<< Objectives >>-Enable youth refugee CSOs participation in and contribution to policy dialogue and decision-making processes at all levels.-Build skills required to engage in effective policy dialogue and making such as evidence-based research, advocacy, networking, outreach activities and negotiation skills.-Support project and financial management skills, as well as monitoring and evaluation skills.-Support local refugees CSO networks and platforms to promote coordination, collaboration and exchange.<< Implementation >>The project will implement two transnational meetings, one in the Netherlands and another in Italy. Two training courses - one in Germany, and another in Turkey. Throughout an E-Handbook will be created, which will contain both policy briefs outlining the requirements of the Afghan and Syrian diaspora that wish to be communicated to the European policymakers, and samples of training materials on how refugee-focused CSOs could preserve, recover and open civic space to influence policy dialogue.<< Results >>The project expects to ameliorate the operational capacities of youth NGOs working with migrants and refugees; Strengthen the links between policymakers and youth-focused NGOs that work with migrants and refugees; Improve connectivity between NGOs in the field of youth; and enhance the democratic civic engagement of youth NGOs working with refugees and migrants in local policymaking processes.

"The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project ""Migrants and refugees in media and real life"" is designed by partners from Denmark, Estonia, France and the Netherlands for youth workers/ educators who seek to incorporate media literacy skills into their daily work. The project aims are directly connected with the objectives of Erasmus+ Programme. Coordinator of the project is Copenhagen Youth Network. It is not secret that most of the media narratives contribute to developing the central bias of migration by means of metaphorical delegitimization that is discursively constructed through the opposition between “them” and “us.” Such attitudes are rapidly developing into radicalisation, fueling nationalist parties and extremist movements that in turn affect young people in very negative way. Partners of this project agreed that youth leaders, workers and representatives of civil society can play an important role in understanding, creation and spreading true messages about migrants and refugees. The aim of the project is to empower youth workers and young people in the field of media literacy and preventing extremism and radicalization in media and social media. The focus will be on local young people and youth with migrant and refugees background. Partners agreed that after and between the transnational meetings and the training course the main work will be done locally.The specific objectives of this project are:• creation innovative E-Book for training in youth organisations;• to give youth workers the ability to build knowledge, skills and attitude based on media literacy and critical thinking;• to explore the dimensions of diversity in migrant and refugee related issues;• to promote non-formal learning and cooperation in the field of youth work in EU countries;• to support the professional development of those who work in education, training and youth fields.Partners expressed needs to build capacity of staff members of their organisations, youth workers and human right activists in the youth field in order they could provide adequate support to refugees and migrants in the areas of education, social services, linguistic or psychological support, social mentoring and integration processes and represent themselves in adequate way in media.There is also a necessity to empower youth workers and youth organisations to work closely with local young people in Europe and promote harmonic, inclusive and tolerant European communities. Partners are interested to empower youth leaders to become stronger actors for current problematic and to contribute to the resolution of the crisis through influencing media and particularly social media coverage of migrants and refugees.The main target group in this project is youth workers, partners organisations' staff members and youth leaders. The final beneficiaries are young people: local European youth and young people with migrant and refugee backgrounds. Special target group will be women and girls-migrants and refugees. Project will tackle also different youth and other organisations, media and social media. At least 150 youth workers and young people will directly benefit from project activities. Dissemination activities will serve as campaign to raise awareness about media coverage of migrants and refugees, and at least 160 people will be involved in face-to-face meetings and more than 800 via Facebook project page.Participants directly involved in the project activities (transnational meetings, research, training course, local and dissemination activities) will get new competences, first of all, the methods of working with media in youth groups, changing attitudes and views and helping others to change. For participating organisations the most obvious impact is broadening networks, establishing new contacts for further cooperation, new intercultural experience and sharing of vision in the project E-Book, as well as learning new methods and implementing them to organisation’s daily practice. Project E-Book will be used and exploited in the longer-term, it will be available online. Because is is an e-product, it will be constantly added with new materials and will has the potential long term benefits, the same as new gained competencies of youth workers, staff members of partners' organisations and young people - participants of this Strategic Partnership project."

