"Music is one of the elements that more easily engages and with a highest impact on the personal and professional development of young people. People with a musical background gain a number of soft skills that are helpful for both personal and labour market aspects.Thus, skills acquired through music, such as self-discipline, responsibility, adaptability, perseverance, concentration, communication, teamwork, openness to feedback or confidence, etc., have an increasing importance in today's changing environment, making young people more prepared to success in personal and professional life. And it is especially important that the sooner these skills are acquired the better, and herein lays the importance to address this issue at a young age. Youth organisations (particularly music schools) will be key in this regard, as they have a deep knowledge and capacity of action in the informal education and training of young people.So, considering this background and the possibilities that music offers, Play2Grow! project will develop, through international cooperation of 5 complementary entities active in the music, training and youth field, a set of training outputs and activities that will contribute to the acquisition of a series of values (respect, capacity to overcome challenges....) and key skills at both hard (music-related skills, audiovisuals, linguistics...) and soft level (teamwork, creativity, initiative, critical spirit...). And it will be done through a music-based approach.In this regard, project will use music as a way to develop 2 complementary intellectual outputs to foster and improve the provision and acquisition of such values and skills: a Methodology and Training Curricula for the provision and acquisition of key skills through music (IO1) and a Collaborative Knowledge Exchange Tool for the dynamic learning and interaction on key skills through music–Play2Grow HUB (IO2).Such outputs will address/cover the needs of 2 main target groups: Youth Workers (staff of centres that work with young people and that use music as a conductor of their activities) and Youngsters themselves, final beneficiaries of the project. Thus, Youth Workers will benefit from acquiring an innovative methodology and training resources that will increase their capacity for the provision of the key skills and values among youngsters, while Youngsters will see their key skills and values improved by getting more trained Youth Workers and access to innovative and state of the art educational resources.This be complemented with a series of activities, such as project meetings (4) and 2 training events (addressed to both Youth Workers and Youngsters) to get useful feedback and reinforce project outcomes. Constant collaboration and feedback will be a core part of the project methodology. Thus, all partners will provide its expertise and know-how for the proper development and testing of project outputs. Then, feedback obtained from internal and external testing will be highly taken into consideration for the improvement/adaptation of the outputs according to the target public needs and demands. In addition, the IO2 (Play2Grow HUB) will offer a virtual space to deepen in this aspect (peer learning, interaction, etc.), on which project partners and external interested youth organisations an youngsters can cooperate and exchange ideas and feelings.Transnational approach is also at the very heart of the project idea, with 5 organisations from 3 EU countries (Portugal, Spain and Italy), which will reinforce the variety of approaches in teaching youngsters through music, increasing outcomes richness and contributing to the European motto ""United in Diversity"" by using music as an element of cohesion. The Cross-border approach of the 5 partner organisations, and the fact that it will have a deep impact in the rural areas (as the majority of the project partners come from low-populated rural areas) will therefore support the implementation of high quality training materials and tools in those areas with traditionally less opportunities.Regarding the impact, it will suppose an increase in the competences of both Youngsters and youth organisations (especially music-schools), that will get a further recognition of their key work as informal learning providers in the youth field. Thus, as a result, a minimum of 100 Youth Workers will benefit from the Methodology and Training Curricula (IO1), 200 Youth Workers will benefit from the virtual space- Play2Grow Hub (IO2) and its associated resources and 300 Youngsters will directly benefit from an innovative, music-based training methodology, resources and tools that will make them acquire/improve a set of key skills and values under a playful, practical and informal perspective. This impact will be reinforced in the future, as project outputs (especially the virtual space- Play2Grow Hub) will be fostered and implemented by partner organisations in their daily activities."

