<< Background >>The arts are integral to the social, civic, and economic wellbeing and vitality of our nation. Arts participation in childhood and youth has been linked to positive academic and social and emotional outcomes later in life. There are also positive relationships between art-going and other social and civic activities, such as volunteering in communitiesArts and culture have experienced significant economic setbacks from COVID-19. Across the spectrum of artistic and creative endeavors, restrictions on gatherings, changes in consumer behavior (voluntary or otherwise), and severe unemployment have taken a devastating toll on the sector. The full scope and scale of the impact can be hard to discern, in part because of the size and diversity of the industries and occupations that constitute arts and culture.Art and culture are part of every vibrant community and form attractive urban environments. Artistic creation and entrepreneurship contribute to creating innovative meeting places that are buzzing with ideas, projects and cultural events. However, the cultural employment situation is complex and there is an over-establishment in several occupational areas. The massive digitalization in recent months in the culture and creative sectors is clearly not temporary and could create new forms of experience and business models with market potential. There is an opportunity for a major innovation breakthrough in terms of the deployment of state-of-the-art technologies that allow “presence at a distance” (artificial intelligence, virtual and enriched reality, Internet of Things, etc.) to build a new “experience economy”. New forms of digitally mediated, decentralized creative production allow for engagement with larger and wider communities, not only at the receiving end but also in terms of content production. This trend could lead to more inclusive and innovative forms of collective production of creative content. ‘Cultural footprint” is young entrepreneurial development project for emerging artists, which aims to develop an enterprising mindset among young artists and encourage them to take responsibility for their own success and life achievements. It applies a four-step methodology that improves youngsters skills and help them realize their first enterprising ideas: the first step is inspire them, the second to teach them practical skills, the third to mentor them and the fourth to network them and show them new horizons and perspectives. The learning by doing process is accomplished in cooperation with business incubators and entrepreneurs, who show in practice how enterprise and product process work. The project idea is about young promoting entrepreneurship individual tutoring, digital skills upgrading and creativity thinking among youth cultural workers and emerging artists (in the role of learners) and business experts (in the role of trainers) who had faced the difficulties of the post COVID-19 period in terms of cooperation, workload and financial incomes. The crises of COVID-19 had created new circumstances of work, request new models of business set-up, call for digitalization of almost all the business services though platform and tools. Additionally, it makes more urgent the problems faced by the young and emerging artists in EU and considering the self-employment status, no governmental support and wide restriction measures of their work. In addition, many well-educated cultural workers are under-employed or permanently part-time unemployed and find it difficult to develop their skills and live on their art. What is more, the new situation with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more difficult for the cultural stakeholders to find employment in their respective cultural areas. More specifically, the pandemic has created a new landscape and – as culture continues to play an important role in strengthening the social community and contributing to social inclusion – cultural creators need knowledge to be ab<< Objectives >>The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic particularly threatens the future of young and emerging artists, creators and cultural operators, who are severely impacted by the enforcement of social distancing measures and the consequent postponements, cancellations or closures of events, live performances, exhibitions, museums and cultural institutions. Such a situation, with obvious differences among Member States, regions and social groups, has an impact on the possibility for cultural sector youth workers to go digital and continue their activity, particularly in cultural and creative sectors where employment is precarious. It is also an additional hurdle for young and emerging artists, writers and newly launched cultural and creative enterprises, which face competition from well-established dominant cultural and creative content providers, with possible consequences for cultural diversity as the study on the 2008 economic crisis indicates. Young people employment rate have been rapidly decreased due to the COVID crisis. They have been struggling to find inspiration, work, cooperation and funds/grants to support their work.The lockdown and social distancing measures have also made evident the importance of arts and culture for people’s mental well-being – and possibly, through the increasingly documented psychosomatic effects of cultural access, also health. The youth and emerging artists have been facing one of the biggest crises for the last century as the pandemic have created a lot of restrictions to all kind of artistic works and created the need of essential re-structure and re-born the art using digitalization, digital cooperation, e-audience and e-business tools.The project entitled “Youth Creativity: activities for promotion and support of non-traditional business models and techniques in the creative and cultural sector” was planned and created as an answer to the emerging needs of youth artists and experts in CCS to receive expert support and to re-build or start their art-oriented businesses after the pandemic. The business reality will never be the same, the youth and emerging artists should carefully revise their skills, assess capacities, brands and organize their businesses in order to reduce the risks of second pandemic situation negative effects and to adapt to the new circumstances. The current project aims to create a methodology and training handbook on business set-up for young and emerging artists, from project management, financing, audience work and personal marketing (showreels), to technical knowledge to