<< Objectives >>By implementing LET'S PROCESS SOME DRAMA we want to achieve:1. Preventing hate speech and discrimination among youth through a process drama curriculum2. Strengthening practitioners skills in using process drama in tackling hate speech and discrimination 3. Innovation of knowledge-based interactive methodologies available for youth workers and educators<< Implementation >>Besides PMI, we will implement:1. Creation of a process drama workshop curriculum through desk research, study visits and testing of the 5 workshops2. Creation of a training for educators through development and testing of the training sessions3. Cultural sensitivity testing via local implementation of the curriculum and the training and empowering directly over 400 youth and 60 educators4. Series of dissemination activities to reach youth workers and teachers nationally and internationally<< Results >>1. Development of a process drama workshops curriculum for topics of hate speech and discrimination2. Development of a training for educators for implementation of process drama workshops3. Raising the competences of young people in participating countries for tackling hate speech and discrimination4. Raising the competences of educators for implementation of process drama workshops5. Making the resources available to youth workers and teachers on national and international level

<< Background >>Diversity is positioned highly in the EU value system, and a lot of efforts are being put in to support EU and other countries to implement this value into their national systems and to, in the end, implement it in their practice and direct work with all youth. Because of this, there is a wide variety of available instruments, toolkits, guidebooks, articles tackling this topic to whomever is interested in diversity (usually alongside inclusion and/or cultural sensitivity). But still, diversity is more often than not, seen as an obstacle that needs to be overcome, and not as something we should thrive to. Youth work, education and social welfare system, the systems that youth, and especially youth with fewer opportunities interact the most, are the main focus of our project. The issue is that organisations/institutions have different levels of organisational culture (regulations, procedures, practices), climate (relationships between managers, staff and youth) and competences (of their managers, staff and youth they work with) that all affect their overall influence on youth. All these elements are highly important for diversity fostering and should be complementary to each other in order for the organisation to reach to and respond to needs of all youth. Throughout the project, we want to support organisations and institutions enhance their fostering of diversity in practice, by helping them view this issue holistically, „find their way“ through possibilities offered to them, so they can navigate towards those enhancement resources that are relevant for their specific cultural/climate/competences needs.<< Objectives >>By implementing this project we want to innovate the support for organisations and institutions for their diversity fostering practices, to systematize existing knowledge, assessment and good practice resources regarding diversity and to provide the youth, education and social welfare an “all-in-one” resource for fostering diversity in their work with all youth that will help them create a diversity revolution in their organisations.<< Implementation >>In the project, our main focus is creating the project result: Diversity package, a toolbox consisting of 3 collections covering: (1) current knowledge (evidence-based) regarding the topic of fostering diversity in the youth sector (including a form of minimal-standards for fostering diversity); (2) assessment tools for assessing the context level (focused around the organisational culture), relationship level (focused around the organisational climate) and individual level (focused at relevant competences of managers and staff and fostering diversity in youth); and (3) practical resources as good practice examples and enhancement suggestions for each element of fostering diversity. In order to do this, we gathered a team of experts from Serbia, Italy and Slovenia, from the field of youth, education, social welfare and scientific-research who will work on the comprehensive publication, that will be available to people both in printed and in e-version. For testing the Diversity package, we will organize 1 short-term joint staff training, where we will go through the steps for developing a Diversity profile of organisations/institutions. This will assure that the Diversity package offers other organisations and institutions all necessary materials to assess their diversity fostering practices on all levels of organisations’ functioning and find the resources suited for their specific situation – to enhance key elements for quality fostering of diversity in contact with all youth. In order to put the publication in use, we will organize a series of multiplier events, implementing trainings for managers and staff from youth work, education and social work in each country, as well as organizing 3 conferences in order to connects these 3 sectors on the same page regarding diversity fostering. We will implement a set of dissemination and results exploitation activities in order to reach as much relevant people as possible to support our diversity revolution. In order to ensure the quality of the project implementation, total 3 transnational project meeting will be held and continuance PMI activities will be implemented.<< Results >>Through the project we will unite contemporary knowledge, assessment tools and practical resources on diversity in a comprehensive holistic toolbox, we will provide managers and staff from 3 sectors (youth work, education and social welfare) with a new holistic resource on diversity in their hands for assessing and enhancing their culture, climate and competences which will bring the CSO’s, schools and social welfare institutions to enhance their diversity fostering in their work with all youth with the use of the Diversity package.

