Cities across Europe are facing the challenge of regenerating abandoned or decaying public or private urban spaces. Public administrations, businesses and non-profit organizations are all engaged with the transformation of these spaces and a professional profile stands out: the Urban Innovator (UI), able to use social innovation tools to develop urban regeneration processes. Urban innovators are in high demand in the job market, however they still lack a clear recognition in terms of professional role and training at EU level.EUREKA is a Knowledge Alliance that addresses this need by promoting and formalizing the UI profile for the public and private sector through the creation on a multidisciplinary curriculum, designed by universities, enterprises, PA cooperating jointly.The main steps are:• Research on the needs of enterprises, PA and community-based groups, reaching a shared definition of the skills of the profile at the EU level;• The co-design of a training curriculum involving HEIs, enterprises, public and private organizations and former students;• A pilot action to deliver the training programme in the 4 local clusters of the Alliance (IT, ES, NL, RO) with the support of the transnational partner Trans Europe Halles (SE).• International learning motilities for students and enterprises• Four living-labs as spaces to study and work facing real life issues.The main expected results are:1. A new joint multidisciplinary curriculum with a mentoring scheme to manage the transformation of urban spaces, leading to the definition of UI profile2. A mutually supportive network and learning community of academics, practitioners and students in urban regeneration fieldsThe Alliance's impact:• HEIs capacity to update current urban planning training courses • Enterprises, PA and community-based groups to improve their answer to the needs for sustainable and participatory regeneration of urban spaces • Students’ employability and entrepreneurial skills

Inclusion, sense of belonging to, is a value that guides all Youth Work. Inclusion means that the young people have the experience of being part of a group or society, and that they have the right to express themselves. One of the principal missions of Youth Work is to offer young people channels of expression. Cultural Youth Work is a concept which is defined as “activity, which supports young people’s self-expression and the realisation of young people’s initiatives and ideas”. Creativity and Culture in turn can be viewed as tools for individual growth, social growth and change. Youth Work and Creativity and Culture share values such as non-discrimination, participation and accessibility. Considering the mutual goals, values and interfaces, a stronger cross-sectoral collaboration would benefit both parties, and especially the youth themselves. In the digital era we are living in, new technological solutions continue to arise that further shade away physical barriers. They create new possibilities for both Creativity and Culture and Youth Work. It is important to not just produce cultural experiences for youth, but also equip the youth themselves to be cultural producers for their own generation and other generations alike. Even traditional cultural works, services and attractions unveil new angles when presented with the youth’s eyes, ears and imagination.The overall aim of the project is to strengthen cross-sectoral organisation and policy level collaboration between Youth Work and Creativity and Culture, in order to increase inclusion of young people and to find new innovative methodologies and practices that serve both sectors. Digitality is the horizontal theme of the project. The more precise objectives include (i) to increase the quality and sustainability of Youth Work and to influence future youth policies; (ii) to develop through piloting a concept of collaboration between Youth Work and Creativity and Culture; (iii) to increase digital skills of youth workers, cultural managers and the youth; (iv) to increase the youth’s inclusion as producers of Creativity and Culture and (v) to make the European culture more accessible with the help of digital technologies.There are three different types of Participants: (1) youth workers and (2) cultural managers from the Partner and Associated Partner organisations and (2) young people selected to the pilots in the initial phase of the project. The number of Participants will be altogether appr. 45-60.The different activities of the project build up to a logical entirety, in which a collaboration concept between Youth Work and Creativity and Culture is prepared, piloted and evaluated in Finland, Estonia and the Netherlands. The phases of the activities are the following:1. On-site and online training on digital tools, introduction to cultural production, and the use of digital tools in cultural production;2. Digital productions with cultural content (as assignments from local Creativity and Culture organisations), and digital learning diaries, produced in local projects (1-4 per country) by groups of young people. These projects are facilitated and supported by local youth workers and cultural managers, as well as online digital experts and multicultural learning groups.3. finalisation of the Intellectual Outputs based on the pilots4. Multiplier events, ending webinar and other dissemination.The Intellectual outputs of the project are:IO1 - Digital productions with cultural content from youth to youth, distributed via a variety of channels to the Europeans, especially the European youthIO2 - Digital learning diaries: narratives and stories produced by the participating youth, presenting their thoughts on the learning experience.IO3 - eManual: practical guidelines on how to plan, implement and evaluate cross-sectoral collaboration projects between Youth Work and Creativity and Culture organisations, with young people in the centreIO4 - Policy recommendations for Youth Work: cross-sectoral organisation-level collaboration between Youth Work and the Creativity and CultureIO5 - Inclusion of the youth: a cultural perspective. An analytical publication.The impact of the project is expected to be seen on individual, organisational and policy level, both nationally and transnationally. Youth workers and cultural managers will gain new professionalism to work in cross-sectoral settings, thus increasing the overall quality of youth work. The youth will have increased accessibility to engage in Creativity and Culture and will learn digital, entrepreneurial and soft skills. Culture and Creativity will gain new users, producers and audiences.

The main inspiration for this project is to answer the inadequacy of many youth workers in the use of advanced skills inspired by participatory artistic methods in order to promote positive aggregation and personal self-esteem.
The results of our research have shown that this inadequacy represents a limitation, in particular among those who work in contexts characterized by a high risk of youth social marginalization or from multi-ethnic and multi-cultural contexts, that need innovative techniques and tools to create and maintain participation.We have developed a model of good-practices sharing concerning aggregation and inclusion, through a methodology that includes non-formal education activities in the field of art, the use of Erasmus + and youth mobility, and in particular projects and facilitation methods designed for young people with fewer geographical, economic and social opportunities. The project structure combines closely related activities, including training meetings and exchange of good practices, international mobility, youth exchanges and local activities.Through this experience, the goal of this project is to improve and strengthen the skills of the organizations involved, their staff members and youth workers. In fact, they will develop their work competences and attitudes aimed at social inclusion and cultural integration throughout all the phases of the project; and in particular: 1. the project will strengthen and qualify youth workers by providing them with knowledge of international experimentation, practices and non-formal education methodologies, including artistic activities and methods of participatory art, intercultural and intergenerational skills and sensitivity with particular attention to adolescents and young people. 2. young people involved in youth exchanges and local activities, including young people with fewer opportunities, will have the chance to reflect on their talents and passions, with the aim of raising awareness and active participation in the opportunities offered by society.Through the cycle of activities, the project aims to build and improve the skills of the partner organization on different levels: - working at a higher level of quality and in-depth analysis, developing skills that concern topical issues and pivotal problems in order to reach new target groups in their community; - knowing how to organise and implement programmes, youth exchanges, activities of aggregation;- integrating new practices aimed at social inclusion and higher intercultural tendencies in their activities; - knowing how to collaborate in an intercontinental project with different partners; The overall result will be a higher quality and professionalism of all the subjects involved in the work they carry out at a local and international level, providing greater awareness and skills inspired by modernity and successful educational practices.