The main aim of the project „youthfolklore.com” is to empower organisations working with young people in the creative sector in sustaining in challenging times while using these times for increasing the quality of activities offered for youth by equipping them with adequate, innovative tools and providing training for them.We would like to reach the aim following the objectives below:1. To create sustainable cooperation between various organisations from the fields of folklore education, intercultural learning, non-formal education and creativity, which will be growing into a network of such organisations.2. To offer the space for sharing good practices related to the work of the creative sector in challenging times (i.e. Covid-19 pandemic) when regular working methods are excluded.3. To develop tools for strengthening competences of youth workers, instructors, educators working in the creative sector in the field of conflict resolution, intercultural learning, project management4. To promote usage of NFE among folklore groups in order to use the full potential of their impact on young people5. To strengthen the development of soft skills such as: creativity, communication, collaboration; their sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, intercultural learning among young people engaged in folklore groups6. To stimulate European awareness and empower youth to be successful innovators in their local environment using their creative approach, passion for expressing their own culture and open-mindness for other cultures.The main result of the project will be Youthfolklore.com – website which creates not only an online space for learning, inspiration and networking but also encourages for live initiatives whenever it is possible. The project and its main outcome–online platform youthfolklore.com serves both: young people and professionals working with them associated in various organisations such as folklore bands and ensembles, dance groups, cultural organisations, people simply passionate about world folklore. It will be full of inspirational stories, tips and guidelines, workshop scenarios and resources of non-formal activities.In order to achieve the aim and objectives and to create the Intelectual Output, we planned the following activities in the project:-3 Transnational Project Meetings in order to manage the project-Training course on creating audiovisual materials, promoting and disseminating of results for 20 participants coming from 5 countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy and Hungary)-Training course on the usage of non-formal education methods (NFE) among folklore groups for 20 participants coming from 5 countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy and Hungary)-Blended Mobility of Young People “Let’s folk!” for 30 participants coming from 5 countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy and Hungary)All of the activities in the project will be inspired in the principles of NFE (participant-centred approach, flexibility of the training program, group as a mutual learning resource, trainers as facilitators of the learning process, holistic approach) and experiential learning.Our project proposal strongly links with Erasmus + Strategic Partnership in response to COVID-19 situation: it helps young generations and professionals working in the cultural sector of folklore to acquire skills and competences, including digital competences, boost quality, innovation and recognition of youth work (…). Our project can potentially have a contribution to job creations inspiring youth by success stories of folklore-inspired businesses and initiatives published on our website. It promotes a sense of entrepreneurship and initiative by encouraging youth groups for applying for grants and funds by themselves. Last but not least, thanks to the website created and translated into several languages, which will serve as a networking platform, but also the source of knowledge, it strongly fosters participatory and intercultural dialogue approaches between organisations representing non-formal education sector and organisations in the cultural sectors (such as folklore ensembles and bands, but not only). It was important for us to carry out this project in international partnership in order to facilitate European awareness, spot common challenges, compare solutions and insights and share as various good practices as possible.

<< Background >>2020 marked the beginning of unprecedented health, economic, social and cultural crises caused by the spread of COVID-19 through Europe and the whole world. The situation that has arisen placed new challenges in the socio-economic and cultural sectors. The economic recession has put unemployment rates high. The consequences of the lockdowns across Europe have created gaps in the educational and training of young people and placed significant obstacles to their entry into the labour market. However, creative minds of young people and entrepreneurs have found ways to cope with the current situation and create positive value out of it.The project Youth Entrepreneurs in Time of Crisis (YETC) aims to facilitate youth activism and foster an entrepreneurial mindset through networking, sharing best practices and developing innovative NIFL tools. The project results will help young people overcome the uncertainty caused by the unstable socio-economic situation across Europe and create a positive value by filling the gaps and promoting new entrepreneurial endeavours. The YETC project addresses the needs of young people and youth workers in finding realisation of their creative ideas and initiatives through entrepreneurship and active participation.The partners will conduct a survey among young people on their current needs and skills mismatches in entrepreneurship and youth activism. Based