The megatrends are clear: people living in Europe will be older, more stressed and unhealthy, living in urban areas, and threatened by climate change effects with ever increasing immigration from developing nations. Agriculture, Forestry, Urban Planning and Environmental (AFUE) HEIs need to embed increasing health and social needs into their paradigms, teaching and business models. The health and social sectors also need to avoid the silos approach and adopt holistic thinking in achieving social and health challenges. Green infrastructures, social agriculture and forestry, rural tourism and wellness are some of the emerging business and research sectors that are providing cost-effective solutions to these emerging trends that are having a considerable impact on European policies and economy. The GREEN4C alliance aims at increasing Europe’s innovation capacity among universities and businesses by promoting green and natural approaches to health and social care. It will do so by: • facilitating the exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge among universities and business coming from two key sectors that often fail to cooperate: the social-health and environmental sectors.• promoting a new, innovative and multidisciplinary global blended training course to embed health and social challenges into Agriculture, Forestry, Urban Planning and Environmental universities. • stimulating an entrepreneurial skills and attitude among students, researchers and young entrepreneurs to provide the public and private sectors with innovative and cost-effective solutions to health and social care by using natural resources. The project will focus on the countries of Italy, Romania, The Netherlands, Ireland and Austria. Results will have a strong EU-global dimension and transferability potential, capitalizing on existing wide university-business networks, the partnership with the University of British Columbia, and the European Forestry Institute an international research and

<< Background >>For the project partnership of the #me#us#now project it is absolutely essential to apply for this project, as the focus is set on low-qualified people in VET, VET professionals including external VET trainers and VET schools, and the aim of changing our current situation not only on local, regional, national or EU levels, but also on international level for the better and to include everyone to counteract the effects of climate change in a sustainable and participative way based on common green values.The project #me #us #now focuses on low-qualified young people between 15 and 30[1] years of age in Vocational Education and Training (VET) and VET professionals across Europe.The addressed needs can be clustered according to the two target groups in VET and stakeholders, including professionals and experts, as follows: (1) low-qualified young people in VET -identify the status quo, needs, barriers and awareness levels -raise motivation -reduce given barriers -support them with easy-to-handle and low-threshold activities and measures -use their capacities in peer-group settings -accelerate their self-efficacy -allow for and further the building of common values -create access to societal participation -encourage a sustainable lifestyle (2) VET professionals -meet the need for common guidelines -offer innovative tools and strategies -encourage cross-institutional acting and supporting-provide potential innovative contributions to be incorporated into the curriculae of VET systems -encourage exchange of results, best-practices, experiences and lessons learnt -further exchange on local, regional, national, EU and international levels (3) stakeholders, professionals and experts -meet the need of a common green networking platform -encourage exchange of results, best-practices, experiences and lessons learnt -further exchange on local, regional, national, EU and international levels[1] age range is leaned on the European Youth Guarantee: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1079&langId=en<< Objectives >>The project partnership of the #me#us#now project has set the following objectives to be achieved during the project for the following target groups: 1.low-qualified young people in VET -Identify the awareness, needs and barriers of low-qualified young people in VET concerning climate change by conducting national field studies and desktop research, both enabling conclusions and recommendations for VET professionals (R1) -furthering motivation, identification, development and implementation of effective and sustainable countermeasures that are applicable and adaptable daily and permanently (R2) (R3) based on the results of R1 -further active participation in society (R3) -further the development of shared green values (R2) (R3) - promote the transfer of the planned project results, especially R3 to more representatives of the target group -contribute to effective climate change countermeasures for all groups of young people through the implementation and delivery of the #me#us#now project. 2.VET professionals -support low-qualified young people in VET to increase their awareness and self-efficacy on climate change (R2) (R3), based on the results of R1. -support VET professionals in motivating the target group in the daily context of VET (R2) -providing useful tools, activities and measures that can be easily implemented and adapted (R3)-encourage the incorporation of innovative and sustainable contents in all curriculae, including those in VET schools and the education of VET teachers/trainers - establish a networking platform to promote exchanges between VET professionals on multiple levels 3.experts and stakeholders on different levels -establish a networking platform to promote exchanges between stakeholders and experts (R4) at local, regional, national, European and international levels -provide a Green Policy Paper for public and educational bodies and political decision-makers-encourage education, VET policy and political discussion at a broader level (R4)<< Implementation >>The project activities that will lead to the successful implementation of the #me#us#now project can be divided into the following categories: 1. Project management and implementation activities These activities form the basic framework of the #me#us#now project by defining all the tasks necessary for the proper implementation of the project inside and outside the project partnership and consist of -administration (A.PM1) -monitoring (A.PM2) and -budget control (A.PM3) 2. Quality Management These activities include the -Quality Management Guide (A.QM1.1) which defines quality benchmarks on process, product and impact level and the-Quality Assurance consisting of regular evaluations of process, product, and impact quality on internal and external level. 