In this project we wanted to learn about each others social life by doing the popular activities in our respective countries, the basics of each others' languages by playing different language games, and laws in each others countries by playing games, for example the yes, no, maybe game and various other group games. We learned about each others culture by doing traditional things, such as cooking traditional meals, visiting local cultural sites and participating in activities that impact the daily lives of the participants in each host country. We learned about each others hobbies and what we do for fun by doing the things that our youth does for fun. We implemented non formal learning methods such as ice-breakers, discussion groups and storytelling. By using English as our working language and by following the rules we made about using English instead of falling into our respective languages, we were better in English after the completion of the project than before its implementation. We pushed ourselves to get out of our comfort zone by doing the activities and playing the games that we planned, and are better at communicating and making friends now than we were before. Speaking in front of people is also easier and by exploring stereotypes and our own prejudices we are more awake to seeing people as individuals rather than a group which helps us to kill the stereotype. While we did not find too many ways to improve what our municipalities are offering youth we were all impacted in ways that we hadn't anticipated before participating in the project. Most of the participants note that their self-esteem has increased while doing the project and that their heightened sense of belonging in a group has been a surprise. From Iceland there were 14 participants and 2 youth workers in YE1, and 13 participants and 2 youth workers in YE2, from Finland there were 12 participants and 2 youth workers in YE1 and 11 participants and 2 youth workers in YE2 due to illness of a participant. All the activities and the program were planned by the youngsters and the discussions were also led by the participants themselves with assistance from the youth workers.The participants were all born 2003-2005. The Icelandic team were in charge of all activities during the youth exchange in Iceland and Finland of the youth exchange activities in Finland. There were two youth exchanges and two (2 working days + 2 traveling days) APVs between the groups (from Iceland and from Finland) the duration of the exchange will be 10 days and 2 traveling days.

The EU has to face many challenges in achieving a more balanced regional development and sustainable economic recovery. Many of those challenges have to do with the ageing population trend, urbanization and environment under distress. More liveable and efficient communities is a target to be reached in Europe, where the “silver hair” trends can become a challenging opportunity, from a social, economic and cultural perspective. Despite those challenges are strongly interlinked, solutions provided in urban contexts not often pay due attention to the social process underlying urban trends and to the needs and behaviour of elderly citizens. GRAGE intends to contribute to fill this gap, developing winning ideas to promote an active, harmonious and inclusive citizenship for elderly people living in urban contexts. The consortium gathers ground-breaking expertise from different scientific background (legal, economic, humanities, engineering), from academic and non academic institutions, belonging to several countries (from EU and Ukraine). Using a mix of methodologies, the research and innovation programme of the project will evolve around the idea of citizenship as a collector of interest, healthy environment and suitable urban solutions for an aging society. Main themes will be: green buildings, food and urban agriculture, information and language technology. Researcher will analyze their role in transforming cities in environments that support green and healthy lifestyles for elderly people. GRAGE intents to boost dialogue through Europe, both strengthening the academic and non-academic collaboration and a practical understanding of elderly living across Europe. Such a cooperation can have a series of returns for Europe, ranging from a more effective solution to strategic challenges (sustainable cities and demographic change) to new business opportunities for European firms, offering solutions and products for smart/inclusive/ageing societies at global level.

The Placements in Environmental, Archaeological and Traditional Skills project (PEATS) brought together a consortium of 11 UK VET colleges and training institutions led by Grampus Heritage and Training Ltd. The project provided 181 vocational inspiring and educational 4-week work placements with our partnership of 20 experienced European host partners in 13 countries. The project also funded 64 VET tutors to undertake 8-day staff training visits to European host partners, to learn from their training methods, share experience and form lasting mutually beneficial partnerships. 26 Accompanying persons ensured that each flow of VET learners was visited, supported and monitored to ensure safeguarding, maximum impact and realistic and comprehensive evaluation of placement outcomes was achieved. This project benefited from over 12 years of promoting environmental, archaeological and traditional skills and craft placements through the Leonardo da Vinci programme. The application and consortium combined the experience of delivering five certified LdV projects per year between 2009 and 2013 which provided European placements for a total of 1180 participants in environmental, archaeological and traditional craft skills. (mobility certificate UK/09/LLP-LdV/MC/Z007). The PEATS project further built on the successful 2014 Erasmus+ ‘PETS’ consortium project (2014-1-UK01-KA10200265). Host countries represented in the consortium were Slovakia, Romania, Germany, Cyprus, Slovenia, Iceland, Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, Ireland and Turkey. VET participants were accredited through the Green Village Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) ECVET curriculum, developed through the EU ‘Green Village’ DOI project. The achievements of all VET participants was also recorded through the Europass mobility document. Participants were recruited from consortium colleges and students undertaking Sustainable Rural Development modules at Grampus Heritage. The ECVET accreditation assisted in parallel UK accreditation within their own courses of study in the UK (e.g through work placement modules) and through the archaeology skills passport. VET participants developed a higher degree of self confidence, put theory into practice, gained new skills, improved existing skills and competencies, gained a renewed interest in their chosen subject, achieved new language skills and completed a CV enhancing placement which will improve employment prospects and/or enable an informed progression to higher level study in the future.Participating staff benefitted from placing their own training in a wider European context. Travelling tutors not only explored new skills, methods, approaches and techniques but were also able to share their own experiences with host organisations. This gave staff access to new ideas and approaches to training which will have a positive impact on their own delivery. The objectives of the project were to: 1 Provide a period of ‘real work’ experience for beneficiaries studying environmental, archaeological and craft courses in the UK at VET level. 2. To ensure that this period of European experience is of relevance to the participant’s course of study and can be accredited as such. 3. To increase cultural awareness in beneficiaries. 4. To increase competencies in key skills being used on the placement. These include: Environmental Skills: planting, coppicing, footpath design and construction, biodiversity assessments and species identification, habitat management. Archaeological Skills: Excavation techniques, site recording (planning, photography, context sheets), surveying (levelling/total station), post excavation finds processing. Craft Skills: weaving, embroidery, silversmithing, blacksmithing, ceramics, wood carving, green wood construction, traditional building techniques (natural materials), 5. To boost the skills and employability of our primarily young participants through gaining real-work experience and laying the foundation for language skills 6. To enhance UK VET training provision for young people by providing 8-day staff placements for tutors with relevant European hosts. The project management methodology for the PETS consortium was consistent with the ten principles set out in in the European Quality Charter for Mobility. Host partners provided a minimum of four language lessons with professional tuition. All staff mobilities were recognised within an agreed CPD plan with their own organisations. Host partners also provided certification and a record of achievement in their own format as additional evidence of achievement. Detailed learning agreements were drawn up prior to placement through discussion between participants, hosts and UK colleges. These provided a realistic benchmark against which the success of the project and placements has been evaluated.

