AGORA’ is a Strategic Partnership project in the field of innovation, aimed to develop tools and pedagogical approaches to fight young people social exclusion, and specifically gender-based discrimination, in public spaces settled in isolated areas, by promoting EU values and active citizenship. Thus the project will have a specific focus on “public spaces”: areas potentially open and accessible to everybody where young people can encounter, gather and socialize. They can be the setting both for exclusions and ghettoisation, as well for the concrete practice of democracy and participation. Still the isolated areas we aim to involve in Italy, Romania, Greece, Spain and France, are marked by exclusion, becoming the stage for racism, sexism, bullying and different displays of discrimination. “Isolated area” stands for a big variety of spaces from the suburbs of big cities, “left-out” neighborhoods in small town, more remote or rural areas. AGORA’ will bring concrete actions in these spaces through the implementation of different specific objectives: to build up the local diagnostic to detect the reasons behind gender-based discrimination among young people; to share the existing tools and approaches to promote participation and inclusion; to up-scale them within a newly formed pedagogical perspective, to create an educational package to detect the youth gender-base discrimination and intervene; to empower young people and local communities from isolated areas and to transform them in promoters of new grass-rooted actions.Participants are: TG1 (youth workers, educators, activists), we expect to involve as direct beneficiaries an average number of 300. They do cooperate with their organizations in educational activities. In several cases they are active in urban, suburban, isolated and very populous areas where are more relevant the cases of social exclusion, bullying, racist and sexist discrimination. In the case of the TG2 (young people), we expect to involve as direct beneficiaries an average number of 450. They are youth aged between the 15 and the 25 years old, living in urban, suburban and rural, isolated areas where the youth workers, educators, activists are active. The following activities will be implemented: •A1.Transnational Project Meeting: Kick Off meeting for project coordinators •A2.Country Field Research: to build the local diagnostic and detect the reasons behind youth gender-based discrimination •Intellectual Output1-I.O.1: Toolkit with tools and interactive methods to detect the warning signals in the youth gender-based discriminative behaves and to understand the causes behind the display •A3.-A4. Training Courses: to share and test the existing tools, methods and approaches, to evaluate and up-scale them •A5.Tools Harmonization: to upgrade and systematize the tools and approaches shared•A6.Tools Testing through Street Actions (I.O.2): to test the efficacy of the tools upgraded and fine tuned, using them to activate public spaces in isolated areas •Intellectual Output 2-I.O.2: Handbook on tools and interactive methods, within a newly designed pedagogical approach, to promote gender equity within groups of young people in public spaces•A7.Multipliers Events in Public Spaces: to widespread the I.O.s produced among different relevant stakeholders•A8.Transnational Project Meeting: Evaluation meeting for project coordinators •A9.Follow Up: to wide-spread the project outcomes and implement actions in public spaces, revitalizing isolated areas.AGORA’ foresees the use of different working methods part of a pedagogical approach which combines field and desk researches, non formal education with Street Clowning, Body Movement, Labyrinth Theatre and Social Cabaret, to create an educational package to promote gender equality among groups of young people coming from isolated areas. This approach and package, within a newly designed pedagogical perspective, is marked by a strong flexibility, being based on the participants and learners feedbacks. It is shaped to guarantee the creation of tailor made and coherent learning processes for individuals, groups and local communities. The tools included in the I.O.1 and I.O.2 will be shaped accordingly to a permanent upgrading and up-scaling opening to the possibility of being adapted in different socio-cultural backgrounds taking into account the different specificities and needs.AGORA’ will lead to the following outcomes: better understanding of the reasons behind the young people gender-based discrimination; upgrading and up-scaling of the tools to fight gender-based discrimination; competences development of youth workers and activists to better favour inclusion; enhancement of youth participation and transformation of youth in change-makers; creation of a sustainable informal network and enhancement of interactions among partners to strengthen the capacity of youth work to respond to key societal trends and challenges.