<< Background >>Gen Z Digital Workforce: Improving online employability and resilience of young people with fewer opportunities is a 2-years initiative between 5 organisations (You(th) Develop Denmark (coordinator), Uniamoci Onlus (Italy), SFERA International (N.Macedonia), Innovaform (Hungary), My Madeira Island (Portugal)). The target group of the project is young people (also currently abbreviated as Generation Z or Gen Z), especially those with fewer opportunities as the materials will be developed specifically for them, and such groups will participate in the project activities. The project targets young people from remote and rural areas, migrants, representatives of minorities, those with health issues and disabilities, those with economic and educational barriers as they can leverage remote work opportunities for their benefit now.The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered unprecedented socio-economic changes in Europe.According to Eurostat’s update, in March 2021, 2.951 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU. Compared with March 2020, youth unemployment increased by 319 000 in the EU. The aim of this project is to contribute to the reduction of unemployment in the EU, focusing on supporting people with fewer opportunities. The priorities which this project covers, aim to pilot education and training systems that promote employability, upskilling, and innovation as well as increase social mobility and equality towards special groups.The project addresses the direct needs of the partnership and our target groups.1.Europe is having now unprecedented levels of youth unemployment, and at the same time normalizes the concept of remote work making more jobs available online. This project aims to equip young people with the competencies needed for receiving and retaining a job online, and developing hard and soft skills for self-organized work, including resilience. The priority is given to young people with fewer opportunities (migrants, those with health issues and disabilities, those from remote and rural areas). The interest of the partnership is to obtain competencies and tools to provide support to young people they work with so that they could transition to employment and retain it. 2.Young people with disabilities and people with a migrant background, as well as people living in rural and remote areas, people facing socio-economic difficulties need support in their involvement in the socio-economic life of their communities and at the European level. This project focuses on the inclusion of such groups, and the consortium partners are greatly interested in updating competencies, reinforcing the need among their local partners, stakeholders and international networks to continue this movement for the sake of diversity and equal access to opportunities of young people from various backgrounds around Europe.3.Digital-first is the priority of education and social and youth work for the next years, and the project focuses on increasing the digital competencies of young people, partner organisations, its partners and stakeholders and spreading the project results on the European level to any entities working with young people, employment and inclusion.4.Increasing youth work’s quality and the ability to respond to current challenges. This project is directly connected with one of the priorities of the Programme, namely capacity-building of youth workers in their online and offline practices, as well as support to the development and sharing of methods to reach marginalized young people. 5.Increasing the sense of initiative, civic participation, and lifelong learning for all the project participants, partners, and stakeholders. These crucial for 21-century skills are required by young people and adults due to the changing conditions and the need to adapt to whatever may come next, be able to congregate in stronger groups and fight the challenges, being directly involved in decision-making processes.<< Objectives >>The objectives of the project are:-Create a curriculum for young people with fewer opportunities and adults that work with youngsters (NGOs, trainers, facilitators, HR managers in SMEs, employment agencies, career offices, etc.) which will prepare and guide young people in building an online career and increase their employability, digital competencies, and resilience;-Promote inclusiveness in remote work and create conditions for more young people with fewer opportunities to enter the online workforce;-Update and improve competencies of non-profit associations, career counselors in universities, colleges, and VET, and specialists of employment agencies in helping young people become more employable in the current job market;-Increase the capacity of NGOs to help young people to boost their sense of initiative and entrepreneurship;-Increase the opportunities for NGOs, employment agencies, and career offices to support young people with fewer opportunities in their struggle to become more competitive in the online job market;-Enlarge their understanding and responsiveness to the social, linguistic, and cultural diversity of e-work, promote innovative pedagogies and methods for teaching, learning, and assessment, and support educators and learners to use digital technologies in creative, collaborative, and efficient ways;-Create a more modern and professional environment inside the organization: ready to integrate good practices and new methods into daily activities;-Promote the idea of remote work as a new norm and an opportunity for those who don’t have much access to the regular job market.