The project applied for by the Malta Federation of Organisations Persons with Disability (MFOPD) involved 5 other participating countries across the EU – Belgium, Finland, Greece, Northern Ireland and Sweden. This 3 year project started in September 2017 and should have ended in August 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a force majeur situation was in force with the project given an extension of another four months. The project ended in December 2020. The objective of this initiative was to create a set of modules to assist persons with an intellectual disability to engage in independent living. This objective was achieved. The project focused on the current need to enhance communication, literacy and numeracy skills of persons with an intellectual disability so as to have the means to be fully integrated within the social and economic national frameworks and also to be able to realize their inherent rights for independent living.This project created six (6) Modules focusing on improving the communicative, literacy and numeracy skills of persons with an intellectual disability (i) living on their own; (ii) living with immediate or extended families; and (iii) living in residential/communal homes. The developed Modules reflect the different needs of the mentioned categories of this project's target group. The Modules created by this project are the following: Household, Community, Health, Mobility, Work and Leisure. The activities of this project were: 1) The Research 2) The Development of the six Modules 3) The Pilot Activities (testing of the Modules) 4) The Multiplier Event Enhancing our target group's communication and other skills were seen throughout the project in the context of providing this group with the necessary tools for integration within society and for stratification betterment of the individuals in question. The project also segmented the various groupings related to persons with intellectual disabilities in order to fully pinpoint the specific needs of the target groups. Following the completion of the Modules, each participating organisation should have provided training to a specific number of persons with an intellectual disability by using the methodology included in each particular Module. By the end of this project, by means of this system, the participating organisations were to test the Modules and at the same time provide training to a total of 360 individuals with an intellectual impairment.The COVID-19 pandemic came unexpectedly and unfortunately left unexpected negative marks on the project. It came in force during the last year of the project, exactly at the testing stage of the Modules. The Modules created focus on the communication, literacy and numeracy skills of persons with an intellectual impairment and this vulnerable group was badly hit by the pandemic situation. They were isolated, constantly social distanced and kept within the walls of their homes / residences. This situation meant that the testing of the Modules could not happen according to and with the number of participants with an intellectual disability as asked for by the project by the respective partner organisations. Moreover, the multiplier event had to be organized and held virtually.All the project’s information and Modules can be accessed free of charge on the link https://www.mfopd.org/linc-life

Youth faced in the last years increasing challenges when it comes to finding employment, creating their own enterprises and finding their way in the complicated world of sophisticated financial products, while finding it more difficult to find resources to financially support themselves, plan for their future and save for their future projects. This has come from a lack of training and knowledge on financial matters and coaching for entrepreneurship skills. Through regional gatherings organized by Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI), policy makers are able to directly listen to the voices of the youth and their requests on the national agendas. CYFI European regional meeting on financial education and financial inclusion for children and youth was aimed at creating awareness on the issues, encourage policy makers to take on their agenda the topics of children and finance, share the best practices in the policy-making on these issues and engage youth from all over Europe into productive dialogue with the policy-makers. During the Meeting stakeholders from all over Europe gathered to form new partnerships, strengthen ties, share innovations and successes and hear the voices of the youth representatives, who presented their opinions and recommendations on national policies on financial education, financial inclusion and youth entrepreneurship. Attendees of the Meeting included a wide range of stakeholders, including governors of central banks, representatives of the Ministries of Finance and Ministries of Education, financial institutions, bilateral and multilateral organizations, civil society and other organizations active in the field of financial literacy and financial inclusion of young people. 50 youth participants aged between 14 and 24 from 8 European countries (Latvia, Macedonia, Germany, Netherlands, Romania, Denmark, Finland and Spain) engaged in expressing their views and dialogue with policy makers about what the best actions are to take for the inclusive future of Europe and provided their recommendations for forming the national youth policies in the field. Youth participation in this event magnified the attention on critical national and regional policy objectives deriving from financial literacy, employment and financial inclusion for young people in Europe and around the region.The Youth meeting lasted for 5 days and was organized as follows: the first 2 days the youth gathered, met each other and presented their experiences and results that they have been collecting throughout the preparatory months from their own countries. In these days they were also presented with the activities of CYFI, national policy perspective from the National Bank of Macedonia, and they received various trainings on financial education, financial access and entrepreneurship from CYFI staff and organizations from CYFI network (e.g. Chamber of Commerce of Macedonia, National Bank etc.). The following two days were used to provide an opportunity for young people to directly interact with policy makers that gathered in Skopje to get input from the youth and to listen to their proposals and ideas on how to provide financial education for all young people in Europe, grant universal access to safe and reliable financial services for youth and stimulate youth employment and entrepreneurship. Youth representatives participated in the opening and closing sessions of the conference, as well as provided direct input and recommendations for thematic workshops and break-out sessions on topics like teacher training, creation of appropriate youth financial services etc. The summary and main action points from these breakout working sessions were summarized in plenary sessions. National and European policy makers responsible for these policies were involved in the discussion and were asked to express their willingness and commitment towards taking forward youth requests. The last day of the meeting was used as de-brief for the youth and drafting the guidelines for the regional campaign which engaged youth and children from across the region in these discussions through online and media. CYFI stayed in touch with most of youth participants after the end of the Regional Meeting, with many youth participants joined CYFI youth committee and conducting financial education-related projects on the monthly basis. CYFI also continues to coordinate the network of central banks, ministries of education and finance and other stakeholders in Europe to ensure the follow-up on youth recommendations and continue advocacy of youth economic empowerment in the region.