3. Sharing and promotion, Exploitation and Sustainability These include-Sharing and Promotion Products (A.S1), such as design of project logo, Sharing and Promotion Guide, brochures, flyers and posters, the project website, social media channels and continous sharing and promotion activities sharing regular news about status-quo and product development process through online activities and personal activities at target group and at stakeholder level. Additionally, the-Impact Assessment (A.S2) provides regular sharing and promotion reports of partners. Moreover, there is the development and implementation of the-Sustainability Strategy (A.S3) 4. Transnational Project Meetings Direct and personal exchange between the partners in the crucial phases of the project split up into -TPM1: Trim, IE, Apr 2022 -TPM2: Bilbao, ES, Dec 2022 -TPM3: Graz, AT, Aug 2023 -TPM4: Vicenza, IT, Dec 2023 5. Learning, Teaching, and Training Activity (C1), Aug 2023 and Learning, Teaching, and Training Activity (C2), Dec 2023 In this 3-day short-term staff training each, both target groups involved will be trained in using and applying the #me#us#now project results R3 and R4. 6. Multiplier Events The national multiplier events further the sharing and promoting of project results, include relevant stakeholders and are split up into -E1: AT, Jan 2024 -E2: IE, Jan 2024 -E3: ES, Jan 2024 -E4: IT, Jan 2024 The project consortium of the me#us#now project will produce four high-quality and easy-to-use project results for the beneficiaries of the project and for further use on regional, national, European and international level. These consist of - the #me#us#now Research Report (R1), including national Field Surveys, a Transnational Report concerning low-qualified young people in VET and a video summary subtitled in all project partners’ languages. - the #me#us#now Methodological Collection (R2) providing activities and measures for raising the motivation and awareness of low-qualified young people in VET concerning climate change, including national motivational workshops. - the #me#us#now Action Plan for Eco-Pro’s (R3) offering a practical guidebook to VET professionals, a peer-group setting with role models of the target group of low-qualified young people in VET, and implementation activities. - the #me#us#now Green Merge Networking Platform (R4), allowing for a long-lasting exchange between professionals and experts on local, regional, national, European and international level and providing a Green Policy Paper to political decison-makers and public and educational bodies to accelerate discussion on multiple levels.<< Results >>(R1) Research ReportGathering relevant national information about the target group - low qualified young people - and the professionals who work with them, is necessary for providing tailor-made further results. This will help the project consortium to understand the perspective, needs and awareness of low qualified young people concerning topics such as climate change, sustainability, and their self-efficacy. Additionally, professionals working with the target group in the context of e.g., VET, youth coaching, counselling, will be asked as well. The project consortium will need to meet low qualified young people in VET and VET professionals alike at their current state, to create a deeper understanding of their situation and perspective. All project partners will conduct desktop research concerning existing activities/measures on national levels in the context of climate change and sustainability. The Transnational Research Report will serve as an important basis for the following project results. Video summaries will be available in all partner languages.(R2) Methodological CollectionBased on the findings and conclusions of R1 the project consortium will implement a collection of activities and measures for raising the motivation and awareness of low qualified young people regarding climate change. This can be used and implemented by VET professionals who support the target group. Due to the implementation of feedback loops with the target groups and further developed as an opportunity to motivate the youth for taking action. The main purpose of this project step will be to nominate one role model per country for the further project process. These will help the project to create a new approach for counteracting climate change. Raising self-efficacy and social responsibility of the role models will help spreading the idea of climate-awareness through peer-groups and will be ensured that not only professionals will motivate low qualified young people, fostering awareness, participation, and acting in a sustainable and self-efficient way by implementing motivational workshops in all partner countries.(R3) Action plan for Eco-Pro’sThe findings of (R1) and (R2) will be compiled in a guidebook that will help and support professionals to integrate climate change activities and measures into their work with low qualified young people. They will learn how to motivate them to become active and to take their societal role in counteracting the negative environmental results. The Action Plan for Eco Pro’s will be the core output of the project and will include practical advice and case studies. The result will include the important findings and conclusions of (R1), but also on the other hand recommendations and guidelines for a step-by-step implementation of the defined activities and measures of the result for professionals. Role models will be consistently included to offer a deeper understanding of the target group and their motivating factors and barriers regarding the topic and together with them custom-tailored ways in peer-group settings will be developed and implemented to reach the target group.(R4) Green Merge Networking PlatformAs the European Union underlines the importance of exchanges beyond experts, the project partners will elaborate the structure of setting up an online platform. This will include the creation of the design, the functions and an easy-to-handle user interface. It will provide free access to all results and findings collected in the project, and the Green Policy Paper. In addition, professionals, experts, stakeholders and interested parties will have the opportunity to get in touch with each other and exchange views on the content and practical implementation. In this way, the results will even be more spread and accelerated across borders, bringing together interested experts and will therefore create international impact and good opportunities for a follow-up even after the projects end.