<< Implementation >>Over 2 years’ period, the project will have the following activities:3 Transnational project meetings (a kick-off in Denmark, a mid-term in Hungary, a closing conference in N.Macedonia, with the representatives of all project partners)Production of Project Results:PR1 Youth Employment in Post-COVID Digital Age Survey&Report. 100 young people interviews (at least half – young people with fewer opportunities)100 SMEs who tend to involve remote workers5 large employment agencies. The survey and report will provide an insight into remote work each of the countries (and some European-level conclusions may be extrapolated), the profile and the needs of young people (including those with fewer opportunities) who seek employment and their preparedness for remote work. The report will serve as the knowledge base for stakeholders involved in work with young people with fewer opportunities and those caring for employment and socio-economic development of their communities. PR2 “E-learning materials on online employment for young people with fewer opportunities”E-learning materials disseminated at local, regional, national and European levels to stakeholders in the area of youth affairs and employment.Pilot testing: 50 young people with fewer opportunities take part in Pilot testing of the curriculumPR 3: Methodology “Supporting online career of young people with fewer opportunities” developed and spread according to the dissemination plan – at the local, regional, national and European levels. Expected outreach: at least 100 stakeholders around Europe who will use the materials in their work (more details in the dissemination plan).LTT 1: Youth workers’ mobility “Digital Tools for Online Career Coaches” hosted in Portugal, 20 participants-youth workers. 20 youth workers/career coaches from 5 European countries will firstly obtain new competencies in digital youth work and creating e-learning materials for youth. They will become more professional youth career coaches and will be more confident about performing e-tutoring online.LTT 2: YE Online Career Bootcamp hosted in Italy, 15 young people with fewer opportunities and 10 youth workers and accompanying persons.Young people will increase their competencies in acquiring online employment; they will deepen their competencies in career retention, also learn more about resilience and supporting own mental health.Multiplier events: 1 in each country = 5 in total, with at least 30 local, 5 international and 20 virtual participants - the project results are disseminated among the interested audience.2-months dedicated dissemination activities: a network of organisations involved in supporting employability of young people with fewer opportunities will be built by the consortium as a result of the project and leveraged for further activities of the partners beyond this project.Production of the website, photo, video, text content and other supporting materials; internal meetings and documentation.<< Results >>The project aims to change the dynamics of how nowadays young people, also known as Generation Z, especially those with fewer opportunities, can leverage the current socio-economic changed due to COVID-19 and the increasing number of remote work positions – for their own employability. We expect to enable youth workers and other stakeholders who work with youth affairs and employment with competencies and methodologies to support such young people with fewer opportunities from their regions with career coaching and guidance, as well as improving their resilience to societal challenges and mental well-being.Project outcomes:PR1 Youth Employment in Post-COVID Digital Age Survey&Report. The survey and report will provide an insight into remote work each of the countries (and some European-level conclusions may be extrapolated), the profile and the needs of young people (including those with fewer opportunities) who seek employment and their preparedness for remote work. The report will serve as the knowledge base for stakeholders involved in work with young people with fewer opportunities and those caring for employment and socio-economic development of their communities. PR2 “E-learning materials on online employment for young people with fewer opportunities”E-learning materials disseminated at local, regional, national and European levels to stakeholders in the area of youth affairs and employment.PR 3: Methodology “Supporting online career of young people with fewer opportunities” developed and spread according to the dissemination plan – at the local, regional, national and European levels. Expected outreach: at least 100 stakeholders around Europe who will use the materials in their work (more details in the dissemination plan).LTT 1: Youth workers’ mobility “Digital