"Plastic in environment is an important and popular topic throughout the world and environmentalists and ecologists talk about this issue through different media securing wider access to inform public about its impact on natural environment, urban and rural areas and about the measures to apply in order to protect these habitats. In the last century, plastic materials made revolutionary changes in industry, medicine, food and communication, and today, our life could not be imagined without plastic. This is especially important in urban and some rural areas, where food industry, energy and production of reusable and non-reusable containers, plastic packaging, bags and items from everyday use could not be the same in different wrapping. Plastic influence on the environment is huge and European Centre for Plastic in the Environment regularly issues guidelines to the manufacturers to achieve the balance between commercial demands and environmental impact which includes additional services, like recycling and the market for recycled products, labelling, collection and waste management and compliance with EU legislation. Partnership, formed by 6 EU countries (UK, Slovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey), shares interest and experience in participating, creating and implementing a project for benefit of local national and wider European participants and public users. All partners worked already in similar projects. The knowledge and attitude towards plastic origin and influence must be the norm of life today and this project aims to reach out in partner’s country’s population, and to inform people of any age, level of education or social, economic and ethnic background about the use and misuses of plastic also the benefits of recycling related to health, economy and active citizens impact on social behaviour. This is the idea which led us to propose this project which concerns majority of people in Europe and will tackles the problem in an innovative way through digital, mobile devices, VR presentation, exhibitions and public talks about the ""journey"" of plastic from its source material to its use and disposal or recycling which would produce the energy or will be transformed into a new plastic form. The project’s aim is to provide the new learning initiatives for staff and target group participants: educators, young people, diverse stakeholders and public in local partner countries. The project's goal is to develop and share different working practices between the partners’ organisations and to transfer the innovative pedagogical and training experiences in order to provide diverse skills and increased confidence in delivering this kind of work. We plan to achieve that through events, wide-range of digital communication, transnational meetings where the exchange of experiences, good practices and the information about the local environmental education will be the base of cooperation and joint activities. Diverse approach to environment will allow some innovative practices to be integrated in local partner’s activities and would bring more awareness to local service users, advancement in training of the partners' staff, and to deliver the tangible outcomes: e-handbook, Blog, digital video VR/3D presentations, use of social media, exhibitions which will include talks about these topics and workshops for staff, stakeholders and public, to introduce the facts related to plastic junk disposed in natural and urban/rural environment and how to reduce irresponsible and harmful impact on people and promote acceptable behaviour. Environmental hazards are part of this presentation but we also aim to include exhibitions, fact files with photographic material related to plastic “journey” from its source to its end, with more conceptual way of tackling the problem, which especially suites young people. The major beneficiaries are the partner’s organisations' which improve working practices, increase staff’s competence and implement new knowledge, pedagogical practice and experience in their regular work and expand the network of collaborators, but also gain much wider network of key stakeholders, professionals and public participants. The benefit of working with partners from the different countries is in diversity of approaches to this topic and different practices which are implemented in partners’ organisations works, which support intercultural and structured dialogue, which is an added value to the project. It also promotes multilingual opportunities and possibility of translation increasing partner's engagement and before their international meetings, it improved communication and support visits, which provides more opportunities for dissemination and better exchange of knowledge and skills. The impact of the project was monitored closely involving partners network of collaborators, media and wider online audiences, which secures long life and educational benefit of the project."

"The project ""In Europe, with us or without us - the fate of the excluded and foreign"" takes action on behalf of various disadvantaged groups, including seniors, women in difficult situation, victims of all kinds of violence, people with educational disabilities, migrants (with particular emphasis on the fate of women), opposing their discrimination. 10 partner meetings are planned, including 5 of 5 training days, during which attendees – educators from partner countries of this project – will gain knowledge about three specific methods (biographical narrative interview, biographical conversation, drama). These new skills will be used to diagnose problems and attempt to resolve them, and the first step in this direction will be developing profiles of adults of various ages (25 + / 60 +) with the disadvantaged environments. In each country, several interviews and biographical interviews with representatives of our target groups will be conducted, and their fate will be visualized using drama techniques. The following questions will be raised in interviews: we will ask ""natives"" what is their willingness to accept ""strangers"", what knowledge they have about the problem of migration and refugees, what is their political consciousness, what are their stereotypes on this subject, and whether they would like to find themselves in the situation of migrants in their own country. Other questions raised will concern the problem of Euro-orphanage, namely the effect of migration of parents and raising children by grandparents. On the other hand, we get to know what have been and are the expectations of migrants related to the new destination, and whether they have been met, what was the reason for emigration, how they made a choice of their destination and what was their knowledge of the social, geographical and cultural circumstances in the destination country. In Poleski Art Centre, the coordinating institution, the artistic activities will also be supported by the members of the Center for Active Seniors operating there. The project is aimed at education staff and instructors of the European institutions participating in the project, and a group of learners associated with these institutions, and to the people from the groups vulnerable to marginalization. Project activities will cover engage around 1,000 people, including listeners and viewers. The overriding objective of our project is to improve the quality of education and long-life learning. However, an equally important goal is to encourage the public to reflect on such notions as: hatred, respect, mercy and love, and build a dialogue between people, so that they talk to each other, and are curious about each other. The project also has the task of eliminating the fear of foreign, of a stranger, in front of a migrant. The project follows the guidelines of the ""Strategy 2020"" and the 2020 strategy for the Lodz region. Valuable result, also long-term, is the development of cooperation and exchange of experiences of organizations from the partner countries in the field of action for the integration and inclusion of people at risk of exclusion, through which educators increase their qualifications as well as gain new skills, psychological, interpersonal and methodical, necessary to work with their ""wards"". The project will facilitate an understanding of current events, mechanisms and social problems, faced to varying degrees by all European countries, among others, one of the most dramatic and complex phenomenon of modern times, namely the migration crisis. A lasting result of the project will also be: a generally available web page of the project, pages of partner organizations, links to the project on pages of other organizations working against discrimination and exclusion, e-brochure with descriptions of methods and results of the project in English and the national languages of partner organizations."