<< Background >>THE CHALLENGEHUMANS“In learning processes, as machines become better at rote tasks, humans will need to focus on the skills that remain unique to them: creativity, collaboration, communication and problem-solving” - Karen Hao (Taught by AI) CURRENT PERFORMANCEWe believe our project is closely linked to the ability of young people for critical thinking and connecting theory with practice. With its format and MO, INNOVATORY aims to tackle the reversal of this trend through creativity, collaboration and communication which develop skills of young people that allow their performance to improve in the key. Students from Romania, Portugal, Serbia, Greece and Slovenia are on a descendent trend in the PISA 2018 tests compared to both 2015 and 2012 results, Lithuania being the only exception to this scenario. Most of the countries are being classified as level 2 in all three domains.(see detailed PISA performance in the 6 partner countries attached)Complementary, data showed youth aged 15-17 wish they were also equipped with life skills and better training of their teachers in order to transversally help in developing these skills. The consulted stakeholders shared this view, along with the impression that schools are not equipped with the proper methods and tools to stimulate creativity and critical thinking. (LEAP Cluj 2020)SKILLS, TODAY AND TOMORROWDebates regarding the future of work resound through society in the light of the emerging AI or what knowledge will be valid in one or two decades. However, there is no debate on the fact that critical thinking, ability to work in teams, problem-solving skills, creativity and new ways of applied learning won’t lose their relevance and utility.CRISIS AND RESILIENCEResilience was already becoming a theme of interest for urban areas, and the COVID-19 pandemic provided an additional argument. Communities around the world need to adapt, find new ways of dealing with crises and provide solutions to capital challenges. While the focus now is on short term solutions, the long-term sustainability through resilience lies in a widespread of skills through which crises can be managed. And this perspective starts with today’s teenagers as the key decision-making generation.<< Objectives >>GOALS, OBJECTIVES AND TARGET GROUPSWe aim to create European Innovatory, a European movement of 840 high-school pupils, 70 teachers, 50 experts and decision-makers involved in a creative and collaborative learning process identifying needs and problems in society and providing creative solutions on local and European level based on the method of Design Thinking until 2024.We aim for:• involving high-school pupils (aged 14-18) and their teachers from 7 urban areas in developing their critical thinking, creative and problem-solving skills and proactive attitude in a creative and collaborative environment, in a safe space where they can try themselves out while receiving proactive feedback while also improving teacher-pupil working relationships through the creation of 210 creative teams,• developing a creative way of promoting the creative and proactive problem-solving potential of young people towards local stakeholders and decision-makers involved in urban development locally, and overall community development at European level,• creating a Europe-wide proactive scalable learning movement based on social innovation and Design Thinking as key aspects of building individual and community resilience leading to a sustainable transformation in society, involving 840 pupils, 70 teachers and additional 150 experts, mentors and stakeholders,• creating sustainable cooperation, management and decision-making platform involving 7 starting cities and 10 additional European stakeholders aiming to take care of the results of the project including its consolidation as a European programme and movement and a scalable model in Europe and the world.<< Implementation >>A1 General management – full project periodProvides the general management activities and the monitoring of the progress. It also refers to organisational costs of the coordinator and each partner (office costs, stationary, partial salaries of administrative personnel, delegations and trips for the dissemination of the project in the country and abroad).Coordinator: project coordinatorA2 Accounting – full project periodFilling and financial management, according to the clauses of the financial agreement and its annexes.C: accountant/partner, supervised by the financial coordinatorA3 Project launch communication – 1st monthA special activity focusing on announcing the start of the project (objectives, timeframe and expected results), in 7 languages for enhanced acces. C: communication coordinator with partner coordinatorsA4 Dissemination on O1 and the launch of Local Innovatory actions – 6th monthWhen concluding O1, we will conduct a detailed, mostly institutional campaign, presenting the overall framework and next steps, aiming to raise interest towards the process, including local and European action. The public call for teachers will be launched.A5 Intermediate evaluation 1 – 8th monthIntermediate evaluation is conducted before and during the 3rd project meeting and it sums up activities and performance for the first 6 months, especially concerning the creation of O1 and the selection of teachers for the second output. The intermediate evaluation is conducted by a layman involved in the project.A6 Dissemination on O2 – 11th monthE1-E7 (happening simultaneously) are concluded with the dissemination of O2. We will address a wide range of audience and will focus on the simultaneity of the processes and the 200+ generated solutions by the teams. C: communication coordinatorA7 Intermediate evaluation 2 – 12th monthIntermediate evaluation is prepared during