Tools for Online Career Coaches”20 youth workers/career coaches from 5 European countries will firstly obtain new competencies in digital youth work and creating e-learning materials for youth. They will become more professional youth career coaches and will be more confident about performing e-tutoring online.LTT 2: YE Online Career Bootcamp Young people will increase their competencies in acquiring online employment; they will deepen their competencies in career retention, also learn more about resilience and supporting own mental health.An online community of 100 young people built who go through the Pilot Course created. They continue international communication, participate in other activities beyond the project.Multiplier events: 1 in each country = 5 in total: the project results are disseminated among the interested audience.Dissemination results: a network of organisations involved in supporting employability of young people with fewer opportunities will be built as a result of the project and leveraged for further activities of the partners beyond this project.Young people with fewer opportunities are expected to obtain competencies for remote employment, they will become more confident, increase their sense of initiative, build meaningful connections with their tutors and peers from other countries, increase their digital and language skills. The participating organisations will become more equipped to continue their activities in the area of non-formal education in the new format - digital; the consortium will also strengthen the cooperation between the participants; the open project materials will help to support new talents and foster entrepreneurship; the project will also increase the sense of initiative, active participation, multiculturalism among young and adult participants.

"<< Background >>In 2015, all EU member states and other countries in the United Nations have adopted the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. This policy agenda has inspired the Independent Commission of Sustainable Equality to call action for a radically different Europe in their 2018 (first) Report for Sustainable Equality (2019-2024). The Report also urges for the development and implementation of radical policy action to face several crises that are mutually reinforcing, namely: economic, social, environmental and political. It cautions that the failure of Europe to combat the aforementioned crises ""will lead to democratic collapse, either because authoritarian populist and extremist forces will gain decisive power across Europe, or because these economic, social or environmental crises will have reached a destabilising stage for society. ...it is necessary to breed and empower critical voting both at the level of national EU member states and at the European level. This need becomes even more imperative if we take into consideration that populists on the back of disinformation try to impose their detrimental agendas across Europe. At the same time the Eurobarometer surveys indicate that the interest shown by 15 to 24-year-olds in the European elections remains significantly lower than that of their elders. Moreover, we should not forget that during the 2014 European elections the biggest level of abstention was among young people, despite of most of them view being part of the Union as positive (more than 70% according to the last Eurobarometer survey).In this scenario Pros4Democracy will equip and empower youths so that they:- acquire competences needed by critical voters to be knowledgeable about what is happening around them through higher media literacy,- become aware of the European values of democracy, social solidarity and sustainable equality through socio-emotional literacy and social justice literacy,- will be active EU citizens ready willing and able to promote European values in their future professional life and- up their skills and confidence in being more eloquent promoters of democratic rights and European values.Pros4Democracy meets:- THE NEEDS AT EUROPEAN LEVEL of more participation in democratic process, the need to counter threats to democratic values especially due to dis/misinformation that exploits insecurities of individuals to foment extreme right agendas is not only a European issue but also a collective need of each member state to do its part,- THE NEEDS OF EVERY MEMBER STATE to reflect European values in its governance, protection of its citizen's right to information that is reliable, true and educational in the area of more critical voting literacy, socio-emotional and social justice literacy so that their respective societies become more inclusive, human centred, democratic and participatory in democratic process,- THE NEEDS OF COMMUNITIES, their schools, civil society, youth organisations and local political groups to become active participants in decision making process sustained by the 4 literacies.- THE NEEDS OF CITIZENS to up their participation in democratic debate and process at national and EU level overcoming apathy and disgruntlement with players in the democratic structures due to lack of information, dis/misinformation and lack of media literacy that fosters confusion as to messages received from social/media, makes them vulnerable to manipulation by malicious agendas.