on the survey and desk research on national and EU policies for supporting youth entrepreneurship, the partners will produce an action plan for entrepreneurial skills and learning.The project will collect 50 best practices in four sectors: social, cultural, digital and green (environmental). Through creating an Inspirational guide and training toolkit, youth workers will be equipped with the necessary skills and competences to support other young people in promoting entrepreneurship, their sense of initiative and creative learning. Under the project, an online course for entrepreneurship will be produced to assist young people. The YETC project also contributes to creating a positive value by mobilising young people and providing understanding and opportunities for new entrepreneurship initiatives and participation. The participants will be inspired to help communities and peers committed to embedding an entrepreneurial mindset and new innovative initiatives aimed at active participation and fostering a sense of unity and solidarity in overcoming the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.The main target groups are young people aged 18-30, youth workers and young people with fewer opportunities and NEETs, regardless of their origins, social status, experience, and youth organisations, which are interested in the topic of entrepreneurship and provide (or want to provide) training and services for stimulating youth activism and an entrepreneurial mindset among their networks of young people.YETC foresees the direct involvement of at least 120 young people in the events in which NFIL methods of training will be used and more than 2000 users of the project results. YETC unites six NGOs, working with young people from Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, North Macedonia, Italy and Poland. The European dimension of YETC will allow the transfer of best practices between youth organisations in different counties and promote entrepreneurial thinking, youth activism, social inclusion, tolerance and mutual understanding among young people with different cultural and social backgrounds.The expected tangible results include countries' snapshots and action plan, Inspirational best practices guide along with database (50 best practices) and video collection (of 8 best practices), an online course and training toolkit on entrepreneurship and youth activism in times of crisis, the implementation of Bootcamp for entrepreneurship skills for youth workers and 6 local training sessions with young people.<< Objectives >>In a broader sense, the project Young Entrepreneurs in Times of Crisis aims at creating opportunities and synergies for young people to initiate entrepreneurial activities and be active in their communities. Thus, the general objective of YETC is to facilitate youth activism and entrepreneurship through networking, sharing best practices and developing innovative NFIL tools.The spread of COVID-19 can also be seen in the light of a catalyser for new entrepreneurial endeavours, a stimulus for a positive change and a solid reason for fostering Europe’s resilience process. Entrepreneurs play a crucial role in any economic, social and cultural setting, using the skills and initiative necessary to anticipate needs and bringing good new ideas to stimulate growth and social cohesion. By using young people’s motivation, embracing their creativity, unique strengths and knowledge, the project aims at setting the foundation for new entrepreneurial activities.Revolving around this conceptualisation, the YETC project sets the following specific objectives:- to contribute to building the capacity of youth workers and youth organisations by joint research activities, training and cooperation- to promote young entrepreneurs in partner countries through collecting good practices, producing a guide and video collection and organising a networking event- to create new NFIL tools and modules promoting entrepreneurship and youth activism tailored to the current needs of young people in the partnering countries<< Implementation >>To achieve the general and specific objectives, the partners will conduct the following activities during the project’s implementation:- hold a youth workers seminar for Cooperation, for setting objectives based on young people’s needs across the partner countries- survey young people’s attitudes toward starting a business in times of crisis and identified fields for improvement (skills, knowledge, attitudes)- create countries’ snapshots and action plan for promoting entrepreneurial skills and learning- explore best practices of young entrepreneurs in different sectors (social, cultural, environmental, digital) who started their initiatives since the beginning of 2020- produce an inspirational online guide with stories and practical steps for starting a business in time of crisis and a video collection of the best practices- hold a networking event online- produce an online course and training toolkit and to test them at local workshops with young people (1 per country) on launching a business initiative- conduct training of trainers for youth workers (3 per partner, 3 days) on stimulating entrepreneurial mindset – Bootcamp for entrepreneurial skills<< Results >>The project’s expected tangible results are as follows:- country snapshots and action plan for youth entrepreneurship based on research activities and a survey of young people’s attitudes toward starting a new entrepreneurial initiatives in times of crisis- the production of an online Inspirational guide Youth Entrepreneurship Endeavours with stories and practical steps for starting a business in time of crisis (50 best practices) and a video collection of 8 best practices selected- the production of online course and training toolkit for entrepreneurship and youth activism- Training