"' To make Europe competitive, cohesive and resilient in the future, we now need to invest in people: in education and training, skills, creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation, and health in the European Union,' reads the European Commission proposal for 2021-2027. In response to this appeal, we have decided to create a ""European partnership for skills development and social inclusion through creativity and the arts"". The implementation of this project will contribute to eliminating the problems of marginalized groups (people with disabilities, seniors, migrants) and their social exclusion, and help them improve their key competences. These people, sometimes with problems of an emotional or psychological nature, often only by various art forms (music, art, dance, theatre) are able to open up. Art opens access to our interior: emotions, needs, fears. This is especially important in the times of the pandemic that all of Europe is currently struggling with. The pandemic seriously hindered this part of society both in terms of access to culture and art, as well as active participation in its creation. Counteracting the effects of these difficulties is therefore particularly important now. In our project, we want to train educators working with groups at risk of marginalization, so that they can show their students the way to active and creative participation in culture and art, and thus improve their position in society, including the labour market.The aim of the project is to develop cooperation and exchange of experiences of educators for the creative activity of the above-mentioned people at risk of exclusion, as well as to raise and expand the professional qualifications of people working with them; disseminating art therapy methods of work; increasing digital competences among staff working with people from communities at risk of marginalization and people working for the above-mentioned environments, as well as increasing the opportunities for individual development of educators and volunteers cooperating with partner organizations; obtaining new and improving the psychological, interpersonal and methodological skills necessary in working with people at risk of exclusion. The aforementioned groups will be participants of workshops and demonstrations of methods of work.The indirect recipients will be participants of the project dissemination activities at the local, national and international level. They will be both educators and people with whom educators work. International cooperation will, to a much greater extent, guarantee the acquisition of fuller and richer knowledge, and will also allow each partner to learn about solutions, programs and methods that are worth imitating in other countries. Their implementation will enrich the education of adults and change the perspective of individual partners to the currently used methods of work. The partnership consists of organizations specialized in working with specific groups of vulnerable groups: senior citizens, people with mental disabilities, deaf and blind people or immigrants and refugees, in Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Israel and Poland. We have planned 5 partnership meetings to monitor all aspects of the project and training workshops in all partner countries, as a result of which educators will be equipped with new skills and creative forms of working with people at risk of exclusion. About 1,500 people will participate in the project. The result of the project will be published in an e-broshure."

"The project ""Theatre without borders"" aims to include blind, deaf, and blind and deaf people into active social life. We will use for this purpose the unique experiences and methods of the Israeli theatre ""Nalagaat"", which developed for this group of people a whole system, allowing them, in particular, for the creation of excellent performances. Many blind and/or deaf people do very well; however, obvious limitations place them often on the margins of social life. As the practice of the Nalagaat theatre shows, including this group of people in active artistic activity can completely change their lives, giving it a new meaning. They are later more socially and professionally active, benefiting both themselves and the local community.Partners in the project are non-profit organizations associated with the theatre: Riksteatern from Stockholm with their Theatre of Silence, experimental German theatre Lokstoff, or dance theatre Echodrama from Greece. The Lodz partner of the applicant, the Institute of Tolerance, is Poleski Art Centre, a befriended institution with which the Institute has cooperated many times in the past.We want to educate a group of educators who during the workshops conducted both in Tel Aviv and Lodz not only master the methods used by the Israeli theatre, but also will be able to pass them on. Participation in these workshops will be taken by trainers from the Nalagaat theatre, as well as actors from that theatre and a group of blind or deaf people from Lodz. As part of the Lodz workshops, a theatrical performance organized together is also planned. Partner meetings, apart from monitoring the course of the project, will be an opportunity for educators from the Swedish, German and Greek organizations to present their own methods, which will enrich the methodology of the Israeli theatre with elements such as dance or street game.In order to disseminate the results of the project, we plan to create intellectual work products, namely instructional video and brochure, for the further training of educators. The results of our work will be presented at the end of the project at conferences, symposia and seminars organized by all partner institutions. We expect long-term results in the form of: a significant increase in the number of educators, trainers and involved members of social and cultural organizations who will learn and apply in practice the methods of training blind and/or deaf people; permanent inclusion of a group of blind and/or deaf people in the activities of cultural institutions, in particular theatres, in all countries involved in our project and beyond their borders, and, consequently, a significant increase in the activity of this group of people."