"<< Objectives >>We are a group of migrants, refugees, second and third generation young women and men, volunteers and youth leaders active in youth associations devoted to human rights education and advocacy. The ""From the Exodus to the Future"" project stems from our desire to raise awareness among young Europeans and their communities on the theme of social inclusion of migrants, and to inform of the socio-political complexities of the migration process both in the countries of departure and in those of landing.While millions of people are on the move to seek better life opportunities elsewhere, due to war, socio-economic inequalities, climate change and discrimination, hostile policies and the resulting xenophobia against migrants are steadily increasing in Europe - one situation further aggravated by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.By building paths of mutual knowledge based on common practices shared between the young participants involved, the European partners and the local community, we would like to improve youth active citizenship, by involving our communities in general.All the associations that make up this partnership have already been part of the youth exchange ""Let's Enjoy Diversity & Uniqueness Together!"" (2019-3-IT03-KA105-017306), carried out in November 2019 (after almost two years of postponement due to the pandemic), of which this project represents a natural follow-up, strongly desired by all the participants in the previous exchange; at the same time, with the exception of the Greek organization Break the Borders, we are also engaged in the Learning Partnership ""Exodus"" (2020-1-IT02-KA204-079548), dedicated to the exchange of best associative practices in the field of adults' education, on the theme of welcoming and including migrants. Our goal with this new project is therefore to contribute to further strengthening our integrated strategy for the promotion of a culture of hospitality with a European dimension, which aims to embrace different target groups and use multiple channels to reach our communities.From this point of view, it is important to note that the dates scheduled for our project will overlap an event of great international visibility such as the ""International Air Balloons Festival"" in Fragneto Monforte: in fact, in the hope that our project proposal will be accepted, we intend to make of this new youth exchange a laboratory of cooperation, with a high ""glocal"" impact, between NGOs and local institutions, European programs and events of community relevance, paving the way for a model that can be fruitfully reproduced in other countries.In compliance with the objectives set by the KA1 of the Erasmus + programme in terms of learning, development and training for young people, the objectives of our youth exchange are:1. Get to know the realities of the young participants, mostly refugees or from migratory backgrounds or ethnic minorities, in the countries of our intercultural exchange2. Offer participants the opportunity to design, prepare, manage and evaluate exchange activities, with the support of group leaders.3. Implement workshops on the themes of migration, cooking, art and media to contribute to the shared development of competences and skills of the participants.4. Spreading healthy values ​​such as respect for diversity, tolerance, inclusion, sharing and common good.5. Promote non-formal learning, particularly fit for young people with fewer opportunities who often find themselves in difficulty with formal learning.6. Inform the participants and the community about the opportunities of the Erasmus + programme, in particular those related to the Youth chapter.7. Make the follow-up of the exchange a point of departure and intervention in local communities and at the international level.<< Implementation >>From the Exodus to the Future"" consists of two activities:1) The preparatory visit (APV) to be held in Fragneto Monforte from 9 to 12 September 2022.The APV will be an opportunity for dialogue among group-leaders who, with the precious support of the facilitator (in the person of the project coordinator, Ramona Viglione), will carry on a fruitful dialogue, useful for discussing the logistics relating to travels and accommodation, and of the local people thatwe will meet, of the security measures that we will adopt during the exchange and, clearly, of the general program of all activities. During these days we also propose to take care in detail both the final preparation of the participants, in view of the realization of the exchange (starting with their needs, expectations and learning objectives), and the post-exchange follow-up in our respective associations.We foresee the participation of 8 people: the 7 future group-leaders of the exchange (one from each partner from Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Greece, North Macedonia, Turkey) plus the facilitator.2) The youth exchange ""From the Exodus to the Future"" will be held in Fragneto Monforte from 8 to 17 October 2022 and will involve 43 second-generation people, migrants, refugees, volunteers and young people from partner associations who are interested in migration issues and human rights.Assisted by 7 group leaders and 1 facilitator, the 35 participants are all young people aged between 20 and 25. Alongside young volunteers and youthworkers who work and look after young migrants in their own communities, for each national group we have at least 2-3 young participants with refugee status or with second generation backgrounds: for Italy we note the presence of Kurdish and Cameroonian refugees; for Germany of young people of Syrian and Palestinian origin; for Greece of Bulgarians and refugees of Iranian origin; for North Macedonia of young people of Roma and Albanian origin; for Portugal of young people of Angolan and Cape Verdean origin