<< Background >>Circus ACT main aim is to ease the transition into adulthood of youth at-risk of social exclusion by strengthening their key competences and basic skills. The youth will take part in local social circus workshops with the aim of enhancing their emotional, physical, and mental health, improving their physical literacy, personal development and social growth and thus, helping them take up an active role in society. Youth at-risk- with a rate of 25.1% in Europe-CY 23.2%, SL 12.5%, HU 21.4%, 22.1 %, FI 24.5%, EE 18.6% (Eurostat, 2019) are those who are less likely to transition successfully into adulthood. Success can include academic success, job readiness, and the ability to be financially independent. It can also refer to the ability to become a positive member of society by avoiding foul play. Youth at-risk have often been orphaned, abandoned, neglected or abused, and as a result, often struggle with low self-esteem, trust issues and anxiety.Social circus is an innovative approach based on the combination of circus arts and social-pedagogy which aims to assist personal development and boost self-esteem and social competence of at-risk youth through circus instruction and performance. In addition to teaching general social skills such as leadership and teamwork, social circus connects people who might otherwise be socially isolated and presents a novel method for engaging disadvantaged youth. Of course, we cannot overlook its physical benefits as well as the fact that it promotes the acquisition of new skills, which has been shown to carry profound neurological benefits. Finally, participation in social circus performances has been shown to boost confidence and increase resilience by providing a safe avenue for adolescents to test physical limits.While many of the benefits mentioned above can also be achieved through other artistic and athletic activities, what makes social circus unique is the non-competitive setting it provides, the constant learning of new skills and the intersection of physical activity and the arts. Circus also allows youth to test boundaries in an appropriate and safe environment. Just like the road to maturity is full of trial and error, circus requires young people to persist through a series of failures until they inevitably succeed. Thus, the integration of this unique set of skills learned through developmental circus arts programs is disposed to equip youth with the resilience they need to be successful adults. (CBLI report: The benefits of social circus)The partnership consists of either research and educational organisations, youth organisations or circus/social circus organisations. Therefore, they have experience in diverse topics including social inclusion and youth work. The project is developed as a response to the common interest of the partners, and of the general educational community, in tackling the problem of social exclusion among disadvantaged youngsters. They expect to find out WHY even though sufficient efforts have been made through the decades to tackle this problem at European and international level, these efforts do not solidly progress, leaving youth workers powerless. At the same time, through an exchange of good practices and ideas they will gain valuable knowledge and experiences which will not only contribute to the personal and professional development of their staff, but also to the creation of an innovative and comprehensive training package. More specifically, P2, P4 and P5 will complement the social circus training they already offer, while for the rest of the consortium the main needs that will be addressed is to manage to bring together the skills of such a diverse set of partners in creating new curricula and expanding their training offer.Additionally, the need to expand previous partnrs works (such as in the CIRCUS+ project,) and knowledge in similar fields will be addressed.<< Objectives >>What makes social circus unique is the non-competitive setting it provides, the constant learning of new skills and the intersection of physical activity and the arts. Circus also allows youth to test boundaries in an appropriate and safe environment. Just like the road to maturity is full of trial and error, circus requires young people to persist through a series of failures until they inevitably succeed. Thus, the integration of this unique set of skills learned through developmental circus arts programs is disposed to equip youth with the resilience they need to be successful adults. (CBLI report: The benefits of social circus)Finally, social circus can be a powerful tool for promoting positive and meaningful interactions between individuals who are prone to social isolation, such as youth-at-risk. Additionally, the preliminary needs assessment conducted by the partners has identified gaps in the competencies of youth workers working with youth-at-risk (see annex 1)Therefore, with target group youth workers and marginalized youth (at-risk of exclusion), we propose a project with the following objectives:To ease the transitioning of youth-at-risk into adulthoodto provide youth-at-risk with both tangible circus skills and with the opportunity to perform, thereby increasing social cohesion and self-esteem.To bring together young people who are prone to social exclusionTo enhance emotional, physical, and mental health of young people at risk of exclusion To improve physical literacy, personal development, and social growth of young people at-risk To create social change helping young individuals at-risk take up an active role in society.To develop an educational tool for youth workers to help them acquire theoretical and practical knowledge of social circus pedagogy and support them in planning and implementing social circus learning activities as tool to help youth-at-risk transition into adulthood<< Implementation >>Our intention is to work at the highest possible level of engagement, to respect participants' different expectations, the pace of working and needs and carry out activities that will lead to the achievement of the project objectives and delivery of the planned results in an all-inclusive manner. Tasks associated with the project are divided among partners as followed:1. Project management: It is very important for everything to be implemented on schedule and to define specific and measurable objectives for the project in general, as well for every phase and activity of the project. This presupposes that all partners involved in the project have a deep understanding of its aims, objectives, results, activities, and phases. From the very beginning of the project, management, quality monitoring and evaluation of the project activities will be assured through the guidance on the agreed Project Management Plan (P1), Evaluation and Quality Assurance Plan (P5), Dissemination Plan (P6) and Sustainability and Exploitation Plan (P7). All the materials will be developed with the contribution of all partners to establish a strong foundation. These Plans will clearly state and set the rules of the project, the obligations of the partners, the allocation of tasks and responsibilities, the processes of mitigating risks, and many other management actions for the partners to follow. 