PROJECTS List

RISE aims to develop methodologies and services to prevent and combat the risks of digitalisation, particularly social media exposure, in order to create a framework in which young people feel safe in online communities. RISE addresses the following needs:

• Lack or limited knowledge of the underlying

•  risks and threats of social networks of young people

• Lack of knowledge of the risks of social media, especially in the

•  COVID-19 era Need to address information overload and misinformation, fake news spread, cyber propaganda etc.

• Need to address the vulnerability of young people to social media • Need to educate and train youth workers and youth

•  trainers to address social media risks of young people for professional use.

• Need to increase the quality of relevant

•  youth education learning with regards to social networks.

The project seeks to address digital transformation in the post-COVID-19 age by concentrating on the strength of social networks during the epidemic. RISE focuses on prevention, identification, mitigation, and tools. The project's ultimate goal is to address digital change to develop young people's online vigilance in partner countries.

The ultimate objective of the project is to foster social inclusion of migrants (including refugees, asylum seekers, TCNs, and people under subsidiary protection) in the partner countries, irrespective of racial and ethnic identity, gender, age, and sexual orientation. The project’s goal is to create a framework where migrants feel welcome and embraced in the host country and at the same time to fight racism, xenophobia, and discrimination against them. STAGE aims to foster social inclusion of migrants and their family members in their host countries, through establishing a three-way social inclusion approach, which includes the following sub-objectives: 1. A mobile App (and online version of the App) for migrants aiming to support language learning, access to information, and positive interactions to build network (PR2). 2. An interactive Map (which will be a part of the App and online version) for the public, aiming to share stories and routes of migrants, which will build an audience and promote understanding among locals and migrants (PR2). 3. A Capacity Building programme (OER/PR3) for Mentor and Adult TCN trainers, and a Joint Staff Training (C1) for NGO volunteers, adult education staff, and organisation staff, aiming to help them to build capacity when dealing with migrants and especially for mentoring them and/or training them; and develop their competences to improve the effectiveness of adult education on migration.

Digital Theatre supports theatre and its people – both professionals and non-professionals – emphasizing on the enhancement of their digital skills and the digital transition of their work in the post-Covid era. Digital Theatre will support theatre people by: 

• developing a guide & training program with best practices for creating and broadcasting a digital play from start to finish

• getting them involved in the development of a theatrical play using new methodologies content and tools

• digitalizing the learning material and creating a Digital Theatre Resource Platform to help theatre people develop their digital skills and competencies.

Youth Regained - Reframing attitudes of minors and youth at  risk of offending / re-offending through training is funded through  Erasmus+ for the years 2022 to 2024 and aims to assess the key  competences and life-skills that child offenders lack, and if acquired,  their employability success rate would be considerably increased; and  design and develop a unique training program/e-course providing soft  skills for child offenders, for the benefit of ex-convicted child  offenders, trainers, CSOs, psychologists, and social workers.

The consortium is made up of representatives from Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania and Spain and is coordinated by Centrul Pentru Promovarea Invatarii Permanente Timisoara Asociatia (CPIP) from Romania.

INTERACTed is a project which aims to support primary school educators toward integration of interactive digital narratives (IDN) to develop their students' socio-emotional intelligence and empathy, enabling them to deliver high quality inclusive digital education. IDN refers to narrative in digital media that changes according to user input (Ferri et al., 2015). 

The scope of INTERACTed is to employ Cognitive-Motivational-Emotive Theory and Emotion-Driven, Interactive Digital Storytelling, to support school-teachers to learn how to provide playful and engaging social emotional learning (SEL), to support children affected by COVID-19 disruption.

The project e-Entrepreneur was created with the main objective of training current and future e-entrepreneurs to incorporate e-business and cloud solutions into their own practices to achieve the common European development goal lar an intelligent and integrative growth based on knowledge and innovation and reap the benefits of a digital single market.

The specific goals of this project are:

• Expand dissemination and awareness of the use of cloud-based software among at least 1000 current or potential entrepreneurs

• Enrich training offers of partners and increase the quality of adult education by developing innovative mixed curriculum and educational materials that meet their needs

• Increase key digital entrepreneurship competition of at least 50 entrepreneurs from vulnerable groups and at least 50 entrepreneurs by providing training in all partner countries

• Strengthen the capabilities of partners to introduce digitization in education through the implementation of a common learning management system

Media literacy is directly co-related with the democratisation of education and culture. There is no full democracy without cultural empowerment, that is, a widespread, creative and critical, structuring literacy. This would require an enormous cultural and educational effort, a transformation of mindsets that might seem whelmingly vast and yet, it is utterly necessary. Since media literacy is a matter of inclusion and citizenship in the contemporary information society, the MEDIA4LL project aims to promote the development of digital and media literacy skills in an embedded learning perspective, while supporting adult and community educators, and professionals from the arts and culture sectors in the development of media literacy skills of low-skilled adults and marginalised communities through media-based methodologies in a participatory community approach.