"<< Background >>The project tries to give response to a series of needs that are affecting the youth organisations that usually perform their activities in the cultural and creative areas.Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe in spring 2020, the cultural and creative sectors (CCS) have been among the most negatively affected sectors, and so there is a need of a structural transformation towards more resilient, fair and sustainable working practices, according to the “Cultural and creative sectors in post-COVID-19 Europe: Crisis effects and policy recommendations” (IDEA Consult et al. (2021)).Creativity, digitalisation and social cohesion are considered among the most important aspects to be addressed to improve the resilience of these sectors in Europe in the medium and longer term and support their revitalisation and sustainability. The adaptation to the new normal context though digital means at the same time than making culture and arts attractive and accessible to everyone is a huge challenge and so staff at the forefront of the CCS must have the right resources and tools to achieve this goal. Youth organisations are key players in making cultural activities accessible to youngsters in local/regional communities, and therefore their Trainers/Youth Workers must be able to implement innovative activities that can be attractive and inclusive in order to engage their audience and also guarantee their sustainability in the medium and longer term. So, this project will address 3 main pillars that will help youth organisations be more attractive, reinforce the role of culture and arts and give response to the demands of the youngsters:•Digitalisation and visibility of their activities.•Implementation of new innovative activities through creativity.•Reinforce the inclusive nature of cultural and creative organisations though accessible activities.<< Objectives >>Trainers4Creativity project will support Trainers/Youth Workers active in the creative and cultural areas (primary target group) by making them more skilled and prepared for this context (with a set of training resources that will help them provide attractive and accessible activities), while contributing to make CCS more resilient and adapted to the ""new normal"". Youngsters (trainees) receiving this innovative activities represent the secondary target group.Thus, the main objective of the project is to make Youth organisations more resilient, inclusive and attractive, empowering their Trainers/Youth Workers in the following aspects:•Management of their activities in various areas under a digital/virtual approach.•Implementation of the use of different creative tools such as Lego, music, visual and performing arts, etc. in their activities•Improve the accessibility of their activities, taking into consideration the different barriers that youngsters may have.•Increase the visibility / scope of their activities.•Foster the cooperation on innovative training resources, in the design and offer and demand creative solutions to complex problems and in the visibility to the works of their institutions.Taking this into account, the project perfectly fits with one of the main priorities of the programme: “promote non-formal and informal learning mobility and active participation among young people, as well as cooperation, quality, inclusion, creativity and innovation at the level of organisations and policies in the field of youth”, as well as in line with the objectives of the Cooperation Partnerships (Increasing quality in the work, activities and practices of organisations and institutions involved, building capacity of organisations to work trans-nationally and across sectors; addressing common needs and priorities in the field of youth and enabling transformation and change).Horizontally, both the Digital dimension and the Inclusion and Diversity are aspects specifically addressed in the project. On the one hand, the Digital dimension is addressed by making IT software a solution and an opportunity to train, be trained, innovate and collaborate. In this regard, all project results (R) to be developed will cover this aspect, specifically through R1 (Digital Training Kit), which will prepare a set of training resources on how Trainers/Youth Workers active in the creative and cultural areas can manage their activities in various areas under a virtual approach, an aspect that will support their resilience, adaptation capacity and future sustainability. The creative collaborative platform to be developed in R5 will reinforce the digital approach of the project, by promoting contact between the youth community in the arts and culture field and giving visibility through digital means to a wide variety of artistic solutions.On the other hand, it is especially relevant to highlight the project focus on the Inclusion and Diversity priorities established by the ERASMUS+ Programme. In this regard, all the activities and results will be developed under a social and accessible approach, making participants with fewer opportunities participate along the project process (reinforced by the specific Project Result “Accessible Training Kit” (R3)), taking into consideration the guidelines set by the European Commission (“Implementation guidelines - Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps Inclusion and Diversity Strategy” - Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture - European Commission).<< Implementation >>To achieve the objectives mentioned above, the project will develop, through the close collaboration of different entities active in the training, cultural and creativity field at EU level, a set of innovative training materials and tools that will make possible that Trainers/Youth Workers get their skills improved on:•Managing their activities in various areas under a digital/virtual approach.•Implementing in their activities the use of different creative tools such as Lego, music, visual and performing arts, etc. •Making their activities more accessible to youngsters, taking into consideration the different barriers they may have.•Making their activities more visual. •Cooperating on innovative training resources, in the design and offer and demand creative solutions to complex problems and in the visibility to the works of their institutions.In this regard, the project will work on the development of 5 main Project Results (R) that will give response to the above-mentioned skills:•Digital Training Kit (R1)•Creative Training Kit (R2)•Accessible Training Kit (R3)•Visual Training Kit (R4)•Creative Platform (R5)In addition, the project will organise different Training Events (physical and digital) for the development, testing and reinforcement of the innovative solutions (Project Results) developed in the project:•Different Digital Thematic Workshops in each project region (on digitalisation, creativity and accessibility) with the involvement of key stakeholders and target groups.•1 International Digital Workshops•1 Physical Training Event, specifically addressed to Trainers/Youth Workers of the partner organisations (C1).Finally, a series of Multiplier Events (ME) at the end of the project in the location of partner organisations to promote the project and its results will be celebrated.Other activities for the proper management and to ensure a wide dissemination and the sustainability of the project will be also developed.