"Short summary in English: The Europäisches Institut für interkulturelle und interreligiöse Forschung stands for research projects and studies on the one hand and regular conferences and educational events on the other, esp. in the academic field of religion and culture. ""Community Educaton"" of course is a main part of this interest. Life long learning means an important initial process for society at all. In the context of our strategic partnership we want to come together with the other partner organizations for regular encounter and exchange concerning problems of migration and integration as weil as questions of education and social work in Belgium, Germany and Liechtenstein. Each partner will be engaged within the common project by its own possibilties and profiles. To organize our study process on different levels of ""Community Education"" it is necessary to use our transnational meetings and workshops to communicate and cooperate with each other in Belgium, Germany and Liechtenstein. Last but not least our strategic partnerships is based on several research reports being published iwithin our European context recently, e.g. ""Community Education in Österreich"" (under http://www.equi.at/dateien/CE-Endbericht_IHS.pdf)."

"Context/backgroundWe are convinced that education in the current immigration to Europe has a key role.We see throughout the discussion two main stages:- The granting of asylum is a human right to which we are committed without any reservation- The next step is the decision of the refugees to integrate into European societies. Since the ideas, hopes, opinions and knowledge of Europe among refugees differ widely, we would like to eliminate information deficits, set in motion educational processes and produce in addition to learning the local language, a new learning module comprising two parts:- ""Understanding Europe - A guide to European Citizenship"" and- ""Understanding Germany / Austria / Poland / Romania / Bulgaria / Belgium - A guide to German / Austrian etc. citizenship"" We are convinced that only well-informed people can make a serious decision about how they want to set up in this Europe and see prospects for their future. We are also convinced that we have to support the migrants in this integration process the best we can.Objectives- Learning about Europe as a contribution to a successful integration of refugees into European societies- A learning module about Europe as part of the learning process of the language of the host country- Successfull integration and inclusion of immigrants and refugees into European societies.Number and profile of participantsWe were looking for an adequate geographical distribution of partner institutions in Europe:Sprachendienst Konstanz offers since many years courses for German for immigrants; during the latest Grundtvig-project they developed a short teaching module about Europe that was presented during a project meeting in April 2013.Universität Klagenfurt contributes the scientific background for the basic project work, and brings in very new up-to-date information about the situation of refugees in Europe. POS in Lodz as a cultural institution is an important regional stakeholder supporting peace education and integration of immigrants in Lodz. Nevo parudimos cares for the Roma community in the Severas county in Romania. This institution is involved in various European projects with different successful experiences in basic educational work. Hamburger Volkshochschule is one of the local key players for the approach ""integration by education"". EU Warehouse is one of the most experienced project management institutions, it has accepted the responsibilty for the dissemination part of the project. Bulgarian Development Agency is the only new member in the consortium: It wil be interesting to hear the point of view of this representative of a country at the borders of Europe dealing with immigrants. VHS Wien is involved in European cooperation projects since 1995, and it is part of the ""Start Wien"" program of the City of Vienna, organising German language courses and Information modules for refugees. Furthermore VHS Wien is responsible for the documentation of formal education - certificates, competences etc. - of the refugees arriving in Vienna.Description of activities- We produced the Handbook ""Understanding Europe - A guide to European Citizenship"" with national appendixes for the partner countries, including translations in English, French, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian and German. Main part of the curricula are: The definition of learning targets, teaching methodologies, media, learning material, blended learning.- We organised 5 project meetings in Vienna, Sofia, Konstanz, Resita and Brussels- We prepared and organised a multiplier event in Brussels in order to present and disseminate our results to the European and national level of stakeholders and connect them to the European policy debateResults and impactThe European handbook and the 6 handbooks for Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Germany and Austria are a valuable tool for the language teachers in the respective countries.We noticed towards the end of the project the demand for the handbook beyond the partnership, as we began our dissemination work and did present the project results e.g. in a national conference in Vienna gathering the main stakeholders for the integration of immigrants.The publication is filling a gap in the existing offer of learning materials, according to the feedback of the external experts.Longer term benefitsImprovement of the degree of integration of migrants and refugees into European societies; at a national level: A new contribution to the ongoing integration process for immigrants. A better understanding of the needs of immigrants in the national population. And at the European level: Another contribution to the task of integration and inclusion of refugees."

