Young people are often encouraged to develop the technical skills needed to enter the labour market, but competencies on how to conduct themselves in the workplace, as well as create opportunities for employment mobility for themselves can be neglected, despite disadvantaged young people having few opportunities to be exposed to these key skills. The YEC project aimed to help young & youth worker professionals identify key gaps in employability competences & address these through youth worker led training modules. The objectives of the project were to: Increase the employability of young people Increase the validation of young people’s employability competences Increase the engagement of young people and employers in competency tool development Increase the focus on young people’s employability among young people and their practitionersThe partnership was drawn together to create a diverse range of partners who have an evidenced commitment to youth engagement, upskilling & training of youth workers/practitioners & young people along with validation of these skills, as well as sharing and promotion of best practice in the area of youth work and employment.The project set out to:•Develop and pilot a methodology which creates a space for dialogue between young people, employers and the project partnership when developing project tools. •Create a suite of employability competences training modules for young people, with focus on the personal, social & learning to learn competency from the Council of The European Union. •Create a train the trainer course with specific focus on youth workers & guidance practitioners engaging with young people who are seeking employment•Create a guide for youth workers and practitioners to map the modules from the train the trainer course, or any employability skills training, onto current validation systems under ET 2020. The final products developed by the YEC Project through 4 Intellectual Outputs:IO1 – Youth & Employer Advisory Boards – The partnership created a Methodological Guide which includes case studies of the YEC experiences of advisory board participation. This can be used as a “how to” guide for external organisations who which to develop and run their own youth or stakeholder participation schemes, resulting in more organisations having information to include young people in programme development. IO2 – Employability Competences Training Moules – a full suite of Training Modules, which are dynamic in nature and practitioners can utilize either in totality or pick selected modules according to the groups or young person needs has been developed. The modules can be used in either a classroom or online setting and have been piloted with young people in Ireland, Italy, Finland and Poland, increasing their employability. These modules also enhance the skills of youth workers and practitioners who partake in delivering them. IO2 is available in English, Finnish, German, Italian and Polish. IO3 – Employability Competences Train the Trainer Course – A Train the trainer programme including a training compendium, tool development documents and module session plans, so that anyone delivering the modules has access to step by step guidelines on how to do so. This will also result in a sustainable rolling out of the YEC tools post project due to master trainers within the partnership committed to providing training to youth workers who request it and meet the competency criteria set out. IO3 is available in English, Finnish, German, Italian and Polish. IO4 – Competence Validation Guide – The YEC tools have been mapped onto European & National frameworks where they are applicable, resulting in any young person who partakes in the training course having validated skills after completion. This guide will also promote the use of validation methods within the field of youth work and increase the use of these scales among partner organisations and anyone who chooses to download the guide. IO4 is available in English, Finnish, German, Italian and Polish. A clear dissemination strategy is in place to share our tools with youth practitioners and young people across all partner countries and more widely at European level. All final products along with a number of videos showcasing the work of the project were produced and are available on the project website www.yecproject.eu The partners had 5 transnational meetings to collaborate on the development of the above outputs. The tools were all piloted in each partner country before they were finalised. The advisory boards were responsible for reviewing each IO before they signed it off as being complete. Evaluations of the effectiveness of the advisory boards were carried out internally and also by an external evaluator whose role was to draw conclusions on the added value of facilitating youth and employer advisory participation. A copy of the final report is attached and available on the project website.

