CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND Many young people feel remote from their communities, civil institutions and policies that affect their daily and future lives. 26+ million of the 90 million YP aged 15-29 in the EU, are at risk of poverty and social exclusion when rated on the AROPE scale. This project addressed the needs reported by YP that were consulted in preparing the project application and throughout the project. About 70% of the project’s target group of young people were from backgrounds with fewer opportunities and many lacked confidence and key skills. The project developed new tools and informal learning materials to provide inspiration and practical activities for youth workers, related practitioners and young people themselves, to help motivate young people to engage in active citizenship, the wider society and the world of work. Led by Wandsworth Council, UK, partners from NGO and school sectors in IT, ES and RO successfully introduced the concept of the Takeover Day to their countries as an informal learning and engagement tool to promote youth engagement, active citizenship, empowerment and build bridges to employers. OBJECTIVESThe project created an engagement and participation toolkit co-designed with young people (YP) and youth workers to create ‘Takeover Days’ are events where YP ‘take over’ a service/function in a public institution or private enterprise for one day. Their is to engage young people and give them a practical opportunity to experience high-level decision-making in a real work environment and to raise their awareness of the role of public and private enterprise in EU democracy.PARTICIPANT PROFILEThe 126 young people taking part were aged 16-24, 70% had fewer opportunities or special needs.Their backgrounds included: •Migrants and BAME •Deprived inner city areas•Isolated rural areas •Learning disabilities/mental health problems •Poverty •In care & care leavers ACTIVITIESAs the UK was the only partner with experience of Takeover Days, it provided an initial model for partners to explore. The project’s needs analysis researched and mapped activities promoting youth empowerment and participation in each partner country to inform the development of the Toolkit. Participatory workshops were also held with young people to inform the needs analysis and development of the intellectual outputs. Based on this information, partners created a 'Takeover Day Toolkit' in two parts: 1) an online Guide to creating a Takeover Day (IO1) and 2) a set of supporting skills activities (IO2). These were discussed and tested at the project’s transnational camp – (5 x days of indoor/outdoor informal workshops) and virtual mobility. Following this, the toolkit was tested by partners through a programme of workshops and Takeover Days with a range of public institutions including museums, schools and local authority services. In addition to these, private enterprises were also added to the programme as many young people, particularly in RO, expressed an interest in exploring these environments. The toolkit and other materials are freely available on the project website.The project was affected in its last months by the Covid 19 crisis. This meant that not all the planned Takeover Days and workshops could be carried out – although each partner was able to carry out at least two before the lockdown. Two multiplier events took place online - in RO and IT - and the final TPM was also held online. RESULTS AND IMPACT•126 young people and 28 youthworkers took part in the project, including 39 YP and 8 youthworkers in the international mobility •11 institutions/employers hosted a Takeover Day •Online Toolkit consisting of a Guide to creating a Takeover Day with 40+ supporting skills activities translated into partner languages.•An audience of 11500+ was reached via publicity on partners’ websites, newsletters and the project’s social media.•Young people improved: their self-confidence, leadership and communications skills; their understanding of the institutions/enterprises they ‘took over’ and knowledge of Erasmus+ and the EU.•Youthworkers have fresh engagement tools and and improved knowledge of E+•Partners strengthened their widening participation strategies•LOCAL authorities, policy makers and other stakeholders have access ro fresh tools to promote youth participation, contributing to social and economic cohesion.TRANSNATIONAL The toolkit and case studies are available freely over the Internet for 3+ years; the toolkit has been adopted by partners and the concept is already being transferred to other countries: e.g. a KA2 VET application is being prepared by XANO and WCLL to transfer the Takeover concept to Portugal, Netherlands and Lithuania; the Ministry of Work in Peru has expressed interest in the concept following presentations of the project to meetings at the ministry and regional governments by XANO in its advisory role to the government on youth participation.