"The project „Catch the Balans” was dedicated to the person of „participant” and his level of activation in the field of culture and non-formal education. Using a process of exchanging good practices between the educators from the partner institutions we worked on some methods of activation adults for participation in non-formal education.The idea for the project appeared right after the exhibition of Anna Maria Łuczak ""Mindful Ersatz Life"" which took place in the Punkt Odbioru Sztuki Gallery which is one of our branches. The exhibition was about going back to simple, natural pleasures in contrast to our reality fullfilled with the Internet and too many incentives pushing our brains from all around. We have noticed that people, including our audience, have difficulty in staying focused on one task. The effect is: less energy to work on selfdevelopment, worse and worse key competences, low social, interpersonal skills, no longlasting relationships. The result is social exclusion and staying in the marginalised group of adults. Acording to those reflections and staying focused on european priorities concerning participation of adults in non-formal education we decided that our target group will be disadvantaged adults. (disadvantaged because of some economic barriers, social exclusion, low key competences, low language skills – imigrants, problems with being overstressed and low level of selfacceptation).As the speed of life, being overstressed and too many incentives pushing our brains are considering as reasons why adults are not participating in non-formal education, we decided to use the idea of slow life, leave behind new technologies for a while and go back to the culture heritage. During the process of creation we focused on manual way, pointing out ecology, sensorics, building a dialog and storytelling, group process. New technologies remained with us, but only as a tool to make a project activities documentation. The following countries participated in the project: Poland (coordinator) Belgium, Romania, Germany and Austria. As part of the partnership were organized: 3 LTT meetings (Learning training teaching) focused on workshop and exchanging good practice. Between the trainings, partners implemented the developed methods on the local ground also by conducting a diagnosis among representatives of the target group. The project were involved direct participants (educators, people engaged in the project from the partner institutions) and indirect participants taking part in local activities. Around 800 persons were involved in the project. The methodology that we adopted for the implementation of the project is based on the principle of Simon Sinek's golden circle and active observation. In the case of working with the target group, we will use the SSM soft methodology, which was created to enable operation in more natural problem situations in which people perceive and interpret the world in their own way and evaluate it using norm and standards that do not have to be shared by others. The result of the project is to acquire or activate new audience. Also introducing methods of slow life into the offer as well as the development of creative tools for evaluation of educational activities and project progress. The material result of the project is e-brochure containing all the conclusions, examples of activities as a base for a further work on the strategy for the activation the audience. A part of it is a code of ethics for the adult educators (in order to improve the quality of activities). Our goal and at the same time the long-term result we want to achieve is to stimulate discussion and sensitize the problem of adult participation in non-formal education activities . The added value of the project was to expand language competences of educators and to build international cooperation networks.As of November 1, 2021, the Poleski Art Center, under the name of Art Center, became by the decision of the City Council one of the branches of the newly established local government cultural institution – the Municipal Culture Zone in Łódź."

"Young people are the ones hit hardest by unemployment and precarious employment. At the same time, all EU and national elections in the last few years have revealed increasingly low youth turnout combined with growing Euroscepticism, as dramatically illustrated by the Brexit referendum. The complex situation of young people in transition to adulthood thus calls for trained and experienced European youth workers. Driven by YES Forum’s membes, YES Academy addressed this issue by contributing to achieve a greater impact of the Erasmus+ Youth Inclusion and Diversity Strategy by:• Creating a more inclusive environment, with more and diverse young people participating in civic activities throughout Europe• Enabling organisations working with and for vulnerable young people to be a more effective force in making it easier for them to actively participate in society• Increasing the capacities of youth workers and their organizations in working with young people and fostering greater cooperation and synergies among youth organisations and other stakeholders throughout the EUThe project idea came from our partner organizations and their ongoing interest in increasing civic participation of disadvantaged young people. All the project partners brought strong expertise in working with young people affected by various disadvantages (e.g. educational, psychological, economic inequalities) in their own communities. Ranging from school social work to street-based youth work, our partners aim to prevent, resolve and avoid the worst effects of exclusion while helping young people to flourish. Through 4 major events conducted over the span of 16 months and involving 115 participants from 15 EU countries, the YES Academy project innovatively combined a process-oriented learning approach prioritising youth worker’s reflection and exchange of experience to create tools for sustainable approaches in working more effectively with young people across Europe:-Through a Contact-Making Event in Germany, the first activity built a common approach based on mutual understanding and fostered the exchange of experiences on promoting youth engagement, active citizenship, participation and social inclusion, preparing the ground for an action-oriented report on how to be more effective in reaching young people.-The second activity, an International seminar held in Brussels, continued the learning activities while providing the space for a dialogue between project partners, representing the youth field, and European policy and decision-makers – the European Parliament and the European Commission in particular – as well as public bodies involved in youth social inclusion, youth unemployment, and active citizenship.