Creativity tools to empower NEET´s on entrepreneurship

Start: 01-05-2021 - End: 30-04-2023
Project Reference: 2020-1-IT03-KA227-YOU-020559
EU Grant: 61760 EUR
Programme: Erasmus+
Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
Action Type: Partnerships for Creativity

Project Summary

Non-formal education and learning has an important role to play in responding to youth unemployment. This is because it supports development by helping to transform young peoples’ potential, creativity, talents, initiative and social responsibility, through the acquisition of related knowledge, skills, attitudes and values.

The purpose of youth workers is not to provide jobs but engagement in the wide variety of personal and social development activities that it offers, helps young people to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are frequently said to be needed in the labour market.

In this way youth work contributes to closing the gap between the competences acquired by NEET´s and the needs of the labour market.

The COVID-19 crisis has turned from a global health crisis into a severe economic crisis. The policy responses taken to fight the pandemic have resulted in economic shutdown, leaving millions out of work, with young people, women and less-skilled people worst affected. That is why, this project responds to reality and offers the necessary creativity tools to our NEET to be able to find alternatives for employment and a good way to the development of necessary creaticity skills for life, either professionally or personally, and giving tangible options to develop projects that allow NEET to launch their business idea.

This Erasmus project aims to exchange good practice between partners and train youth workers to support, motivate and address better to NEETs’ needs, namely: the need to break the cycle of isolation/social exclusion; lack of motivation to become an active entrepreneur; lack of self-awareness of their passions/talents and, even, the low self-esteem and lack of key-skills that are required to take an initiative to create their own business. Therefore, the objectives of the project are:

Main objectives:

• To introduce the concept and potential benefits of social entrepreneurship to youths facing social exclusion due to low skills and unemployment (NEETs).
• To map and collect information on NEETs situation along with examples of best practices of young entrepreneurs to create a Ebook.
• To promote the exchange of good practices among partners on social entrepreneurship , strengthening cross-cooperation and a multidisciplinary approach.
• To professionalize and competence development of youth workers, supporting the acquisition of skills through non-formal and informal educational, to train and guidance NEETs with regard to the necessary skills NEET need in order to compete effectively in the business environment.
• To support labour market inclusion of European youth not in employment, education or training (NEETs) through a training path that gives knowledge and new creativity entrepreneurial skills.
• To provide entities with creativity tools and methods to involve NEET´s on social entrepreneurship.
• To foster quality improvements in youth work, in particular through enhanced cooperation between entities in the youth field and other stakeholders.
• To raising awareness and motivate the NEETs about entrepreneurship through local awareness activities.

Target group:

• - Entities
• - Youth workers
• - (NEET) youths

Activities:

• 4 transnational Project meetings
• 1 Short staff training course C1
• 5 Workshops focus on NEET and entrepreneurship
• 1 Ebook of good practice young entrepreneurs
• 5 Local campaign for dissemination and awareness.

Target Group of the Project:

Coordinator:

• COMUNE DI POLPENAZZE DEL GARDA - Italy

Partners:

• Educator, spolek - Czechia
• Asociación USIT - Spain
• Arte e Cultura Sociale - Italy
• ANAPTIXIAKO KENTRO THESSALIAS - Greece

Paths of Inclusion in Youth Employability

Start: 01-03-2020 - End: 28-02-2022
Project Reference: 2019-3-EL02-KA105-005354
EU Grant: 38330 EUR
Programme: Erasmus+
Key Action: Learning Mobility of Individuals
Action Type: Youth mobility

Project Summary

With this project, we plan to boost employability across Europe and help young people enter the market more easily. In a Europe where million of people suffer from unemployment and on the other side million of job vacancies in multiple industries, it is very important to equip our youth with the ability to search for a job, apply to the most suitable one for them and successfully enter the market. Our training, courses and activities are destined to direct correctly youth workers and leaders in order to become more efficient in their daily work and bring innovation to their own projects.

Overall, our objectives can be described as following:

• Enhance participants’ competences on career guidance, counseling, orientation, and coaching with practical tools.
• Explore and map platforms, portals, strategies and websites for European job opportunities and the ways to use them to enhance active job search of young people.
• Develop a network of youth workers and leaders among European Union promote best practices, challenges, ideas, obstacles and policies related with youth employability in Europe.
• Share and create efficient and creative models for CV creation and undertaking of job interviews.
• Empower the role of the Erasmus + and Non Formal Education as tools to boost the employability and labor market awareness of youngsters in European Union and not only.