as well as second generation of Lusitanian-Venezuelans; for Spain of young second generation Hispano-Moroccans; finally, for Turkey, young Syrian and Iraqi refugees.After the first day of the exchange, dedicated to getting to know each other and team-building activities, starting from the second day and for the following six, each of the seven (inter) national groups will be under the spotlight, according to a scheme that includes three paths: focus-workshops on migration and human rights, based on the direct experience and the different expertise and approaches of each organization; the preparation of a “migrant recipe”, an opportunity to discover something new about other countries, to cooperate and exchange stories in a relaxed and informal way; the sharing of associations’ good practices in the artistic and digital fields, as well as in the professional sphere. Finally, the two final days will be dedicated to the impact - first the local one, with the realization of public events that will involve guests of all age groups, then the ""glocal"" one, with the definition of the multimedia dissemination strategy and planning of new awareness-raising initiatives within the Erasmus + framework on the issue of human rights.We have designed for all phases of the project and each day of the exchange activities and moments of reflection - all together in English, in the mother tongue in their respective national groups - with non-formal activities and workshops and with verbal and sharing meetings. In order to strengthen the value of the learnings, we will promote the use the Youth Pass, which can be used in educational contexts to obtain credits and, in due course, in the search for work to testify the experiences and skills accumulated.<< Results >>Our activities will have a strong impact on the participants, who will be involved in all phases of the project.Participants will benefit from many things. First of all, they will have the opportunity to experience an educational and non-formal multicultural dimension, i.e. they will learn in a simple, direct and participatory way what it means to be part of a community (as a migrant such as a native, as a refugee such as a member of a minority) in which everyone can grow, learn, contribute and enjoy life with a higher self-consciousness.Participants will learn to socialize in a deeper way, to take responsibility individually in a peer group dynamic, to combine commitment, volunteering and fun in workshops and non-formal activities of cooking, art and media, with an idea of ​​social inclusion that is carried out in the community through actions and public events, both during and after the exchange.From a practical point of view, they will also benefit from taking part in activities presented in English, a real asset nowadays in order to expand one's own local and international social sphere; for many of them, this project will be an opportunity to get out of their habitual circles, overcome shyness and manage better relations with the others: usually, after the project the results are visible in everyday life among their peers, thanks to the awareness of having taken part in an unforgettable and meaningful experience.In general, the participants will benefit from wide margins of expression and creativity, will have space and time to broaden their horizons, will be able to experiment with new ideas and understand how to deal with the critical issues of our countries. We think that their degree of awareness, self-determination and self-management will increase.By sharing for 12 days their life and the results of their work, we hope that they will return home inspired and motivated to continue on the path taken during the exchange, eager to freely express themselves and realize their ideas against any form of discrimination and racism.The impact on the Italian participants will be a greater awareness of the fact that social inclusion starts from cooperation between young migrants and natives, that we all have qualities on which we should focus more and build our fortunes. During the activities in the local area we will bring the message that it is possible to repeat a similar project thus creating new possibilities and outlets for the other young people of the place.The impact on the Greek participants will be a greater motivation to do new practical things thanks to intercultural workshops; this could have a ripple effect also on other young people close to them, who could learn of international experiences as a new path for their passions and professionalism. The impact on Macedonian participants is foreseeable in terms of greater social inclusion through interaction with the community (see public event).The Portuguese participants will feel as an impact the possibility of being able to broaden their knowledge on how to train against racism and will have new motivations to continue the path they are following regarding the social inclusion of migrants and awareness and training against discrimination.The message of social inclusion will certainly have an impact also for the Spanish participants. Retracing what they did in the domestic and artistic workshops, they will see how they have opened up to the intercultural and social dimension, more generally, to change their minds on the concept of inclusion and threshold. We also expect a stronger impact on the Turkish participants, young people who will know other and new opportunities for the labour inclusion of migrants and new cooperation activities. Also they will have the opportunity to increase the repertoire of opportunities at work level. They will be invested with the awareness that mobility and knowledge are the keys to both personal and professional growth. Bringing home notions, feelings and strong workshops can only benefit the maturation of the young participants and their healthy growth."

