"Language training institutions, Foundation Ad Meritum from Poland and Active Language School from Slovakia adapted the methodology for informal laguage learning for immigrants, developed by the Greek institution Action Synergy during the European multilateral project called: ""METIKOS-Informal Language Learning for Immigrants"" in the years 2011-2013. The methodology of the project Metikos concerns how immigrants can learn informal language of the host country through participation in activities such as: language cafe, the tandem and cyber cafe. In this project we transfered this methodology to enlarged target groups and to another language range using the same methods: language cafe, the tandem and cyber cafe.Target groups: -immigrants who already exist in the community, often operate on the labour market, often stay in the host country for their families, their children attend the schools in the host country, they are already familiar with the realities of the culture and language of the host country in the way that enables easy communication, often hold a work permit and a residence permit. While they lack sufficient knowledge of the language associated with the labour market;-people from host communities, which have low qualifications on the labour market, low awareness of the labour market and they are therefore threatened by unemployment, or even remain unemployed persons; the particular attention we will devote to persons over the age of 50 years old. These groups are well known to the partner organizations as partners on a daily basis carry out actions on them. Their needs have been identified by the partners.Informal learning tools: cyber cafe, language cafe and the tandem method are the tools that allow them to learn without incurring the high costs of participation in the courses, these tools facilitate informal learning, which does not require high financial expenditures from the participants.Language range, which is the subject of the methodology:the host country language: Polish, Slovak and Greek related to the labour market, to facilitate communication in search of work and acquire awareness of the functioning of the labour market in the countries of the partners. Knowledge of such language allow the target groups for a better understanding of the labour market, its rules and mechanisms and - as a consequence, this will allow them to better functioning of the labour market.The new methodology has been developed jointly by the three partners involved in this project, and the project partners has started to run the language and cyber cafe and the tandem method. This methodology, in the form of an e-book, has been published on the project website www.ill.org.pl and it is available free of charge.In general the project contributes to the promotion of equality and social cohesion, improving the quality of education, equal opportunities for groups with fewer opportunities and requiring special support dissemination and exploitation of project results and to open access to educational materials. In particular, the project contributes to the raising of the key competences and skills of adults needed to be the active members of the society and in the labour market."

"The integration of migrants into host societies is one of the greatest challenges and priorities of EU Member States. The rapidly growing influx of refugees from war-torn countries over the past decade has exacerbated integration and inclusion challenges in most EU Member States and tested the capacity of local infrastructure and service delivery agencies. There is a growing fear in host countries that the situation is getting out of control, while mistrust and hostility between the host society and third-country nationals is increasing. Community-based partner organisations providing services to migrants and refugees saw the need for a project that could act as a catalyst to sensitise local and migrant/refugee communities to remove prejudice and mistrust and create opportunities for intercultural exchange, cooperation and interaction. The specific objectives of the project were: - Capacity building of educators, professionals and volunteers in the field of migrant/refugee integration in local communities through exchange of best practices from partner regions. - Development and piloting of sensitisation methods and tools in the partner regions. - Organising events and forums to build awareness of the migrant/refugee integration process in each participating country, inviting members of migrant and refugee communities. The project provided direct engagement and training for at least 60 educators, facilitators and professionals involved in migrant/refugee integration activities at local level. The activities that were undertaken were: - Development and piloting of sensitisation methods and tools in participating countries: Training activities for partner staff and volunteers to transfer knowledge, new sensitisation methods, learning tools. Integrating them into the partner's educational practice. - Organising events and forums to build awareness about the integration process of migrants/refugees in each participating country, inviting migrants and refugees. The methodological choices of the partnership reflected the multidimensional nature of the project and its innovation-seeking component, in particular: a) an ""action research"" methodology accompanied by piloting and evaluation of results, b) motivating and empowerment-oriented methods for professionals in the field of migrant/refugee integration, c) ongoing learning, presenting and sharing knowledge, tools and good practices during training sessions and public forums. The results produced by the project implementation are: - Review of best practices and methodologies from the participating regions on community sensitisation on integration of immigrants and refugees. - Development and piloting of sensitisation methods and tools in the project partner regions. - Exchange of good practices on community sensitisation on integration of immigrants and refugees in the host society during international meetings, trainings, study visits and forums. The forums and study visits included migrants and refugees.The results were compiled in a guide entitled: ""SEN-CIT. Inspirational Guide', available on the project website: https://www.sencitproject.eu/Link to download the guide: https://www.sencitproject.eu/assets/files/SEN-CIT-inspirationalguide-3.pdf The dissemination of the project scope, activities and products consisted in reaching out to target groups and stakeholders, through local events, but also through the use of the project website, as well as links to the websites of partners and other partner organisations. The project implementation had a positive impact in the following areas: - Empowering the educators who attended the training sessions with valuable community sensitisation skills - Sensitisation of local host communities as well as migrants and refugees on inclusion processes, e.g. acceptance of cultural diversity, understanding of needs, service provision, etc. - To sensitise stakeholders who can promote the products and results of the SENCIT project or replicate such activities on their own."

