To participate is one of the core skills in the nowadays digital society. Participation means to be in the position to gather information, reflect them and articulate opinion. Participation inherent the ability to conceptualize information and put them into different context. Transferring participation into education means to educate self-aware citizens, who are open to new ideas, cultures and concepts and who are willing to form and influence actively their society. Therefore it was beneficially to create curricula, which had a European perspective on citizenship and participation. Still each country inside the EU has different approaches which never have been brought together at the European Level. Educitizens is based on 3 fundamental pillars – participation, citizenship and empowerment – and the share of smart practices in educational field – formal or non-formal. The project sought to create an evaluation grid for identifying smart practice in citizenship building and collect those practices in a method handbook and an online map. The project EDUcitizens was organized in a series of multinational meetings. At every meeting the partners presented two smart practice examples of participative methods or projects in education. All methods were documented, collected and published at the end of the project. In order to identify the good practices, the partnership discusses and worked out the evaluation grid to identify smart practices. The grid and the method handbook can be used by institutions from all education sectors in formal and non-formal learning.There are several definitions and explanations, regarding non-formal education and its difference from and relation with formal and informal education ( Dib, 1988). There is, however, still a lack and need of a comprehensive model with enough explanatory power to address the increased variety.Similarly, SMART is a concept that could be understood and utilized in different ways. Thus this book on selected SMART practices of EduCitizens project has required a more refined conceptualization of SMART practices of non-formal learning and education.Our team has developed one tailored conceptualization of SMART, benefiting from the rich portfolio of the practice cases provided by the project partners. Those case articles that were ready by September 2018 were studied to determine a working classification method. After this content analysis SMART framework has been developed.This conceptualization covers the original four EduCitizens categories (citizenship, engagement, participation and education) and can be used as case categories so that the lnitials could make it S.M.A.R.T.: S: Stakeholder diversity, Social inclusion and intercultural dialogue (actor-oriented) that could cover citizenship M: Mindfulness, awareness, discovery (pre-action-oriented) A: Action, engagement and empowerment (action-oriented) that covers engagement and participation R: Reflection, self-experience and learning (post-action-oriented) that could cover education T: Technology-supported, digital, virtual (tool-oriented)Among the 48 cases collected which are selected for the e-book publication. Accordingly, the selected cases from partnering countries and organizations have been classified under one of these suggested categories by our team, prioritizing to which it fits the most. (If not to the 'Others' to keep it SMART!) Then this categorized list was sent to all partners, and final changes were made, based upon their feedback.

O projeto “From the World to the House”, surge num contexto em que a Federação das Associações Juvenis do Distrito do Porto após ter acolhido o seu primeiro grupo de voluntários/as SVE no ano de 2016/2017, pretende continuar com esta dinâmica internacional obtida com esta experiência. Pretende-se que o SVE seja um projeto a longo prazo, dando a oportunidade a outros/as jovens de participarem num projeto internacional e apoiarem o desenvolvimento da Federação. Por outro lado, este projeto permitirá que estes/as jovens desenvolvam competências muito importantes sob o ponto de vista da sua integração profissional, empoderando-os/as e fazendo-os agentes da mudança de si próprios/as e da comunidade envolvente. Pretende-se, com o projeto, acolher, na Casa das Associações, três voluntários/as com idades compreendidas entre os 18 e os 30 anos, originários de países de culturas muito distintas: Turquia, Lituânia e Grécia. A voluntária lituana assumirá as funções de Dinamizadora Associativo da Casa das Associações; o voluntário grego será Promotor do diálogo intercultural e inclusão social e o voluntário turco será Dinamizador Cultural. No entanto, sendo a CASA um espaço colaborativo e de trabalho em rede, ter-se-á o cuidado de conjugar os perfis dos/as 3 voluntários/as e a natureza das associações/grupo informal de jovens: 1. No âmbito das Redes de Juventude; 2. No âmbito da Interculturalidade e da inclusão social; 3. No âmbito Artístico. Espera-se que: 1. adquiram conhecimentos variados, com destaque, no caso da voluntária Lituana, para o associativismo juvenil, a educação não formal, e as políticas de juventude; 2. adquiram conhecimentos variados, com destaque, no caso do voluntário Turco, para o âmbito cultural e artístico, nomeadamente, na gestão e organização de eventos culturais, na captação de jovens artistas e o conhecimento mais aprofundado da vida cultural do Porto; Por outro lado, desenvolverá pequenas atividades com enfoque na inclusão social e diálogo intercultural; 3. adquiram conhecimentos variados, com destaque, no caso do voluntário Grego, para a inclusão social e diálogo intercultural, nomeadamente da realidade das comunidades migrantes e refugiadas em Portugal e das comunidades marginalizadas; 2. Desenvolvam competências pessoais, sociais e profissionais, tais como a assertividade, trabalho em equipa, relacionamento interpessoal, criatividade, empreendedorismo, flexibilidade, capacidade de adaptação; capacidade de empatia; capacidade de resolver problemas; propensão para aprender; capacidade de valorizar e integrar a diferença. 3. Desenvolvam competências transversais, tais como a tolerância para a interculturalidade, o reconhecimento da importância da diversidade, a competência de aprender a aprender, com base em momentos de avaliação e reflexão; 3. Adquiram conhecimentos de cultura portuguesa, nomeadamente, ao nível da língua portuguesa (oralidade e escrita), da gastronomia e geografia; 4. Desenvolvam competências de língua inglesa; Através de uma metodologia participativa, baseada na sua autoavaliação pessoal os/as voluntários/as terão direito a um certificado Youthpass no final do seu período de voluntariado. Serão criados momentos que fomentem o processo de reflexão e consciencialização dos/as participantes sobre o processo de aprendizagem, que será desenvolvido com recurso à criação de um Diário de Bordo, reuniões semanais com os/as coordenadores/as, mentores/as e através da escrita no blogue “Porto Pulses”. Com este projeto pretende-se que os destinatários diretos e indiretos: i. aumentem a sua consciência e vivência de valores europeus como: o respeito pela dignidade humana; a igualdade, os direitos humanos, a tolerância, a não discriminação, a justiça, a solidariedade e a igualdade entre homens e mulheres, entre outros; ii.Ampliem os seus conhecimentos em torno da mobilidade europeia e a promovam (a curto e/ou médio prazo); 2. Ampliem a sua capacidade de relacionamento/acolhimento intercultural e adquiram conhecimentos culturais sobre os países de origem dos/as voluntários/as; 3. Reforcem a sua atividade pelo apoio suplementar tido, ainda que temporariamente, por parte dos/as voluntários/as. A nível nacional pretende-se que o projeto desperte o interesse e estimule o envolvimento, nomeadamente de associações juvenis, quer na promoção de iniciativas de empreendedorismo associativo, quer (e sobretudo!) na promoção de experiências de voluntariado europeu. Do ponto de vista quantitativo, espera-se que este projeto tenha um impacto em mais de 10.000 pessoas, que estarão ligadas a este projeto e aos seus objetivos, direta ou indiretamente, quer seja através do passa-palavra ou da Internet.