The Rural Women’s Empowerment through GREen Social ENtrepreneurship – WE GREEN project addresses the need for transforming the EU economy into a green one and developing new skills required for both green jobs and green entrepreneurship in the rural area, using digitalization and social economy models.

Specific objectives:

• Build awareness in the rural areas about women and green entrepreneurship as vehicles for the empowerment of local communities.

• Build the capacities of formal & non-formal educators on green social entrepreneurship for women in rural areas.

• Design and implement local programmes for empowering women in rural communities through green social entrepreneurship.

• Develop guidelines for stakeholders at local, national and European levels about building and enabling an environment for women’s entrepreneurship in the rural communities.

The aims of the project: Let’s Get Outside Now: Be, Learn, Grow Outdoors – GrowLearnOut(GLOW) are; to search the needs, develop material, train teachers, some of whom shall become mentors and ambassadors of outdoor education, and develop activities and curricula. Through this we will increase understanding of the interconnection of learning and meaningful experiences, strengthen children’s learning and connection with nature, enhance collaboration between schools across Europe, support teachers and schools through the developed methodology, networking and material that will also contribute to the project’s sustainability.  Project GLOW is a collaborative effort involving partners from Denmark and Norway, where outdoor learning is already established, and partners from Cyprus, Slovakia, Portugal, and the Republic of North Macedonia, where this approach is less common.

The Flourish Centers project encourages community collaboration through culture. The cultural element acts as a bridge between communities and a strength for intergenerational learning. The activities of this project will take on a mixed format and encourage youth ages 18-30 to work collaboratively with disadvantaged older adults over 65 years old to establish and record the process of creating a cultural heritage product. This will promote an environment of knowledge and skill exchange, active cultural participation active cultural participation, and digital capacity building in a framework of cooperation and meaningful learning, which is the foundation for a less divided and exclusionary society.

The main aim of the project is to develop, to enhance and strengthen the competencies, skills and qualifications of young volunteer coordinators with online training and mobile assessment. This aim is in alignment with the four main topics of youth volunteering defined by the EC in EYV 2011 Alliance:  

1. Value and recognition of youth volunteering  

2. Quality of youth volunteering and infrastructure for youth volunteering coordination  

3. Legal framework for youth volunteering  

4. Employee volunteering 

The objectives of the T4C project are:

• Recognise and support the contribution of volunteers and highlight the potential for youth volunteering.

• Support the continued gathering of good practice recognition tools around Europe.

• Standardise the outcomes of recognition tools and other opportunities to gain supplementary European Credits at universities through volunteering.

• Develop in partnership with other stakeholders national standards for measurement of personal competencies gained through volunteering.

• Raise awareness of the contribution that employees engaged in volunteering can make.

• Ensure that the methods of recognition continue to reflect volunteers’ needs.

• Develop systems to recognize the knowledge, skills, and competencies acquired through volunteering.

• Establish systems of volunteer management that also develop and sustain a culture of recognition within the organization.

The SMELT project aims to face the paradox of business sectors experiencing workforce shortage and the high number of vulnerable people unemployed, by supporting marginalized people in acquiring and developing key competences strategical for the labour market.

Marginalization, is often due to a lack of adequate education and/or specific technical skills, which contribute to cut off those people from the labour market and, as a consequence, exacerbates their social isolation and marginalisation. Smelt is willing to break this vicious cycle of inequality and isolation, promoting inclusion and empowerment!

According to the European Commission, climate change and environmental deterioration threaten Europe and the world's future. Europe needs a new growth plan to become a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy. The European Commission developed a plan to improve resource efficiency by moving to a clean, circular economy, restore biodiversity, and reduce pollution. EU GREEN DEAL is this road map. This shift isn't just about central policies and proposals. Local governments regulate, care for, and provide local orientation under the EU Green Deal. Local public officers and environmental advisers must be prepared to make solid environmental judgments, improve local green action, and inspire communities to adopt eco-conscious behaviours. This project is needed because local governments struggle to implement the Green Deal. Many public officers or professionals responsible for environmental departments are promoted to 'higher' jobs throughout their careers, but may not have the time or availability to update their expertise on fast changing environmental goals, concerns, rules, and solutions.

The project's main aim is to train decision-makers, public officers, and consultants at the local governance level in order to implement the European Green Deal and improve their overall environmental performance.

The "LOCAL-Y-MPACT" project focuses on collaboration between municipalities, local youth organisations, and social businesses to improve social inclusion and social integration in post-COVID19 regional and local communities. The initiative gives an opportunity to eliminate social, cultural, and economic isolation in municipalities in Lithuania, Cyprus, Latvia, Sweden, and Portugal. It has been a significant topic for all of the project's partner organisations, as each of the partners has been advancing this topic in their own nations in some form over the last few years.