The Art of Darkness as Cultural Heritage of Urban Landscape (Art of Darkness) project aims to preserve and develop cultural heritage sites throughout Europe with a better understanding of the cultural, aesthetic, and sustainability values of darkness, which are important to the well-being of humans and nature. The project raises awareness of and explores well-considered darkness with high-quality architectural lighting design and light art as an asset in relation to cultural heritage, which can be cherished and harnessed to boost cultural-led innovation and attract strategic investments to cultural heritage and Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI). This is achieved through creating a Europe-wide collaborative network of 3 cities, 5 research institutions and 2 societies, which conduct 5 artistic pilot trials in cultural heritage sites in 5 countries. The pilot trials develop design strategies and solutions for more sustainable, aesthetic and socially feasible dark-time experiences through co-design with local stakeholders. The piloting process, which consists of context mapping, co-design, pilot production and evaluation processes, brings together researchers, CCIs professionals (e.g. artists, lighting designers, architects), citizens, local societies, and municipality actors. Thus, methodology of the project is transdisciplinary, participatory and integrative: The disciplines included in the project consortium are architecture, light-art, cultural heritage, urban design and planning, lighting design, photometrics, engineering, media- and neurotechnology, environmental psychology, cultural anthropology, scenography, and performing arts. Importantly, the evaluated results are integrated into the Art of Darkness Piloting Model to be replicated in other cities and regions and translated into roadmaps and policy briefs for further impact. All values and working principles of the NEB Compass are implemented in the project work with the highest ambition level.

"Our project ""Professional Education and Development for the City of Oulu School Psychology and School Social Work Services"" was inspired by the realization that none of the more than 60 school social workers and school psychologists in the City of Oulu had ever taken part in the Erasmus+ projects run by schools. Upon realizing this, our project coordinator contacted the Finnish National Agency for Education/the Finnish National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme and was encouraged by them to formulate a consortium application as well as to take part in an Erasmus+ TCA KA101 seminar for newcomers in Norway in December 2019. Thanks to the contribution of the National Agency for Education and the seminar in Norway, our staff grew enthusiastic about Erasmus+ KA101, and an Erasmus team of seven school social workers and five school psychologists was formed.Towards the end of the year 2019 the Erasmus team began to map the needs and the goals related to the project, as well as ways in which the Erasmus+ KA101 programme could meet those needs and goals. The needs and goals related to the project were based on the Student Welfare Act and on the City of Oulu local syllabus and local student welfare strategy. Improving the welfare of students, schools and families and developing the City of Oulu school social work and school psychology services were selected to be our most crucial needs and goals.In the end, one job shadowing partner and six courses were found to meet the above-mentioned needs and goals. Our job shadowing partner, found via the Erasmus+ TCA KA101 seminar in Norway, is the school psychology service of the region of Vorarlberg in Austria. Finding courses that are suitable for school social workers and school psychologists was relatively difficult, since the majority of the courses are aimed at teachers and we were adamant that the courses must be of professional value to us. In the end, the Erasmus+ TCA KA101 seminar proved helpful again; a Maltese seminar participant recommended the Malta-based course provider ""The Psychology and CBT Clinic"". We chose six courses offered by that institution; the themes of those courses comprise preventing early school leaving, bullying, disruptive students, stress and burnout, group dynamics and conflict resolution, communication skills and peer mediation.Our project will take place during two years, between 8/2020-8/2022. During that period, there will be altogether 14 mobilities, out of which 12 are course mobilities and two job shadowing mobilities. We expect these mobilities to provide our staff with professional development and that we shall aquire new, concrete methods and tools for our day-to-day work. In the long run we expect to obtain material for compiling the future student welfare strategy for the City of Oulu.Our project comprises 12 staff members, each of whom works in two or more schools as a social worker or as a psychologist; as a whole, the participating staff provides student welfare services for more than 30 schools. The results and benefits gained from our project will first be spread in the schools served by the participating staff memebers. Later on, as the results and benefits of the project are shared within our entire staff, they will have an impact on all schools in the City of Oulu (for example, new working methods and materials will be shared to all members of our staff to be utilized in the schools where they work). In a broader context our project may prove beneficial in the sense that Finnish student welfare staff elsewhere will be acquainted with and encouraged to apply for Erasmus+ KA101 mobilities."