2. Physical (TPMs) and virtual communication(e-mails, online meetings) will contribute to an effective monitoring of the project's progress. To promote environmental sustainability, the number of TPMs will be kept to a low number.3. Project Results: The mission of the project is to develop a methodology and educational package based on social circus pedagogy that will be used as a tool by youth workers who work with youth at-risk, and who struggle with transitioning into adulthood. An integrated approach will be used to accomplish this task. The consortium will start with the partners conducting a needs analysis via an online survey questionnaire. Although a preliminary needs analysis has already been conducted during the writing of this proposal, the survey will investigate deeper the needs of both youth workers and the final beneficiaries- youth at-risk. The data from both analyses will serve the base for the development of R1: Social Circus Curriculum for youth workers, and at the same time, the e-handbook with the video tutorials (R2) will be created to supplement the training course. All developed PR will then be incorporated into the e-learning platform (R3) of the project, which will be not only the online training platform of the project, but also a network platform for youth/social workers. R3 will also incorporate an Open Badge system which will help validate the knowledge acquired through the training. 4. 1 blended LTTA: consisting of 6-hours online training (via R3) and a 8-day face-to-face training event for youth workers (C1) who will be trained on social circus pedagogy and on how to use it as a tool to help young people transition into adulthood. The online webinar will take place before the C1 mobility, and will prepare the participants for the on-site training course.After the training, the trained youth workers will conduct a number of local social circus workshops for youth at-risk (IO4). When possible, the workshops, will be delivered by experienced social circus practitioners in collaboration with the trained youth workers. In this way, the youth workers, with the guidance of experienced practitioners, will be able to implement and practice what they learnt directly on a group of young people. During the preparation of the workshops, if needed, youth workers will also be supported through additional virtual meetings with the social circus experts of the consortium.5.6 multiplier events to deliver “Circus ACT” workshops and promote the project, its PR among its target groups and stakeholders (E1-E6)<< Results >>“Circus ACT” aims to create innovative educational tools, for youth workers to help them acquire theoretical and practical knowledge of social circus pedagogy and support them in planning and implementing social circus learning activities for youth-at-risk.Because of this, the emotional, physical, and mental health of young people at risk of social exclusion will be enhanced, resulting in a smoother transition into adulthood. The different expertise of partners ensures both the quality of the tools to be designed but also the dissemination of the project to the target groups.The project outcomes are directly linked to the project results and activities:1. “Circus ACT” educational Package including 4 interconnected educational material: R1: Social circus curriculum for youth workers who have no previous experience in social circus. The training curriculum will be complemented by R2 an e-Handbook which will include Social Circus Video Tutorials. Finally, the training package will be available through an online platform (R3). The platform will feature an “Open badges” system which will be automatically linked with the assessment process of the courses for recognition and validation of the learning process. The platform will serve not only as an online training platform but also as a network platform for youth/social workers. During the social circus pilot workshops (R4), the partnership will pilot-test the developed package with a group of youth-at-risk, the final beneficiaries, and produce a report.2. 21 trained youth workers (3 from each partner organisation) who will acquire theoretical and practical knowledge of social circus pedagogy through a blended training, during which they are expected to learn how to plan and implement social circus learning activities for youth-at-risk. The blended training will consist of 6 hours online training, in the form of webinars, spread into 2 days- through IO3 and 8 days face-to-face training (C1) 3. at least 100 youth-at-risk across the 6 partner countries , will participate in the social circus workshops (R4)4. 6 multiplier events to promote the project, its results and its outcomes among youth workers, youth-at-risk and other stakeholders (social workers, social circus practitioners, circus professionals, NGOs, youth organisations, Universities, incubators, authorities, other stakeholders) (E1-E6) Other results of “Circus ACT” project will be:1. Staff and associates of the partner organizations (youth workers, educators, mentors, careers coaches, etc) will learn about the educational tools created within the project. Expected number: 402. Young people (including youth-at-risk) will participate in activities within the framework of the project or become aware of it through dissemination activities and events including circus workshops and multiplier events. Expected number: 1503. Increasing everyone’s awareness of social circus pedagogy and its benefits for young people, especially young people at risk. Social workers, youth workers, professionals, NGOs, youth organisations, Universities, incubators, authorities, other stakeholders, etc will visit the project’s website and platform which includes all the educational tools (R1, R2, R3), and become aware of the project. Expected number: 1000Moreover, the project is expected to help youth-at-risk:-transition into adulthood-increase their social cohesion and self-esteem - get together with other young people prone to social exclusion- improve their physical literacy, personal development, and social growth - improve their emotional, physical, and mental health -Empower them to create social change by taking up an active role in society- learn tangible circus skills Additionally, the project also foresees a set of project management, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation, and coordination results.