What can your organization do, if the government settles larger number of immigrants in your local community? The question that seemed like an exaggeration only a few years ago is an important concern in hundreds of cities across Europe today. When Europe was flooded by the last major migrant wave, it became evident that local environments and organizations there are poorly prepared for the situation itself, and above all for the consequences that followed: growing intolerance, the outburst of hate speech, sympathizing with radical idealists. The main reason behind was the lack of understanding of migration and the manipulative images in the media.In the floods of negative publicity and politics of fear, one often forgets that successful integration is not only the responsibility of immigrants, but also the society itself needs to be adapted to it in all segments. Partners in the project agreed that we lack a quality tool for working with young people to address the problem of rising intolerance towards migration issues. Therefore we tackled this challenge comprehensively by combining the diverse experiences from various areas into the Safe Haven project in order to find innovative methods for addressing refugee-migrant issues among young people, most susceptible to social change, and other stakeholders in the local environment. Safe Haven is a two-year strategic partnership project (February 2016 to February 2018), featuring four partners: Youth Center Trbovlje, Global Link from Great Britain, Stowarzyszenie Rozwoju and Integracji Młodzieży from Poland and Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı from Turkey. The partners entered the project with various experiences: the British and Turkish partners have extensive knowledge of migration and a direct contact with refugees and migrants, and the Polish and Slovenian partners have extensive experience in developing informal learning methods within youth sector. This diversity of experience and our field of work has led to the development of three independent but complementary intellectual results in the project that empower the youth sector in working with young people, working with the local community and working in the international environment. The first result is a group experiential game The Suitcase, intended for young people 13-30. Its purpose is to increase understanding of the phenomenon of migration and the reasons behind it among young people, to promote empathy and intercultural dialogue. Through this game young people get to know the very concept of migration, explore the various causes for migration around the world and then find themselves in a situation where they have to flee their homeland. The second outcome is an intercultural Manual, which contains examples of good practices from the European environment in the field of strengthening intercultural dialogue – simple measures, financially unpretentious and transferable in different environments. The measures are suitable for organizations of the youth sector, associations, schools and other organizations or local communities that already experience (or might in the future) the arrival of a larger group of migrants, which can result in intolerance, hate speech and radicalization. The Manual for Building Community Support for Refugees and Migrants offers ideas on how to respond to new situations, featuring activities to raise awareness among young people, activities to work with children of migrants and refugees, actions for the general public and local communities, ways to communicate with decision makers and the media and the volunteering section. The purpose of the Manual is to help organizations of the youth sector or local communities to strengthen intercultural awareness in the local environment through the implementation of measures, strengthen the intercultural character of the place, identify and prevent early signs of intolerance that could lead to wider negative social phenomena. The third result is the international Network of 30 reliable and quality organizations that provide high quality international project work by addressing topics related to the project. The aim of the network is to establish and strengthen a permanent cooperation of organizations with the aim of transferring good practices. This intellectual output emerged as the explicit need of all participating partners for better quality partnerships, which are the key to successful projects and a guarantee for reducing project risks.

"""GLIDE. Global Learning, Impact and DEVELOPMENT ""is a Strategic Partnership project between YOUROPÍA (coordinating organization, Spain), STRIM (Poland) and EIVA (Romania), which has the PURPOSE to promote the quality, impact and learning dimension of the mobility projects in the field of youth, through the development of professional skills and the creation of support and counseling structures for young people. The project is based on an analysis of the situation of youth work in the countries represented, especially with regard to counseling on youth mobility issues. In particular, it is highlighted the NEED of a greater and better personalized support that takes into account the motivational and emotional aspects, the learning objectives and the medium and long-term impact of the mobility experience. To respond to this situation comprehensively, GLIDE addresses different agents- organizations, youth workers and youth - and establishes the following OBJECTIVES: For PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS: -Improve the quality of work through the implementation of innovative practices in the field of youth counseling. -Reinforce cooperation, internationalization and networking of organizations. For the YOUTH WORKERS directly involved in the project: -Facilitate the learning process, professionalization and development of skills in the field of counseling and coaching for young people. -To promote the exchange of good practices and experiences among professionals from different countries in Europe. For YOUNG PERSONS TARGETED: -Offer a flexible orientation and counseling service adapted to the individual needs of young people. -Foster non-formal learning through mobility experiences and boost their recognition. To achieve these objectives, throughout the 18 MONTHS of the project, partner organizations will implement a combination of face-to-face and on-line activities aimed at young people and will accompany the professionals involved in these activities. through a continuous process