the 4th project meeting and it sums up activities and performance, especially concerning the creation of O2. It is done jointly by all partners. C: project coordinatorA8 Dissemination on O3 – 20th monthDissemination of O3 occurs in connection with the European SpeakOut Day and comes as a completion to the third multiplier event of the project, to be held in Cluj-Napoca, city hosting the overall project coordination. The dissemination uses a set of tools and targets a wide range of audiences, as it is presented in the special section dedicated to dissemination activities. C: communication coordinatorA9 Institutional dissemination – 21-23rd monthThis dissemination activity will focus on presenting all intellectual outputs and other results of the project through institutional channels. In this process, we will use institutional e-mail communication, but the management team will also organise a dissemination tour to Brussels and Strasbourg in order to meet key stakeholders. Visits to our associated partners will also be deployed during the last three months of the project.A10 Final evaluation and sustainability planning – 23rd monthFinal evaluation is conducted during and after the last project meeting. We will use the reporting period to enable a broad debriefing among partners and to plan future action and scaling of project results. Final evaluation also sets conditions for impact monitoring and draws up a sustainability plan for the results of the project.A11 Final communication on the project and results – 23rd monthA summary communication of the project’s results is published which provides a summary of all outputs and outcomes and it also reflects on the impact, continuation of the project and the sustainability of results. This communication will be done mostly through online tools on the internet, through e-mail and social networks.<< Results >>CAUSES OF THE CHALLENGELACK OF SOFT SKILL EDUCATION IN SCHOOLSIf one takes a glance at a weekly class schedule of European pupil in the countries involved in this project, it is shocking how any soft skills curricula is missing. Although these skills can be gained through involvement in non-formal learning activities, the burden of a school programme hardly allows a real chance in acquiring these skills without impacting one’s grades. OLD WAYS OF TEACHINGTeaching knowledge is still a mostly one-way process while validation is done with grades based on reproducing memorised information. However, the growing number of teachers trying to bring additional non-formal methods into their work is an opening. OPPORTUNITY IN DIGITAL, FOCUS ON HUMAN SKILLSAs Karen Hao expresses it quite simply, no matter of advance in technology, humans will need creativity, collaboration, communication and problem-solving skills. As Internet is relatively cheap and accessible, quality is good, there is an opportunity to deploy creative learning and collaboration processes supported by up-to-date digital solutions. There is a real opening for enabling a creative and collaborative environment focusing on problem-solving and enabling communication towards stakeholders.We aim to achieve the following results:AT OUTPUT LEVEL* the creation of an overall European Innovatory Framework comprising of an overarching context, a resolution on the needs of skills development, an open methodology for implementation at local level, an open platform supporting overall awareness, dissemination and enabling, recording and tracking of cooperation between teachers, young people, mentors and stakeholders,* the delivery of 7 Local Innovatory actions resulting in the creation of a total of 210 creative solutions developed by young people to problems and needs in their surrounding and society in general,* the delivery of 14 innovative solutions developed by young people, improved to the level of business cases ready for implementation on European level,* the formation of 210 working teams in which high-school pupils and teachers work together in developing their skills and competencies through Design Thinking,* the formation of Local Innovatory support networks involving teachers, stakeholders, decision-makers, their working ways being captured in 7 specific city-level study cases,AT OUTCOME LEVEL* 840 young people involved through 210 teams in innovative ways of developing skills and competencies regarding creativity, problem-solving, collaboration and communication,* (at least) 84 young people from fewer opportunities provided with an equal chance of developing they skills and competencies in a similar way to their peers involved in Innovatory,* 70 teachers with developed skills and competencies regarding creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, communication and facilitation involved in a pool of teachers supporting the skill development of young people, organised in local networks but also as part of a European movement,* 150 experts, mentors and coordinators are involved in supporting teachers and pupils themselves in developing new ways of collaboration in education processes aiming to develop skills and competencies of young people,* 7 local networks of stakeholders are created in support of young people’s skills development.* sustainability conditions are met for the continuation of the 7 initial Local Innovatory processes from 2024 on,* 30 more cities express their intent to adapt and deliver Local Innovatory starting from 2024.* a European Innovatory model and open movement is created for the support of skills development, able to extend and involve other cities and their local communities,* an enhanced cooperation of cities in the framework of the Network of European Youth Capitals and including a renewed commitment considering youth as a key priority in shaping the future of these cities in the long term.