''ICE'' is an Erasmus+ project that emerged from the need to recreate “learning communities for adults” on Civic practices and themes. The grass roots associations and cultural centres for adults located throughout Italy, Spain, Austria, Cyprus and Germany, are historic meeting places for learning centres united by the themes of legality, social inclusion and democratic growth.

The ICE project aims to enhance the learning centres for adults by promoting new activities, in the contents and methods to be used, starting from civic and participatory themes with informal, innovative and inclusive activities. It is proposed to: 1- develop a learning MODEL for adults on Civic Education issues. 2-use INFORMAL and interactive learning methodologies with and for the community. 3-create OERs multilingual civic education online training modules on basic skills of the macro themes of Justice, Environment, Health and Economy.

The project aims to develop an innovative model for transforming user expertise into acknowledged skills for the labour market. The project team will create robust methods for converting lived experiences into measurable, transferable and validated areas of expertise, with a particular focus on the topic of web accessibility.

In order to achieve this objective, the project team will identify best practices, develop a methodological toolkit and identify typologies of user expertise. They will also develop a model course in web accessibility that is aimed at persons with disabilities. The overarching objective is to foster inclusion and opportunity for persons with disabilities through the provision of an innovative framework for educational programmes that draws upon personal skills and experiences. The framework will be developed so that it can be adapted to various societal, cultural and linguistic contexts.

These activities and results will be developed according to a co-creation methodology. The project partners will contribute to all activities and learn from each other in the process, and each activity will build on the results of previous activities. In addition, key target audiences – persons with disabilities, Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers and public sector bodies – will be actively involved.

The RevitaLESE (Revitalising EU Long Established Social Economy Organisations)  Project, is an Erasmus+ funded initiative set to give the European social economy sector a significant boost, maximize its impact, and increase its overall visibility and recognition as a key contributor to the 2020 Agenda.  

Studies of ongoing training needs have begun within the project’s consortium and significant gaps in the current training offerings available to social economy organisations have already been identified, such as ongoing support beyond the start-up phase. The project will co-create and valorise an in-depth and innovative training package to tactfully address such issues. The RevitaLESE training package which will be released and offered free of charge in Europe. Other highlights will include the establishment of a Europe wide information and networking hub specifically for established social economy organisations, featuring case studies, podcasts, videos, an interactive map of the RevitaLESE EU network including unlimited access to training and resources.  

The vision of project “Youth Escape COVID” is: to create a highly innovative non-formal educational method & tool-using culture as a foundation in this endeavor, while the scope of the project is: to combat the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth in Europe in a creative and innovative way.

Through our project proposal we contribute to the development of youth work tools that can address a multitude of issues (i.e., employment, active participation, foster creativity, sustainable development, social inclusion through the arts, enhance digital skills, foster entrepreneurship, boost creative domains). There have been some positive initiatives in offering digital youth work and increasing the use of digital tools in working with young people, but this has had its limitations due to: IT tools availability, knowledge of practitioners in youth work. However, the majority of young people, including disadvantaged young people problems have deepened, leaving many to face their own issues related to social exclusion, discrimination, and a redefinition of social and safety nets. There are also questions about changing relationships and behavior, changing perspectives on connection to friends and community, impact on well-being and mental health, employment, participation, activism, youth organizations, and many other areas of young people’s lives according to EU-Council of Europe.

The DJ project – Digital Job Onboarding - directly addresses digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity, through operating at the intersection of digital divide and digital labour market transformation and the needs of unemployed young people.

Also, it overlaps with the vulnerable group of NEETs (young people neither in employment nor in education and training) and other young people at risk of marginalisation.

DJ also addresses the priority #Environment and fight against climate change through a training programme for work-related sustainability innovation projects. 

With the COVID‐19 pandemic accelerating the digital transition, the digital skills gap became a key determinant in the employability of young people and their ability to seize the opportunities stemming from this transition. Targeted upskilling helps young people respond to the growing demand for digital skills and addresses the digital divide.” (EC 2020). DJ’s goal is to help young people who have been left behind during the pandemic to activate their career potential with a special focus on new forms of digital working – an important step to reduce youth unemployment rate, which is twice as high as the general unemployment rate in the EU. 

The Digital HEIghts project aims to promote a sustainable pathway for transforming assessment in Higher Education, through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity. To this goal, the partnership will make use of the DigCompEdu framework for higher education, the Digital Action Plan, the HEInnovate self-assessment tool and the European Education Area policy making and strategies. Within the Digital HEIghts project the aims are to:

• Support the digital upskilling of faculty members within the field of digital assessment;

• Develop integrated learning material in the field of digital assessment that will support faculty members/academics and researchers;

• Provide academics with the opportunity to expand their network and practice mentoring through the use of an interactive map on the E-Learning platform of the project. The project is implemented in Cyprus, Germany, Austria, Portugal and Italy between 2022-2024.