The Next Generation Speaks. Spoken word as a driver for global youth engagement (TNGS) challenges young people with a wide variety of culturally diverse and social backgrounds to find, develop, publicly present, and apply their voices as creators of societal change. These skills and competences will support their creativity, entrepreneurship and make them active ‘change makers’ and contributors to a more inclusive an democratic global society.A lot of young people, esp. from disadvantaged backgrounds experience a large distance to the established order. They are not heard in the mainstream arts and media or often portrayed in certain stereotypes, and they are hardly involved in social and political debates and decision making processes. This collaboration between the partners will allow young spoken word artists and youth workers to exchange experiences and cooperate with their counterparts on 3 continents: The Netherlands, Belgium, UK, South Africa and USA.Objectives:• To use arts, specifically spoken word, as innovative tools in empowerment of young people, youth engagement and active citizenship• To give young people from disadvantaged communities a platform where they can freely express themselves• To promote mutual understanding and tolerance amongst young people, stimulate social cohesion• To increase young people’s chances at the labour market; • To improve the mobility of young people and youth workers;• To exchange non-formal methods in order to improve youth work • To promote cooperation and the exchange of good practice between Programme Countries and Partner Countries; develop sustainable partnerships • To foster capacity-building for youth organisations in order to contribute to civil society development;Activities:• Training of peer coaches • National workshops for youngsters followed by presentations • Capacity building: exchange of youth workers • Create online platform • Youth exchanges • Final conference Impact:TNGS enhances the capacity of the partner organisations on topics as improvement of youth work, working on an international level and addressing social issues through arts. TNGS creates a new form of youth and cultural work that is closely related to the work that the Partner organisations already do on a local level; working with informal teaching methods and peer coaches, creating self awareness, social consciousness and civic action through arts. Spoken word can become a tool for policymakers to reach youngsters and to address societal topics; By making the connection between spoken word, youth development and civic engagement, TNGS aims to deconstruct dominant narratives in hopes of achieving a more inclusive, and active, democratic culture. TNGS provides a platform for youngsters where their voices can be heard: a next generation of poets, urban griots and voices of protest that use the stage and the internet to voice their personalities, ambitions and views on the future of our society.

Many Deaf sign language users are unemployed or working in unfulfilling and/or unrewarding jobs. At EU level a range of activities has been implemented to support individuals and educators to train potential and beginning entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship now is a priority throughout Erasmus+ and recognized as a key competence that enables people to develop the skills they need for life and work. To this end, entrepreneurship education strategies generally address active citizenship, social entrepreneurship, venture creation as well as employability (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2016. Entrepreneurship Education at School in Europe. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union).All or most of the mainstream resources in this field however, are not accessible to Deaf sign language users: texts do not meet their reading requirements, videos are not subtitled, examples, tools and other resources are inappropriate or inaccessible.The objective of the Deaf Enterprise project was to develop, test and implement an Open Educational Resource (OER) and Curriculum to teach entrepreneurial skills to Deaf sign language users of all ages.The Deaf Enterprise OER and Curriculum were to be ‘made to measure' for and by Deaf sign language users. The Consortium consisted of 5 partners from 4 countries, 4 of whom had extensive experience developing training courses for Deaf sign language users.At the start of the project, very little was known about Deaf entrepreneurs in the EU member states. Although there have been a few EU supported projects about employability and Deafness, our project was the first of its kind to focus on Deaf people who have started, or want to start their own business. How many Deaf business owners are there in the member states of the EU? What kind of businesses do they have? Are there any specific barriers that they have to deal with. If yes: what are these barriers? And: how do Deaf sign language users deal with these barriers? Are these barriers – and solutions – the same across the board, or are some specific to certain trades or countries?Answers to these questions would help us to develop a Curriculum and OER that would take the specific situation of Deaf entrepreneurs into account, instead of, or in addition to, using what is known about mainstream entrepreneurship. Answers to these questions would also be used to inspire and inform Deaf sign language users interested in setting up their own business. Last but not least, answers to these questions would help us identify structural barriers that Deaf entrepreneurs have to deal with in one or all EU countries, and might help point the way to solutions to help Deaf entrepreneurs in all EU member states.The Deaf Enterprise project used three different paths to find answers to these questions:1. We set up a database of Deaf business-owners in EU countries. We used our networks, personal contacts and internet searches. We did not try to be exhaustive, but collected examples of Deaf business owners as varied as possible: from different countries, different trades or professions, different age-groups, and men as well as women. By the end of the project, we have a ‘gallery’ of almost 70 Deaf