"Technology is affecting society in many different ways. Digital transformation is shaping labour market, education, youth work and even interpersonal relationships. The new buzzwords are: gamification, augmented reality, virtual reality, personalised e-learning, artificial intelligence, e-citizenship, redesigning learning spaces. Classroom is becoming a set of devices and more and more learning happens outside of formal education setting. Do youth workers understand what these words mean? Do they know how to use new trends in technology in daily youth work activities? Are youth worker familiar with new trends in sociology of young people? What impact technology has on young peoples’ lifestyles / health / social skills? With this project project partners helped youth workers to answer to the questions above and wanted to provide open source tools, methods and knowledge for digital youth work. Youth workers learned how to organize educational activities by using digital tools. Also, project organizers created a space for participants to cooperate and create Erasmus+ projects with digital elements, which would met interests and needs of youth. The training course brought 31 person: youth workers, youth leaders, NGO leaders, student representatives, civil servants, social workers, youth representative for Advisory Council on Youth, public service providers, social worker with refugee background, youth with fewer opportunities from across Europe to Lithuania for a 7-day training course ""Basic competencies in digital youth work"" from 28th of April 2019 to 5th of May 2019. Aim of the project was to create a space for youth workers to explore how digital youth work can be included in organisations’ daily youth work activities and international projects. Objectives of the training course were: 1. To raise awareness how digitalisation is shaping the societies, including its impact on youth work and young people. 2. Explore how youth work can benefit from digital technologies. 3. Provide participants with basic skills for using digital youth work tools. 4. Analyse good practice examples how digital youth work is already implemented. 5. Gain practical tools for digital youth work. 6. To develop future international youth mobility projects within Erasmus+."

Nowadays, in the European Union it is normal to live in a multicultural environment and, thanks to the migrations, the level of diversity in the EU states is going to be even bigger. However, we have noticed that in our society there is a constant increase in misunderstanding of what are the differences of cultures, the concept of diversity and other relevant bases which should be common if we think about a Europe that wants diversity as an added value. This lack in the society is creating the spread of a lot of negative values such as xenophobia and especially Euro-scepticism. Starting from this reflection and from researches among other youngsters, we have decided to develop this exchange, as we have noticed that we do have similarities in the field of ancient fairy tales and that the spread of these fairy tales and the use of them can facilitate the process of understanding diversity of cultures and the dialogue among cultures and identities for young people. The main aim of our project is to transfer to young people European values of diversity, intercultural understanding and sensitivity through the use of puppet theatre and traditional fairy tales. “Tales for a better Europe” will be a mobility of individuals in the youth sector, a youth exchange which will involve 36 young people and group leaders coming from Estonia, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Poland and Portugal. The activities of the exchange will be held in Tallinn, Estonia from 18th to 23rd of June 2019 + 2 travel days. The activities of this exchange will be based on the concept of peer to peer education and methodologies of non-formal education. In particular for this exchange the activities will be focusing on the sharing of traditional fairy tales and stories of different countries involved and the use of a street art as puppet theatre in order to represent them. Through these activities we would like to foster the understanding and raise awareness on young participants on intercultural dialogue and the assimilation of concepts of diversity and identity. Our specific objectives are: - To raise young people awareness on intercultural learning and sensitivity through the use of puppet theatre and storytelling by using traditional fairy tales and stories; - To share among young people traditional fairy tales and stories through the use of puppet theatre and storytelling in order to discover concepts of identity and diversity; - To enhance European values such as mutual understanding, tolerance, active citizenship and fight negative values as xenophobia, racism, homophobia and Euro-scepticism; - To discover and exploit the potential of storytelling by presenting traditional fairy tales and using puppet theatre with the feedback of external experts as a valuable learning procedure to develop intercultural competence for young people; - To create and perform a common intercultural fairy tale on the topic of intercultural learning by young people and present it in public as a puppet theatre for other young people at international and local level. After the youth exchange, each partner will support young participants to play the intercultural story created by them during the exchange, and spread it through their communication channels and local contacts in the local communities. In our group we will have participants facing geographical