- THE NEED OF A FUTURE GENERATION OF CITIZENS AND POSSIBLY FUTURE DECISION MAKERS that have sound values education, robust media, socio emotional and social justice literacy that reflect European values, skills and confidence to be positive players in their community and in Europe and structured cooperation environments that enable them to do so.<< Objectives >>CONTEXTIn an article published on FORBES (Aug 3, 2020) called The Dangerous Art Of Social Media And Messaging Manipulation, Perry Carpenter, a Chief Evangelist for KnowBe4 Inc. provider of the popular Security Awareness Training & Simulated Phishing platform says that ""The 2020 U.S. election cycle is destined to become the most contentious ever... On one hand, you have anxious voters overstressed and distracted due to the Covid-19 pandemic; on the other, social media channels and legions of their consumers are under siege, and influence from the propagation of misinformation campaigns are at a speed and scale of dissemination never seen before.We are seeing the political weaponization of memes that peddle false narratives, including doctored videos (i.e., “deepfakes” and “cheapfakes”) that seek to further divide our union and destabilize society. During the past elections in 2016, the Oxford Dictionary's word of the year was ""post-truth.""Since most communication and information is now distributed online the EC has launched a strategy to tackle ""the spread of online disinformation and misinformation to ensure the protection of European values and democratic systems"" bearing the #FactsMatter tag. ""Disinformation is ""verifiably false or misleading information created, presented and disseminated for economic gain or to intentionally deceive the public"". Misinformation is verifiably false information that is spread without the intention to mislead, often shared because the user believes it to be true.The spread of both disinformation and misinformation can have a range of consequences, such as threatening our democracies, polarising debates, and putting the health, security and environment of EU citizens at risk.Large-scale disinformation campaigns are a major challenge for Europe and require a coordinated response from EU countries, EU institutions, social networks, news media and EU citizens. The Commission has developed a number of initiatives to tackle disinformation..."" and goes on to identify several initiatives it undertook to counter this threat to democracy.https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/online-disinformationIn this context Pros4Democracy intends to achieve:a. THREE BROAD OBJECTIVES by:1. making young citizens aware of how content on social/media is developed and distributed by different sources and these include malicious or misinformed sources and that people around us, including friends and family, are not necessarily socially responsible citizens of the digital world,2. promoting a. critical voting literacy through social media based debate on b. media literacy, c. socio-emotional literacy and d. social justice literacy,3. increasing participation in democratic process therefore countering apathy and cynicism about its value and effectiveness that is what manipulative media tend to foster and foment through generic statements and conspiracy theories,4. pushing the need for more critical voting literacy and higher participation in democratic process higher on the agenda of EU institutions.b. FOUR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES of:1. EMPOWERING YOUTHS WITH THE NECESSARY KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETENCES REQUIRED TO BE CRITICAL VOTERS,2. CULTIVATING A GENERATION OF YOUTHS THAT ARE ACTIVE AND POSITIVE AGENTS OF CHANGE IN THEIR COMMUNITIES with more knowledge, competences and confidence to make them excellent communicators with sound moral, democratic and European values,3. REWIRING YOUNG MINDS AND THEIR COMMUNITIES COUNTERING MANIPULATIVE STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE EXTREME RIGHT VIEWS AND ANTI DEMOCRATIC (AND EU) SENTIMENT ON SOCIAL/MEDIA often exploiting uncertainty and often by simplifying complex questions into flippant populist statements that appeal to the public especially if low on media literacy and4. UPPING THE PROFESSIONAL PROFILE OF YOUTH PROFESSIONALS through their contribution towards the education and mentoring of youths and proximity to formal education through transfer.