"""Peers for Equality - developing capacities for tackling gender based discrimination"" is an Eramsmus+ project aiming at developing the capacities of platforms and NGOs working with peer education of responding to the needs existing in European and Central Asian societies for reducing gender based discrimination.To achieve this, two international peer training networks: the European Peer Training Organisation and Y-Peer will cooperate to develop a new educational programme. This will be done by exchanging, adapting and creating non­formal methods and tools that will help future peer trainers change the mentality of people with respect to gender based discrimination.For this, until the end of the project, we plan to achieve the following objectives:- developing a new programme of non­formal learning that will reduce gender based discrimination among participants by at least 40%, adapted to the needs and realities of the European and Central Asian society, based on the partners’ cooperation and the experiences they had regarding this topic- testing and assessing the effectiveness of these new youth practices in 5 different cultural contexts, on a minimum of 100 youngsters;- ensuring the sustainability of this programme for at least 3 years and its multiplication;Through 3 youth mobilities and on-field activities which will involve young peer educators from Central Asia, East and West Europe, we plan to test the future methodologies and kick start a new programme for addressing gender inequality."

"In the light of the crisis following the recent flows of asylum seekers from different countries, the EU has decided that promoting peer-education for diversity, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, common values of freedom, tolerance, and respect, should be one of its main priorities. There is a need for a more comprehensive solution and we have decided to join efforts in our common aim of facilitating the integration of refugees into the European environment.During the lifetime of the Peers for Integration project the partners:- an extensive research on barriers standing in the way of young refugees' social inclusion in Belgium, Italy, and Romania.- developed a training methodology using peer education for young refugees and migrants to develop competencies related to self-awareness and cultural identity/ interactions in an inter-cultural environment/ norms, codes, and other cultural elements that may cause ""cultural friction""/ presentation and promotion of different cultures/ dealing with situations in which the individual is witness or victim of prejudice/discrimination/ taking social action/ peer-education- tested and piloted the training methodologies during international learning mobilities to which 32 participants coming from Romania, Italy, and Belgium took part.- organized local workshops in Romania, Belgium, and Itlay during which previously trained participants used the Peers for Integration methodology to further give the opportunity to youngsters to be part of this formative process. A total number of 240 participants took part in the local activities.- organized dissemination events in Romania, Belgium, and Italy face to face as well as online in order to promote the newly created methodology.- developed a platform in order to promote and upload into the public space the newly created methodology and also to serve as a platform where future peer trainers who would like to use the Peers for Integration manual can see through tutorials especially created for them how the methods should be devielvered.Due to a need identified after the covid 19 pandemic shut down all face-to-face activities, we also created the Peers for integration open learning platform in order to give the opportunity to peer educators and trainers to deliver the Peers for Integration methodology in an online format. This gives us the opportunity to reach audiences, communities, and youngsters that were not accessible for the project results.The results we created are accessible on the project platform www.integration.ofetin.ro as well as on the Erasmus+ dissemination platform. The websites and project results are translated into multiple languages in order to respond to local needs and also to avoid language barriers when delivering local workshops."

