inclusion, multicultural coexistence and economic development of the EU.The primary aim of Grandma's Story was to develop a comprehensive high-quality training material for Youth workers, extending and developing competences for working with young migrants in intercultural environments. The objective was to engage and include young people of migrant or refugee background in their local community by developing skills in interpretation, heritage and media; in a setting of migration, tolerance and diversity. The secondary objective was to extend and develop youth workers' competence for working in and with museums and galleries, heritage and community associations especially those within areas of larger ethnic minority populations; by developing an OER platform and other resources for the development of online exhibitions curated by young people and eLearning for youth workers which set the project in the digital era. Grandma’s Story brought together the experience of several organisations working with migrants and youth work from several parts of Europe.Documenting Patterns of Migration and Integration as a resource for training in Youth work, the project began by recognising and recording the stories of the “Grandmothers” - the older generation of women whose stories are seldom collected or retold. The stories upon which the project is based are found all over Europe. Young women left their homes and migrated to another country or region. Through hard work they established themselves and to varying degrees integrated into their new homeland. The project ""Grandma's Story - Engaging migrant youth in the local community"" produced: 1) 'Pop-Up Exhibition - Guidelines': A methodology for creating simple pop-up exhibitions. It empowers young people to collect the stories of older migrant women for educational exhibits in pop-up exhibitions in youth centres, libraries, museums. https://grandmas-story.eu/publications2) 'Migration Heritage Trails - Guidelines': A methodology for developing “Migration Heritage” trails in cities and towns for youth engagement in the community. https://grandmas-story.eu/publications3) 'Community empowerment and informal learning on migration issue - Guidelines': This e-Publication Guide is on community empowerment and participatory process on projects that impact on migration issues. It is aimed as at Civil Society Organisations, Youth Workers, Youth Educators working in Museums, Associations, Social Co-operatives, Schools, Public and Third Sector Organisations working with migrants to implement participatory process within communities. https://grandmas-story.eu/publications4) 'Engaging migrant youth - Training Curriculum': This publication consolidates the projects outcomes into a methodological description and practical ideas of implementing the material in training at various levels: national, regional and local. https://grandmas-story.eu/publications5) Stories: A rich media collection of stories of migrant grandmothers, including text, videos, maps and photos. https://grandmas-story.eu/home-en 6) Trainer Modules: A series of structured training Modules, Guides, and Tutorial Videos to implement the methodology. https://grandmas-story.eu/trainer-modules7) OER platform: The platform enables users to create, publish and share the stories using a story-builder tool. All other training material, elearning and publications are shared on the platform. https://grandmas-story.eu/ The aim was not specifically to look at why people left but to record the migrant women’s story of migration and integration. The stories told through the project include women coming from Kenya, India, Barbados, Bangladesh, Austria, Uganda, Ghana, Iran, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Russia, and settling in the UK, Estonia, Italy, Croatia, Turkey and Sweden; all with their personal story to tell. The objective of the project was to develop this core information into a methodology that can be repeated in any EU country."

As globalization continues to interact with the economic and social balances of the territories, many actors are looking for tools and innovative ways to improve the dialogue between education and training systems and skills requirements in the territories. The challenge is to enable VET decision-makers and other actors to reinforce their posture and affirm strong territorial positioning within the European space, integrating global challenges especially human migration and the SDGS.The project aims to find the tools and methods that enable the active listening of the territories and lead to the development of the most strategic competences for the decision makers. Action learning and research methods will be used by partners to identify and enhance fairly quickly their stratégy with the territorial, European and global challenges.by understanding the approach of a territorialised political project, policymakers will be able to prepare to assume responsibility in a territory as an elected or member of a coordination or animation team. Awareness of the European framework and global challenges should facilitate action by expanding the strategy. In the eyes of the partners, this step is the prerequisite for vocational training systems in line with skills needs in the regions, able to respond quickly and qualitatively.

"The UN 2015 sustainable development (SD) agenda requires a united effort from all stakeholders should poverty be eradicated, our planet protected and prosperity for everyone ensured. Lifelong learning and education are key components to the fulfilment of this vision and is encapsulated in the fourth SDG. Specifically, SDG 4.7 aims to ensure that by 2030 all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote SD, including among others through Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). PEERMENT rises from the cross of two main considerations: - On the one hand, teachers' training is one of the most relevant and efficient tool for school innovation and improvement. Mentoring and Peer Mentoring are among the most effective ways of staff training, largely present in the world of business and in the volunteering and civil society organizations, but paradoxically very little used in the European systems of Formal Education. Annually, many teachers leave courses enthusiastic to put into practice initiatives which encourage SD. However, upon return to the reality of the classrooms and communities, their passion may be challenged by inability to apply theory to practice or resource constraint. Avenues to rekindle their desire become crucial and research indicates continual engagement to be effective. - On the other hand, ESD is increasing its importance for the future of the new generations, who will face in the next decades dramatic and global challenges. Unfortunately, national policies don't currently foresee adequate ""accompanying measures"" at the level of teachers' training. The new importance of ESD requires new and unprecedented competences of teachers: they should be able to lead their pupils towards the values of peace, solidarity, democracy, and at the same time to allow them to understand complex phenomena using knowledge coming from a lot of different subjects. Currently, none of the existing national systems of teachers' training in the EU appear able to support teachers in this new and difficult challenge. In short, ESD is nowadays marching on the legs of a few willing teachers. So, the purpose of this project is to lay - out, test, improve and disseminate a new model of Mentoring and Peer - Mentoring for ESD. This aim will be reached through a process of Action / Research that will directly involve about 20 Education Specialists as teachers' trainer and senior mentors, about 50 teachers as mentees through in Local Testing Groups (30 of which will receive a ""full immersion"" international experience of Peer Mentoring), about 800 pupils, with further teachers (around 100) involved in the Local and International Systems of Mentoring. PEERMENT is innovation - oriented and will produce five Intellectual Outputs: 1. a study on good practices existing in the EU in the field of Mentoring and Peer - Mentoring; 2. a system for recognizing and validate the new competence of ""Mentor for ESD""; 3. guidelines for Education Specialists who want to work as ""Mentors for ESD""; 4. guidelines for teachers who want to be involved in Mentoring and Peer - Mentoring systems; 5. a set of didactic materials on some relevant ""Global Challenges"", in form of ""web - quests"". All these Outputs will be produced through a strong involvement of direct target - groups in processes that have these steps: design of a prototype - experimentation - self-evaluation - improvement of the prototype - dissemination. The process will include: - local seminars to test the effectiveness of the guidelines for Education Specialists; - local testing courses to experiment the guidelines for teachers; - practical work of mentees teachers with their students, to test the competences acquired thanks to the training based on mentoring. A series of Multiplier events and a transnational learning activity (in the form of teachers' course) at the end of the project, will be the main tools for dissemination, together with a massive use of the project website, social media, newsletters addressed to thousands of stakeholders and press conferences. In the short - medium term, the envisaged impacts are: - Capacity building of Education Specialists and Teachers in projecting, planning and managing a mechanism of mentoring and peer- mentoring for ESD; - Empowerment of students in the key - competences, through their involvement in innovative experiences of learning and active citizenship. The longer-term benefits will be: - Mainstreaming and diffusion of mentoring and peer - mentoring for teachers' initial and in service training, not only in the field of ESD. - Enhancement of ESD in the EU, conceived as a fundamental and inter-disciplinary part of curricula. PEERMENT is a concrete contribution towards the Global Action Programme on ESD that seeks to generate and scale-up concrete actions in ESD and is intended to make a substantial contribution to the post-2015 agenda."