of trainers for youth workers (3 per partner, 3 days) on stimulating entrepreneurial mindset – Bootcamp for entrepreneurial skills- the implementation of 6 local training sessions with 20 participants eachIn the long-run the project will produce the following intangible results:- increase the motivation of young people to think creatively and start new entrepreneurial initiatives, which are able to contribute to Europe’s recovery after COVID-19 pandemic- identify and seize opportunities to create value for young people by exploring social, cultural, digital and green entrepreneurial ideas- improve young people’s communication, critical thinking and problem-solving skills and entrepreneurship competences- encourage young people to exchange their experience and ideas and to learn from one another- establish new connections and contributors to create opportunities to create value- improve the organisational management of youth organisations, especially regarding entrepreneurial learning and social entrepreneurship

Elie 2.0 is an innovative approach to supporting groups vulnerable to social exclusion into enterprise, sustainable, good quality employment or further VET training. A previous project, Eliemental, worked with groups vulnerable to social exclusion and identified socio-cultural barriers to enterprise. The team then created and rolled out a programme of soft skills development. This programme has had significant sucess with 55% of the 2018 UK cohort (older long-term unemployed, recent migrants, people with chronic health problems) moving on to start an enterprise, into employment or into further VET training. Similar programmes evaluated by Rolfe et al (2015) suggest a UK success rate for interventions with GVSE of 28% for young people under age 24, 22% for people age 25-65 and 10% for people with disabilities or chronic health conditions. Partners delivering Eliemental have been signposting participants onto a disparate range of enterprise support services and have reported that these are often not suitable for the participants who have come through from Eliemental. They have urged the development of a more innovative, experiential approach to enterprise learning to embed the hard skills needed for business start up among our participants who do not go on from Eliemental. We interviewed participants who did not move on from Eliemental training and found many were keen to carry on but were dismayed at the more rigid approach of the services they had to engage with in order to gain additional skills such as business planning, marketing, costing, regulation and funding. After these discussions we proposed a four part package to support the aims and aspirations of our target groups. Part One is the establishment of Community Enterprise Coaches who will work with small groups of participants in the heart of their local community. Local VET colleges find it difficult to recruit people from groups vulnerable to social exclusion, but embedding a link in the local community can overcome this barrier. Part Two is the development of digital learning materials that can be accessed from smart phones. The innovative element here is a mechanism to tailor the learning resources to the needs of the target community. Learning resources will also be available to download in recognition of digital literacy issues, lack of wifi or lack of 4G data. Access to VET is problematic for the socially excluded. Embedding VET in the heart of communities vulnerable to exclusion offers a new approach.Part Three is the creation of experiential learning opportunities through live projects for small groups of participants, supported by their community enterprise coach. These real-world projects will link to the learning objectives of the Elie 2.0 programme and will give participants experience of working with others outside their community, problem solving, reporting back to the live project owner and will improve their networksPart Four is the development of student and SME owners as volunteer business consultants to provide advice to our participants in their local community. Business consultancy is expensive and provision is often in central business districts, not in the areas where socially excluded people live and work. Students studying business have a range of skills that can be shared with others if only a mechanism for doing so is provided. Using local community spaces identified by the project, and supported by the Community Enterprise Coach students and SME owners will offer help with business planning, business model, market research, price research, basic book-keeping and national SME regulations. This part of the project has many benefits: students can gain valuable experience for their CV (and in many cases for extra-curricular activity awards offered by their university or college), SME owners can develop new partnerships with start-ups, Elie 2.0 participants will gain an introduction to the services for small businesses offered by universities. This is important as too often there is a gulf between the expertise of universities and colleges and local small businesses. New networks will also be established, an important feature of this part of the project as our work on the previous Eliemental project showed networks were critical to sucess for our participants, and the socially excluded are often excluded from networks. Elie 2.0 is an innovative, community based project that will support the European Commission (Enterprise & Industry) aim to improve access to enterprise and to VET for the socially excluded. As the EC has noted, ‘Certain groups in society, such as people from ethnic minorities, face additional difficulties in trying to set up businesses’ and highlights the need for innovative solutions to overcome barriers to entrepreneurship (http://ow.ly/8Obz8).