Activities

We have planned a variety of activities and we mention them below with further details:

• Day 1: DURING THE DAY- Arrival of participants and ice breakers to create a friendly atmosphere. Presentation of the training course EVENING - Welcome Evening.
• Day 2:MORNING - Presentation of the project, staff and program. Expectations, Fears and Contribution. Feedback by the trainers and setting up of ground rules. Team building activities, such as "crossing the river". Debriefing by the trainers. AFTERNOON - Formal, non-formal and informal education,features and differences, uses for personal and professional development. Youthpass: work on the key competences in groups. Presentation,feedback, and discussion on other certification methods and best practices for recognition of NFE. Daily Reflection EVENING - NGO Fair,presentations and time for networking.
• Day 3: MORNING - Employment and employability: group work, definition and presentations with creative methods (art, collage, drawing). Points of view of most relevant European institutions and agencies from the trainers. Presentation of top Soft Skills for the labor market (Communication; Time Management; Languages; etc.) with creative, interactive methods (simulations, games, role plays).Discussion on recognition and support young people in succeeding in this. AFTERNOON - Myths and false beliefs in different societies about “good”and “decent” jobs. Self Reflection, then "Fishbowl" discussion. Presentation by trainers identifying common beliefs and ways for youth to overcome them. How to reach our goals. Practical examples, working of participants on their own and in pairs, finding together new paths. Debriefing and feedback, models for goal setting, monitoring, and motivational tools. EVENING – Intercultural evening: creative presentation of each country (music,quiz, games).
• Day 4: MORNING - Local realities on youth unemployment, statistics, facts, policies and strategies. Preparation and presentations by national groups. We will collect the results of this session to produce an online publication. AFTERNOON - Unemployment in Europe. Quiz to discover more about the European Labor Market. Websites to show statistics and facts, and tools for active job search in Europe. Programs and EU strategies for employability (EyE, Eures, Ploteus, Vet mobility, Europe 2020, Youth Guarantee, New Skills for New Jobs, Youth Employment Initiative, etc.) Daily Reflection EVENING – Mid-Term Evaluation
• Day 5: MORNING - Visit to the municipality Round table on policies for youth employability and presentation of best practices. Q&A session. Visit to Meteora a monument of UNESCO World Heritage that will be visited from the group of participants in order to promote interculturalism among participating countries and also to provide information about Greek culture.AFTERNOON - CV building, tips and tricks, differences in Europe, presentation of formats and creative examples. Practical work on alternative CVs (video; ppt; artistic; Linkedin) Daily reflection EVENING - Movie night on employment and discussion.
• Day 6: MORNING – Do's and Dont 's for Job Interviews. Working in groups. Summarizing and feedback by trainers. External Speakers: economist and entrepreneur. Another perspective on selecting candidates. AFTERNOON - Job Interview Simulation., preparation and implementation with the guests. Comments from the group and from the experts, suggestions and tips. Daily reflection EVENING - World Cafè to discuss topics of interest.
• Day 7: MORNING - Presentation of Erasmus plus, focusing on the youth chapter. Video examples. Q&A. Working in groups for designing of new projects' ideas. Presentations and feedback by trainers. AFTERNOON - Discussion and preparation of dissemination of results. Youthpass finalization, singularly and in groups. EVENING - Farewell party. The day after, we'll have the final evaluation, closing ceremony, and departures of participants. We have include a variety of countries in the project, as we want to "internationalize" its impact and promote conversation and further cooperation. Our participants will be youth workers and leaders whose their everyday work include young people's employability problems and common challenges, like create a good CV, be ready for an interview and find a decent job. They will be over 18 years old and will already have an experience on how to deal with young people in need. Every partner country, after taking into consideration the aforementioned criteria, will select from its candidates the most suitable and promised ones.

With all these said, the number of participants of every country will be as following:

• Greece: 3 participants
• Turkey: 3 participants
• Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: 3 participants
• Romania: 3 participants
• Iceland: 3 participants
• Netherlands: 3 participants
• Spain: 3 participants
• Italy: 3 participants
• Sweden: 3 participants

Impact

First of all, we foresee to make our participants better on dealing with unemployment of young people. This is our primary goal, as crushing unemployment is the main aim of this project. The participants will develop their professional as well as their personal profile, expand their knowledge, acquire new and innovative ideas to implement in their daily work and learn how to better approach young people in need and become their mentors in their way to stabilize their life and find a job that keeps them satisfied.

Secondly, we foresee to develop the partner organizations and improve their work and their fame in the field of combating unemployment. The participants involved will become great assets for the partners and will definitely bring value to them. New projects will be implemented and new ideas will be developed. Also, our partners will make new contacts across Europe and will discuss new collaborations in the field of Erasmus + and beyond. All these, make an important opportunity for the partner organizations that wouldn't have the chance to grab it alternatively.

Thirdly, young people that are in need will, also, get benefited. Those people that are finding it difficult to get a job and they get challenges everyday, need help in order to effectively focus in their goal and bring their fears to an end. After the project, participants will be more equipped and ready provide any kind of support to young people and guide them to this path of job hunting. Through all the activities and the dissemination planned, we aim to make a small but important change in the field of young unemployment and bring our societies a step forward.

