The project targeted youth workers and other professionals in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Scotland who work with young carers directly or indirectly. Young carers can be defined as young people who provide assistance or support to another family member. They carry out, often on a regular basis, significant or substantial caring tasks and assume a level of responsibility which would not usually be associated with their age group. The person receiving care is often a parent but can be a sibling, grandparent or other relative who is disabled, has some chronic illness, mental health problem or other condition connected with a need for care, support or supervision. Although research has provided clear evidence that heavy caring responsibilities can result in emotional difficulties, health problems, social exclusion, and limited opportunities for social and leisure activities, professional support services are lacking in many EU countries. This is largely due to the fact that the youth work, educational and social services sectors are not aware of this group. However, it can be seen from the UK experience that young carers are a large and important group that youth services need to address. Thus, the EPYC project’s objective was professionalizing youth work so they would put young carers on their agenda. This again will ideally allow young carers to take part in school, education, social life, and not be disadvantaged by their caring responsibilities. The partnership consisted of five organisations from four countries. Diakonisches Werk Berlin as the coordinator is a non profit institution based in Berlin, Germany, that provides many different social services. Care Alliance Ireland is the National Network of Voluntary Organizations Supporting Family Carers. The goal ist to enhance the quality of life for Family Carers. This is achieved by supporting the member organisations in their direct work with Family Carers through the provision of information, developing research and policy, sharing resources, and instigating opportunities for collaboration.Anziani e non solo is a non-profit organization working in the field of social research, community development, advocacy and training for informal carers. Carers Trust are the largest provider of comprehensive carer support services in the UK. Carers Trust works with the Scottish Government to influence national policy impacting on young carers, by feeding in responses from consultations with the network. They were key partners in developing the first ever national young carers strategy in Europe. The Austrian Red Cross is a private independent NGO. It is guided by the fundamental principles of the Red Cross movement and its volunteers and staff engage in many humanitarian activities to help the most vulnerable people in society, nationally and internationally. Versari Macrelli is a school with three fields of study: accountant, graphic, social operator. Many students show disinterest in school, have family problems and economic hardship. The main result of the project is the availability of a set of tools and interventions that empower professionals and service providers to support young carers. Such tools include handbooks, questionnaires, motivational interviews, checklists, etc. In addition, the creation of practical support services were promoted through a guidance report based on model support projects established by partners in their region. The tools are intended to allow identification of young carers; to allow practitioners to assess the situation of young carers, including measuring the level and impact of the care burden; and to allow practitioners to develop an action plan to address issues adversely affecting young carers. The tools were adapted when already existing in a partner country, or developed ex novo, and pilot-tested. Impact on participating organization was high in terms of awareness raised for young carers issues across all countries. Dissemination activities were also successful in terms of stakeholders who showed interest in the topic and the projects results. Peer evaluation of outputs confirmed useful resources and tools that have the potential to empoer professionals to support young carers. As all partners will continue raising awareness for young carers in their region, the project produced useful tools to support this work and in the medium term make young carers a well know target group among youth work in Europe.

"The Erasmus+ KA1 project ""Educating Informal Caregivers"" provided training to carers' representatives from the association Greek Carers Network and facilitated the transfer of know-how from relevant organizations in Cyprus, France, Italy and Belgium. The Erasmus+ project ""Educating Informal Caregivers"" offered training opportunities to five EPIONI members on effective management of EU funded projects. The project facilitated the exchange of good practices and the understanding of the European dimension through study visits in various organizations with considerable experience in the support of informal caregivers. (Eurocarers, Compagnie des Aidants and ANT)EPIONI members of the board of directors Spyridon Zormpas, Fokion Dimitriadis, Marina Makri, Akilina Despoti and the member and volunteer Mr. Stavros Terzakis acquired useful skills on how to manage EU funded projects during a face to face short term training in Nicosia, Cyprus provided by Shipcon.Participants in the three shadow visits in Italy, Belgium and Paris learned new ways to engage the audience of EPIONI events and practiced new skills in planning and managing educational projects for family caregivers. • Participating members gained confidence in their ability to manage projects related to the subjects taught and experience in the implementation Adult Education programs. • The project Increased members’ awareness of the EPALE and the Erasmus+ Project Results platforms. • The experience gained by EPIONI members helped them influence their local operating environment toward achieving the organization’s goals • The impact of the project was arguably better service quality toward informal caregivers in Greece. The project kicked-off in July 2018.The EPALE platform