Despite the fact that the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union emphasizes the importance of young people to participate in democratic life, a recent survey (Eurobarometer) mentions that those between 15-20 or not in education, employment or training ( NEETs) are less likely to have voted in political elections. Specifically, only 28,7% of NEETs are interested in politics and 26,7% participated in social activities (Eurofound), while the less educated or less involved in social activities, the less take part in voting. Also, all partner countries (except Italy) are below the EU average (68%) regarding the participation of young people in elections at each level, while in last European Elections (2014) 72,2% of those aged 18-24 were the greatest abstainers. Within this context of low participation, the increasing use of internet and social media could create new routes to political engagement. More than 80% of young people aged 16-29 use the internet and social networking sites on a daily basis, however more of them have insufficient digital skills (only 40%) and only 2% of the digitally competent can demonstrate critical thinking, while searching information online. At the same time the rise of fake news on the internet and social media and its potential to impact on democracy through influencing voter behaviours has created new alarming challenges. Therefore the combination of low civic and political engagement and low digital skills in partner countries have intensified the need to address both issues, countering also fake news, propaganda and manipulation.To address the above, YouthMythBusters project aims to promote engagement and in democratic and civic life of youth people and those at risk of social exclusion (NEETs) and to enhance their critical thinking and media literacy in order to strengthen democracy and fight manipulation, propaganda and fake news. More specifically the project will aim at:•Enhanced capacities and knowledge of 25 young influencers (5 per country)•Stimulating young influencers to assume the role of the leader in order to activate their peers•Enhancing media literacy of at least 125 (25 per country) NEETs and other vulnerable groups to strengthen democracy and fight manipulation, propaganda and fake news•Promoting engagement and participation in democratic and civic life among NEETs and other vulnerable groups•Enhancing critical thinking of NEETs and other vulnerable groups•Increased awareness of the challenges faced by low civic and political engagement•Fighting fake news, manipulation and propaganda in partner countries•Enhanced cooperation between project partners and other stakeholders in countering manipulation, populism, propaganda and fake news •Increased awareness (among general public and target groups) regarding the fight against fake news, propaganda and manipulation and the importance of civic and political engagement for youth •Stimulating bloggers to activate peers and to fight fake news, propaganda and manipulationThe above will be achieved through the implementation of the following activities:O1. Capacity Building Programme•A.1.1 Design and Development of capacity building programme for young leaders•A.1.2 Delivery of capacity building to young leaders•A.1.3 Establishment of Youth National Advisory Groups•A.1.4 Establishment of European Network of Youth National Advisory GroupsO2. E-Learning Platform•A.2.1 Development of online platform•A.2.2 Selection of NEETs and other young vulnerable people•A.2.3 E-learning implementation O3. Guide-toolkit on peer-to-peer myth busting action•A.3.1 Development of guide-toolkit on how to organize myth busting - fact checking teams and actions•A.3.2 Creation of myth busting teams of peers by the young leaders & implementation of actions at local/nationa/european level•A.3.3 Selection of the best myth busting action at national and EU levelO4. Recommendations for increasing civic and political engagement and participation of youth•A.4.1 Evaluation of the outcomes and impact of the project•A.4.2 Development of national and European recommendations papersThe impact of the project will be national and European, as the promotion of civic and political engagement of youth at risk of social exclusion (NEETs) and the enhancement of their media literacy will enhance their social inclusion. Also, at European level the impact will be great given that more sustainable and inclusive communities will be built through the fight against fake news, propaganda and the civic and political engagement of the youth, which is aligned with the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027. The project aims to influence the policy makers through the recommendations to establish tailor-made solutions in order to engage more young people to civic and democratic life. Also, the availability of the E-Learning Platform and the recommendations in several languages will maximize the impact of the project.