This project is a continuation of the former EuroYouth MediaLab strategic partnership http://eym.foyer-rural-cepage.com/ and aims at empowering existing MediaLab groups and creating new ones as well as fostering cooperation between these groups.To summarize, young people expressed the need to:- develop the MediaLab in Europe by opening the business to new groups.- Training in effective tools and methods to collaborate, in the long term, transnational and digital.- To improve the youth work.To meet these needs, this project has 4 main objectives.1 / create new local groups by the inclusion of new organizations that are in contact with young people interested in creating information.Each partner is committed to supporting a group of at least 7 young people between 13 and 30 years old and to set up at least 1 session of 4 hours per month with these young people, including 1 virtual session of intergroup cooperation every 3 months, to create reports with a European dimension.2 / promote exchange and cooperative work by integrating digital tools into the activities of MediaLab groups to enable young people to cooperate effectively via the Internet.3 / train 2 participants from each MediaLab to, among others, design and share methods to prevent discrimination, methods for the use of digital in the framework of international cooperation. For that, we propose 2 training aiming to train to the animation using nonformal methods of education. These two training will also make the groups more autonomous to:- animate the local group of which they are part,- use digital tools to carry out cooperation actions4 / to enable young people to increase their skills in reporting, participation, and inclusion. For that we propose 2 activities of learning and exchange of practices, allowing the young people to increase their skills in reporting, participation, and inclusion.The target audiences for this project are:1 / young people:2 / current youth leaders and becoming partner organizations.3 / territorial actors where the organizations are located:4 / individuals / the general publicThis project is transnational because of this:- will allow exchanging on different practices and methods of youth education- Allow the digital cooperation of several groups of young reporters from different countries for the creation of reports including the point of view of citizens of different countries.- Among young people, there is a need to interact with young people from other countries.The main short and long-term results expected are:- The constant development of the critical spirit of the participants.- Constant improvement of international cooperation capacities of host structures and participants.- The improvement of digital skills.- 5 MediaLab groups, including 2 new ones, ie about 50 young reporters- The creation of reports with a European dimension gathering information and points of view on themes that affect the countries of at least 3 partner organizations.- the acquisition by participants of transversal skills.- more autonomous MediaLab groups that have developed their ability to sustain themselves and positively influence their environment, without the need for constant support from support structures;- a more positive attitude towards the European project;- a sharing of the values ​​of the European Union;- young people who are better able to participate in civic life and local, national and European citizens;- novice or experienced facilitators trained in the use of non-formal education methods

BACKGROUND AND PROBLEMThe Let’s Grow Together! - New paths for social inclusion project seeks to address social exclusion resulting from the scarcity of alternative, innovative and participatory methods for the development of key competences in children and young people.A significant proportion of children and young people are extremely unmotivated to learn by the methods used in the formal education system (traditional approach of knowledge transmission following a pre-defined program), which has serious consequences. The ultimate consequence, however, is the increase in the number of socially excluded children and young people, especially those with fewer opportunities, because of the lack of support and means to overcome the many obstacles in their lives.OBJECTIVES1. Promote the social inclusion and equal opportunities of children and youth by providing new methods of developing key competences and common values, complementary to those employed by formal education and training systems;2. Encourage sharing among participating organisations of innovative and participatory methods and practices (based on sport, art, digital media and/or non-formal and informal learning) aimed at enhancing competences and learning in children and young people to subsequently devise (and apply) a basic methodology that effectively promotes their full development and equal opportunities;3. Create and/or strengthen collaborative networks between organisations active in the field of art, sport, politics and/or non-formal, informal and formal education of children and young people;4. Increase the capacity of organisations (and their staff) to operate at transnational level and to implement joint initiatives aimed at promoting participatory, alternative and attractive learning methods.ACTIVITIES, PARTICIPANTS (NUMBER AND PROFILE)1. Project design, management and preparation- 2 elements belonging to each organisation;- Group of children and young people from each organisation: the reference number that will be used will be the 20 participants, in which at least 5 will be children and young people with fewer opportunities.2. Transnational meetings- 2 elements belonging to the participating organisations, preferably those with project management and implementation functions.3. Training course- 2 youth workers from each organisation.4. Local events- Same as activity 1.5. Presentation - local dissemination event- Same as activity 1.6. Blended mobility- 1 youth worker from each organisation (to track and facilitate engagement and interaction between participating youth, preferably mentor) + 5 young people with fewer opportunities from each organisation (selected from and by the youth group with whom organisations work locally).7. Closing - local dissemination event- Same as activity 1.8. Project monitoring and evaluation- Same as activity 1.METHODOLOGYThe preferred methodology in the project will be non-formal education and informal education, as complementary methodologies to formal education.They will be participatory, inclusive and innovative methodologies in the process of developing key competences in the participants.RESULTS AND IMPACTS- Basic, participatory, innovative and attractive methodology for the development of competences in children and young people, which can be adapted to various territories and social contexts at European level;- Developing the capacity of participating organisations to design, implement and participate in projects and initiatives at national and/or transnational level;- Development of collaboration networks;- Empower youth workers from participating organisations with crucial competences to improve their intervention with target groups;- Empowering participating children and young people with key competences for their full development as European citizens, in line with the recommendation of the Council of the European Union (22 May 2018) on key competences for lifelong learning.