According to the European Commission´s 2018 Report on ¨Equality between women and men in the European Union¨, although more than 9 in 10 Europeans think that promoting gender equality and nonviolence is important to ensure a fair and democratic society, its promotion, protection and, last but not least, implementation still requires a constant change of mind-sets, lifelong education and solidarity. Given the unstable social, political and economic situation not only in Italy but also in the other partner countries and the rest of Europe, we decided to form a Strategic Partnership as we believe that it is of utmost importance to address abuse and gender inequalities. The Partnership will be formed by the following countries and entities: -Italy: Petit Pas, association of social promotion,-Netherlands: Stichting voor Aktieve Geweldloosheid´s (Foundation for Active Nonviolence) Towards a Nonviolent World Department,-Poland: Fundacja Zielony Słoń (GEF), Foundation working with fewer opportunities communities,-United Kingdom: Creativity Works Preston, entity providing an alternative learning and employment centre,-Spain: Permacultura Cantabria, non governmental organisation working on social development.As for the learning activities planned for the WOMAN: Working On Mastering Adult Nonviolence project and their main objectives, through three study visits, in Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom, and a course in Spain we will better understand the reality of adult gender abuse victims which will further allow us to raise awareness of this problem among our adult service users.By visiting participating organisations´ local communities and other institutions they cooperate with we will be able to directly get to know their best practices in fight for a more just, discrimination and violence free society and round tables will let us benchmark our methods of working with adult learners against newly experienced ideas and initiatives.We will exchange specific tools to contribute to a nonviolent and more equal society for the benefit of our adult service users such as SVAG´s methods to work on identifying and breaking the cycle of oppression, GEF´s manual to address the issue of cyber abuse and discrimination, CWP´s method of identification of micromachist behaviours, Permacultura´s emotional management tools and Petit Pas´ experience on working on empowering women and gender and power abuse in the labour market.The newly gained skills and insights will be further passed on to other adults and adults trainers during internal workshops organised by the course attendees and subsequently used in defining and implementing future European projects.On the other hand, gender is not the only factor in women's lives as there are many more aggravating issues that undermine their well-being and social inclusion which is why education and training that explore diversity issues such as ethnicity or disabilities, in addition to gender, are also needed. Moreover, in many cases gender violence victims are economically dependent on their offenders which is why shame and emotional dependence add on to the problem. For this reason, the course in Spain will be focused on measures addressing adult nonviolence through emotional management tools and we will also visit institutions that work with women with disabilities or from cultural minorities, get to know their best practices and deepen our expertise on working with collectives, especially women, with fewer opportunities.As for the project’s impact:Adult trainers directly participating in the Project will broaden their capacities and gain new abilities for their daily work which in turn will create a direct effect on the gender abuse vulnerable collectives they work with advancing the benefits of the educational activities provided by their entities. Adult learners who participate in the course in Spain will acquire best practices relevant when facing abuse and discrimination in different contexts becoming more active as European citizens. Also, the multicultural environment and direct diversity experience will raise both groups’ consciousness level and improve their linguistic, task-management and communication skills.Our Strategic Partnership members will deepen the expertise regarding gender discrimination and violence improving the scope of their activities and their staff’s qualifications. They will also broaden their international networks and connections for the future initiatives.Last but not least, directly and indirectly through a wide dissemination campaign and adult trainers’ work more gender related violence and discrimination victims are expected to be reached and empowered. Also, European citizens in general will be better informed and equipped to provoke a social shift so that women are no longer underprivileged and gender-based violence and harassment is less widespread across our societies.

"CONTEXTIn the next 50 years, we will be called to live the great challenge of sustainability, of building a sustainable society and economy. As European citizens, we all have a duty to in protecting and improving the environment around us because it means living better.The European Union, in the last 30 years it has multiplied its initiatives: policies, regulations, controls, anti-pollution interventions, research on environmental innovations, awareness actions, etc. Green growth is at the heart of EU policy to ensure that Europe’s economic growth is environmentally sustainable.Additional jobs are bound to be created in the coming years in order to meet the expected demand generated by fully functioning markets for secondary raw materials.In a lifelong learning perspective, education for sustainable development must not only permeate the entire school cycle, from childhood to university, and professional courses, but must continue further, until it merges with lifelong learning adults, as well as with non-formal and informal education aimed at anyone, moving in synergy and consistency with them. The transition to a circular economy requires an urgent need for new knowledge, skills and approaches. Education, basic and continuous professional training, as well as non-professional training for adults (or ""life long learning""), play a key role in the revision and implementation of knowledge.GENERAL OBJECTIVES The Erasmus ""Protect Yourself"" project aims to create a series of tools and resources to support adult education and to contribute to the development and expansion of their professional and educational know-how in the circular economy.Given these GENERAL