"Since its inception, the European Community has been involved in conflict prevention and crisis management to protect human life and to promote human security. The Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam introduced new instruments for political/diplomatic and security/military action under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Gangs and gang crime similarly cannot be dealt with as a national issue in order to have real impact in communities. Membership of gangs is becoming complex and multicultural / multi ethnic as people become more mobile. The increasingly international Dimension of some street gangs poses a cross border threat. (Europol - European Police Office, Annual Report 2011). Most large European cities are increasingly confronted with the phenomenon of street violence often generated by urban youth groups. These groups are responsible for much of the violence committed contributing to a feeling of insecurity in and across our communities. Most gang members, especially in the groups studied recently in Europe, are juveniles or very young adults (European Journal of Criminology - Street Gang Violence in Europe – 2006).Within FRAME GANG project, a set of piloting tools, materials and a training methodology were developed with the aim of identifying the competences that professionals need to engage within local communities affected by gangs. Three Intellectual Outputs were developed. The IO1 ""Definition of the European gang context, professionals working in it and their profiles"" brings forward the gang definition for each country and at European level, the portrait of communities affected by gangs and the professionals working in those communities and the professional profile based on a common structure. This desk and field report was the cornerstone for IO2, “Development of a European Competency Framework for Community Professionals working in gang related environments”. The Framework presents the needed competencies, knowledge and skills to deal, combat and prevent the gang phenomenon, aiming at reaching a common language and mutual understanding between professionals on how to address this issue. The third and final IO of FRAME GANG’s project is “Development of an online platform to support the structure and content of the previous outputs”. The partnership decided to insert the EFC-Gang “navigation tool” within the project website since it would promote the project’s visibility to a wider audience, while simultaneously providing background information about the project. Furthermore, a virtual library was created to allow access to a variety of rich resources related to each competency, further promoting the knowledge & skills of the professionals.This was all accomplished due to the joint work of the project consortium that gathered 8 organisations from 4 different countries: Fundação O Século - Portugal, IPS_Innovative Prison Systens - Portugal, Centrul pentru Promovarea Învăării Permanente - Romania, Centrul de Educaţie Creştină şi Cultură Contemporană AREOPAGUS - Romania, Labdaros ir paramos fondas ""Garstycios grudas"" - Lithuania, Viesoji istaiga, Psichologines paramos ir konsultavimo centras - Lithuania, Università degli Studi di Sassari - Italy and Istituto Europeo per lo Sviluppo Socio Economico - Italy. Throughout the project lifespan, the partners worked closely not only to develop the project Intellectual Outputs, but also to disseminate the project and its results.The partnership reached the following outcomes:1) The development of a new platform for Community-Skills stakeholders and a common view regarding gang contexts;2) A total of 82 professionals provided their contributions/experience to the project, through the organisation of 8 workshops and other 21 professionals participated in the semi-structured interviews; 3) A total of 39 stakeholders attended the short-term joint-staff training events focusing on the European Framework of Competences;4) 1 project website;5) Nearly 50 key-stakeholders - relevant to the local community, to the local communities, public policy makers and professionals – participated in the 4 workshops (multiplier events) to showcase the online platform and the project results;The feedback received from experts, those participating in FRAME GANG, sustains partnership belief that the project will have long-term benefits since the European Framework of Competencies can be used, in the future, to guide the lifelong process of professionals and to provide a pedagogical structure for training providers interested in developing a new educational experience."

Nations invest in innovation to promote sustainable economic growth. While many countries are suffering from the effects of global economic difficulties, such as rising unemployment and soaring public debt, the role of labor input is decreasing in the 21st century economy. Only innovation-driven growth has the potential to create value-added jobs and industries. Because innovation is largely derived from advances in the STEM-disciplines, an increasing number of jobs at all levels require STEM knowledge. Innovation involves the integration of diverse STEM skills and transcends disciplines. Today, there is a clear consensus among stakeholders on the importance of STEM education to economic innovation. STEM education in European countries fosters interdisciplinary knowledge and skills that are relevant to life and prepare students for a knowledge-based economy. The overarching goal of STEM education is to raise the current generation with innovative mindsets. STEM education includes the knowledge, skills and beliefs that are collaboratively constructed at the intersection of more than one STEM subject area.The Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science's current priorities include: Involvement of the three interests’ parties in STEM skills intensification; funding for STEM education innovations and interdisciplinary projects development aimed at foster collaborations for sharing and co-creation of new knowledge among High Schools or/and Education Institutions; Better STEM through better STEM teachers: fostering change management in education and development of education change management strategies for each High School; Improvement and digitization of STEM infrastructure. To address these problems, many initiatives and programmes have been pursued in Europe, such as “The New Skills Agenda” initiative from the European Commission to focus on improving the quality and relevance of STEM skills development, to promote STEM studies and careers and to support teachers’ professional development. They are supplemented in some countries by national approaches to deal with STEM issues. According to the STEM Education policies report from October 2018 attracting more students and teachers to STEM education through a global approach from primary to adult education will better anticipate the skills needed for the society of the future.The main idea of the project is to develop a Network of 7 Educational Hubs for students, aged between 13 and 19 years old working as a shared spaces. Our project aim is to empower the creative and entrepreneurial students and learners’ community by generating inspiring work spaces, increasing key competences and organizing educational and social events and providing personalized services to help members grow. It will work to foster innovative learning approaches, educational