support of youth artists in the creation of small art businesses and/or cultural enterprises and the process of creativity thinking. This will be achieved by developing relevant training solutions and materials to strengthen the capacity of youth cultural workers to strive in the current economic environment. At the same time, the project is devoted to all those young people who wish to establish their own creativity micro enterprise as a response to the crisis or unemployment. Specific objectives of the project are: •Using innovative digital solutions to increase the business and IT competences of the youth experts in the cultural and creative sector and fill the missing gaps of entrepreneurial and digital skills. •Combining innovative digital tools and cultural content in order to help the young artist in their branding and structuring process using new models of business structuring. •Using of Innovative technologies for communication and training and setting up “digital residencies” for young and emerging artists •Activities that strengthen the cooperation and networking between business and artistic Organizations, CCS and entrepreneurship sector•Creating innovative training curriculum with elements of business development and creativity thinking<< Implementation >>1) The ‘Cultural Footprint’ training programme: The project will firstly investigate the essential post COVID-19 skills for young CCSs entrepreneurs, experts and artists in participating countries, as well as the existing training programmes for youth education at the field and their contents and creative thinking. The training programme will consist of 10 modules and will be partly delivered in person via webinars, local trainings and e-residency . The training program will be tested in two phases, first with an international group of trainers online, and then in follow−up trainings.2) The ‘Cultural Footprint’ Partnership: The consortium is composed of different actors from youth artists educational sector with international experience in EU-funded projects and different cultural backgrounds. Each project partner has a specific role in the project which determines the tasks assigned to that partner and the time requirements allocated for completion of those tasks. The partners also have permanent contacts and feedback from the target groups as well as good knowledge of the target sectors. This long−term benefit justifies the rather large costs invested in the development of the platform. 3) Manual for Recovery techniques and for supporting Artists in post-COVID 19 period: All consortium countries will participate in the process of collection data, analysis of skills and competencies, essential for youth educators and workers in the implementation of educational and training programmes in consortium countries and good practices identification. As a result of the current work will be examined 50-60 publications at local level, received 100 answers to digital questionnaire and involved 275 stakeholders in inception meetings and road tables, 10 local stakeholders’ meetings, research and manual for support.4) Guideline of Individual Business Coaching of young CCSs and Digital residency: Will be created a short guidebook providing introduction to trainers about the procedures and materials to be shared during the digital residencies. It will provide instructions on how to build your business in post-COVID 19 period and help the young and emerging CCS entrepreneurs get additional funding to support their work. 5) Training curriculum on how to develop and support innovative business ideas in CCSs and creativity thinking: An intensive training curriculum tailored to missing business skills and competencies for young trainees in CCSs and creation of business creativity thinking will be prepared, tested and piloted during the implementation of the project. The curriculum will be consisted of 10 modules with about 40 hours duration.6) Set of modular training materials: Course materials, including theory and practice which can be adapted in line with national, regional needs.7) Digital platform for networking and e-residency: The platform will provide additional support to all target groups and set of innovative activities such as 10 digital webinars with 200 participants, one e-residency tools for promotion of artists work with about 50 art works and 25 artists coached with 40 hours duration each 8) Project website, newsletters, articles, leaflet, social networking, local focus groups - conducted during the implementation of project activities, involving no partner organizations, local workshops and conferences.10) 3-days Training of trainers in Sweden “Training of trainers in practical tools for boosting of art businesses and creativity thinking” with 10 experts.<< Results >>The indicators of achievement consist of certain criteria of both quantitative and qualitative nature. The quantitative indicators mainly address the consistency of the activities undertaken to the target group(s) outreach as follows:• Number of beneficiaries directly involved in project activities (approx. 695 representatives of the main target group and stakeholders in five countries – Sweden, Italy, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Greece) distributed as follows:PR1o Focus groups – 270 participants.o Online survey with artists – 100 participants.o Online survey with publications – 60 publications examined and presented.o promotion of the report -300 copies spread in the partners’ countries.PR2o Trainers – 10 experts trained to deliver the methodology in project countries.o Training guideline promotion: 300 copies spread in the partners’ countries.PR3o online webinars: 10 webinars with 20 hours duration and 200 participantso online discussions: 5 discussion, 9.5 hours duration and 100 participantsPR4o coaches: 10 to 15 coaches trained and involved.o artists: 25 mentees will fulfill the 40 hours support procedure.o e-residency: 1.000 hours of supporto residency tool: 50 art pieces and 40% rate of success