and the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform was presented to all the participants of the training and study visits. (July 2018). Members Marina Makri, Spyros Zorbas and Fokion Dimitriadis posted in 2019 and 2020 related posts from EPIONI activity in the Platform.In October 2018 two board members visited for 10 days the French carers association ""Compagnie des Aidants"" during the week of informal caregivers, in Paris, France. They participated in several events on the occasion of “La journée nationale des aidants” the 6th of October 2020.From 26th to 30th of November 2018, 5 members of EPIONI attended the training on ""Efficient and Effective Management for EU funded projects"" in Cyprus. From the 21st to 30th of January 2019 two board members attended a 10day shadow visit in the ""ANT"" foundation in Bologna, Italy and visited non-for profit organizations such as the social cooperatives and Anziani e Non Solo in Carpi and La Piccola Carovana in Bologna. The shadow visit in “Anziani e Non Solo” inspired a project for family caregivers of kidney patients (ECARIS). “Anziani e Non Solo” experience in EU funded projects is remarquable and we invited them to join a second project for cancer family patient caregivers which was submitted in Cyprus. The 10-day shadow visit, scheduled for June 2020, to “Care Alliance Ireland” and other similar NGO's in Dublin, Ireland was canceled and held via teleconference because of the COVID-19 pandemic.We conducted however two teleconference with the Irish organization and exchanged good practices. Carers Week in June 2020 webinars were attended by 3 members . We bought equipment to facilitate our participation.Self-evaluation was conducted by our team members who attended the training and shadow visits. This included: • Evaluation by checking if the planned objectives were achieved. • Evaluation by continuous communication with participants and course provider after the course. • Investigation if the steps described in the professionalisation plan are achieved.We used various techniques for the dissemination of the project. We contacted other organisation coordinators, for example, Mental Health Europe, EUFAMI and Eurocarers. We used our social media platforms to disseminate the results of study visits and network with relevant stakeholders. We created dedicated communication channels (such as Tweeter: https://twitter.com/CarersInformal) in addition to the existing social media of EPIONI (https://twitter.com/ngoepioni). We held virtual meetings and webinars during Carers Day inviting Eurocarers. Thanks to the participation and support of this project to achieve greater recognition and support for Greek informal carers: •The improvement of EPIONI members' competence is influencing the local community environment. We conduct meetings and webinars with a European Perspective in Greece. • The impact of the project meet members' needs of better service quality to support Informal Caregivers in Greece;The ""Educating Informal Caregivers"" project enabled us to build on this experience and be in a position to disseminate our results and extend the collaboration in other EU countries."

The Greek Carers Network EPIONI in collaboration with the Panhellenic Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Vocational Rehabilitation (PEPSAEE), Eurocarers, Care Alliance Ireland and La Compagnie des Aidants, to mark the completion of the Erasmus + KA2 learn4carers project has developed a good practice guide for supporting informal carers. The guide is available at www.learn4carers.eu, in Greek, English and French.Owing to the excellent cooperation of institutions from Greece, Belgium, France, Ireland, Cyprus, Italy and the United Kingdom, the “Learn for Carers in Europe” project (Learn4Carers) provided opportunities for1) The organisations involved, to exchange information on good practices in supporting caregivers.2) Exchange of information regarding the support services for informal carers.3) Dissemination of information to professionals supporting informal carers.4) Increasing communities’ awareness of the issues facing informal carers.5) Development of proposals regarding the support of informal carers on local as well as at European level.The project lasted 24 months, from December 2018 to November 2020Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two in situ meetings were held in Athens, and Dublin (2019) and the rest were held virtually.Focus Group Interviews with informal carers, professionals and policymakers.Mapping of caregivers needs and good practices was done by the use of questionnaires and electronic forms. Information campaigns were conducted with the support of the office of the European Parliament in Greece (Caring for Carers 2019 and Caring for Carers 2020)The Website (www.learn4carers.eu) and Social Media (Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin) with information material will remain active for five years after the end of the project and will be available n three different languages. The Video messages from MEPs on the role which informal carers play in the sustainability of national health systems will be available on EPIONI youtube channel. The video for the dissemination of the project is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Zf2ppU-3M&t=3sAs interest in the topic of family carers is growing rapidly in Europe we accordingly included as partner Eurocarers, the European umbrella association working with carers. This European network representing informal carers and their 67 organisations in EU Member States and beyond supported the project by sharing information on the European policy agenda, due to their representation, actively supported by the European Parliament and disseminating our exchange of best practices in a European level.Our associated partner EUFAMI promoted the project at an EU level. EPIONI as the lead partner is a dynamic organisation of caregivers from Greece with practical experience supporting caregivers. It was the first time that EPIONI was involved as coordinator in an Erasmus+ KA2 project. Despite the challenges of the project we managed to navigate the respective complexities and difficulties successfully.