entrepreneurship and to stimulate educational innovations through STEM-Knowledge platform by creating opportunities for European cross-border networking. This web platform will be created in parallel to provide common open source resources and learning space for young people, teachers, educators, youth workers etc. Its structure will accommodate teaching, training and self-learning sections with various toolboxes and digital teaching, learning and self-assessment tools. It will be an open and collaborative platform for knowledge building and sharing aiming to help young people understand and study the STEM issues. Our collaborative co-working space will help the target groups to gain new knowledge and skills, raise their capacity and grow their ideas and ventures at any stage of their development. Mobilities and study visits to partner ICT companies will be organised. Increasing the motivation of the young people towards studying STEM subjects and raising achievement in these areas are important challenges faced by European education systems; the way STEM is approached in schools is key to addressing them. To complete the findings of the STEM Education the project will have focus also on collecting information about how STEM teachers throughout Europe organise their teaching practices. It will support the teacher education level, claiming that teachers were not prepared to address the needs of their profession.The STEM education model emphasizes the importance of integrated teaching knowledge to successfully transition from the departmentalized model of teaching to an integrated model that promotes innovation.In order to achieve our goals, we believe that transnational cooperation is the only way forward, as only through sharing experience and best practice, we could ensure high quality results with great EU-added value. As it is evident from the partners’ descriptions, our consortium offers different expertise in various areas, which cannot be identified in one country, especially taking into account the project’s topic and its innovative approach.

<< Background >>Higher education sector, one of the most important in Europe, now more than ever, needs qualified academicians to instruct youngsters who will be future workforce with the right mix of skills, both professional and transversal, which will better knowledge transfer to youngsters. In this context, the ClassTHIFA project will develop the tools necessary for skillsenhancement, targeted to higher education, which will enhance better knowledge transfer where transforming a class into team, is very important in effective learning. Cognitivebehavior tools, using 5 senses in learning, and converting classes into smaller teams and whole team creates an environment for effective learning, as it’s described in Berne's transactional analysis and Bloom’s taxonomy. In the European context, ClassTHIFA project will create a potential development key; development of new e-learning tools for students, trainers and professionals; to promote the application of good practices for the enhancement of innovative skills; and to provide knowledge, skills and competences by using virtual tools.<< Objectives >>The ClassTHIFA Project will provide an important tool for educators to facilitate communication skills within the classroom. In this way, educators will be able, for instance, to convert the classroom climate into a successful team instead of individual learners.Our project will help out in smoothing communication problems during HE education/training and improve the level of efficiency in HE. The project will provide an important tool for educators to facilitate the classroom in conversion to a successful team which will get along very well.In brief, ClassTHIFA will create an tool which will give support the EU objective in stimulating innovative learning and teaching practices in Higher Education. Besides that, we will create a virtual coaching platform that will be building an inclusive and connected system - developing, testing and implementing flexible and modular coaching methodology.<< Implementation >>Project partnership comprises 9 institutions from 6 European countries (Romania, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and Turkey) presenting a balanced geographic coverage. There is a mixture of institutions with different profiles, capacities and complementary competences that are appropriate for the development of the work programme (higher education institutions, SMEs and non-profit institutions). A set of implementation activities will materialise the project objectives, supported by preparation, management, quality and dissemination activities that will ensure the propagation of its results even after the project has ended.All of the project results are the outcomes of six (5) project results.1. A Beyond-State-of-the-art & Development of Coaching Methodology- RO12. ClassTHIFA Trainer’s Handbook -RO23. ClassTHIFA MOOC development-RO34. ClassTHIFA Virtual Coaching Platform -RO45. ClassTHIFA Practice Result research-RO5We will implement the above mentioned activities in 30 months.<< Results >>The Virtual Coaching Platform will create a webplatform which will gather HE stakeholders who are willing to improve their educational environment in their institutions. Besides that, a Project Ambassadors Group will be formed and will disseminate the handbook of good practices through a Linkedin group, among others. The Training the Coaches intensive training will be attended by selected instructors of the universities involved in the project; it will involve training sessions, combining e-learning sessions and physicalpresence, mixing different learning tools and methodologies. With the realization of ClassTHIFA, members of the target groups, instructors of HEI’s, managers and potential ones ofeducation and training companies as well as other stakeholders in the field, are expected to benefit from the project results during the lifetime of the project, either by their participation in multiplier events and validation workshops or by subscribing to the Virtual Coaching platform, by using the ClassTHIFA E-book, by participating in the intensive training course, by getting informed by the newsletters and by participating in the Virtual Coaching platform.After the project conclusion, the platform will remain operational and it will host the final version of all project results which could by freely downloaded by external stakeholders;moreover it will be available for further development and testing by the partners. The Project Ambassadors LinkedIn group will be the ground for new project proposals and newproducts ideas. Moreover, partners commit themselves to use the learning materials developed as part of their daily activities.In brief, in ClassTHIFA project, a coaching model for educators will be created to enable them with coaching tools in order to transform their classes into “TEAMS”. This coaching method will be based on effective communication using1. Combine verbal and non-verbal behavior while communicating,2. Creative and varied instructional approach3. Patient, insistent, encouraging and supportive.4. Time-management, and use of wait time (while students are working or thinking to respond)5. Relate lesson content to student interest,6. Peer learning/teaching; team-work7. 5 senses,and it will help educators to create a TEAM in the class where the attendants will learn more effectively.