"<< Background >>The results of the 2011 survey in 11 EU Member States and the EU MIDIS 2016 FRA Survey covering 9 EU Member States confirm that largely Roma children are behind in educational achievement and show a considerable gap between Roma and non-Roma children attending schooling. Despite the efforts to expand and improve education for Roma children over the years, as many as 50% of Roma children in Europe fail to complete primary education and only a quarter complete secondary education. Participation in education drops considerably after compulsory education where only 15% of young Roma adults have completed upper-secondary general or vocational education. The levels of illiteracy amongst young Roma remain comparably high for Europe where almost 50% of Roma are illiterate or moderately literate. Without compulsory education completion, many young Roma are unable to meet the basic requirements for vocational education programmes. These low participation rates in education for Roma and Traveller children and youth are particularly alarming since educational factors have a direct and an acute impact on life chances. What emerges from the data is that Roma youth are by far the most disadvantaged youth within the EU.In several countries, Roma children attend the poorest schools or face discrimination in schools, where they are the minority. Some children are unfairly sent to ""special education"" centres for students with learning difficulties. In other cases, the children may be denied access to education because they lack documentation. Besides that, the education is the main area in which the situation of Roma improved. More Roma children participate in early childhood education and care (53% in 2016, up from 47% in 2011) – with most significant improvements in Spain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania – and fewer leave school early (68% in 2016, declining from 87% in 2011). These figures are still too high and segregation in education remains an issue in some countries, with more than 60% of Roma children separated from other children in Slovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria. The importance of the Romani mentors, so called “ambassadors” in terms of role models is assessed as possible tool for effective implementation of the integration process of Roma people. Presenting the success and the good results of the education in the personal development is essential. Regarding the mentoring programmes, we know that their scientific monitoring and systematic evaluation plays a very important role in quality assurance. Based on past European and international experience, the establishment of mentoring programmes seems to be a viable way of integrating Sinti and Roma into schools. In order to pass on the experience and to be able to further develop and evaluate the programmes, networking is of great importance. Furthermore, it is essential that Roma mediators acquire a professional attitude that can help them deal with conflict situations. To this end, systematic supervision and collegial advice seems indispensable. Another important prerequisite is that the schools and educational authorities concerned recognise and support the work of the mediators.<< Objectives >>The project Romani Ambassadors 2.0 aims to provide skills and competences to adult trainers, teachers and Roma workers in education process and in order to tackle early school leaving and low educational capacity in children of minorities. Mentoring is an essential approach to provide students, Romani youth and other minorities an inclusive environment to orient them towards learning positive habits in the long-term educational process, based on the principle that quality education should fit the learner rather than requiring them to fit into an existing system.The main objectives of the project are to improve the competences and engage social workers, counsellors and mediators in the engagement mentoring process with Roma people, youngsters and students with main objective to reduce the educational drop-out. The project aims also to increase the representation of Roma youngsters from minority groups -such as Roma children- in the long-term educational process, based on the principle that quality education should fit the learner rather than requiring them to fit into an existing system. Our project is a follow up of previously implemented initiatives under Erasmus+ and other European funding initiatives, intends to continue the successful implementation of training opportunities that foster Roma inclusion and integration both in education and employment market. In this line, mentoring represents a comprehensive support package for youngsters since it can provide them with a positive role model, support them with their learning, offer opportunities to discuss and find solutions to challenges they may be facing. This project will address its objective by organizing a transnational partnership between 6 organizations from 6 different countries. This is the only way to effectively address the issues of minorities with presence across Europe such as Roma community which is the Europe's largest ethnic minority with a considerable population of 12 million members in Europe. It is necessary to create synergies that encompass not only the local area but also the national and EU ones due to Roma mobility. Roma is not alike; neither are their social conditions. Indeed, the ethnic, occupational, religious, and economic diversity among Roma populations is tremendous. The proportion of Roma-language speakers differs greatly from country to country, as does the proportion living in cities, integrated neighborhoods, or segregated rural settlements. Having the collaboration of 6 organizations –NGOs, public & private entities, training centers and educational institutions from different EU countries will provide a strong background for the development of Mentoring curricula for disadvantage minorities who have diversity among them and require individualize attention.Romani Ambassadors 2.0 goal is to tackle skill gaps and mismatches in social workers that support Roma youngsters in education by providing them with a mentor approach tailor to support them to effectively guide disadvantage youngsters in their path to inclusive education. Specifically, it aims: •To capitalize the existing European experience in the process of providing of counseling services to marginalized people.•To adapt the existing knowledge into an innovative training curriculum •To introduce reliable and effective mentoring methodology aiming at supporting Romani youth and children in the educational process and career guidance•To upgrade the existing skills of social workers, counselors and trainers in the filed of Romani support services.<< Implementation >>The project entitled “Mentoring program for Roma youngsters support and tackling of early school leaving”- Romani Ambassadors 2.0 was planned and created as an answer to increasing rate of early school drop out of Roma students/youngsters and aims at creating a mentoring plan for trainers, that will provide them a mentor approach tailor to support them to efficiently guide disadvantaged youngsters in their path to inclusive education. This will be achieved by the specific objectives that are:•To capitalize the existing European experience in the process of providing counseling services to marginalized people.