<< Implementation >>There will be activities to:- implement the planned Result,- monitoring the path towards planned results and outcomes and- 3 horizontal activities.There will be:- a Kick-off Meeting to start up activities- 3 Interim Meetings with the third one coinciding with training C1 and- a Final Virtual Meeting to close activities and plan Multiplier Events and exploitation.Pros4Democracy will produce one Result in different steps:- a Training Path and Resources aimed at late teenage to mid-twenties with ample opportunity for transfer to other age groups, non-formal education and voluntary or community bodies on European Democratic Values and the importance of Critical Voting Literacy (conveyed through Media, Social Justice and Socio-Emotional Literacy),- a pilot testing of the Result with structured validation and a development of a Handbook to support organisations and youth leaders/educators to adopt and adapt the Training Path as a whole or in modular form, assimilated into standard curricula on personal and social development or other initiatives to up citizen engagement in democratic process,- the start of a social media based EU forum for debate on the subject of the project engaging youth leaders/educators and youth to give a higher informal learning dimension to the Training Path and Resources and collect information for the further development of the Handbook making it an informal learning enabler and- the drafting and distribution of a Memorandum for European Institutions on the importance of pushing public education on critical voting literacy higher on the agenda.Partners will also organise 7 Multiplier events (E1 - E7) to promote the project process, outcomes and partake of the project's mission of bringing the importance of more participation in democratic process, critical voting and European values higher on the local, national and European agenda.The 3 horizontal activities will be:- dissemination and community building around the project that will be a partnership wide effort, (A2)- coordination and monitoring activities will last throughout the project lifetime (A1) and- quality management and validation on organisational change as part of impact measurement on the partners (A4).<< Results >>OUTCOMES AND RESULTS FROM THE PROCESSa. IMMEDIATE- partners' more experience in joint training resources design through the contribution of content by all partners based on the experience/expertise of each partner and respective democratic milieux,- new or higher levels of critical voting, media, socio-emotional and social justice literacy by all youth (and educators) participants in one round of national/local pilot testing of new innovative training resources designed by the partners,- an awareness of what participants have learnt and acquired during this journey,- the start of nuclei of youths and youth leaders who have come together in cross border debate on a sensitive issue and that are therefore more ready willing and able to approach themes and strategies with a European mindset and- higher visibility of youth work with local, national and EU institutions as contributor to youth and education policy through the distribution of a Memorandum to EU institutions on the need to put critical voting and higher participation in democratic process across Europe higher on the agenda reporting on the experience of this pan-European testing of critical voting trainingb. MEDIUM TERM- higher capacity of the partners in augmenting or improving the variety and quality of their youth services and training,- higher relevance of youth organisations in the personal and professional lives of young people by supporting them in acquiring experience and track record that formal education does not provide,- higher visibility and social positioning of youth organisations seen to be closer to the social mission of bringing change in the same way as other civil society organisations that are becoming more important in the European democratic milieu presently threatened by lack of good governance, adherence to European democratic values by nationalistic and protectionist approaches,- young participants who venture into their professional life equipped with values, critical thinking and European mindset and- young participants with more confidence in their opinions sustained by the 4 literacies for critical voting citizens with readiness to communicate with others in the face of adversity.OUTCOMES AND RESULTS FROM THE PROJECT1. NEW INNOVATIVE YOUTH TRAINING RESOURCES PROPOSING INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES CONVEYING CRITICAL VOTING LITERACY THAT WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR YOUTH AND EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS on media, social justice and socio-emotional literacies, on how democracy must not be taken for granted and higher awareness of the importance of citizens engagement in democratic (if not also political) life.2. A HIGHER POSITION OF THE NEED OF CRITICAL VOTING LITERACY ON THE AGENDA in the form of a Memorandum to EC institutions on the need for more education on the 4 literacies from early years and throughout life on issues, agendas and more sophisticated strategies and technologies of social media.3. A NEW FORUM OF DEBATE ON THE STATE OF DEMOCRACY IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF EUROPE AND ON EUROPEAN DEMOCRATIC VALUES engaging youth professionals and youths, upping their communicative competences and confidence to participate in debate with sound and articulated arguments in local, national and EU level forums.4. NEW AVENUES FOR FURTHER COOPERATION BETWEEN THE PARTNERS building on this project that pools their expertise making it an educational journey through exposure to each others' varied target groups of youths and their needs and higher skills and broader mindset of their youth leaders and educators."