OBJECTIVES, we have identified 3 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES that the project will reach at its end:1st SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE: Increase the involvement of adults from partners’ countries to identify, analyze and evaluate the actions to be taken in favor of the climate;2nd SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE: Improve the level of key competences of adult educators in formal and non-formal education to adequately contribute to the adults critical skills development;3rd SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE: Enhance the capacity of adult organizations to help adults take action in favor of the climate and to combat climate change.These SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES have been identified on the basis of the TARGET GROUPs chosen and their NEEDs detected. We also tried to figure out which ones SHORT TERMBENEFITS might be and MEDIUM AND LONG TERM BENEFITS.T1: adults with an interest in developing critical thinking skills to act in favor of the climate.N1: the need for analytical and critical thinking skills improvement about environmental issues.ST B1: better understand how to act in favor of the climate; empowered to use critical thinking skills to fight climate change; increased self-confidence.MLT B1: better participation of adults in society.T2: adult educators, working with adults in all forms of education, with interest in developing competencies needed for empowering the adults.N2: non-formal methods for improving adults' critical thinking skills and analytical abilities; improving their abilities; exchange good practice for adults.ST B2: Improved professional competencies and transversal abilities for counseling the adults; Increases overall satisfaction by the appreciation of their workMLT B2: qualitative development of work whit adults; increased participation of adult educators in climate actions.T3: adult organizations and Partner organizations, working with adults in all kinds of education with interest in developing their internal capabilities for addressing adults' needs.N3: need improved internal capabilities to empower adults to act in favor of the climate.ST B3: increased trust by creating awareness of high-level support for adults.MLT B3: strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation between adult organizations.MAIN RESULTSResult 1. Good practice guide.This result will support the T2 as well as the T3 to improve the analytical abilities and critical thinking skills of T1. Thus, the guide will contribute to the achievement of the 1st SPECIFICOBJECTIVE: Increase the involvement of adults from partners’ countries to identify, analyze and evaluate the actions to be taken in favor of the climate.Result 2. Methods and techniques for support climate action.This result will support the T2 that needs a toolkit of skills and methods to address adults' needs. The toolkit will contribute to the achievement of the 2nd SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE:Improve the level of key competences of adult educators in formal and non-formal education to adequately contribute to the adults critical skills development.Result 3. Cooperation mechanism.This result will be a European virtual space (Facebook Group) to support the T3 to improve internal capabilities to empower adult people (T1) to act for the climate. Thus, it willcontribute to the achievement of the 3rd SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE."

In our days, cultural heritage and traditions are at a difficult time, on the one hand they are trying to maintain and recover and on the other face the phenomenon of globalization that is causing the loss of cultural identity from different towns and places, leading to to a universalized culture, where the traditions of oral transmission and through practice (songs, stories, dances, meals, games ...) are increasingly less relevant, conditioned mainly by new technologies and television that invade the last of our corners.The songs, stories, dances, meals, games as elements of popular culture and manifestation of the traditions of a society, fulfill a function of enculturation, preserve and transmit the deep values of popular culture, provide a motor activity in accordance with the characteristics of its practitioners, facilitate social relationships between members of the same generation and between those of different generations and help to preserve traditions of oral transmission and recreational heritage; Considering that they have great value in themselves, there is a need to promote and consolidate these activities that make up our cultural heritage, taking into account their past, present and future.During the last few years are being lost and forgotten customs of the towns, cities and countries, new generations don´t believe in those things that made our ancestors, or not continue the family work and many of them don´t know nothing about games or traditional foods. With this project, we want these things to change, recover and promote all that is our areas. We want to people to take more new skills, learning from other different countries jobs, culture and ways to promote our culture among young people.From a direct comparison with the partners the following needs emerged:We believe that unless we begin to promote and recover our lost traditions will be fast, as new technologies are going strong, this does not mean they are not queire supports both, but we need to unite the two forces.Also older people who have learned a single thing in their life, will be a good opportunity to improve and learn other things in life, increasing their knowledge in different areas and using new technologies in the promotion of knowledge.For this reason we think that this project will help a lot and will create collaboration between generations in order to share and collect ideas, examples from different countries that could be transmited to other young people or countries.Will need to change, recover and promote the cultural heritage in our areas and to transfer this knowledge using the new technologies to the new generations.The aim of the project is the collaboration with adult and young people that they can develop the intergenerational learning between them with promoting and recovering cultures in different countries, exchange of experience and knowledges between this groups and learning about music, culture, traditions, food, and how to transfers from the grandparent to the young people all these things and learn new techniques for the development the skills of the adult people.Objectives:• Share and celebrate the European cultural heritage.