-The third activity, a study visit in Finland, was co-organised with After Eight, an organization with a long standing experience in the development of youth active citizenship, participation and social inclusion. The event offered an in-depth look into After Eight’s measures, projects, methodologies and political, financial and administrative infrastructures targeting youth. The event also enabled further exchange of experience between youth workers, resulting in a Good Practices Guide for the Promotion of Active citizenship and Youth social inclusion-The last Contact-Making Event in Germany facilitated transfer into practice. The action-oriented report on how to be more effective in reaching young people was finalised and prepared the ground for future projects following this objective. Policy recommendations on Erasmus+ were also finalised thanks to the partners’ gathered feedback.The tangible results of the project include (all available under ""Downloads"" here: goo.gl/CtAhD9) :• An action-oriented report that summarized the next steps in order to better promote youth active citizenship and participation through concrete project ideas, leading to several Erasmus+ project applications by YES Academy partners on the 4th October 2016 deadline;• A Good Practices Guide for the Promotion of Active citizenship and Youth social inclusion, based on the experiences and case studies shared during the project in order to share them with youth workers throughout Europe. • Policy recommendations on Erasmus+ to help public institutions better support youth and social work across the EU in the future, thanks to feedback from project partners, all grass-root organisations involved in Erasmus+ Youth.The learning results for youth workers were:• Deeper knowledge of structures and support measures for young people and youth organisations at EU and national levels• Qualitative support for the dialogue between the European youth sector and stakeholders in the field of European youth policies with a focus on youngsters with fewer opportunities;• Greater knowledge of good practices related to the social inclusion of young people and the promotion of active citizenship, leading to the concrete implementation of new"

"The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) calls for the right to education and access to work for all people with disabilities. This also applies to young people with cognitive impairments. Their path to vocational training and subsequent integration into the general labour market still has many barriers. This project focuses on them and contributes to general awareness, as well as to allowing participation in work-life and in society. Today, the importance of social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies has become generally accepted. The importance of these skills is also highlighted in vocational rehabilitation. However, there is no systematic approach to comprehensively assessing competency and initiating targeted support for participants. The professionals (educators, teachers, instructors, special needs teachers, therapists) involved in such training should be aware of the importance of social emotional learning competencies, and have the tools to recognise and develop them accordingly. However, a lack of such tools means that, to date, the corresponding funding has been inconsistent. The SEC4VET Project aimed to strengthen social and emotional learning during the vocational rehabilitation process, thereby contributing to the strengthening of empowerment and inclusion. SEC4VET brought together people with learning disabilities, self-help associations, vocational rehabilitation and science. Jointly, they all developed a diagnostic and support concept so that young people with disabilities can successfully complete their education, develop their potential and experience social participation. The targeted group is young people with learning disabilities, including minor mental disabilities, who are in occupational / work preparation or vocational training. After intensive professional preparation, these young people are able to learn a profession with reduced theoretical requirements. The second target group are teachers and specialists in the areas of vocational rehabilitation and inclusive vocational training, as well as teachers and social workers in vocational schools. The project lead to a broadening of competencies for the participating pupils and trainees, as well as for the project team members, the teachers and the specialists involved in the test trials. The dissemination and sustainability strategy was initially directed at the organisations within the project partnership, rather than at education providers, companies or integration services. This was done on both a national and European level. After the development partner tests the tools (intellectual output), they are implemented within the partnering organisation. In order to promote the transfer of results externally, the integration of project partners into national and European networks was very important. Each partner carrie dout multiplier events and other dissemination activities. The project was severely affected by the corona pandemic in the last half of the project period. A transnational projectr meeting, a transnational learnng/teaching/training event, several multiplier events and the final symposium could not be carried out as planned. The train-the-trainer workshop at the Berufsbildungswerk Mosbach-Heidelberg to test and introduce the diagnostic tools was a valuable further training for all experts to ensure the sustainability of the project results in the partner institutions.The 2nd LTTA event was planned as a workcamp with the title ""We are Europe"" with participants young people with disabilities in Northern Italy and had to be cancelled shortly before in the Corona risk area. The project was highly innovative and very complex. Four intellectual outputs are included as part of the significant results of the project: 1. Diagnostic tools (standardised diagnostics with self assessments and external assessments for cognitively impaired persons). The diagnostic tool captures the various dimensions of social and emotional learning competencies. 2. Manual on the importance of social emotional learning competencies (for instructors, teachers, etc.) 3. Concept for the promotion of social emotional learning competencies. The concept includes various areas differentiated by expertise, type and content. 4. Training modules for the participating teachers and specialists The tools that are target-group specific also contribute to further development and quality assurance in various occupational and business contexts, as well as in supporting and promoting learning. This is reflected in the implementation of vocational training for young people with cognitive impairments."