Target Group of the Project:

Coordinator:

• ANAPTIXIAKO KENTRO THESSALIAS - Greece

Partners:

• ASOCIATIA PENTRU DEZVOLTARE SI CULTURA MURES - Romania
• ASOCIACION CULTURAL Y DEPORTIVA LAHOYA - Spain
• SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS AND SOCIAL INNOVATION CENTER SKOPJE - North Macedonia
• FOXPOPULI - Sweden
• MEZITLI ILCE TARIM VE ORMAN MUDURLUGU - Turkey
• CENTRO INTERNAZIONALE PER LA PROMOZIONE DELL'EDUCAZIONE E LO SVILUPPO ASSOCIAZIONE - Italy
• Stichting Drawing to Health - Netherlands
• KREFJANDI FELAG UM RANNSOKNA OG NYSKOPUNARSAMSTARF - Iceland

YEP! Youth Enterprises and Public sector for a sustainable society

Start: 01-02-2018 - End: 31-07-2019
Project Reference: 2017-3-TR01-KA205-048396
EU Grant: 95190 EUR
Programme: Erasmus+
Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
Action Type: Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Summary

“YEP! Youth Enterprises and Public sector for a sustainable society” is a “Partnership” project under the Key Action 2 of the ERASMUS + programme. It will be realized in Italy, Turkey, Greece and Slovakia and it will involve at least 1000 youngsters.

It aims at encouraging the cooperation among the 3 basic sectors of the society (private sector, public sector and civil society) to promote its sustainable development as a whole.

It is based on the idea that the implementation of socially responsible actions (as foreseen by the corporate and social responsibility (CSR) and social entrepreneurship (SE) concepts can help to develop positive synergies leading to the establishment of sustainable partnerships between the private sector, the public sector and the civil society.

As a continuum, these partnerships will lead to the creation of new opportunities for personal and professional development of young people facilitating their entrance in the labour market and fostering youth employability.

The project foresees a series of activities that will contribute to reinforce the knowledge about CSR and SE among the target groups of the project in the 4 selected countries.

At the same time different activities for youth empowerment will be organized at local and international level. In this frame youth workers and young people directly involved will gain competences, ability and authority to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and to be of guidance for other individuals and/or organizations. The activities implemented at local level will be leaded and managed by the selected youngsters that would have been trained beforehand.

The meaning and importance of “cooperating” will be emphasized also by a phase of the project when, during the implementation of one of the local activities, a selected group of youth from each of the countries involved will cooperate in each country of the partnership for researching, analysing and collecting data on CRS and SE creating the content of the outputs of the Project:

1) Social entrepreneurship and corporate responsible map: mapping CSR and SE in our countries to provide an overview of the current level of socially responsible conducts and related activities of the private and public sector in our countries

2) Toolkit for social entrepreneurship

3) Report on CSR effectiveness

4) Booklet about possible policies and strategies for SE and CSR that can be undertaken in the future.

The project will last 18 months from 1st October 2016 to 31st August 2017.

The planned activities – to be implemented in Istanbul (Turkey), Trikkala (Greece), Cagliari (Italy) and Nitra (Slovakia) – will actively involve a variety of partners coming from different sectors, such as regional authorities, municipalities, training institutions, civil society actors and enterprises. The stakeholders will be mainly involved in the youth work or working under CSR and SE criteria. The project wants to involve directly over 400 young people in the 4 countries and thanks to the multiplier effect we aim at involving over 1000 youth.

Website:

Coordinator:

• Turk Girisim ve Is Dunyasi Konfederasyonu - TURKEY

Partners:

• ANAPTIXIAKO KENTRO THESSALIAS - GREECE
• TDM 2000 - ITALY
• SOCIAL INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION OF SLOVAKIA - SLOVAKIA
• Tera Ankara Musavirlik Mimarlik Muhendislik Taahhut Ticaret Ltd Sti - TURKEY

YOUNG LEADERS INTERNATIONAL MEETING

Start: 02-01-2017 - End: 01-01-2019 Project Reference: 2016-3-IT03-KA347-009604 EU Grant: 21260 EUR Programme: Erasmus+ Key Action: Support for policy reform Action Type: Dialogue between young people and policy makers

Project Summary

The YOUNG LEADERS INTERNATIONAL MEETING project, identifying participation as one of the areas of intervention, aimed to support the participation of young people in representative democracy and civil society, and to support the involvement and participation of young people and youth organizations in the development, implementation and evaluation of policies through the structured dialogue tool.

One of the specific objectives was to devise or modify national laws that improve the juvenile condition.

SOS Europe, together with all the partners involved, using the structured dialogue as a tool for a better cooperation in the field of youth aimed at involving more and more young people, especially those with less opportunity, in the development of EU policies.