•To adapt the existing knowledge into an innovative training curriculum•To introduce reliable and effective mentoring methodology aiming at supporting Romani youth and children in the educational process and career guidance•To upgrade the existing skills of social workers, counselor and trainers in the field of Romani support servicesThe project aims to equip trainers, such as social workers, NGO staff, teachers, etc., with innovative skills and competences in order to tackle early school leaving and low educational capacity in children and youngsters of Romani minorities. This will be achieved by the implementation of the following specific activities:•(PR1) Engagement Mentoring for Romani by creating a mentoring procedure in quality inclusive mainstream education, aiming to prepare and present a mentoring toolkit, combing the European experience in the field of professional educational intervention and good practices for working with Romani people, aiming to tackle early school leaving and low educational capacity in children of minorities groups. •(PR2) Facilitator Training for Engagement Mentoring in Education, aiming at the preparation of training curriculum for trainers and social workers working with Romani young people and children in order to prepare them for the role of intercultural mediators/mentors. •(PR3) Digital Mentoring Local Labs as a creation an online platform for interaction with trainers and social workers and advising them through the whole process of mentoring acceleration and new skills creation. •(C1) A brain to pick & an ear to listen –teaching and training event aiming at piloting of the mentoring toolkit, focusing on the trainers and their assessment of PR1 deliverable.•(C2) A push in the right direction: bootcamp – p teaching and training event aiming at piloting the ‘Facilitator Training for Engagement Mentoring in Education’ procedure to trainers, teachers and social workers from the partners’ countries.Target groups:1. Trainers: Professionals that support the educational inclusion of Roma people, such as teachers, social practitioners, mediators, etc. They are accredited as trainers in one or different fields, but they would like to become trainers of the project knowledge and activities.2. Learners: Romani people representatives from the partners countriesBeneficiaries:1.Romani people: Children and youngsters between 18-24 years old, which will be offered tailored mentoring by trainers, for their inclusion on the educational system2. Visitors (Society): They are understood as the wider audience who are interested to see the PRs created by the beneficiaries during the project activities. This is the ultimate user of the chain to integrate Romani and other minorities’ youth in education.<< Results >>The aim of the project is to enhance the role of the intermediator in the intercultural relations & education, providing them with a mentor approach tailored to support them to guide disadvantaged youngsters. Intercultural mentoring is an essential tool for communication and help with social inclusion groups in order to help their personal and professional development. During the implementation of the project will be developed the following project results that target the reduction of unemployment in the European Union:•(PR1) Engagement Mentoring for Romani by creating a mentoring procedure in quality inclusive mainstream education, aiming to prepare and present a mentoring toolkit, combing the European experience in the field of professional educational intervention and good practices for working with Romani people, aiming to tackle early school leaving and low educational capacity in children of minorities groups. 120 experts and stakeholders at local level and about 40 at international level will be involved in the process of capitalization and exchange of good practices, 50 reports/studies will be revised, 84 interviews with experts and a questionnaire with 15 questions will be elaborated in order to prepare 50 pages toolkit with translations in all partners’ languages.•(PR2) Facilitator Training for Engagement Mentoring in Education, aiming at the preparation of training curriculum for trainers and social workers working with Romani young people and children in order to prepare them for the role of intercultural mediators/mentors, 6 modules and 40 hours duration of the training materials and exercises. •(PR3) Digital Mentoring Local Labs as a creation an online platform for interaction with trainers and social workers and advising them through the whole process of mentoring acceleration and new skills creation with 20 trainers per country or 120 totally per module or 720 people for the whole circle. The platform will host MOOC with 6 modules and 40 hours duration of the training. •(C1) A brain to pick & an ear to listen –teaching and training event aiming at piloting of the mentoring toolkit, focusing on the trainers and their assessment of PR1 deliverable. The training will have 5-days duration (2 travel days included) and will welcome 12 trainers in Brasov, Romania.•(C2) A push in the right direction: bootcamp – p teaching and training event aiming at piloting the ‘Facilitator Training for Engagement Mentoring in Education’ procedure to trainers, teachers and social workers from the partners’ countries. The training will have 5-days duration (2 travel days included) and will welcome 24 trainers Thessaloniki, in Greece.Various findings will also be generated by the project partners during the project execution to support:•Process of elaboration of the project results/ pilot testing in every project country; templates, guidelines and reports summarizing the activities and giving recommendations for the project results.•Promotion and dissemination activities/ promotion and dissemination plan, project website, leaflet and brochure, newsletter, and Facebook page; a final conference, promotion and dissemination reports of the project partners/after every 12 months•Exploitation of the project results/exploitation strategy at the partnership level at national level•Evaluation and quality control of the project activities and results/ quality and evaluation plan, quality reports/ after every 12h month/evaluation reports•Management and financial plan, progress reports, interim report and final report"