entrepreneurs from 10 EU countries. For each entrepreneur we included a photo, a link to the website of the business, and relevant information about the business and the business-owner. The database can be found on the Deaf Enterprise website.2. We conducted extensive personal interviews with 10 Deaf entrepreneurs (6 men, 4 women) in 3 EU countries: Denmark, the UK and Italy (the countries of partners in the consortium). The interviews followed a standardized format, asking questions about the business of the person, strategies used, barriers that had to be dealt with, and lessons learned. Most interviews were conducted in International Sign, some in the national Sign Language of the interviewee. Most interviews were captioned in English, some also in Italian. All interviews were posted on the Deaf Enterprise website.3. We developed the Deaf Enterprise Survey to collect data from Deaf entrepreneurs from all EU member states. The results of these activities were published in a report: Deaf Entrepreneurs in Europe. At the same time, together with Deaf trainers, we developed the Deaf Enterprise Curriculum that is now freely accessible on the project’s website. The curriculum includes learning materials and videos of trainers and trainees. It was validated and tested during a transnational Train the Trainer workshop, as well as during two national workshops with Deaf trainers and Deaf participants (UK, IT). Reports of these workshops can also be found on the project’s website.Trainers and participants were very positive about the Deaf Enterprise project and the workshops and were unanimous in their wish that activities started by the Deaf Enterprise consortium be continued and extended, both nationally and transnationally.

CulTrees main goal has been a dynamic and add-on contribution to the educational methodology of Key Competence No 8 of the European Reference Framework (ERF): Cultural Awareness and Expression, in the field of Adult Education.Seven organizations from equal number of European countries, members of the International ROOTS&ROUTES network, cooperated from the beginning of the proposal writing time until the completion of the final report, under the coordination of SMouTh, in order to combine their potential in art education and Adult Education in key competences.CulTrees had set some specific goals:1. The development of a set of training methods and tools that can be used in non-formal education environments, making use of the benefits of peer learning and learning through art making in a variety of artistic expression media (theatre, dance, visual art, literary arts, etc.)2. The development of the teaching skills of professional art educators who participated in the training activities and the enhancement of their personal professional profile, as well as the level of their organization’s involvement in the field of Adult Education.3. The development of the adult trainees’ awareness about the cultural diversity in Europe and the need to be maintained.Each organization of the consortium took part in the project’s training activities with 3 people (21 trainers and education professionals) coming from the fields of performing arts education and adult education. Through the cooperation of the whole team, a 5-days training program was created, implemented in July 2018 in Larissa, in collaboration with the Mayoralty of Culture and Science of the Municipality of Larissa and Unesco’s “Learning Cities” network.In this training program, each participant acted both as a trainer and trainee, leading as a trainer the method he/she had prepared to propose to the group, while being trained in all the other methods, in order to be able to evaluate and use them in his/her own activity framework in his/her country.For the dissemination and promotion of this 5-days training activity in Larissa, a 1-minute video teaser was created, published in all social media and local events related to adult education. Also, a greek-language printed flyer in 500 copies has been distributed to stakeholder local organizations, groups and individuals from the Adult Education sector.The promotion of the activity in local level, besides the dissemination of the project, aimed also at the inclusion of a small number of adult trainees in selected workshops of the five-days Larissa training and their function as a reference group in terms of the needs and interests of the end users of CulTrees outcomes (adult learners). This group took also part in every method’s evaluation round that took place at the end of the workshops, offering valuable experience to the CulTrees team.This experience has been imprinted in the collection of all training tools and methods in a shared “CulTrees Methods Descriptions” document. Each participant developed a detailed description of his/her method in a way that it can be applied by the rest of CulTrees trainers. By doing so, each trainer was initially invited to join the project with 1 method, and finally he/she was given access to a collection of 18 methods to apply in training activities in his/her country.The utilization of the whole of CulTrees methods has been implemented through small scale training activities in each participating country during the final 3 months of the project (Oct-Dec 2018).The participating trainers applied the methods they have been trained at from their peers in corresponding target groups in their countries and they had been asked to describe their experience in the project’s final management meeting in Florence in December 2018.CulTrees activities and outcomes had a particularly positive effect in the professional and educational profiles of the participants, as they focused on the opening of their own and their organizations’ professional involvement in Adult Education, in a concrete and sustainable way. The team’s networking activities in local, national and European level have already created the need to spread the knowledge and expertise developed through CulTrees to other organizations and consortiums, while the team is planning future cooperations in order to positively affect the training methodology in Cultural Awareness and Expression in the field of Adult Education in Europe.

