The project Challenge to connect represents a transnational partnership with organizations from Romania, Portugal, Greece and Macedonia and tackles the lack of parental involvement among low skilled parents from the partner organizations through provision of adult educators training and learning activities in communication and family literacy fields. The project will be developed between 1.09.2019-31.06.2021 and its specific objectives are>•To learn share and discuss effective strategies for parental involvement through peer to peer exchange of ideas between 20 adult educators from the partners countries with a focus on low skilled parents. •To develop knowledge skills and tools in developing communication and family literacy among 20 adult educators from the partner countries through development of 4 international workshops•To foster development of literacy and social skills among 320 parents from the partner countries in order to increase their involvement through the development of family literacy program in local communities on a 3 month periodFor the achievement of the aforementioned objectives, the partners will implement 4 international activities which will promote sharing experiences and practices in parental involvement models with a focus on low skilled parents, discussing barriers and strategies, build effective communication skills of adult educators so they be able to engage in dialogue with parents accroding to their needs, developing staff knowledge and skills in family literacy topics, with a view to take action both at parent level and children level as well. As part of experiential learning the staff will create and implement a family literacy program focused on the main 4 services in family literacy: adult education, childhood education, parental education and parent/child activities from which a total number of 320 parents and 160 children will benefit. The program will develop parents and children literacy and social skills, will create create linkages between different community actors as the partners will seek to involve other community stakeholders, will foster positive relationship parent- child and will impact parental involvement levels in the partner countries.

"<< Objectives >>The project ""Nature into School"" aims to promote equal opportunities in terms of learning through free play and in nature and/or outdoors with natural elements for all children, especially those with fewer opportunities. Inclusion and Diversity in education are the focus of this project as we aim to reach education professionals from social institutions that educate and care for children from families with fewer opportunities.<< Implementation >>The project consists of a program of:*Training educators from social institutions;*Sharing of knowledge and experience in outdoor learning and free play to co-create an approach to improving the quality of Early Childhood Education and Care, and*Environmental awareness.Over 24 months, it will include 8 Training Activities (5 in-person: 4 in Portugal and 1 in Turkey; 3 online), 5 Dissemination Events (3 in-person in Portugal and 2 online), and 3 Transnational Meetings.<< Results >>The multinational partnership will provide answers to the development of high-quality early childhood education, especially in social institutions that care for children with fewer opportunities, as well as contribute to environmental awareness and climate change mitigation through environmental education.Development of the Methodological Guide and video on “Connecting School to Nature” to offer sessions to raise awareness of the importance of the approach created in the project."

"<< Objectives >>-Increase the level of knowledge about bullying phenomenon, types of bullying and its manifestation-to raise awareness on causes and consequences of bullying and cyberbullying-Reduce existing direct and indirect bullying problems among secondary school children in and outside of school;-Prevent the development of new bullying problems; and create a friendly and positive social climate at school so that students, in particular bullies, interacted and functioned better at and outside of school<< Implementation >>*There will be 4 LTTs-Know-How meeting (Teachers)-Practical Ways for Bullying Prevention (Teachers)-Act Against Psychological&Verbal&Physical Bullying (students)-Act Against Cyber Bullying & Hate Speech (students)*There will be 4 eTwinning virtual meeting.*Management and Implementation in each partner organisation-Logo-Website-ebook-Local workshops-eTwinning Project-eTwinning live events<< Results >>Tangible results:- Logo- Leaflet/Poster/Brochure- Website- eTwinning Project- Social Media Accounts (Instagram,Facebook,Twitter)- e-book- Comic StripIntangible results:- Increased understanding of the themes of “Bullying, Cyberbullying and violence at school”- Increased students’ awareness of the role of bystanders-Increased teachers’ awareness on preventing bullying- Increased empathy, group work and collaboration, anger control, problem solving, and the ability to say ""no"""