CONTINUE will support young people suffering from social exclusion to tackle the specific challenges of post-COVID times in terms of staying connected and integrated into European communities. For youth on the margins of society, COVID emergency raised multiple complications such as:- increase of their financial, material and health related vulnerabilities;- loss of their existing connections to the institutions, social care system, job opportunities & decrease of their chances of social integration;- lack of some basic skills and capacities in digital communication cutting them from their social, educational and economic connections.CONTINUE intends to:· understand the main difficulties of marginalised youth during COVID-19 and their vision about the main challenges of post-COVID times. · create a digital framework for supporting a smooth transfer from offline to online exchanges between young people, youth organisations and governance structures· capacity build for young people to delivery local social actions · enhance dialogue between stakeholders, policy makers and youth and improve relevant policyCONTINUE will directly involve young people with migrant and other marginal backgrounds to enhance the interaction between individuals, their communities and the pan-European levels. The main outcomes will be:1. Community Reporting insights and curated results presenting the problems of young people from their perspective 2. Local and pan European participatory and co-design events for discussing needs, local actions, policy recommendations3. Local social actions implemented by the youth4. Pan-European policy recommendations5. CONTINUE online platform will be created for sharing tools, exchanges and learningCONTINUE will be realised by a Consortium working with marginal youth groups, experienced in youth education, community-based activities and co-created policy recommendations.

“Diakonia Agapis” Chronical Ilnesses Institution of the Holy Metropolis of Thiva and Levadia, offers social services to persons seeking personal, psychological, medical, recreational and any other form of support. The persons live inside the institution and they receive social services according to law. Τhe Institution is located in the center of Thiva city in a four-storey building. The above social services are provided from trained and specialized personnel. Due to the fact of the socio-economic devalorisation we seek volunteers to cover the increasing needs of social services in collaboration with our specialized personnel improving their communication and professional skills. Additionally the hosted persons receive a fruitful cooperation with volunteers that gives them joy and breaks the daily routine. We also hope that young persons will express their willingness to participate involuntary actions locally and abroad.

This project is developed by FYCA and its European partners. The project aimed to ameliorate the recognition of youth work and non-formal education through the development of certified “International youth studies” curricula and open educational materials for European Higher Education Institutions. The specific objectives were: • Stimulating and strengthening the integration of non-formal education and formal education at universities through the establishment of a certified course on International youth studies.• Creating bridges between formal and non-formal education, youth policy and practice in order to release innovation potential to raise the quality of educational and social service to Europe’s young people, to promote career flexibility and mobility, and to assert the value and utility of evidence-based policy and practice.• Strengthening human potential in the youth field by building a critical mass of qualified youth workers.• Promoting international recognition of the youth work and non-formal education through developing and adopting award criteria that are in line with the formal educational system.Through developed curricula and open educational materials, the project targeted at enhancing the quality of the human resources involved in youth work. It contributes also to the modernization of higher education by designing an integrated course for those involved or willing to involve in youth work.The project consisted of 5 international activities (2 capacity building + 3 mobility).