<< Objectives >>The project P.E.A.C.E. Promoting European Awareness to Contrast Extremism, is based on the analysis of the current situation in Europe regarding the inclusion of minorities and human rights, often guided by a demagogic use of political rhetoric leading to racist ideas and behaviors. Different forms of populism are sweeping through EU member states mixing euroscepticism, nationalism, xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments and widening the gap between the perception and reality of migration. The result is the greater diffusion of stereotypes and misconceptions about migrants in the public debate, a breeding ground for anti-migrant rhetoric, hate speech and populist approaches. Populism is a very complex phenomenon that is increasingly affecting the European public debate, thanks to its masterful use of racist political propaganda. Social insecurity, the delegitimization of institutions, the criminalization and identification of migrants and refugees as enemies, are producing a highly polarized and aggressive debate, facilitated by the spread of new technologies. Social media and other Internet tools thus help encourage self-segregation and increase social divisions. In this context, P.E.A.C.E. aimed to raise awareness, among youth workers and the young people involved, on the spread of different forms of populism, which use propaganda and rhetoric to incite racism and xenophobia, promoting anti-racist approaches in Europe. Specifically, P.E.A.C.E. was aimed at young people with the following objectives: raise youth awareness on the daily growth of discrimination and racism Europe and foster sensitization among peers; provide youth workers and peer educators with new methodological tools and approaches to oppose every form of discrimination; share and map good practices and working methods among local, international organizations and NGOs to make more effective the local and global anti-racist action in EU and worldwide.<< Implementation >>P.E.A.C.E. is a pilot project, including four strategic actions: 1 Training Course -TC, 1 Advanced Planning Visit -APV and 2 Youth Exchanges -YEs. During the actions were implemented different activities aimed not only at creating awareness on the previously mentioned issues but also at fostering active participation of young people in the fight against racism. Among the activities: workshops, thematic sessions, work in group, plenary moments, interactive presentations, activities to share the good practices and methods used, sessions to reflect on pedagogical approaches, sessions to test, evaluate and upgrade NFE tools, study visits and final events (Training in Action and Youth 4 P.E.A.C.E. in Action) to allow participants to experiment, own the tools and replicate them once back home. The whole project was based on non-formal education methodologies, based on the learning by doing approach, where the specific learning objectives set in each activity, allows to target the action to the participants needs and to ensure a coherent learning process. Among its main pillars: personal empowerment, competences and skills’ development; participation, horizontality and the fact of being tailor made on the participants' learning needs. The project involved 30 participants in the TC, 8 in the APV and 45 young people in the YEs, therefore 83 total participants. In order to reach young people living in areas at risk of social exclusion and racist discrimination, the consortium defined the profile of the participants firstly including youth workers and activists specifically interested in opposing racism and discrimination. The youth workers and activists involved were chosen among people currently collaborating with the partner organisation directly and also with youth centers in suburban or isolated areas of the major European cities within the countries involved in the project. Moreover, the participants of the YE also included other young people coming from urban, suburban or isolated areas of such cities which generally are not able to participate in an international mobility opportunity and who might have been victims themselves of discriminations or influenced by the aforementioned populist rhetoric.<< Results >>The project P.E.A.C.E. wanted to accomplish a widespread impact on a local, regional and national scale through the dissemination of the results and the circulation of knowledge on the issue, using NFE methodologies. The major result was the capillary multiplication of the mobility and learning experience pursued by the participants in their different backgrounds. More specifically, among the reached results: 1. sharing of the existing good practices, projects and the used tools to promote anti-racism within the consortium members; 2. design a pedagogical approach to apply in the anti-racist activities at local and national level; 3. testing and upgrading of NFE tools that can be used to encourage youth active participation both online and offline; 4. to widespread raise awareness actions on anti-racism among young people and their local communities. The follow up activities consisted in a set of workshops targeted to the TC participants’ colleagues, other activists, young people participating in the YE and other young people going to the youth centres where the Youth workers currently work. The common goal was to enhance the impact of the project activities so as to increase the youth work quality in the field of anti-racism by sharing tools and methods. Therefore, the further dissemination of the project results, using raising awareness workshops on anti-racism, reached not only the direct beneficiaries but also their peers, both online and offline. This mechanism ensured the long term viability of the project and its sustainability on a long term perspective, even in a period characterized by a pandemic outbreak, lockdowns and mobility restrictions.