The topic of health concerns both individuals and society as a whole. While everyone wants to be healthy there is a strong connection between income levels and where you live with your health and life expectancy. The rising costs of health care, including for diseases that could actually be prevented or better managed, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease and cancer, mean that societies and economies have an interest in promoting better health. To be and to stay physically and mentally healthy is linked to knowledge about living a healthy life at all stages. Central to achieving this is having access to health care and understanding health information. Health literacy is a basic competence and needs to be recognised as such.Health literacy levels have an impact on the efficiency of healthcare systems. People that have low health literacy tend to go to the doctor more often, to be hospitalized more often or to take inappropriate treatment or prescriptions. Furthermore, they are less inclined to take preventative measures. Fostering health literacy of all citizens is beneficial for society at large as it reduces costs for public health systems which can, then, work more efficiently for those really in need of care.Tackling the health literacy issue also means fighting poverty, social exclusion, racism and discrimination, and promoting social justice and gender equality. It provides a very strong basis to improve the socio-economic situation of many people as a healthier population in all stages of life can contribute better to the social, cultural and economic development of its community and country. Thus, it is not only about educating people in health issues but about empowering them to attain a better life for themselves and society as a whole.The objective of the HEALTH@HOME project is to help transform areas of social and economic disadvantage into sustainable, healthy communities by providing a full range of age appropriate and accessible family education resources to promote health literacy.A) Resources: These will include a suite of age appropriate family learning resources that build health literacy related to the 4 thematic areas selected - Promoting Positive Mental Health; Diet & Nutrition; Preventative Health Promotion; Social Media in the Health Sector - to include: - a collection of 12 themed comic strips for younger children, 4 for each selected theme, will be designed and produced and presented as PDFs for download and printing and as flip-books for online reading;- a compendium of 32 web-quest challenge-based educational resources, 8 for each selected theme at introductory, intermediate, advanced and expert levels for learners between the ages of 13 and 25;- a series of workshop lesson plans, tip sheets and a learner manual to raise health literacy awareness among parents and guardians- induction training programme for parents and guardians so they can facilitate and manage the family learning model developed.2. An in-service training programme for adult educators to support their engagement with the new family learning resources developed and to ensure that they acquire the necessary skills to develop their own comic strips and Web-quest challenge-based educational resources.3. A bespoke on-line learning environment will be developed and populated with the innovative family learning resources.All resources developed will be presented in traditional and on-line formats in 4 partner languages and made available to all interested parties without restriction in keeping with the open access requirements of the ERASMUS+ programme.