and economic obstacles and educational and cultural differences. The whole group of participants will be involved in all the phases of the project. Participants from the receiving organisation have been involved since the drafting of this project idea and will help in the connection of the group with the local community of Tallinn. The hosting organisation TDM 2000 Estonia (Estonia) will take care of the overseeing of communication, will be hosting the activities and will be responsible for logistics and financial part. UNESCO Youth Club of Thessaloniki (Greece) will take care of monitoring the entire project cycle. Associazione Studenti per la Città (Italy) and Foreningen Framtidstaget (Sweden) will take care of visibility, instead the partners Warminsko-Mazurska Wojewodzka(Poland) and Azes Valboenses Futebol Clube (Portugal) will take care of monitoring of dissemination activities.

In relation to the Europe 2020 strategy, the project addresses the themes of social inclusion, employability, the active participation of young people in the civil society, training and youth work. In particular, in relation to the seven flagship initiatives for the European contribution to the Europe 2020 strategy that aims to stimulate progress in terms of growth and employment, our project is based on the second flagship initiative “youth on the move”. The target of our project is made up of young people who lack of basic competences due to social, economic and geographical barriers. Hence, the target may include young individuals involved in training or young Neets. Developing mobility paths abroad and improving basic and transversal competences is particularly difficult for this specific target. The project had multiple objectives. First of all the project tried to develop the 8 key competences in the emotional, cognitive and social field among young low-skilled Neets while ensuring an intellectual, inclusive and sustainable growth. Moreover, one of the main objectives was to promote the mobility of young people aboard in order to increase their employability, allow them to have the same possibilities as the other young people, reduce the social gap between the different groups, acquire the fundamental international and intercultural vision for the development of life skills and guarantee the validity and the quality of these people’s employability. The project involved 15 partners belonging to 6 different countries with expertise in the fields of education, social inclusion, youth employment and in the relations with local businesses and organizations. Under a quantitative point of view, more than the 882 originally planned participants were involved.The main activities that were implemented are: -the creation of a network: contact and research of training entities, companies at the national level and training agencies able to organize and support the various steps -the development of a platform in order to manage the network and create a link between young people, social entities and businesses. -the organization of 14 multiplier events in the 6 countries involved in order to present the 2 IOs.-in the framework of the second IO, 11 creative meetings took place with the participation of young people and training managers in order to understand how to organize the mobility for the project target; creation of the content of the guide-the organization of 5 days of training on the content of the guide dedicated to youth workers and to those responsible of the aspects related to the training. -the organization of the mobility of 16 young people in order to put the methodologies into practice. The initially planned results were achieved. Under a qualitative point of view, we have created a working group and we have established a dynamic of exchanges between social entities and economic organizations in order to organize and plan mobility projects dedicated to low-skilled young people, thanks to European and national funds. The young people who participated in the mobility developed their life skills and triggered a mechanism of innovation and qualification that is reflected in the territory of origin. Finally, there has been a professional development of those who work or are active in the fields of education, training and youth through the training period that took place on the basis of the guide established within the project. The feedback that we received through the analysis of the resource sheets provided by the guide was very positive. The impact generated was both short and long-term. In relation to the short-term impact, the most important effect was the one on young people and on youth workers who participated in the mobility and in the training. For the social entities, being able to get in touch with other European organizations and to get to know other businesses willing to welcome a young NEET was fundamental. As far as the long-term is concerned, the impact mainly concerned the creation of a mechanism of development and activities production that aims to promote social inclusion and the employability of low-skilled people. Another impact to be highlighted is the one on the project partners since it allowed us to acquire further competences, to develop new collaborations and design new project proposals in order to ensure a follow-up and sustain the ongoing actions. The project results reflect the EU strategy for youth by 2027 as well as its priorities. Thanks to the instruments designed within the project, we can promote a youth work that promotes quality, innovation and the recognition of youth work in order to support the young Neets in their journey towards inclusion.