<< Results >>The project will work on the development of 5 main Project Results (R) that will reinforce the skills and capacity of Trainers/Youth Workers from the digital, visual, innovative and inclusive point of view:•A Digital Training Kit (R1): Training resources in the form of good practices, guidelines, tools and tips on how Trainers/Youth Workers active in the creative and cultural areas can manage their workshops/training activities in various areas under a virtual approach.•A Creative Training Kit (R2): Training resources in the form of good practices, guidelines, tools and tips on how Trainers/Youth Workers active in the creative and cultural areas can improve their competences in the use of creative tools such as Lego, music, visual and performing arts, etc.•An Accessible Training Kit (R3): Training resources in the form of good practices, guidelines, tools and tips on how Trainers/Youth Workers active in the creative and cultural areas can make their training activities / services more accessible to youngsters, taking into consideration their social and physical barriers.•A Visual Training Kit (R4): Specific guidelines, tips and tools on how Trainers/Youth Workers active in the creative and cultural areas can develop explanatory videos for dissemination and training purposes. It will include a series of videos to visualise on practice the most successful innovative training inputs addressed (R1-R3).•A Creative Platform (R5): A virtual collaborative creative space that will act as a complement of the project results (R1-R4), on which Trainers /Youth Workers active in the creative and cultural areas can have access and interact on innovative training methods; collaborate in the design and offer and demand creative solutions to complex problems and provide visibility to the works of their institutions in the creative training through different arts and innovative approaches.In addition, the project will organise different Training Events (physical and digital) for the development, testing and reinforcement of the innovative solutions (Project Results) developed in the project:•Different Digital Thematic Workshops in each project region (on digitalisation, creativity and accessibility) with the involvement of key stakeholders and target groups.•1 International Digital Workshops.•1 Physical Training Event, specifically addressed to Trainers/Youth Workers of the partner organisations (C1).Finally, a series of Multiplier Events (ME) at the end of the project in the location of partner organisations to promote the project and its results will be celebrated.With all these activities:•A minimum of 100 Trainers/Youth Workers active in the creative and cultural areas will benefit from the Project Results. •A minimum of 300 Youngsters will directly benefit from receiving more creative, innovative, accessible cultural-based activities that will make them acquire new ideas, skills and future perspectives.•A minimum of 50 key stakeholders (organisations active in the cultural and creative areas) will be benefitted from the Project Results through training kits (R1-R4) and visibility, networking and exchange of experiences purposes (Creative Platform -R5).•A minimum of 10.000 Trainers/Youth Workers and Youngsters interested in the creative, cultural and training field will be reached by project outputs due to the dissemination activities developed in the project.•In the future, a minimum of 100 organisations at EU level will be involved in the Creative Platform (R5)"

The COW BOYS & GIRLS project (Create Our Way, Boys and Girls) is a partnership between the city of Cenon (Aquitaine, France) and the city of Parades de Coura (Norte, Portugal). Each of these towns are themselves in a partnership with schools, but also with artistic and cultural operators located in their area.The collaborators role is to guide and work along with pupils (attending secondary school and high school) whose educational paths are at a disadvantage due to the social and economic environment they live in.The project aims to draw up a learning plan enabling the students to develop a flexible and essential skill : the ability to know how to create one's own way all life long, out of school, by learning independance, how to collaborate with firms, local authorities, people involved in the social and cultural fields around them.The partners, committed for a long time to managing artistic and cultural education, plan to work with artists, so that students can consider their environment in a different and creative way.The involved artists will be charged with guiding the discovery and the appropriation of the area. They will work from various artistic fields : live performing arts, visual arts, musical arts, street art, digital art...The teachers, the students and the other partners will be led to discover, locate, identify the resources needed to set up a shared event. The latter will take place out of school, in the public area or within the institutional places they will be granted.Proceeding this way, they will be able to identify the needs and find the corresponding resources in various domains : regulatory obligations, possibilities for recycling, sources of funding such as sponsorship or partnership, knowledge of advertising, merchants, local associations (e.g. fabrics, cooking), volunteering work...Organising this event (which could be, for instance, an exhibition) will be an opportunity for the young people from both of those countries (France and Portugal), to present the know-hows of their schools (in languages, theater, music, sports, sciences, new technologies). Together, they will share their experience with their peers (the other pupils), as with their families, the inhabitants, the entrepreneurs, the local communities representatives, and the artists.A recurring theme will lead all the works presented during this event : exploring the territory, whether in a geographic, sensitive, social, invisible, spoken, lived way... or even in a dreamed one.Will arise from this work :- an event in the public area- a territory inventory taken by the students and the professionals accompanying them (artists, local communities, cultural companies, teaching staff)- a movie produced by students guided by a videographer. This creation brings out the learning steps the other students have gone through, shows how they manage to identify the needs, to look for and to find the corresponding resources : it highlights the path undertaken to build the ability to create one's own way all life long. This movie is to be shooted, produced, published online and exploited by the students.To carry out this project, some partners will be collaborating with :- a research laboratory specialized in educational sciences, in order to define, build and manage the assessment process,- interdisciplinary artists,- a small publishing house (a communications agency)The educational processes, the methods, the assessment project, and the cooperation between stakeholders of such a different kind will be the basis of :- transnational meetings- training programmes- coordination works between task forces from both of those countries.The partners communicate then to their networks (professional, national, international ones) about the three realisations described above, the two territory inventories, the two movies putting into practice the learning and assessment project, and the publishing, which will present the works achieved during this international meeting.