• Improve and expand the supply of quality learning personalizations to the needs of adult students with limited skills and less qualified in the digital environment through informal and non-formal learning.• Exchange good practices among professionals.• Train adult educators who can help disadvantaged adults or those at risk of exclusion• Develop educational activities for adults to raise awareness and help protect cultural heritage.• Promote intergenerational learning and subsequent learning in life.• Create a MANUAL with Guidelines for the training of adult trainers in ICT and the recovery of cultural heritage.• Create cooperation and networks of partners at an international and regional level on the intergenerational promotion of Cultural Heritage through ICT.• Observe the role and task of adult education providers on how to use cultural resources to generate employment and income opportunities.Beneficiaries:Adult Educator: will learn how to teach ICT to adult and to promote Cultural HeritageAdult learners: that will get more skills and promote and share their knowledge’s between young people.New generations: That will learn about the traditional things, to use in their life and promote to the next generations.Institutions: Cooperation between organizations trying to promote the traditions and share the good practice in other countries.Results during the project- Manual- Web platform- Theoretical-practical training course for the personnel of the organizations- Training events in each country aimed at adults- Intergenerational acts/ activities to recover and promote cultural heritage- Adult Educators more competent.- Brochures- Newsletter

"The PLAN project re-mobilized resourceful and experienced older generation /retired (EOGR) who acted as Mentors for NEET youth and helped them change their depressed situations. As social innovations do not happen by themselves, our Mentors have supported NEET for a real impact in our societies and the economy. Empowering people, driving change – social innovation in the European Union, European Commission, 2011 CHALLENGEThe multiple innovation perspectives of PLAN project were linked to a number of emerging social needs and innovation debates in Europe, well described and well documented in the Commission’s 2011 paper: Empowering people, driving change – social innovation in EU. Project’s innovation contributed in transforming such emerging needs into emerging opportunities of change: ACTIVITIES undertaken for EMERGING SOCIAL NEEDS: - we re-engaged Mentors of all ages and backgrounds for economic and social value - we mobilized available and qualified resources in the communities who offered NEET powerful ways out of the social depression - we trained the youth workers of partner NGOs, on how to work with NEET and how to support them in new entreprenurial initiatives and we developped activities for digital skills in an informal and non formal education - we found new solutions to existing and emerging social challenges not addressed by the open market and not sufficiently addressed by public services - we engaged users and citizens in creating such solutions for NEET - we created social change dynamics to respond flexibly to the fast changing economies and labour markets and we offered our NEET enganged in the project, new life competences. TARGET GROUPS supported EMERGING CHANGE OPPORTUNITIES: - youth workers worked for social innovation and provided NEET with new skills - mentors acted as role models for NEET, encouraged them to establish their future work life - youth workers, mentors and youth promoted the social innovation that cannot happen to but with people, with top-down as well as bottom-up initiative-taking for successful work life including a wide range of challenges, from child services to green economy PLAN's innovation has put social innovation to work. PROJECT MISSIONThe project has put the 21st century social innovation agenda to work: new citizen-driven alliances were created in the communities, through mobilizing available resources for important needs of NEET and without putting additional pressure on public services. Resourceful and experienced older generation/retired acted as Mentor for: NEET youth who NEED THEM PLAN project combined two of the most important social and educational challenges in 21st century Europe – re-activated the overwhelming social and educational potential of the increasing number of experienced older generation in society and helped counter the dramatic increase in depressed social situations among NEET – generated social and educational value from the dynamic interaction between these two “out of economy” population groups. OUTCOMES KEY PRODUCT RESULTS: 1. Online interactive website: https://sites.google.com/view/plan4neet/home?authuser=0 2. Mobile application:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details id=appinventor.ai_Blucianor89.PLAN_def&fbclid=IwAR0gq84Iz57k3cgfG4ZBF658afRzDk3p2fBUBhqiAP60X3IsVvKALTT_f2o 3. E-LEARNING is the added value of PLAN as it is available through the website. Interested youth can easily be enrolled, follow the training, be monitored by ARIS FORMAZIONE and get their certificate upon cempletition of the training. 4. The ""PLAN Cluster"" 5. EU Network of NEET Mentors - NEET Alliances PROCESS RESULTS (available in the project’s website and forum) A. Capacity building among mentors to drive social change for NEET videos B. Promoting entrepreneurial and social change mentality for NEET- THE MODELS C. When work life counts - practical advices and suggestions - Handouts D. Mentors-NEET working for the community - Handouts IMPACT AND LONGER BENEFITSYouth workers were trained to identify youth entrepreneurship needs among NEET and they haven educated NEET in an informal way, providing the skills required for their employment. The involved Mentors have built capacity among them to independently drive new initiatives in collaboration with NEET youth groups.Mentors were in addition trained to be mentors for other new Mentors and have built capacity to drive the future European network of Mentor-NEET.Mentors of NEET are part of PLAN EU ALLIANCES for new cooperations and for continuing the ethos of PLAN.The involved NEET qualified new learning:- involved in concrete activities, not brought back to classrooms- learnt to see their problems as possible challenges and acted upon- created entrepreneurial and taking initiative mentality- engaged in telling the stories in their prefered social media"