of learning and exchange of experiences. More specifically, GLIDE foresees the implementation of the following MEASURES: • Implementation of an INFORMATION AND ADVISORY SERVICE on youth mobility in each of the participating organizations. • Implementation of an ON-LINE ATTENTION SERVICE (via emails and / or chat) complementary to face-to-face counseling activities. • Development of an ASSISTANCE MODEL THAT INCLUDES QUESTIONNAIRES AND EXERCISES for the analysis and monitoring of motivational and emotional aspects and those related to medium and long-term learning and impact. • Launch and follow-up of the ON-LINE CAMPAIGN FOR THE PROMOTION OF YOUTH MOBILITY (""Do not wait to turn 30""). • Creation of an ON-LINE PLATFORM that collects advice for quality advisory and observations, opinions and experiences of young people who are planning, carrying out or evaluating their mobility experience. Both the creation of the platform (which will be freely accessible and will remain open after the completion of the project) and the improved competence of the professionals involved and the exchange of good practices between organizations will be essential elements to ensure IMPACT AND SUSTAINABILITY from this project. To support the development of these actions, the project foresees the execution of a COORDINATION STRATEGY that includes a combination of ON-LINE MEETINGS and TRANSNATIONAL MEETINGS (in Spain and Romania), as well as the implementation of a LEARNING PLAN aimed at youth workers that will be complemented by two PRESENTIAL TRAINING ACTIONS (in Spain and Poland)."

UMJ achieved its intended goals by producing a set of outputs that offer support to practitioners and young people. The outputs developed help young people to recognise and reflect upon their soft skills development more effectively. 7 partners that had never worked together previously, collaborated on all project outputs. The result was a partnership that had a diverse range of skills with access to a broad target group. Partners engaged with young people through various interventions, including mobility, training, volunteering and entrepreneurship programmes. The tools developed offer support to both young people and practitioners and offer maximum impact in terms of soft skills development that can be quantified upon. The objectives set by the project were to, improve young people’s engagement with and ownership of their soft skills development, increase young people's employability, to raise awareness of the importance of soft skills development. The objectives were achieved with the production of 4 intellectual outputs. Due to the Covid19 pandemic the partnership requested and were granted a 3 month project extension. The extension resulted in the project running for a total of 34 months. With the withdrawal of the Spanish partner the partnership consisted of 7 partners. The outputs developed were:IO 1: Research carried out by all partners that focused on the relevance of soft skills in all partner countries. Partners held focus groups with young people and practitioners in all partner countries, 115 young people across the partnership took part in focus groups along with 124 practitioners. This led to the identification of the most important and relevant soft skills for young people, in terms of personal and professional development. There were 8 soft skills identified; Positive Attitude, Communication, Adaptability, Time & Energy Management, Work Ethic, Problem Solving & Analytical Thinking, Teamwork, Leadership.IO 2: Following the identification of the 8 soft skills partners developed and produced a Paper Based Toolkit. The Toolkit is mainly intended for young people who are already involved in some kind of activity or project, such as study, youth volunteering projects, work experience or employability training. By trying out techniques, young people can increase their level of the soft skills and gain in self-confidence. The toolkit contains reading materials and exercises for the young person to work through. Each Toolkit section has been piloted by young people and practitioners to determine its effectiveness and usefulness. The piloting took place across each partner country throughout the summer of 2019. The Toolkit was piloted with 123 young people and 25 practitioners. The Toolkits are available to download from the project website and are available in 6 partner languages. IO 3: A web based app was developed in order to digitalize the materials developed in IO2. The app consists of the 8 soft skills previously identified. Each soft skill takes the shape of a different mountain and the goal is that as the young person works through each soft skill they will in theory be reaching each mountain top. The app was piloted in each of the partner languages between December 2019 and January 2020. The app was piloted with 110 young people across the partnership. The link to the app is accessible via the project website. It is recommended that the app be used in conjunction with the paper toolkit although it is possible to use it as a standalone tool. The app links to PDF’s from the toolkit.IO 4: A practitioner guide was developed to support those working with the young person in order to fully understand how to introduce IO2 and IO3. The practitioner guide was piloted simultaneously with IO3. The guide was piloted with 22 practitioners across the partnership.Five transnational meetings took place. Ireland the UK, Croatia, Italy, and Portugal. The final meeting was held on zoom as opposed to Greece, due to the pandemic. The meetings created a space to collaborate and to discuss the development of the outputs, multiplier events, and the sustainability post project. Large amounts of the project dissemination was delivered through social media networks with the project Facebook page uploading approximately one post per week for the last six months of the project. Email was another channel used for disseminating the project work. As the in-person events were not an option online opportunities were used to share the project tools with guidance practitioners and young people across all partner countries and more widely at European level. Through seven multiplier events partners disseminated the project tools. Six of the ME’s took place after the IO’s were finalised which resulted in all output results presented and demonstrated to 177 participants across the partnership. Two of the multiplier events took place online due to the pandemic. The project produced four Newsletters.