The project ACT4WOMEN focuses on the group of women living in rural, remote, isolated or marginalised areas who have restricted access to the world of work and who are engaged in the production of handicrafts or any other form of “homemade” productions or services related to culture and/or the community/environment they live in. Rural women are the driving force for the maintenance and development of these areas, both in cultural and financial terms, as they contribute to the preservation of traditions/culture and the development of the countryside which faces a constant process of depopulation. This group of women however, face underemployment, poverty, lack of basic services in the field of education and traditional, have to deal with stereotyped issues for the woman’s role in the society and issues with regards to the their involvement in entrepreneurial and digital employment. It’s a common fact that many women who live in these areas are largely excluded from the labour market and social participation. Most of them are engaged in home-based productions (handicraft, sweets, herbs, bakery products etc.) or provision of services (tourist guide, coffee shop etc.) characterized by long hours, low income, high dependence on intermediaries with limited skills and training opportunities. The project aims to equip and empower women with key competences (social entrepreneurial and digital related), skills and tools in order to turn entrepreneurial ideas into start-ups, with a view to tackling discrimination between genders and also to impact their community and their culture. It also aims to empower them with self-confidence to start their own or in cooperation with others social enterprise in the form of a ‘home-based business model’ by providing the necessary social entrepreneurial and digital knowledge, mindset and skills with the focus on traditional handmade production or any other type of business related to the culture, community and environment they live in. Access, social inclusion, gender equality and non-discrimination are among the priorities addressed here. The project address the following priorities:HORIZONTAL: Skills development and inclusion through creativity and the arts HORIZONTAL: Supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competencesADULT: Increasing learning demand and take-up through effective, outreach, guidance and motivation strategiesHORIZONTAL: Social and educational value of European cultural heritage, its contribution to job creation, economic growth and social inclusion The partnership comprises of 7 partners with a transnational status representing: UK, France, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Greece and Portugal. The partners have different expertise and experiences, that complement each other with the main aim to support all needs and requirements of the project.The consortium plans to produce several products as part of the 4 main Intellectual Outputs such as a mapping tool to present good practices on line, successful women’s entrepreneurs profiles, interactive platform, gamification for learning and assessment purposes, new teaching and learning material and provision of upskilling programme-service. The project includes also 4 transnational project meetings and one blended mobility activity where women from all partner countries (except Cameroon) will participate to share their experiences. During the lifetime of the project 6 Multiplier Events will be organized whereas the project will be disseminated through an official website, social media, leaflets and newsletter to a wide network of stakeholders and associate partners. The project aims to reach out to a large number of women, adults, adult educators, social workers, authorities, local councils, cultural agents, stakeholders and associate partners to raise their awareness about the potential of exploiting entrepreneurship education with a social impact for including women in the labour market.

<< Objectives >>With this project we want to unite young people around a sports project and develop the cohesion of a European group to achieve a common goal. This project, which will integrate young people from different backgrounds, will promote the social inclusion of people with fewer opportunities, promote gender equality, raise awareness of the environment and develop intercultural dialogue for the recognition of diversity and the personal development of our participants.<< Implementation >>To reach our objectives we will organize, for young people and professionals, workshops and sports team-building days to create group cohesion. During the stays in France and Portugal, we will make the group discover the territory but also the culture of the countries. Finally, we will close these stays with an international soccer and futsal tournament for mixed teams to demonstrate the common values, the civic commitment and the involvement of the group throughout the program.<< Results >>By implementing the project we want to promote equal opportunities, gender and non-discrimination by allowing people with fewer opportunities to participate in a European program. We want the participants to feel part of a group and to awaken their curiosity to learn from the Other. The project will offer a unique and enriching experience for all, from a linguistic point of view as well as from a sporting and cultural point of view.