"European countries face a major challenge. They must maintain an inclusive society and ensure unity and cohesion among the EU member countries in a context of high political, societal, economic and social tensions and inequalities. The intention of the project ""Art4Act - Art in Action for an Inclusive Society"" is to experiment with the practices and tools of art and non-formal education to promote freedom of expression, intercultural social inclusion and respect for others.We believe that a large part of the objectives set during the writing of the project have been achieved, we now form a perennial network of organizations active with young people, in the arts and culture sector in Europe and the Mediterranean, who promotes diversity and fights racism; we support the exchange of good practice between European and non-European operators on the refugee crisis; we have involved local communities in building narratives that give them the floor. The last objective was achieved in part because we managed to create an open confrontation between the project partners about the need to reinvest the public space as a meeting space, but only one performance took place in the public space (performance achieved following the pilot).Art4Act brings together eight structures, seven of which are based in the European Union and one in Tunisia. Six organizations are members of the Roots and Routes International network, which promotes cultural and social diversity in the performing arts and contemporary media. Since 2001, the network has organized trainings, shows and events, exchanges and mobility programs for young talents in dance, music and media in 10 European countries.During 2 years, the main activities were: 4 transnational meetings, 2 seminars (capacity buiding workshop), 1 pilot activity / partners led by youth workers and artists with young people from local communities who gave rise to public restitution / countries, public events, 1 event / partner, which allowed us to share the results and lessons learned from the project with a wider specialized audience.At the end of our collaboration, we published an ""educational kit"" (artistic practices developed during the seminars and implemented at the local level during the pilots, 3 essays, bibliography) on the theme of the project and a series of videos reporting activities for youth workers and young people carried out by each partner at the local level."

The project is aimed at increasing the employability and life skills of young artists and creative workers, trained at formal and informal educational institutions, by accompanying them in the critical passage from education to profession. The project offers possible answers to the gaps in arts education and in the startup of artistic professions, by combining the open, flexible, holistic approach of the ROOTS & ROUTES creative education methodologies, with the training and advising system for the professionalisation of young artists and cultural workers developed by SMartBe. This will lead to developing and delivering on one hand:o a transnational unified curriculum containing self-entrepreneurial training materials and methods, that includes personalised guidance, counselling and follow-up;o easy to handle online guidance documents where raw legal and administrative information is processed to help artists and creative workers at the start of their professional path to face the complex nature of cultural work.On the other hand, sense of initiative and entrepreneurial skills are based on a high amount of transversal skills such as critical thinking, learning to learn, problem solving, and the ability to work collaboratively: those “21st century transferable skills” that the Communication of the European Commission “Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes” (November 2012) identifies as essential for preparing individuals for today’s varied and unpredictable career paths.This is even more true in the case of artists and more generally workers in the cultural and creative sector: they mostly work on a project basis, have irregular income and deal with complex regulatory frameworks, which impact their employability and mobility.Transversal skills can be developed only together with a deep sensitivity and capacity to read, understand and adapt to the specificities of the different social, economic, (inter)cultural contexts where the young creative professionals start developing their professional path. In the pilot training activities implemented nationally within the frame of the design and development of Intellectual Output O1, targeting groups of young artists at the end of their educational path and/or at the start of their professional career, the approach to the technical, specialised skills will thus be embedded in a flexible non-formal setting aimed at o enhancing the understanding of contemporary artistic culture as a field of organic and interconnected disciplines, skills, sensitivityo investigating the relationship between contemporary arts and public sphere, and the artists’ role within community based projects and socially engaged artistic practiceso stimulating critical thinking and arousing awareness on personal responsibility towards oneself and the others when defining and pursuing one’s objectives.In the second project year, three short term transnational joint training events will be organised for staff (managers and trainers) of all partner organisations, to exchange and test methods and practices in different contexts and with the involvement of selected professionals of the creative work sector. The confrontation, exchange and harmonisation of the various national pilot training experiences, as well as the thematic focus of the three train the trainers sessions - e-skills (networking and social media), transnational mobility awareness, contemporary arts and public sphere - will help developing a final trans-national unified curriculum based on learning outcomes.Two sets of multiplier events will be organised in all partner countries. In the first project year they will be aimed at sharing and discussing the educational methodologies with local stakeholders and at collecting insights and recommendations for the trans-national unified curriculum (O1); at the end of the project period, they will be aimed at disseminating in a creative way to a broader public the project’s results and achievements: according to the spirit of the partnership, methodological work and artistic expression will come together in site-specific public restitutions in form of installations, scenic talks, performances, etc.