The overall aim of the project is to introduce and enhance an innovative model of learning based on exchanges between Program (Netherlands and Belgium) and Partner Countries (Serbia and Albania), learning mobility and cooperation between youth CSOs and non-formal education providers. This has been achieved through piloting a new Aflateen+ Program for Girls in Serbia and Albania, developed by the Dutch partner and sharing the Belgian experience in mobilising and empowering youth to become peer educators, thus strengthening non formal education in Partner Countries. Piloting the new program for social and financial education of girls in the Balkans has given the Dutch partner data to finalise its program to be used globally. Belgian partner has gained experience in working in the Balkans and this has led to adaptation of the training program in order to include the specific environment in the region.The most important distinctive feature of GIRLACT project has been the synergy of social and entrepreneurial competencies, applying innovative and active pedagogic approaches, including peer training and horizontal learning models. In its implementation, the action has been promoting civic, inter-cultural, social and relational competences, mutual understanding and respect, and ownership of democratic values and fundamental rights, enhancing critical thinking, financial and cyber literacy. Addressing the increasing diversity of learners and access to good quality inclusive mainstream education and training for all, including girls, while tackling discrimination, bullying, violence and stereotypes was the basis for promotion of active citizenship in learning. Introducing and strengthening financial literacy, entrepreneurial skills, planning, saving, investing and budgeting enabled both young people and youth workers to make much more feasible and realistic plans for their actions. This made the action unique in its effort to promote/implement integrative peer learning model for supporting individual entrepreneurial initiatives with increased awareness of their social impact on the community and society. The specific objectives to: 1. Design relevant innovative and flexible models of learning aimed at acquiring/improving employability skills of young people, especially girls; 2. Raise capacities of youth CSOs and provide them with tools necessary for delivery of a new form of training based on non-formal flexible learning methods, learning mobility, virtual cooperation and OER; 3. Launch, test and implement new practical training schemes based on learning mobility aimed at improving participants' level of competences and fostering their active participation in society; and 4. Strengthen the influence of youth CSOs in advocating for validation and recognition of competences acquired through non-formal learning, have all been met. The main activities held were:1. Development of the analysis of the gaps in social and financial education of young people in Albania and Serbia2. Development of the toolkit for social and financial education of young people, especially girls in Albania and Serbia3. Development of the curriculum for peer training in Albania and Serbia4. Development of the online training material 5. 6-day information sharing training sessions on the material developed in Albania and Serbia6. Local 3-day training sessions in Albania and Serbia7. Advocacy round-tables in Albania and Serbia 8. Development of the recommendations for the policies and practices in youth education 9. Development of the evaluation of the impact of the training programmes and learning models for Albania and Serbia10. Youth Workers' study visits to the Netherlands and Belgium11. Youth exchange visits to Serbia and Albania12. Final Conference

"Gender-based discrimination is present in a lot of forms in Europe. About 35% of European youngsters declare that they were discriminated on the basis of their gender (according to the European Youth Forum) and each country presents cultural standards differentiating what women and men can or should do. Furthermore, those who's sex and gender identity do not match are widely unaccepted by society and face constant discrimination and exclusion. Statistics show this is not a localised problem, but a general, international one, with no community being free of its effects, as partners also confirm.In the countries participating in the project 20 to 45% of our youngsters are still perpetuating the same stereotypes on gender, and social pressure and other forms of oppression of women are surprisingly present, with min. 30% of women we address declaring they face these.In the face of these and especially in the Covid-19 crisis we have a limited capacity to intervene as there are limited possibilities to interact in person with young people and the programmes we use were developed for in-person workshops, therefore have limited potential for being transferred to on-line; In this context the project we are presenting aims is to educate young people for embracing gender equality. It proposes a radical shift in how anti-bias education is offered to EU nationals, by switching from the traditional lectures or in-person ""trainer to trainee"" approach to peer-lead on-line workshops that use drama and digital tools as base for experiential learning. This innovative approach takes advantage of the powerful role drama can have in shaping learning experiences and also of the accessibility and scalability of on-line learning platforms. Together with the peer-lead process, these will increase cognitive load, student engagement and active learning. It also has the advantage of shorter training periods of peer trainers, a more efficient local up-scaling process, having more and long lasting impact, being a more appealing approach and having good potential for a ""viral"" effect of the attitudes we aim to improve.For this, our objectives are to:- increase the capacity of 6 European NGOs to combat gender based discrimination among young people, by creating an effective on-line resource that can facilitate this- reduce at least three manifestation related to gender-based discrimination among at least 100 young people from 3 EU countries during the lifetime of the project, using the programme.The main output of the project will be a training programme that uses on-line experiential learning in a peer-lead learning process. On the medium term, our objective is to offer free access to the peer-to-peer educational solution we will develop and for at least 100 youth-serving organisations to actively use it in the next 5 years, reaching more than 10 000 beneficiaries.The theory of change the project proposes is that by taking part in the educational programme we will develop young people from EU countries will no longer engage in gender-based oppression. Hence, in terms of outcomes, the project aims to bring positive effects to:- young people (typically the ones aged 14 - 30, with a stronger impact on the ones from discriminated genders), by improving their well-being and safety as a result of reducing manifestations related to gender-based oppression in at least 70% of them- youth and youth-serving organisations, by helping them increase their impact in their communities, as a result of putting at their disposal a modern and effective peer education programme on combating gender-based discrimination, comprising in tools and practices that allow them to offer more qualitative and effective activities for their beneficiaries;- young people who wish to be active in their societies, by supporting their active involvement and equipping them with the competencies and tools they need for promoting a positive change in their communities (as a result of their participation as peer trainers in the project).The intended beneficiaries of the programme are young people from Europe and beyond. During the life of the project, more than 150 of them will benefit from it.The programme is aimed to be implemented by networks of young peer trainers (typically 16 to 30), coordinated by youth-serving organisations. In the piloting phase of the programme, 24 young people from 4 countries will be educated to use the programme and to lead peer-to-peer workshops in their communities."