The Council Resolution on youth work, 2010, identifies eight fields in which cross-sectoral youth policy initiatives should be taken and how youth work can contribute, as well human rights and democracy, cultural diversity and mobility. The youth work activities and processes are self-managed, co-managed or managed under educational or pedagogical guidance by either professional or voluntary youth workers and youth leaders. The report of the expert group set up under the EU Work Plan for Youth for 2014 – 2015 describes the concrete role of the value of the youth work in addressing challenges young people are facing, notes the so important youth work approach as a link and broker between young people and different fields, sectors and services, such as the local communities, schools, social services, media and police. As well the report focus on the importance of the inclusion of the youth workers in the youth policy formulation - youth work is “like a radar, it is first in line and can pick up early indicators of changes, tendencies and trends among young people and help trigger quicker responses”. The new EU Youth Strategy /2019 -2027/ pointed 3 main core areas of youth sector: Engage, Connect, Empower. These 3 areas cover the general path how to engage young people to be part of the community life and to be creative architects of their own life, how to work together, to experience solidarity, to share best practices and to further work on effective systems of recognition and validation of gained competences outside the formal education. Youth work is addressed as catalyst of empowerment. Having that in mind the project partners agreed, that it is important to make further efforts to share different practices, increase training opportunities for youth workers, recognise competencies, as key to improving quality of youth work and the well-being of young people. The main objective of the project “Youth work and Youth workers across EUROPE – good examples from practice about volunteering, employment, education and training” is to explore, to describe and to exchange good practices concerning youth work in the different countries of the project partnership in order to ensure synchronised information and additional access to education and training for youth workers. The project will have the following main sub -objectives: 1. Exploring different practices in detail of youth work volunteering, employment, education and training in different European countries 2. Sharing good practices of youth work education and training within partnership3. Exploring possibilities of implementation of the shared youth work educational programs within partnership 4. Development of supportive network for information and experience exchange concerning youth work5. Better the competences of the partnering organisations of project management, achieving common goals and results and quality assurance of process. The expected results on the project completion include report on the different practices of youth work in the partnership countries; good practices collection book; shared within the partnership educational program for youth workers; development of pilot versions in the participating organisations; development of the competences of the participating organisation concerning quality assurance of processes and projects. The project will involve in the different activities youth workers and/or experts who are practitioners, who could deliver correct and evidence - based information, who could develop content, who are ready to share and improve their knowledge and experience. The project aims to get together practitioners who have an intimate knowledge of the needs of the sector and have motivation to find and deliver different solutions. Participants who are familiar with the process of non – formal learning, learning outcomes achievement, recognition and validation. The impact for the partnering organisations and other relevant stakeholders– more knowledge about youth work in practice, new partners, new competences for international cooperation, new service that they can provide to the youth workers or future youth workers in their countries. The impact for the target groups - more knowledge about youth work in practice /collection book/, new instruments and examples about the work on the field, new educational program. Enable access for youth workers to cross – border mobility opportunities, including employment and volunteering in the civic sector.The project “Youth work and Youth workers across EUROPE – good examples from practice about volunteering, employment, education and training” is complementary to the activities already carried out by the participating organisations, but as well to the institutional efforts by exchanging quality and good practices on practical level and developing new opportunities for youth workers to have access to educational programs and training outside the formal educational system.