"The project ""The methodology for creating small informal entrepreneurship centres for the youth in local communities"" has been implemented by 3 partners: Foundation Ad Meritum from Poland, De-Charles Resources Ltd from UK and Egitim Arastirma ve Gelistirme Dernegi from Turkey. Dates of project implementation: IX 2014-VIII 2016. Partner organisations formed a strategic partnership to share experiences related to facilitating the entry of young people into the labour market. The British partner already had many years of experience in the conducting of the actions to facilitate job search and learning entrepreneurship, carry out LLP projects from this area, while the Turkish and Polish partners had been leading such operations relatively recently and needed to strengthen these areas. All partners, through this project, they wanted to respond to the challenges associated with the presence of young people on the labour market and prevent their unemployment.The short-term purpose of the project was to develop a methodology for creating small, informal, local enterprise centres for young people in the local communities. To cooperate in creating the methodology all partners invited local public institutions such as schools and libraries, operating for youth, and also young people were involved in project activities. It was very important to work on this methodology together with the youth, as the project results are addressed to young people. They young people participated in the training on job searching and enterpreneurship in London, carried out for them by the British partner. During this action the youth of partner institutions who stayed in their countries, participated in this training virtually by the Internet transmission. Gained in this way, the knowledge and skills allowed young people to actively participate in the work on the methodology development, and - in the long-term perspective - they could become the leaders of entrepreneurship centres.The long-term purpose of the project, which would be possible to gain thanks to the completing of this project, would be the development of such entrepreneurship centers by the partners in their local communities. In all three partner countries such activities has ben started: in Poland: Entrepreneurship Youth Clubs in Ursynów District of Warsaw, in London: ""Business Unit Support"" with the cooperation of local chamber of commerce, in Istambul - the plan of implementing the methodology and starting Entrepreneurship Youth Club for local vocational school. The idea of creating small informal local entrepreneurship centres for young people is as follows - the place where they could:-Learn about the given region, small business established there, need for employees in these business or need for establishing own business-Participate in entrepreneurship training-Participate in meetings organised for young people by local employers-Have the opportunity to participate in the practices and internships at local businesses- Have the opportunity to participate in international exchanges to improve their language skills, cultural awareness and business and the labour market awareness.-Improve their digital competences.The Work on the methodology took place in several phases: needs analysis of young people from public institutions, such as schools or libraries, regarding their expectations to create local enterpreneurship centers, as the result of the cooperation between partners and public institutions; young people from all partner countries participated in the entrepreneurship training led by British partner in London (and those, who stayed at homes, participated virtually in the training by onine transmission, In the phase of the methodology creation the local partners were engaged : representatives of the public institutions who would like to create a local entrepreneurship centres for young people and young people, especially leaders who participated in training in London. As a result of the project the e-book ""The methodology for creating small informal entrepreneurship centres for the youth in local communities"" was developed and published on the Internet website of the project www.yec.org.pl under Creative Commons licence. Dissemination of results was done by publication on the Internet and posting information in social media, the organisation of events for the local communities, the webinar for all interested organistions. The follow-up phase of the project were the open trainings on the developed methodology for external institutions and partners wishing to establish of such enterprise centres, which are described in the manual."

ASTRA aims to engineer an upskilling educational model tailored towards a multiple and trans-generational target of: BENEFICIARIES 1. young adults (18-29 year olds), whose active participation to the labour market has always been strategic to the upkeeping of local, regional, national and continental economic livelihood, and that is increasingly more so, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and of the on-going 2020 Covid-related crisis.2. the model will be directed to those mature adults (30-65 year olds) willing to reposition themselves more competitively within the working arena in individual, sector and geographic terms. 3. seniors (aged 65 and over) will be co-opted to maximise the impact of what effectively aspires to throw the seeds of a grassroots conversion and revitalisation. LOCATIONSThe process aims to unleash the untapped high cultural and natural potentials in a sample of brown-field communities lying in the extreme NUT2 outskirt regions of the EU's Southern and Eastern peripheries: Sicily (Italy), Andalusia (Spain), Silesia (Poland).DETERMINANTS1. CULTURAL: A) The dominant cluster-and-dissolve model purpoted by the World Bank that has gone unchallenged until the late 1990s has led to massive out-migration of human resources from former mining areas to service-industry urban conglomerations, regardless of any compensative measure being taken at the point of origin of the migratory flows; B) Systematic lack of government and private support in little-funded, demographically declining communities has made economic transition hard to design – let alone implement – in industrial, economic, cultural as well educational terms.2. EDUCATIONAL:A) A mismatch between the predominantly technical secondary education on offer locally and their former quasi-exclusive employment destination emerged as soon as the mining and extractive activities were disbanded. This decades-long unresolved gap has led the educational-working demand-offer supply chain to short-circuit and, consequently, echoes in:B) spiralling early school drop out rates and fewer graduates, as a consequence of a wide-spread negative sentiment across the young and mature adults age segments (15-64 year olds) and at all geographical scales, to the point that the region the proponent organisation belongs to (formerly home to as much as 92% of global production) performs significantly lower than the EU average in terms of rate of graduates/total population at NUT0, NUT1, NUT2 levels (EU average 39.9%; Italy 26.9%; Sicily 17.8%). 