<< Background >>Nowadays, the European youth face a variety of problems, and youth work in all of its forms could help them overcome these obstacles. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for cross-cultural relationships and assistance for the arts industry has never been greater.The global health crisis and the uncertainty resulting from it profoundly affected organisations' operations as well as individuals—both employed and independent—across the field.Most cultural institutions throughout the world have been shuttered indefinitely (or at least had their services drastically reduced) over the last year, and in-person exhibitions, concerts, and performances have been canceled or postponed. As a result, extensive efforts were made to provide alternative or extra services via digital platforms, to sustain important operations with limited resources, and to chronicle the events themselves through new acquisitions, including new creative works inspired by the pandemic. Such digital creative modifications must be prioritized in this environment.Thus, NGOs, civil society organisations and arts schools need to develop strategies to support youth workers and front-line practitioners to take a comprehensive look at the role of creative and digital arts in the promotion of intercultural dialogue, exchange of good practices in order to stimulate the innovative and creative capacities of young people.This will allow the youth work sector to support young people with a complement of skills that will help them to become active citizens.The E-Album will act as a gateway towards acquiring knowledge about best practices in youth work as well as raising awareness about the numerous social struggles young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly refugees and migrants in Europe, face. Digital photo albums can provide an alternative for when we find ourselves living within circumstances such as those delivered by the outbreak of COVID-19. In addition, oftentimes images go beyond raising awareness to creating the public and political will for social change. The current project will aim at fostering youth workers to be effective in using their photographs and voices to create tangible policy change. In some respects still photography is particularly suited to social advocacy and youth empowerment, given it requires little more from the audience than a glance. As a result, its impact is visceral and immediate—often for both the viewer and the photographer. The closing charity exhibition will be directly complementary to the album, further disseminating the results of the project, and raising awareness about its objectives among the general audience, attracting passers-by, providing a great opportunity to educate young people about both the cause and the organisations involved, therefore, widening the supporter base and generating advocacy for the issues being explored in the exhibition. The exhibition would bring the issue to life, where the professionally captured images would instigate a feeling of intimacy between the viewer and the subjects, catalysing an emotional response that will help the viewer feel a little of what the beneficiaries are experiencing. The exhibition would also provide a forum that would bring together people from the local community who wouldn’t normally meet. This in itself will act as a hive of networking and creativity, as people will form new ideas and relationships.<< Objectives >>This Erasmus+ cooperation project aims at advancing both the professional and personal development of youth workers and building the capacity of partner organisations through the exchange of best practices via photographic and digital methods. Partners plan to develop the creative skills of youth workers/educators and young people via using ICT, digital and media opportunities. The project's goal is to empower and support a core group of young people from migrant, minority, and underprivileged backgrounds. Partners will invest in the social capital of youth through developing creative skills and encouraging their positive growth. The work on youth will allow them to: capitalize on their creativity, knowledge, innovation and potential to drive change; address challenges affecting their development, both at governance and societal levels; and reach the unreached and those who have lost a sense of community and hope in the future.On the one hand, participating in multinational meetings will help employees enhance their management abilities. The two training mobilities, on the other hand, will develop youth workers' abilities to employ media and digital skills to boost young people's creativity and innovation.Participants will gain a better understanding of diverse European social environments by participating in a professional experience abroad. The training will assist partners in reviewing, refreshing, and updating their existing knowledge and abilities and applying them to their youth work practice. This project is an opportunity for youth workers and their organisations to build specific skills through photography, such as attention to detail, patience and concentration, technical knowledge in software and hardware and teamwork. Partners will accomplish the first project goal, which is to improve the professional skills of youth workers in the sector, by doing so.In accordance with the Digital Education Action Plan, the project allows CSO representatives to learn from the COVID-19 crisis, during which technology is being used at an unprecedented scale in education and training. Through the production of a digital photo album, this project is enhancing youth workers’ basic digital skills and competences for the digital transformation. That will take place by supporting digital pedagogy in photography and expertise in the use of the relevant digital tools. By this, the project will achieve its specific objective of increasing the motivation of direct and indirect beneficiaries of lifelong learning to develop ICT and media skills as a way to communicate and to use them as a purposeful