<< Background >>The COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history, affecting many students in all European Union and it has presented unique challenges toall types and levels of learning. Despite the efforts put in place to ensure “anyone-anywhere-anytime learning”, the pandemic has demonstrated the weakness of a still unfinishedprocess, highlighting inhomogeneity between territories, problems of connectivity (digital divide) and technological equipment and aggravating social inequalities. The current crisis hasshown that there is no digital inclusion without social inclusion and students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds (migrants, asylum seekers, learners with disabilities andspecial educational need) were and still are, the target most affected by the pandemic. Considering this context, DIGITEACH aims to ensure learning continuity for all schools’ learners– with particular attention for those with special education need (SEN) and on who suffer of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by deploying digital tools and methods todeliver quality and inclusive education.DIGITEACH will use an innovative pedagogy approach on the use of new technological tools not only technology-oriented but teacher oriented involving about 210 school teachers /educators among each country partner (30 participants per country). Participants, that will be selected by the project partners, will be school teachers / educators of any grade withadequate level of English knowledge, proficient communication skills, social media skills, motivation and commitment to take part in the project.Partners also conducted a preliminary need analysis to better understand what are the context/targets needs to be answered with project activities.Partners, besides national reports, mostly relied on EU official reports to understand with a transnational view, school education needs after COVID-related lockdown.What emerged from this preliminary need analysis is that:- digital skills are particularly important given the radical shift towards online teaching during the COVID-19 lockdown in many EU countries. Even before the crisis, teachers reported a strong need for training for digital pedagogical skills, with 18% on average across EU countries identifying this as a high training need (OECD, 2019). This is the second commonest training need teachers identified, just after teaching special needs students. However, not only are teachers reporting a need for digital skills training, they are also not relying on distance learning for their own professional development (THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON EDUCATIONINSIGHTS FROM EDUCATION AT A GLANCE 2020 (OECD),- just before the crisis, the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) conducted an analysis of the readiness for digital learning of education systems across the EU. The picture that emerged was not very encouraging: for 2/3 of the respondents e-teaching was a new experience but the majority think online learning came to stay.DIGITEACH wants then to respond to the need to develop further digital competences of teachers, promoting their participation in continuous professional development,, involving them in future policy design and fostering their wellbeing.DIGITEACH target group will be teachers/educators and special teachers of school learners and school learners with ADHD (SEN) of any school grade of any teaching subjects.In the EU, in 2018 (EUROSTAT), there were 15.7 million children in early childhood education. In primary education, there were 24.5 million pupils enrolled. 18.3 million students were enrolled in lower secondary education. Finally, there were 17.7 million students in upper secondary education, covering both general studies and vocational studies. In 2018, 5.8 millionpeople worked as school teachers. These are teachers who work at primary through to upper secondary level.<< Objectives >>The choice of this priority is directly linked to the main objective of DIGITEACH project that is to deploy digital tools and methods to deliver quality and inclusive education and support school teachers / educators in delivering online classes by promoting the use of open, technological and innovative educational resources.DIGITEACH is not focused just on exploring “new technological tools”, but in developing Knowledge Building environments (KBE) in general that enhance collaborative efforts to create and continually improve ideas. Inspiring on the Engaging Learning Environment (ELE) model of designing new learning environments, DIGITEACH thinks of learning as an iterative and cyclical process made up by different phases including diagnosing of contexts and current knowledge, going through and facilitating various inquiries in which new knowledge and understanding is produced, and assessing learning gains and knowledge as an integral part of learning.This innovative model characterizes equally the activities of teachers, students, professionals and researchers and in DIGITEACH will be transferred and applied on school teachers/trainers in order:- to provide to schools’ teachers / educators digital pedagogical competences enabling them to deliver high quality inclusive digital education and safeguarding the inclusive nature of learning opportunities;- to increase the cooperation between national/regional authorities to promote the development of education and school teachers / educators training and their