The transnational youth initiative Critical Escape: educational escape rooms for young people was developed and led by young people and organizations from Estonia & Sweden during the period of 01.08.2018 to 31.12.2019 and engaged young people to design and create educational escape rooms that were accessible for young people with fewer opportunities in the regions/countries where the youth initiative takes place. The project aim was to empower young people from various backgrounds to develop critical thinking and raise the level of their involvement in community life through participating in educational escape rooms created and implemented by young people. During the project, 15 young people from Estonia and 10 people from Sweden created 5 portable educational escape rooms on topics of mental health, diabetes, tobacco use, communication and drugs addiction among youngsters in Estonia which were implemented in different schools, youth centers, public events in Estonia and Sweden and reached up to 350 people. The coordinating team of the project consisted of 5 people (Anna 28, Anna 23, Jegor 28, Maria 26, and Julia 18) - active members of the NGO Shokkin Group. The group of creators was gathered after the open introduction event and via online call and consisted of 15 young people from 14 to 30 years old. The main target group was youngsters from different areas of Estonia and Sweden. As a tangible result of the project, participants created toolboxes for each room, which are available for everyone online on a website of Shokkin Group Estonia (et.shokkin.org) and shared in social media of partners and personal social media of participants and 5 physical portable escape rooms. During the long-term youth initiative participants met with social worker and discussed different social problems, that are relevant for young people in our areas, visited escape room companies and met with escape-room game masters to learn about escape-room development, participated in public events, open test-events, had training and workshops on learning design, had brainstorm meetings, also visited tobacco prevention organization, organization working with mental health and NGO working with NEETs.

<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is to increase the quality, innovation and recognition of youth work by showcasing the tool of educational escape rooms to increase inclusion in schools and a tool for financial & marketing strategies to foster cooperation between NGOs and cross-sectorial organisations.<< Implementation >>We are going to implement three project meetings, two study visits, develop two digital resources: one about educational escape rooms for youth workers & teachers and one about financial & marketing strategies for youthworkers and youth organizations. We will conduct local work to pilot test educational escape rooms and financial & marketing strategies and one online multiplier event for youth workers & teachers.<< Results >>We expect to have the tangible result in the form of two digital resources and intangible result of collaboration, experience-exchange and increased inclusion in learning activities and increased funding opportunities for NGOs as a result of the project and the developed resources.

Sociological research demonstrates that the largest segments of society with the greatest capacity for change are the young people. Young people’s participation contributes to civil society by building a sense of belonging, solidarity, justice and responsibility, caring for people in need, and sensitivity towards people who are from different cultural backgrounds. Unfortunately, global statistics reveal the low interest of young people in civic life, in knowledge of state institutions, citizens’ rights and freedoms, active participation and responsibility within the community. Young people have lost confidence and motivation to change something, only few of them believe that the future of society stand in their hands and act to change something.Therefore, four organizations from four countries - Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Romania – have come together for a 2-years-project in the Strategic Partnerships in the field of youth to improve the level and quality of active citizenship in at local/national/european/global communities of young people (14-26) by using innovative educational tools (e.g., escape rooms) and train youth workers, creating a European network of “Change Makers” and allowing a wise participation in society. The objectives of the Project are:O1: promote the exchange of good practices among NGOs and other local entities from 4 countries;O2: create an innovative Change Makers Training Experience and mobile escape rooms kits, addressing active citizenship in youth;O3: increase sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in youth at local/global level;O4: foster active participation and active citizenship in society;O5: contribute to the sense of belonging as European Citizens and motivate participants to learn more about the EU, creating a European Network;O6: invest in the capacity building of youth workers promoting high-quality work and innovative methods of reaching out to youth using escape rooms;To reach our goals, we will start by creating video tutorials and portable escape rooms kits, promoting common ground in how to use this educational tool to reach up to youth. Next, we will develop a Training Experience “Change Makers Academy” that applies this tool and much more in the promotion of Active Citizenship with local youth. We will address subjects that we consider crucial in “life” as Human Rights, local and EU active participation, intercultural dialogue and social entrepreneurship. Simultaneous, transnational and local activities will occur as pilot tests of the innovative material.We want youth to become the next “change makers” of their local/global communities, meaning active citizens that have, not only, the skills and capacity to engage, as well as a sense of self-worth, purpose, awareness and social responsibility, creating a European Network. Together with youth workers aware and skilful for addressing youth needs and partners empowered with a cross-sectorial knowledge and a European strong network.Having good geographic coverage, we hope, in the future, to enlarge its implementation to other countries. More than inspirational solutions, we want to be able to tackle some of society’s pressing challenges, pushing Europe to the forefront of innovation. Sharing of different approaches, methodologies, insights and visions, we want to contribute to enhanced networking and internationalisation, promoting European-minded citizens and filling in the missing links, avoiding fragmentation and realising the potential of a border-free Europe.