"Lunaria and the partner associations were engaged, since many years, in the promotion and strengthening of the participation of young people with the most heterogeneous and differentiated profiles as possible. The analysis of the context and needs all the consortium members carried out in the recent yearsm, and shared before the presentation of this project, had shown a generic improvement in the quality of the social inclusion projects. Specifically for the ones created to promote autonomy, well-being and participation of people with disabilities, both in the public sector and in the non-profit one. However, the following common weaknesses can be still remarked:•poor access of young people with intellectual disabilities, to mobility programs abroad. This for different reasons, often interconnected: difficulty in learning the language; end of schooling in older age; scarcity of organizations specialized in the preparation and coaching measures able to develop relational independence also in these type of experiences; lack of support from the families that do not understand the value of the experience abroad and the importance to develop the independence and freedom; disadvantaged economic contexts•general tendency to have projects targeted mainly to homogeneous groups of young people with disability. That means: projects for disabled people, targeted only to disabled people, without any real dimension of exchange in heterogeneous groups•extreme variety in the practices and methodologies applied in the work with young people with intellectual disabilities, and lack of common guidelines that could then be adapted to the needs of the different local contexts.Therefore the main partnership’s objective was to contribute to the improvement of skills, methodologies and opportunities for heterogeneous groups. Specifically, the project had the objective of involving a European partnership with complementary experiences to create a common methodology for working with heterogeneous groups of young people with and without intellectual disabilities and to strengthen the youth workers’ skills in the involved associations.The project was addressed to target groups, coming from the following countries Italy, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Spain, Austria, Greece and France. WAVES included different actions: 1 Training Course - A1, 1 Preliminary Visit - A2, and 2 Youth Exchanges - A3 and A4 targeted to the following groups.•training course: youth and social workers who carry out activities in the field of disability. No. of participants: 29•preliminary visit: same profile as the training course (priority was given, for the role of group leaders, to participants who were involved in the training, to ensure continuity in the topics and methodologies to be applied in the following steps). No. of participants: 7•youth exchanges: young people with and without intellectual disabilities, the construction of heterogeneous groups was a priority, in order to encourage the exchange of experiences, ideas and to promote the concept of ""different skills and abilities"". No. of participants: 54 (32 + 22)During the four mobility the following activities were carried out to reflect on the learning process and the skills activated: workshops, individual and group work, visits, debriefings, discussions and evaluations. The proposed methodology was coming from the combination of non-formal education, creative tools and dance activities to promote the well-being, the exchange of knowledge, the active participation, the creation of individual and group learning paths and the learning by doing.The project contributed to impact on different levels: on the participants directly involved, on their local backgrounds of origin and at regional, national and European level. In particular it led to:•strengthening the work initiated through the long-term strategy on disability, with the aim of sharing its results and then replicating the experience in other European countries•exchanging the good practices applied within the partnership, specifically the work done at EU level in the field of disability•creating and testing interactive methodologies and tools to carry out activities with heterogeneous groups•increasing the possibilities of active participation in European projects for young people with ""different abilities""•promoting the exchange between young people coming with different backgrounds ensuring a project with a strong intercultural value and where the idea of ""all included"" could have been actively promoted•strengthening of the communication and of the exchange within mixed-ability groups, in order to reduce prejudices, increase the self-esteem and develop transversal skills among youth•empowering of the capacity building action within a EU, informal network, interested to work in the field of disability through the Erasmus + mobility projects."

<< Objectives >>Today, we realize that European citizens are afraid of others. The radical parties then rise to power and the acts of discrimination become more numerous. We live in societies where we must fight to leave afloat tolerance and respect for human rights.This project aims to train youth workers in forum theater techniques to fight against discrimination. We also want following this training work to fight against discrimination at European level.Because the younger generations are the future, it is by educating them today that we are building the society of tomorrow.<< Activities >>For this project we plan to organize a youth worker training that will take place in France in the Ariège Pyrenees where ignorance and fear of the other is growing, but where the example of yellow vests counterbalance. It will be a 10-day training consisting of 28 participants from 7 different countries. The people expected during this training are youth workers, working in youth centers, cultural centers, or schools that would be able to create in their structure a forum theater workshop with its audience.<< Impact >>The result of this training will be the creation of a complete technical booklet on the forum theater, as well as a technical sheet that will allow youth workers to standardize their practices in view of a European campaign against discrimination. From this campaign we will produce videos that will be broadcast on a facebook page adjacent to this project. Youth workers will also create forum theater workshops in their structures that will impact young people in their communities.We expect a strong impact on the participants in terms of their know-how and how to be, in relation to the relationship to the group, collective life, forum theater, knowledge of discrimination. As a result, the young people affected by the participants and the practice of forum theater will be more tolerant, will demonstrate citizen initiatives and critical thinking. The local populations will also be impacted and show a better knowledge of discrimination and the forum theater will bring social dialogue within the different localities.