"REC-THINK project aims at developing tools and methodologies to involve rural youth in the process of “re-think” themselves and their role in the future of their localities. To achivie this, it will be used the Participatory Video as an innovative tool for the collective expression, in such a way press REC will be the first step in the construction of sustainable alternatives to these young people in their regions.A significant part of the rural areas in Europe is experiencing a strong process of depopulation and a gradual aging of the population in rural areas. This is the same situation for the partners’ countries: France, Portugal, Spain and Italy.These phenomena have negative consequences for both the personal development of young people and for the whole area and its economic and social perspective. In this sense, REC-THINK seeks to create a new strategy for working with young people in rural areas, which, together with these organizations, form the main target groups. It is intended that young people in rural areas will be the voice of their regions, expanding their knowledge and skills with an active dimension, participation and action, breaking geographical isolation and creating a network that serves as a point of collaboration, reflection and consolidation of social relations.Therefore this strategic partnership aims to:1. Develop methodologies and training tools to promote empowerment, participation and integral development of rural youth in Europe through the participatory video tool.2. Create a virtual community for exchanging experience, strategies and generating sustainable alternative for European rural areas, with the involvement of young participants, stakeholders and members of organizations as key actors.3.Train young participantes to become active agents in the processes of political and economic transformation, through the development of digital and communicative skills.4.Train workers of the participant organisations in the developed tools and methodologies.To achieve these objectives the project will foresee the following activities:-Management, coordination and communication activities.-Development of a methodological guide for the implementation of innovative strategies to promote the participation of young people in rural areas through participatory video-Development of a training path for the promotion of transversal skills in rural areas: technology and communication-Development of a methodological guide for the development of collaborative projects among rural youth-Training activities targeted to rural youth to promote their empowerment and participation through a participatory video as an innovative tool-Learning activity targeted to workers in the field of youth through the exchange and transfer of ICT tools and communication techniques -Celebration of thee forum ""How slow the isolation of rural youth through the development of technological and communication skills""Besides the intellectual results that will be developed through the first three activities, the REC-THINK project foresees other outcomes such as:-Elaboration of a WEB-DOC-Consolidation of a community of actors involved in rural development-Four short documentaries prepared by the young participants in the project, around the theme of needs and vulnerabilities of their region.-Digital -review: young participants draw up a report in multimedia format on the specific subject (resources and collective heritage) The expected impacts are the following:-Improving skills, methods and tools for the organizations participants to work with young people in rural areas, in order to promote social and political participation organizations.-Empowerment and personal development of the young participants through the development of communication and digital skills.-Extended partnership for the development of new projects and joint initiatives in these areas of activity.-Improved local development of the regions participating in the project and possible regions and organizations tahat adopt tools developed in REC-THINK.-Visibility of the alternatives for local development in rural areas and the role of youth in these processes as protagonists and not as mere recipients."

“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry’’, Yunus.The above quote has been the leading motto of our project. Cult-Up is a project that aimed at facilitating exchanges and enabling co-creative approach to social entrepreneurship for youth in the field of cultural heritage. Implemented by 6 partners located in two particular areas of Europe: the Mediterranean and East Europe from November 2018 (The European Year of Cultural Heritage) until November 2019. The organizing team gathered in Yerevan, in November 2018 for a program planning meeting, during which the program was given an action plan, budgeting and task delegation among the implementing countries. Also, tours and meetings were organized with social enterprises working in the sphere of social entrepreneurship.The project was structured around the Cultural Heritage theme: in fact, the experiences of the three Mediterranean countries (Greece, Portugal and Spain) in smart approaches to tourism and cultural heritage promotion have been the base for an exchange of knowledge, transfer and peer learning for the three eastern partners. Through this transnational cooperation action, we wanted to offer an opportunity to young people in Armenia, Georgia, and Ukraine for learning new methods and to start thinking about innovative approaches to a traditional sector such as cultural heritage. The general objective of the program was to build a pool of young people active and/or interested in the field of social entrepreneurship for cultural heritage. To achieve this the consortium partners set the following objectives: 30 young people increase their knowledge on social entrepreneurship and on cultural heritage, through capacity & skills-building activities; 30 young people are empowered to bring a positive and innovative change into their own local communities. The potential of working on Social Entrepreneurship for Cultural Heritage is established. Beneficiaries of the Cult-Up project were 30 young people from the 6 consortium countries. Indirectly, local communities and othe people of the areas also benefited from the implementation of the project directly or indirectly. Cult-Up was structured in a series of activities that empowered and connected the 30 young people, promoting the cooperation between the partners in the field of education and training and designing tools, as well as methods for their socio-professional development of youth workers and trainers.The following activities were undertaken throughout the Cult-Up program:1 international training, 6 international webinars, 1 toolkit on theory, practices and tools for Social Entrepreneurship for Cultural Heritage and 1 national multi-stakeholders workshop per country including private sector in the field of tourismAt the international exchange, held in May 2019 in Spain, participants from the 6 organizing countries exchanged experience and participated in various workshops. The venue itself was a living example of restoring a cultural heritage; an old depopulated village in Spain had been given a new life by hosting various projects, international groups, etc. This was one of the success stories the participants had the opportunity to explore. The workshops were held by successful social entrepreneurs, business people making a contribution in the area of cultural heritage, and of course by the program participants themselves, who shared their own projects, success stories, and failure cases, helping them to learn from mistakes and take measures for improvement. The project was summarized with multi-stakeholder meetings organized locally, where different parties (public, private sectors, policy-makers, development organizations, NGOs, etc.) gathered around to discuss the current situation and the development perspectives of cultural heritage and social entrepreneurship in the respective countries.