4motion (LU), the European Peer Training Organisation (EPTO - BE), the Universal Education Foundation (UEF - NL), Ofensiva Tinerilor (RO), AMO Reliance (BE) and the European Institute of Education and Social Policy (EIEPS - FR) united forces for an ambitious project aimed at radically improving the lives of school students by developing their appreciation of their fundamental inner diversity: Potential4Life (P4L).The project developed a new educational programme led by school students aged 16-18 who supported their younger peers aged 12-16 in understanding their inner diversity. This programme enables participants to:- discover their own and others' ways of learning (metacognitive abilities);- feel empowered and better participate in their learning processes and environments;- (re)gain motivation, self-determination and resilience. Interactive face-to-face activities are supported by tools such as board games and digital media: videos with testimonials and tutorials on how to implement the activities, and an app that helps pupils understand their way of learning. The project also included an action-research piloted by EIEPS which used the experience drawn from the local implementation and testing phase in 3 EU countries to feed and further develop the training module. PROJECT MILESTONES:- 1st transnational meeting (17-18/05/16) – LU: all partner organisations and the advisory group met in Luxembourg, hosted by 4motion. The action-research action methodology was defined and definitive allocations were made among each of the partner organisations of the work in developing the training programme and materials.- Prototype Programme Development (04-08/16): A core group of representatives from the partners developed a prototype programme, which was drafted in a 130-page pedagogical manual and 50-page journal, later translated in 3 languages (French, German and Romanian).- Training Activity for Partners (8-12/08/16) – Harzé, BE: hosted by AMO Reliance, the partner organisations selected representatives who would deliver the first round of trainings in the school to be trained over a five day period of introduction to the agreed materials and workshop procedures, and how to facilitate and evaluate the sessions.- Local implementation (09/16-10/17): this phase included mostly the training of young peer training, workshops by peer trainers in schools, coaching and evaluation. Local implementing partners were 4motion (LU), AMO Reliance (BE) and Ofensiva Tinerilor (RO) working in conjunction with local schools. This period included 3 “field visits” carried out by the EIEPS researcher for proceeding to interviews with all stakeholders.- Development of game and digital media formats (09/16-06/17): parallel to the local implementation, was the development of interactive game and digital-media based tools that can be used as stand-alone and will support students and teachers in fulfilling the aims of the programme. The digital media tools include video testimonials from peer trainers and secondary school students about their experience and tutorials on how to implement the activities.- 2nd transnational meeting (11-12/03/17) – Arad, RO: hosted by Ofensiva Tinerilor, all partner organisations met to share feedback on how the project was running in schools so far and made adjustments for the second half of the implementation.- 3rd transnational / evaluation meeting (16-17/10/17) – Brussels, BE: hosted by EPTO, all partner organisations met to present feedback gathered from students and teachers in each of the schools. The project was thoroughly evaluated and the materials finalised.- Multiplier event (18/10/17) – Brussels, BE: hosted by UEF, the event proposed a taster workshop and an overview of the project, its motivation, approach, methodology and results (action-research and intellectual outputs), involving the audience in a conversation about its future development.Throughout the project, 17 partners, 20 peer trainers and 175 students were trained; 3 local and 2 EU NGOs were equipped with educational resources to help youth in difficulty at school. The action-research has shown that by participating in P4L, youth are better able to:- improve their self-confidence regarding their learning;- appreciate that each individual has a unique approach to learning ;- identify their intrinsic motivation for learning – that is motivations other than grades or teacher or parent pressure (which might be considered as extrinsic motivation);- identify their preferred learning strategies;- articulate their own learning preferences and be able to ask for support from their teachers, parents and peers.Due to its demonstrated impact on students’ well-being and the momentum created among partners, P4L will continue after this EU funding, with a stronger focus on involving teachers and parents, combining the app and Board game with the pedagogical programme, and conducing a more robust evaluation process.