Международните проучвания показаха, че учениците от ЕС не се справят добре в областта на природните науката, математиката и грамотността (PISA, TIMMS, OECD). Един от специфичните приоритети на училищната образователна програма е да се преодолява слабото постигане на основни умения чрез по-ефективни методи на преподаване и по-специално чрез проекти, които насърчават интердисциплинарните подходи и интегрирането на преподаване на основни умения като математика, наука и литература, в среда обогатени с информационни технологии. Проектът COMMIX обединява 8 партньора от 7 страни от ЕС, които смятат, че сътрудничеството в използването на интерактивни комикси в образованието може да има положително въздействие и да увеличи значително придобиването на умения в езиковите, научните и други предмети и да насочи учениците на възраст 11 -16-годишни и изложени на риск студенти. Картинното възприятие в процеса на учене е признат. Рисуването и разказването на истории са част от естествения ни процес на учене от съвсем ранна детска възраст.Проектът COMMIX има за цел да насърчи използването на интерактивни комикси в образованието. От направения обзор за използването на комиски в обучението се установи, че комикси се използват от първите години на обучение включително за университетско ниво (Larry Gonick History, Science, Narrative, and India Ink). В световен мащаб комиксите са признати за важна медия в популяризирането на грамотността и се използват в образованието. В страни като Франция, Белгия и Япония е издигнат на почит, но повече в забавление. Един от най-известните сериали за деца Семейство Симпсън представя житейски ситуации с образователен характер. Не са идентифицирани пълни методологии за използване на комикси в учебния процес. В някои от страните, участнички в проекта, се прилагат комиски в обучението, но това е по идея на учителите и училището, не е стандартизирано на национално ниво. Прилагането на комикси в обучението може да има положително въздействие и да увеличи значително придобиването на грамотност, на умения в областта науката и други предмети и да задържи вниманието на учениците на възраст 11-15 години и на рискови ученици.Използването на комикси и интерактивни технологии в училище дава възможност на учениците да са творци и участници в историите, а не пасивни потребители. Създаването на картинни истории подкрепят развиването на умения като критично мислене и медийна грамотност и удовлетворяват потребностите на учениците да съпреживеят творческия процес на картинните истории. Въздействието на проекта е насочено към: - намаляване броя на учениците с ниско ниво на грамотност;- ангажиране на рисковите ученици в езикознание и академично обучение; - осигуряване на новаторски педагогически методи; - насоки за най-добри практики и стратегии за използване на комикси, графични романи и дигитално разказване на истории в образованието- предоставяне на възможност на всички заинтересовани страни (учители, родители, ...) да използват иновативни образователни практики и ресурси, основани на ИКТ, - създаване на ръководство за използване на комикси в образованието чрез изграждане култури и общности чрез използването на технологиите Web 2.0В хода на проекта се направи:- критичен преглед на подходите за използване на комикси в обучението като фокусът бе обучение на 11-15 годишни ученици- изгради се единна методология на прилагане на жанра комикс в обучението- преглед на значими текстове представени с комикси от всяка партньорска държава- набор от примери за приложението на комиски в различни дисциплини, които могат да се използват във всяко училище и идеите за следващи разработки като дейности за повишаване на граматичните и езиковите умения. - разработките по проекта са налични в сайта на проекта http://www.commix-project.eu/ и в обучителната платформа https://commix-project.eu/elearning/login/index.php. Достъпът до учебните материали се осъществява със свободна регистрация в платформата. Учебната система е изградена в среда Moodle. - семинари във всяка една от страните за разпространение работата по проекта.

The GAME of PHONES project seeks to develop a compendium of educational materials and resources to support adult educators address the needs of the most difficult to access ‘Sustained’ NEETs who might be characterised as the 'don’t want to learn, unable to learn' sub-set. The GAME of PHONES consortium believes that if the most difficult to reach target groups can be re-engaged by the approach and resources developed then it is fair to assume that the ‘easier’ target groups will also be re-engaged. Partners are committed to addressing disadvantage, combating failure in education and enhancing pedagogic and didactic approaches in adult education.Digital technology enriches education and offers new learning opportunities by enabling access to additional learning environments and resources that can be used to attract and integrate reluctant learners. The primary objective of the project is to design and develop a bespoke challenge-based educational intervention aimed at re-engaging NEETs and supporting them to build skills and competences to assist their reintegration to education or employment. The proposed resources will be developed as webquests which will be designed and produced for access on smartphones. These resources will use inquiry-based and project-based learning embedding the acquisition of key competences into the individual webquests. To ensure that this approach is sustainable partners will also develop a bespoke in-service training programme to support adult educators to harness the full potential of this compendium of new mobile learning resources and integrate the new resources into their everyday activities. In-service training will place a significant emphasis on online learning and exploring the roles of educators in these dynamic environments ensuring that they are comfortable working with the new resources in these non-traditional learning environments; fully bought-in to the benefits that online learning can bring for working with marginalised target groups; and aware of the risks that pertain when working in online environments.For the partner organisations involved, namely Meath Partnership, Callidus, FFE, StorytellMe and CARDET, the intellectual outputs of the GAME of PHONES project will have a positive impact on the skill sets of adult education staff involved who will considerably improve their service offering for NEETs and enhance their awareness of the potential of dynamic online learning environments and bespoke challenge-based learning resources for re-engaging marginalised young people. The organisations involved will be afforded the opportunity to build a reputation for being at the cutting edge of analysis and understanding of the evolving digital society we live and work in. GAME of PHONES is a win: win project that will produce positive impacts for different people, for different groups of stakeholders and for partners both individually and collectively.