The project idea has arised from the problem of not having quality extra-curricular activities at schools that can support the courses and other learning tools for the development of children. The social activities have a positive impact on the personality, cognitive development and psychosocial wellbeing of a person. On the other hand, it can be observed at schools that the extra-curricular activities are generally underrated and they are ignored because more importance is given to the academic achievement in the courses. Another reason is that extra-curricular activities are regarded as extra-tasks that don't have to be taken into consideration in terms of teachers, as they are the ones guiding the students for these tasks. Therefore, the fundamental objective of this project is to be get informed the different practices in extracurricular activities at schools in different school education systems, with the ultimate aim of exchanging and applying the good practices among different school systems in the Europe. Also, we would like to strengthen school education, increase quality and change practices for the better. One of the most important objectives of the project is to increase student motivation by using rich types of extra-curricular activities and make school more attractive for students with disadvantaged circumstances and keep them away from harmful habits and lifestyle. In order to reach these objectives, the partnership has been founded on the grounds that they will add positive value and bring diversity during the implementation of the project. Therefore, it has been attempted to include the partner countries whose education systems and practices differ from one another in terms of extra-curricular activities and their operating systems at schools. The partners are local and regional education authorities and an NGO related with the subject of the project from Turkey, Italy, Romania, Greece and Latvia.Throughout the partnership, it is targeted to reach approximately 5000 people who are teachers, students, headmasters, education decision makers, parents and the wider audience in the communities. Of these indirectly participating in the project activities, at least 3000 of them will be individuals with disadvantaged backgrounds and social obstacles. The number of the directly participating individuals on different activities of the project will have been at least 2000 by the end of the project. The main activities of the project will get information about the practices of extra-curricular activities at schools during the trasnational meetings. The teachers, the educational managers and the decision makers about the education will work in cooperation with one another. The local activities are going to be exchanging good practices, meetings and seminars for teachers who are counselling students in extra-curricular activities. These will be reported and exchanged both through online contacts and during the project meetings and transnational meetings. The transnational project activities will be presentations about good practices of extra-curricular activities in the partner regions, informative seminars and conferences about the necessity of extra-curricular activities, and the ways to achieve good quality results. A wide range of reseach will be implemeted to the teachers, students and decision makers to find out their tendincies towards Extra Curricular Activities at schools. At the end of the project a good practice guide will be published with the contribution of all 5 partners. The results and outputs of the project will be the products in the student fairs, seminar/conference/reports, a wide range of reseach, good practices guide, the qualitative and the quantitative result reports of the project. The impacts of the project on the participants will be gaining awareness on the importance of extra-curricular activities at schools on the European level, extending their vision, increasing occupational competence and getting informed on the good practices concerning extra-curricular studies in different countries. The partner organizations will develop their institutional capacity and will become internationalized, increase their school education quality. There will be good impacts on the target groups and on the larger audiences as well. The schools will be improved with alternative and various ways of conducting extra-curricular activities, include their students with fewer opportunities more in the school environment. Also, the interaction among the local institutions will increase. The parents and families will be more motivated for social events at schools. These outputs and impacts will be disseminated to the concerning institutions and organizational bodies. The project is expected to contribute to the development of the quality of school education in the longer term.