3. ECONOMIC: A third of young adult jobs were lost across Mediterranean European economies (Spain, Italy, Greece) after the 2007-8 crisis and prior to 2020 Covid-19 crisis striking. While NUTS3 sub-regional unemployment figures have yet to be released by national institutes of statistics and Eurostat, in all likelihood the above contractions of the workforce will add to those caused by unmitigated closures in post-mining communities. That is why, in order to preserve the well-being of brown-field areas, a revitalisation/conversive approach – starting from adult education actions – is essentially and undelayable. COSTS1. ECONOMIC: if unmitigated, NEET figures will add to negative demographics, low natality, emigration, long life expectancy in making ever more inactive citizens throw a greater burden on an ever smaller share of actives. Up to 1 in 5 peak-age workers will be lost by 2030 and dependency will rise from 38% to 70% by 2050 (Istat 2019).2. SOCIETAL: Inactivity leads to decaying well-being and keeps youths from reaching adulthood markers. Mediterranean NEETs are aware of these costs and are also more afraid ofgetting to 45 without a job (25.5% of Italian, 10.7% of German youth). Despair leads to apathy which leads to sheltering in gaming and social networking putting them at risk of digital, alcohol or substance addiction/abuse.SOLUTIONS1. Harness the speed of development, where advanced Knowledge Intensive Systems (digital) and non-cognitive skills (creativity and entrepreneurship) demand adaptation by all age groups via upward skilling routes;2. Capsize labour policies from apprenticeships to start-up mentoring;3. Foster community resilience by transitioning from one-industry-driven local economic systems to diversified ones, cuch as the one underlying the tourism sector and relates services;4. Base the entire conversion cycle upon economic and environmental sustainability .SELECT REFERENCESConlin M V et al (2011) What Happens When Mining Leaves. A Global Synthesis, London; Mendes I (2013) Mining Rehabilitation Planning, Mining Heritage Tourism, Benefits and Contingent Valuation, SOCIUS Working Papers, Issue 3, Lisbon; Simpson A (2019) Former Coal Mining TownsTurn to Tourism, Pew Charitable Trusts; PhiladelphiaD'Urso G – Modica (2019) Resilience and Sectoral Composition Change of Italian Inner Areas in Response to the Great Recession, Sustainability 11, 2679-2693

If we say that a picture is worth a thousand words, we can say that a video is worth more than a million words. The history of humankind is linked to images: from prehistoric rock paintings to Egyptian engravings, fresco paintings in churches, illustrated books in the Renaissance, up until today, where for example the marketing industry is continuously using images to transmit thoughts. Everyday items like t-shirts, or road signs, messenger app icons allow us to understand and relate to each other through images. The human brain is capable of processing visual information way faster than textual information. The visEUalisation project shows how and why the use of the so-called visual thinking concept is beneficial for teaching. Visual thinking aims to show simple drawings and short texts, thus representing complex ideas.Project visEUalisation provided specific knowledge and techniques for trainers in adult education in order to enable the trainers to develop animated videos for their educational settings by applying a culture of visual thinking. Videoscribing or videoscribe technology was emphasized though stop motion was also explored. Although the reference sector is adult education, the project results will be easily extrapolated to all sectors of education - primary/secondary education, vocational training or higher education – and contribute to improve digital competences of the respective teaching and training staff.Project visEUalisation was in line with The European Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu) and The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp) since it supported the development of digital competence. Digital competence is a highly relevant key competence for European adult educators as digital competence enables them to facilitate contemporary learning formats. The benefits of the project approach were thus amplified by the currently still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. visEUalisation delivered an e-learning platform that offers a non-formal training for a large target audience: NGOs and NPOs in adult education, youth workers, teaching staff in general, entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises and overall people with fewer (educational) opportunities (e.g. migrants).The Consortium consisted of four complementary and expert partners. They contributed with their respective pedagogical and methodological skills and knowledge to create high-quality and impactful digital Storytelling using open source and free tools. Two focal results were produced and are now ready to be explored and utilized by the European public. The first result is the visEUalisation e-learning platform with a massive open online course (MOOC). The course provides methodological approaches as well as technology explorations in order to illustrate the full videoscribe development life cycle from idea to finished videoclip. Educators can follow tutorials and asses the possibilities at their own pace and in their own preferred order. The second result is the visEUalisation visual library. It provides 24 video templates and 2000 original images. These images were created with specific learning contexts in mind: e.g. inclusion and diversity in adult education, preventing structural discrimination, multiple intelligences, inclusive and authentic leadership, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, creativity, entrepreneurship education, ICT adult literacy, European citizenship, European awareness, gender equality and awareness, anti-discrimination of LGBTIQ*, musical Intelligences, project development, European single market, needs of learners. Though created in a specific framework all images can be adapted and altered by trainers for their specific purposes.