We started the projected looking at the unique opportunities that creative industries provide for young people, who are able to turn their creativity and ideas into added value products and experiences, thus becoming entrepreneurs and generating at least an income for themselves, if not employing other people as well, as employees or subcontractors.We had noticed that young people find it challenging to make the transition from idea or prototype to sustainable entrepreneurship, as they lack know-how, industry contacts and resources.Throughout the project we reached over 670.000 people, out of which more than 48% are young people interested in entrepreneurship. Out of this reach 163 participants enrolled in the project, 70 were selected and 63 participated in the national learning activities, 22 participated in the international marketing bootcamp, 4 of them covering their own travel costs, 19 launched crowdfunding campaigns which raised over 32.000 eur. 70% still continue the project developed throughout the program. The team formed by 6 entities in 6 cities from 4 European countries reached 103 people involved as project managers, trainers and mentors. The project will continue to support creative industries entrepreneurs as a complete package of learning materials, inspirational and practical case studies and full handbooks available both for aspiring creatives, as well as those who work to speed their success are shared online on the project website creativebusiness.studio. Moreover, the resources are available in 5 European languages – English, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish on the city websites:•http://bucharest.creativebusiness.studio/•http://cluj-napoca.creativebusiness.studio/•http://madrid.creativebusiness.studio/•http://lisbon.creativebusiness.studio/•http://siracusa.creativebusiness.studio/•http://vigo.creativebusiness.studio/•http://creativebusiness.studio/

The main objective of the WEEELABS project is the construction of a strategic partnership between organizations with experience in the social field, to work and learn together exploring new opportunities for the employability of youth in situation or at serious risk of exclusion.These profiles form the targeted group: young people with diverse circumstances that share specific elements of their territory and local context, such as expectations and difficulties in integrating into the social and productive system, but with common educational and integration needs.To facilitate their social integration and incorporation into the labour market, the project partners have identified the recovery and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEES) as an opportunity of labour incorporation and social integration of these young people, line with the European Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.This is an opportunity of employability that could be realized with the creation of new social enterprises or / and intra-enterpreneurial projects in organizations.In this sense, WEEELABS will explore a new way of non-formal education processes, tailored and specifically oriented to our targeted group of young people ein situation or at serious risk of exclusion, both to serve as specific training in handling, recycling and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment -not yet reflected in formal education system- and the development of core basic skills (spoken language, reading comprehension and calculation) and transversal skills (problem solving, teamwork, organization of work, creative thinking and monitoring instructions ...). This way is to validate the adaptation of the FabLab model (Fabrication Laboratories) which were promoted by by the Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT) as workshops / learning communities in digital design and manufacturing scale for personal or local use (usually with 3D technologies).

RevenYouth LAB is a 24-month Strategic Partnership Youth involving 2 NGOs from Spain and Italy and 1 Higher education institution from Croatia (tertiary level) with the aim of fostering transition to autonomy and employability/entrepreneurial engagement in the field of Social Entrepreneurship of disadvantaged NEETs aged 18-25.The project sets itself to achieve the aforementioned core objective by means of capitalizing on the dimension of self-employability education of young people through a set of methodologies the role and potential of Design Thinking, Personal Branding and Coaching in Business Management, in combination with Non Formal Education, as mutually reinforcing components of a comprehensive and progressive approach to entrepreneurial empowerment.RY LAB is grounded on the long-lasting cooperation among European promoter entities and on their joint assessment regarding the challenges faced by young people with fewer opportunities like NEETs in the wider purpose of promoting employability alongside learning, training and labour mobility with a view to facilitating transition to the realm of employability as well as between different kinds of jobs, levels and types of education and training.Unemployment, social exclusion and deprivation of education as well as personal development opportunities affecting the sensitive NEET band of the European youth have grown to be a major area of concern for public authorities, NGOs and stakeholder entities at the different levels.Within the youth population, young NEETs are one of the most vulnerable targets due to the additional multifaceted set of constraints and development challenges posed by educational gaps as well as psychological and background-related barriers. The partial inability of formal education and participation circuits to fill gaps in employability, personal development and participation opportunities is a crucial factor in hampering the development of skills and knowledge, which would allow NEETs to achieve personal fulfilment, empowerment, and added value and skillsIn this context, the development of innovative, comprehensive approaches targeted at developing social entrepreneurship capacities in NEET targets offers promising prospects of addressing the issue of skills mismatch, exclusion from participation and employability opportunities, while at the same time enhancing the social clout of youngsters as providers of added social value to host communities.Furthermore, the European Commission, in its “Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan” highlighted the added value of actions, which aim to ensure development and improvement of the social-economic situation of NEETs, providing them with opportunities of entrepreneurial learning and engagement. RY LAB will deliver on the priority of fostering social inclusion, employability and community-oriented personal development of young NEETs through a coordinated partners’ effort to identify, collect and improve existing good practices, share successfully tested methods internal to their organizations and develop high quality educational support schemes to socially oriented entrepreneurship to be tested in real situations and, ultimately, spread as a successful model in the wider community of youth operators, trainers, organizations and stakeholders.The abovementioned aim will be achieved through a self-contained and purposeful flow of research activities, meetings and learning activities. RY LAB approach to entrepreneurial empowerment is grounded on a pondered combination of the following tools:- Design Thinking.Design methodology that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems related to the personal and professional development, by understanding human needs and idealtypical thinking/association processes.Design Thinking is extremely useful for discovering dormant potential, such as entrepreneurial attitudes and creative inspiration.- Self-Branding.Set of instruments and activities designed to foster self-introspection, positive shaping of personal identity, planning and development of own personal communication strategy (particularly on Social Media instruments) and acquisition of related digital competences.- Coaching in Business Management.The methodologies of business coaching are facilitative one-to-one coaching with business managers and owners. This method is focused on business success and includes a mixture of short and long-term objectives.