The thematic priority of our project was: "To allow all young people to participate in a heterogeneous, connected and inclusive Europe - Ready for life, ready for society".

With this project we wanted to give the opportunity to many young people and adults to get in touch with the organizations involved in the promotion of active citizenship and in the improvement of policies in favor of young people.

The project involved 48 young people plus 12 political decision makers or experts in the field of youth policies, for a total of 60 participants (including 28 with fewer opportunities) from 12 different countries. The project included a transnational meeting that took place in Ciampino from 27 to 31 October 2017 organized by SOS Europe in collaboration with all the partners. The activities were carried out with the most modern non-formal European methodologies of comparison such as Open Space Technology (OST), Focused Conversation, Future Search Conference and European Structured Dialogue (DSE).

The content and activity plan are based on the SALTO publication as "Working on Work for All" and "InclusionthroughEmployability". Each participant will then receive the YouthPass certificate. In order to share and disseminate the results of the project outside of SOS EUROPA and Italy and to promote the role of the Erasmus + program, a complete and complex dissemination plan has been implemented.

AFTER MEETING we have achieved the following results:

• the drafting of 12 projects to introduce a new law in favor of young people
• More 40% of participants in the next 8 months since the end of the meeting participated in other international mobility projects (including EVS).
• All partners continued to work together in future projects
• We presented the second edition of Young Leaders.

Coordinator:

• ASSOCIAZIONE SOS EUROPA - ITALY

Partners:

• ANAPTIXIAKO KENTRO THESSALIAS - GREECE
• MOVE! Murcia - SPAIN
• MLADIINFO SLOVENSKO - SLOVAKIA
• Foundation for Society - LATVIA
• Association for Cultural, Economic, Heuristic and Linguistic Cooperation - BULGARIA
• Psientífica - Associação para a promoção e desenvolvimento social - PORTUGAL
• Fundacja Global Wave - POLAND
• Asociatia Tinerilor Cu Initiativa Civica - ROMANIA
• EUROKALLISKIVID - ESTONIA
• Symrnes Ogretmen Akademisi - TURKEY
• Subtiluship C.I.C. - UNITED KINGDOM

The Quality Mark in Youth Work

Start: 01-10-2016 - End: 31-05-2017
Project Reference: 2016-2-EL02-KA105-002591
EU Grant: 24983 EUR
Programme: Erasmus+
Key Action: Learning Mobility of Individuals
Action Type: Youth mobility

Project Summary

"The Quality Mark in Youth Work" is a mobility project that will take place in Trikala, Greece, from 6th to 13th December 2016 and It will bring together 31 participants from EU countries and one non EU, in particular from: Malta, Slovenia, Spain, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Greece, Romania, Poland and Turkey. It aims at combining new aspects in managing youth organisations by using coaching techniques as a methodology. The project wants to support youth workers and offer them theoretical and practical tools to work with and use when training young people. Therefore, the main objectives of the project are following: - sharing experiences that help to improve organisation management;- identify all fundamentals that influence organisation management , project managemet i, decision making process; - hand over competences to the participants and stimulate a new way of thinking regarding management of youth organisation and realise quality projects in the field of young people ;- establish a partnership with all partner involved ;- create a booklet regarding organisation management in youth organisation ; - support quality and innovative projects that match needs of young people; - promote projects that foster partecipation and active citizenship of young people ;- boost intercultural dialogue;-empower new generation of facilitators and youth workers. The methodology and type of activities will be mainly related to non formal education, coaching, self-expression, simulation games, peer to peer, learning by doing and experimental learning. The important part is that participants are creating the outcome by themselves through their participation and involvement. The result we aim to achieve is to put developed practice and work-forms into book which will be published and spread through project partners and other networks. Once the training is over, participants will implement activities in their own communities and share the information acquired during the course. The ultimate goal of the project is to challenge the traditional ways to manage youth organisation while combining various approaches and bring together different stakeholders. In this way, we strongly believe that we can propose innovative work-forms for facilitators and fellow trainers which can be used in organisation management.

Website: www.facebook.com/groups/977137749052535/

Coordinator:

• ANAPTIXIAKO KENTRO THESSALIAS - GREECE

Partners:

• CONSILIUM DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING LTD - UNITED KINGDOM
• Biderbost, Boscán & Rochin - SPAIN
• ISTANBUL VALILIGI - TURKEY
• ZAVOD ROKA, Zavod za projektni management, Cernelavci - SLOVENIA
• EU labour rights - NETHERLANDS
• CLUSTERUL DE ENERGII SUSTENABILE DIN ROMANIA ROSENC/ROMANIAN SUSTAINABLE ENERGY CLUSTER ROSENC ASOCIATIE - ROMANIA
• PRISMS - MALTA
• STOWARZYSZENIE MOJE MARZENIA SPELNIAJA SIE - POLAND