integration in actions of local and regional development.Thanks also to the grounded, multidisciplinary and complementary expertise of the partnership on inclusivity, digital educational and innovative technologies development, DIGITEACH characterizing element is the combination between the theoretical activities about innovative digital aspects and the organization in specific teaching modules with practical application.Responsiveness, adaptability and flexibility of our project responses to the need of supporting the process of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic are also reflected in the set of actions that will be implemented and of the Intellectual Outputs that will be delivered. In particular, the project expects to prepare schools’ teachers trained in the design and implementation of distance learning courses, in order to respond to future education scenarios needing high digital competences and grounded digital pedagogical approaches to guarantee an inclusive education also for the most vulnerable categories of students.<< Implementation >>Regarding the activities, DIGITEACH is made up of 3 Working Packages:WP1 “Analysis of Local Contexts on how the Pandemic has impacted the School Systems”, that thanks to desk research activities and the direct involvement of target group and mainstakeholders (by telephone/online direct interviews analysing the situation of Distance Learning from different points of view) will provide an evidence based analysis of local contextson how the pandemic had an impact on school systems. Finalization of these activities will bring to delivering a Comparative Report on how the Pandemic has impacted the EducationSystems in the participating countries (IO1).WP2 “Training course on digital pedagogies for school teachers/educators”, that will implement a self-paced online program able to enhance school teachers/educators digital skills,especially focusing on pedagogy aspects in relation to technology and on meaningful use of digital tools to engage learners, in particular ADHD ones. Within WP2 an OpenEducational Resources (IO2) and Virtual Learning Community Platform (IO3) will be provided.WP 3 “Evaluation and Follow-up” will aim at responding to the needs of evaluation and follow up by using the Control Group Method. In each partner country two groups of schoolteachers/educators will be made up in the same institute, one it would be the Experimental Group made up of whom have received DIGITEACH training and the second it would be theControl Group composed by whom didn’t received it. Two groups will be observed by the partnership during the same frame time and school teachers/educators’ skills and practicalactions; students’ performance and scholastic centre/institution pedagogical management will be analyzed. Then an Analysis and recommendation manual for increasing digitalpedagogy (IO4) will be delivered.<< Results >>The choice of this priority is directly linked to the main objective of DIGITEACH project that is to deploy digital tools and methods to deliver quality and inclusive education and support school teachers / educators in delivering online classes by promoting the use of open, technological and innovative educational resources.DIGITEACH is not focused just on exploring “new technological tools”, but in developing Knowledge Building environments (KBE) in general that enhance collaborative efforts to create and continually improve ideas. Inspiring on the Engaging Learning Environment (ELE) model of designing new learning environments, DIGITEACH thinks of learning as an iterative and cyclical process made up by different phases including diagnosing of contexts and current knowledge, going through and facilitating various inquiries in which new knowledge and understanding is produced, and assessing learning gains and knowledge as an integral part of learning.This innovative model characterizes equally the activities of teachers, students, professionals and researchers and in DIGITEACH will be transferred and applied on school teachers/trainers in order:- to provide to schools’ teachers / educators digital pedagogical competences enabling them to deliver high quality inclusive digital education and safeguarding the inclusive nature of learning opportunities;- to increase the cooperation between national/regional authorities to promote the development of education and school teachers / educators training and their integration in actions of local and regional development.Thanks also to the grounded, multidisciplinary and complementary expertise of the partnership on inclusivity, digital educational and innovative technologies development, DIGITEACH characterizing element is the combination between the theoretical activities about innovative digital aspects and the organization in specific teaching modules with practical application.Responsiveness, adaptability and flexibility of our project responses to the need of supporting the process of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic are also reflected in the set of actions that will be implemented and of the Intellectual Outputs that will be delivered. In particular, the project expects to prepare schools’ teachers trained in the design and implementation of distance learning courses, in order to respond to future education scenarios needing high digital competences and grounded digital pedagogical approaches to guarantee an inclusive education also for the most vulnerable categories of students.