The project ‘Transnational Approaches and Multi-Perspective Methods in History Education’ investigates transnational, multi-perspective approaches to European history and aims at fostering history learning in Europe by comparing different views of the shared experience of European development and events.The project will promote transnational presentations of history that include multiple identity constructs or indeed make them possible for the first time. The European Union is a historical ‘transnational’ idea. The project will develop best-practice models and make them available for history teaching in schools and adult education so as to open up a multi-perspective approach to complex historical events. The aim is to work towards a narrative of our common European history that retains unified and differing memories but allows a re-interpretation in particular of the ‘winner/loser’ dichotomies, given the central role of this and the perpetrator/victim perspective in history teaching.There is an increasing tendency, not only in Europe, to return to nationalistic ideas, which have an impact on democratic principles, attitudes to participation and integration, anti-discrimination and antisemitism. The project looks at how sociopolitical events in European history are presented from different national perspectives but also from the perspective of ethnic minorities and investigates new multidimensional forms of communication.But how can history be interpreted in a transnational network like the European Union? How can the stories of minorities, persons with a migration or refugee background and with limited potential for participation, be incorporated into a European narrative? How can an understanding for a transnational view of history be fostered in persons who are focused on nationalistic narratives and images?As we believe that an open approach to history is a better reflection of the context of many people in Europe, we would like to develop academic methods, formal, non-formal and informal approaches to education and artistic expression into a diverse portfolio of teaching and learning materials for adult education, education theory, initial and advanced teacher training and the teaching of art and culture.We will study historical narratives by the majority society, for example in schoolbooks, and compare them with the narratives of eyewitnesses from different nationalities, ethnic minorities or marginalised groups in society. As history is conveyed not only through written and oral narratives but also through pictures and other visual media, the focus is on visual forms of communication – a documentary play that will enrich the theatre world of Timisoara, an exhibition in Konavle and a video documentary.All best-practice examples, detailed descriptions of all methods and all other products of the strategic partnership will be clearly described and available on the digital method platform. The project language is English. The project partners come from Austria (2), Germany, Belgium, Romania, Sweden, Poland and Croatia.The partner organizations are:University of Klagenfurt, AT (coordination)Research Centre for the History of Minorities, ATSprachendienst Konstanz, DEEU WAREHOUSE, BEAsociatia Solidart, RONorrköpings Stadsmuseum, SEInstytut Tolerancji w Łódźi, PLMuseums and Galleries of Konavle, HR

The value of democracy is at stake in Europe. In some countries, a sceptical or negative attitude to democratic processes has emerged. It is becoming increasingly evident that substantial sections of European societies have either lost faith in the democratic process or feel there is no point in participating. This partnership has enabled our target groups to participate more actively and more inclusively in the societies in which they live in our respective countries.Every partner produced a country report about the political landscape; worked on a needs analysis identifying its special target groups the partner wants to focus on.Beside these reports every partner gathered best practice examples in its country, a valuable tool for interested political parties, special interest groups like chamber of commerce, chambers of labour, trade unions, NGOs etcDuring the workshop – final step of the project work – the partners identified one or more best practices from the other partners to be realised in one’s own institution thus strengthening the idea of sustainability.ObjectivesThe exchange of information between the partners was fulfilled on a high level; the different country reports gave an insight on the political landscape far beyond the average consumption of news from the partner countries.The importance of political education in our institutions was raised, and will lead to new educational offers in every partner country.The collection of best practices is a valuable tool for other educational stakeholders in the partner countries, and will lead to different new formats in reaching out to the target groups we identified.The feasibility studies we worked on during the LTTA are deepening the idea of sustainability and are a promise for the future, and will lead to different other activities in the partner countries.ParticipantsThe target groups of the DEMOS Project were people who may not be fully aware of their rights and responsibilities while living under a democracy, they may also display low levels of civic engagement and low patterns of voting e.g. • New and hard to reach migrant groups, refugees and asylum seekers (AT, IE, FI, SE) • Younger learners especially those from marginalised and underserved communities (CZ, BG, RO) • Adults from marginalised and underserved communities (BG, IE, AT, DE) • Women – particularly as they are proportionately underrepresented in our parliaments (PL, BG, RO, FI)Multi sectorial Partner Groups were another target group of interest to the DEMOS project, particularly those who operate in the civic space and who work with underserved communities to promote civic and political engagement e.g. MEP’s, political institutions such as the local Councils, political parties, third level Institutions - departments with a remit around politics and civics, arts organisations who can collaborate with us on this project.ActivitiesWe produced 9 country reports including a needs analysis and the target group every partner will focus onCollection of best practices in the partner countriesRealising one of the best practices in one’s own institution during the projectCollection of feasibility studies. Every partner chose one of the best practices from the other partners and will realise this example in its own institution after the projects endThe consortium organised 5 project meetings and an LTTA.Results - Impact•Country reports•Collection of best practices•Feasibility studyWe learned innovative methods for reaching marginalised groups and we will integrate these into future educational provision.This lead to a higher degree of political and social inclusion and already offered new perspectives to our target groups.Longer-term benefitsPolitical participation is a main topic in the national discussions on improving our societies. As we learned many innovative examples during the project every partner will spread the information nationally and thus influence the future political landscape. Times are over when political parties just presented their program for the elections and the only thing voters had to do is make their mark at the voters bulletin every 4 or 5 years. Participatory budgeting, referendum on cities or districts decision about traffic, urban planning, fighting the climate change are political models for the future. As long as educational institutions are partners in the development of societies they will be playing an important role in this whole spectrum.