In EU-28, the media literacy field is dominated by NGOs, providing resources (leaflets, videos, curriculum, websites, etc.) for youth, and developing competencies like critical thinking and media use (Council of Europe, 2016). Most of the projects treat young people only as consumers/receivers, who only need to be trained to “protect” themselves from propaganda, fake news, hate speech, etc. In this context, MILagers partners concluded that they need to take the media literacy to the “next level”, level based on the following needs: - the need of supporting young people to develop MIL competencies, in a holistic way, perceiving them as consumers that engage with media & information providers, and most importantly as content creators, expressing opinions, and participating in the public arena;- the need to uncover and use the potential of youth organizations and youth workers, outside of media literacy field, to support young people to develop MIL competencies and actively participate in the public arena;- the need to create cross-sectorial partnerships to support young people to develop MIL competencies by exposing them to real life situations and work tasks given by diverse stakeholders;- the need to support young people to put their social initiatives into practice, through facilitation processes that address their concrete ideas of civic, social, political participation.MILagers project aims to engage, connect and empower young people, by enhancing their media and information literacy (MIL) competencies through cross-sectorial and innovative open educational tools. The project goal is to improve youth work in the field of media literacy, supporting youth organizations to:-support young people to develop MIL competencies in a holistic way, through an app based game with real working tasks provided by stakeholders, such as media companies, creative agencies, universities/schools, public agencies, youth organizations, etc.;-strengthen young people’s sense of initiative, helping them to put in practice their ideas for solving social problems, through design thinking facilitation techniques adapted to the youth sector; - support young people to express their opinions through powerful storytelling techniques and influence policy-makers, decision makers, CSOs and other relevant stakeholders. The project will also enhance the youth organizations’ communication and media capacity, and their capacity for designing, redesigning and co-designing user-centered services for young people, through innovative and NGO-suited design thinking and storytelling tools.The main target groups of the project are the youth workers (at least 144) and youth organizations, and young people (200) interested to develop MIL competencies with the following purposes, as described in UNESCO MIL framework (2013): problem solving (for social initiatives), intentional learning (for personal and professional development), and for actively participating in democratic societies. We will address these needs, through innovative educational tools (UNESCO eight MIL competencies framework based): - a MIL app based game, built on real life situations and real work tasks, for young people; - design thinking journeys for youth workers to facilitate young people’s social initiatives from idea to practice; - a storytelling handbook for young activists, supporting youth workers to teach young people to build - powerful messages and stories in the public arena, by using the latest tools and technologies; - design thinking and storytelling training toolkit for youth organizations to enhance their communication and media capacity and their capacity for designing/re-designing services for young people, allowing for youth co-creation and ownership.MILagers project brings valuable results for young people, partner organizations, and other youth workers and youth organizations, as well as for other relevant stakeholders interested in the field of media and information literacy competencies for young people. MILagers will support young people to develop MIL competencies in a holistic way by using the eight-competencies UNESCO MIL framework that will constitute the base of all the intellectual outputs developed within the project. Also, young people will strengthen their sense of initiative and also they will be learn to better express their opinions for influencing policy-makers, decision makers, CSOs and other relevant stakeholders. Youth workers from partner organizations, but also from other youth organizations will develop their competencies and improve their work for supporting young people to develop MIL skills, and for enhancing their sense of initiative and for expressing their opinions in the public arena. The new knowledge and skills they acquire in these two fields enhance their communication and media capacity, but also their potential for designing, redesigning and co-design services for young people.

PiFbase International was a strategic partnership involving three youth organizations from Sweden, Finland, and Romania. Youth workers and the whole youth sector need to come up with innovative solutions to the challenge of reaching out to youngsters who do not engage in activities that would improve their competencies and employability. There was also a need to equip young people and youth workers with the necessary competencies to successfully manage and support diversity since this will ultimately benefit young people with fewer opportunities and their inclusion in society. Our overall aim was to improve the quality of youth work when working with disadvantaged groups, by implementing and quality assure an innovative method (PiFbase) in three different countries. The implementation and quality assurance of the method served as a tool to develop and share effective methods and practices in reaching out to marginalized young people. The objectives were: * Professionalize youth workers by setting quality standards and ethical and professional codes related to the coaching role and develop high-quality skills and competencies, particularly in their work with inclusion and diversity *Create space for youth workers to share experiences and know-how in reaching out to marginalized young people * Create a set of intellectual outputs to support youth workers in their personal and professional development * Improve capacity building, management, and collaboration skills within the four organizations * Increase organizations’ ability to work with young people with fewer opportunities through the promotion of social entrepreneurship * Improve strategies and methods on how to conduct qualitative youth work including collaboration with local communities and initiate cross-sectorial cooperation Partner countries targeted different groups of disadvantaged youngsters (geographical, socio-economic, refugees, etc.) The project worked directly with youngsters when implementing the PiFbase method, where young people got to learn social entrepreneurship by fulfilling someone else's dream, in three countries. Activities included a three-part training for coaches covering the themes of learning environment, professionalization of youth workers, social inclusion and diversity, and quality in youth work. To benefit from the transnational part of the project, an experience exchange mobility was also included. The project developed intellectual outputs such as handbooks and toolkits for coaches, learning- and reflection books for coaches and coachees, a quality assurance toolkit, and a training package and game for social inclusion. The results and impact of the project include (but not limited to) * A quality-assured method to use when working with young people and social entrepreneurship - the impact will be more youngsters from disadvantaged groups who are active citizens and included in the society • A training program that has been tested to train PiFbase coaches but also can stand as a model to train youth workers in general -the impact will be more confident coaches and youth workers in general which will result in more qualitative youth work • A team of certified coaches who can conduct coach training and facilitate the certification of new PiFbase coaches and also use this knowledge when conducting other projects and carry out youth work - The impact will be a professionalization of youth workers and qualitative conducted youth work with trained youth workers • A method material including interactive tools that can be used in the further implementation of PiFbase but also serve as an inspiration material when developing new projects and methods, especially when working with disadvantaged youngsters. General tools for youth work such as training package and game for social inclusion and quality toolkit - The impact will be more qualitative conducted youth work which will benefit the sector and most importantly the youngsters but also give credibility to both the profession and the sector. * Cross-sectorial collaboration between NGOs and public and private bodies in three countries - The impact will be a reformation of youth work and bring stronger credibility to collaborate with NGOs The longterm benefits of the project will be a youth work sector characterized by inclusion, quality, innovative practices and cross-sectorial collaboration which will ultimately improve people's lives.