<< Background >>As stated into the ECEC Council Recommendation, early childhood education and care provision needs to be part of an integrated child-rights based package of policy measures to improve outcomes for children and break intergenerational cycles of disadvantage. In line with this aim, LISTEN want to promote access on ECEC school and inclusive opportunities at local and EU level helping to address the barriers faced by these people and contributing to creating and inclusive society and environments that foster equity and equality and that are responsive to the needs of the wider community. LISTEN want to implement bridge actions to promote an open dialogue between the school, the civil society and marginalised families, creating tools to restore the synergies lost during the tragic period of the first outbreaks in the EU and providing safe spaces for all to build a more heterogeneous and peaceful community of people who live in the same places. ECEC schools will be facilitated to collaborate with the civil society, represented by volunteers and will become the meeting point for the whole local community, contributing to play an essential role in learning to live together in heterogeneous societies and strengthening social cohesion and inclusion of disadvantaged families, with a special focus on social-emotional learning of these children that can learn easily how to be empathic as well as learn about their rights, equality, tolerance and diversity. LISTEN project will implement actions to support ECEC system to facilitate access to ECEC school to disadvantaged children, creating tailored made actions to improve high-quality of the EU systems (PR1&PR2) and providing policy recommendations (PR3) based on +7 different local communities and in 6 different ECEC systems. At last, using a g-local and bottom-up strategy developed in close collaboration with local and EU stakeholders, LISTEN will contribute day by day to break the circle of disadvantage and contribute to promote innovative reforms for the ECEC systems in EU.<< Objectives >>LISTEN project aims to support an early childhood education and care provision of good quality for all in the EU as highlighted by the EC in the European Pillar of Social Rights, its Action Plan (2017-2018) and the new EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child and the European Child Guarantee (2020-2021). The impact of a high-quality ECEC has a multiple positive effects by contributing to better include parents in the civil society, in the labour market and by achieving more gender equality. An inclusive ECEC system is crucial to address inequality and social exclusion of families, especially in that countries where ECEC schools aren’t supported by public institutions. Moreover, ECEC systems have to be more supported with new and more innovative practices children—based and targeted to inclusive approaches. A crucial aspect is the professionalization of the staff involved and a new design of services that should be child-centred in synergies with educators. Training opportunities and new methods have to be tested and included in the learning pathway of ECEC staff that needs complex knowledge, skills and competences as well as a deep understanding of child development, especially in situation that involves children with fewer opportunities. A high-level preparation of the staff and higher quality staff-child interactions have a positive and strong impact on a better quality of the ECEC and better developmental outcomes for children. For this reason, project’s objectives are to: -Develop a high-quality early-childhood education and care model promoting intergenerational solidarity approach method that involves actively local communities;-Increase competence development and professionalization of ECEC staff, teachers and educators, in providing innovative ECEC using intergenerational solidarity approach for social inclusion of children with migrant/socio-economic disadvantaged backgrounds; Promote solidarity initiative and innovative learning environments using formal and non-formal methodologies to increase dialogue and cooperation among key stakeholders and actors at local, national and EU level.<< Implementation >>LISTEN project plans to implement: - An open curriculum with online training modules developed for teachers and co-created with educators that supports their skill-building and fosters cognitive, language and social development of disadvantaged children to be integrated in ECEC schools. This activity will involve +120 ECEC staff which will be trained in blended version on innovative ECEC approaches and how to include in their teaching practices; - Local activities for parents to support parenting and improve the quality of the impact of child’s growth inside the project and after;- a cycle of activities (+4 months) engaging in social integration actions +300 pupils (at least 125 with fewer opportunities) based on the intergenerational solidarity approach and implemented in collaboration with the civil society represented by volunteers; - a cycle of small-size laboratories and workshops as well as events in the local communities in collaboration with local NGOs (+50 subjects involved in the project) to facilitate bridge activities and create inclusive spaces in which schools are in the centre of a process that led to integration of children, especially those have disadvantaged backgrounds. The overall activities are designed to increase synergies between key actors for the healthy growth of children to fight marginalization and break the circle of disadvantage as well as restore the relation at local level of the individuals after the outbreak of the last year. Pursuing the promotion of high-quality early childhood education and care in EU, we contribute to build healthier and integrated new generations in the future.<< Results >>LISTEN project will produce the following results: - new innovative tools to stimulate innovation in ECEC and targeted to teachers (one online training curriculum), to children (activity kit to interact with volunteers and learn more about the local community in which they live), to volunteer (tools to share the intangible results and lessons learnt through the life with the new generations), to families (activities to provide new tools to feel more inclusive in the local community and purse a positive attitude for the future) and to the civil society (guidelines to build common, safe and inclusive spaces in which children are central and can be the fuel of the integration); -Increase open dialogue and interactions between the wider ECEC school communities and the civil society through solidarity actions (+ 25 inclusive informal meetings and actions) in the learning process, including parents and decision makers and in raising awareness and interest in ECEC high-quality system and approaches to support children in their development.-Increase synergies between key actors for the healthy growth of children to fight marginalization and break the circle of disadvantage. - Policy recommendations to support quality framework in early childhood education and care systems and propose more comprehensive and consistent approaches to reforms. - Increase participation of the society in the promotion of high-quality early childhood education and care in EU following the European Social Rights Pillar and introducing innovative approaches based on an exchange between old and new generations.