everyday tool. The project's goal of enabling the exchange of good practices, knowledge and expertise in photography and digital tools in youth work will be attained during the transnational training courses which will allow for the transferability of skills between participants. Partners will also promote Erasmus+ and the opportunities it provides for young people.This will make the Program more accessible to young people who want to learn about collaboration, culture, and civic activity in a European environment.This would enable them to build and enhance personal, social, and civic skills, as well as critical thinking, creativity, and empowerment. This relationship will be developed with regional and local interconnections in mind.To assist youth work at the grass-roots level, activities as training, dissemination, and local workshops will be done. It will strengthen cross-sectoral collaboration by fostering synergies, complementarity, and variety among organizations, as well as increased young participation. In addition to that, the follow-up activities implemented by partner organisations will secure the replicability and sustainability of the project’s objectives in the future. Combined with the intention of applying for future Erasmus+ projects will safeguard the cause’s long-term viability.<< Implementation >>Planning, preparation, implementation, and follow-up are the four steps of this cooperation partnership project.The following items will be included in the implementation stage:1. Management responsibilitiesManagement plan development; monitoring and quality evaluation plan development; communication plan development; risk assessment plan development; promotion and dissemination plan development; and sustainability plan developmentFour transnational project meetings will be held, as well as frequent online sessions.We will be able to make face-to-face personal contacts at the kick-off meeting.Partners will review all project milestones and activities, as well as anticipated project results for the target groups. They will also develop a solid plan for regular interaction and how to fit stakeholder needs.The mid-term evaluation meeting will allow us to fine-tune the E-designed Album's program and photography techniques, as well as discuss local accomplishments.Partners will assess how well all activities are being implemented and how far the project is progressing.The selection and editing of photo materials for the E-Album will be aided by the evaluation meeting. Participants in local activities that the partners have organized will provide feedback.The photo elements that will be included in the final version of the E-Album will be decided by the partners.The last meeting will feature a charity exhibition and conclude with a project summary in order to produce a final report. This discussion will focus on the accomplishments made in regard to the project's initial goals. Through a display of the selected photographs, the event will focus on presenting the project's impact to various target groups, lessons learned, follow-up activities, and a sustainability strategy.2. There will be two training courses implemented. The first training course will be held in Bulgarina. The second training course will be held in Italy.3. Throughout the project all partners will work on creation of E-Album - the main deliverable of this cooperation partnership.4. All partners will implement local learning and training activities.5. Throughout the project, frequent monitoring and evaluation will be carried out.All mobilities, local and diffusion efforts, as well as the project's mid-term and final evaluations, will be evaluated.6. Promotion and dissemination will begin before the project proposal is funded and will last until the project is completed.In six nations, there will be offline and online activities as well as multiplier events.All of the project's activities are designed to be accessible and inclusive, and are open to persons with fewer opportunities. To complement their physical activities and increase cooperation amongst partner organizations, the initiative integrates the use of digital tools and learning approaches.<< Results >>The tangible outcomes of the project will primarily consist of the development of E-Albums for the purposes of fostering photographic and digital skills throughout the promotion of best practices of youth work, alongside with the complementary charity photography exhibition, which will act as a catalyst for the diffusion of project results as well as collecting funds for the securitization of free art classes for youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. The improvement of capacities of organisations active in the fields of youth work, and notably in the areas of creativity, in addition to the enhancement of professional development of youth workers and educators by exchange of good practices and experiences will constitute part of the intangible results. Throughout this project, participants will develop their emotional intelligence and effective communicative, collaborative and creative skills via learning how to utilise various digital and media tools particularly relevant to the sphere of photography. That will further have a positive impact on their networking and team working abilities, as well as will encourage the inclusion of local civil society organisations and actors. Ultimately, youth workers will improve their soft skills, such as leadership skills, presentation skills and analytical thinking as well as be given new creative tools to use in their everyday work with young people as a result of this initiative. The project will further inspire the participants to promote those skills development among their colleagues, youth target groups and other youth NGOs. The project’s transnational dimension will contribute to a more comprehensive outlook on European values, trust building and mutual understanding. The joint creative endeavours in an intercultural context is another important benefit providing for the intercultural exchange and dialogue.