'Learning from the Past so that we are not condemned to repeat it' (LFTP) was an innovative ICT-based participatory community heritage project, designed to engage both adults and young people in European cultural heritage. The aim of the project was to develop value and appreciation of European cultural heritage in relation to social cohesion, in particular to the value of human rights, equality, diversity and peace. This project expanded, transferred and implemented Global Link's innovative heritage learning practices with transnational partners in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovenia, in particular building on Global Link's recently completed and very successful heritage and global citizenship project 'World War I: Sowing the Seeds of Global Citizenship.' In Learning from the Past, Global Link trained partners to recruit and work with adult volunteers to research and document peace activism, internationalism and global awareness across Europe during and after the First World War. Partners worked with 56 adult volunteers to research stories of local League of Nations activists across Europe, as well as women's peace activism, Esperanto societies, youth exchanges relating to international efforts for peace building, anti-racism, anti-fascism and cross-European connections. The time period for the research was World War I until shortly after World War II. Global Link provided training to partners on recruiting volunteers, identifying local archives and sources of historical information, and IT-based formats in which to gather the information and upload it to the online map. Each partner ran a short project with their target groups, taking them to archives, museums and libraries to inspire the beneficiaries to research their own local histories. The partners trained and supported the volunteers to write short accounts of their research in the IT-based format required to upload the information to the website, and trained them how to upload to the website. This resulted in Output 1: the Online Map. The partners and their volunteers then held Multiplier Events to share this heritage learning with 212 young people and supporting adults (teachers/youth workers) in their localities, who in turn engaged critically with the material, linking it to current debates around peace and conflict as well as responses to refugees and migrants in their societies. 193 young people across the partner countries then took part in producing creative arts-based and/or digital outputs which reflected on their local heritage and what this means for their roles as global citizens in the world today. This resulted in Output 2: Artistic Responses. These art pieces and the process of creating them were digitised via video for Output 3. The videos were uploaded to the project website and widely disseminated via social media. The final Multiplier Events were ‘Living Museums’, where adult and young volunteers worked with project partners to share all the project outputs with a wider local audience. One partner held their event face-to-face, as originally planned, in their local museum, while all other partners had to hold their Living Museum events online because of Covid-19 restrictions. Nonetheless, all partners managed to host lively, interactive events with diverse audiences, reaching a combined total of 476 people. The final Living Museum event was held by Global Link and involved the launch of the Learning from the Past online exhibition. An offline version of the exhibition will also open at Lancaster City Museum UK for six weeks from July 2021, bringing together the outputs from across Europe in one space. The LFTP partnership has secured further Erasmus+ funding for a follow-up project: Sharing Learning from the Past in Youth Work’ involves bringing together volunteers from six countries involved in LFTP to share best practice, visit the final LFTP ‘Living Museum’ exhibition taking place in the UK and strengthen our capacities as a network to develop heritage projects with young people. This will include the creation of joint ‘manifesto for heritage work with European youth.’All outputs have been shared on the project online platform (learningfromthepast.net) and widely disseminated through social media including the LFTP Facebook page, through our organisational websites and newsletters, in local news/radio/TV coverage, through conferences and events and via other networks such as heritage groups.