The International Conference of the Erasmus+ project « Kissing Tartu » will soon take place at the National Museum of Tartu, Estonia from the 16th to the 19th of May 2024. The place is perfect to host this conference called « First Kiss », Tartu is the European Capital of Culture 2024 and always had a strong culture of « kissing ». The conference is a part of the Hybrid European Opinion Festival. 

The conference aims to offer students from the 6th to the 12th grade the opportunity to discover this culture and also learn more about sexual and health education. This subject is often taboo but it is still important to have basic knowledge of these fields to be aware of the risks and also to prevent undesired behaviors. A time for debate is also planned to share a stimulating discussion about this crucial topic for young people’s development. 

Speakers will come to talk about the various aspects of this subject. Merilin Mandel will speak about the growth of a person while Katriin Kütt-Oad and Margit Kagadze will be more focused on health and sexual education. 

Then, the audience could experiment with more practical activities like a virtual reality experience to learn more about emotions and an e-quiz freely available online. Two workshops are also planned about orgasm and sexual health and the second about the impact of the internet on health education. The conference will end with an overview of the challenges in this field in Malta, Estonia, and the Czech Republic. 

On the 18th and the 19th, the audience will enjoy the other events of the Festival like the different debate sessions about global issues.

For more information, please follow the organizers on their social media platforms and their websites.

Kissing Tartu reached another step by finalizing the virtual reality (VR) app: the sexual and health education content is ready to be tested. Pupils around 13 years old from a Prague school had the opportunity to test it and benefit from this experience.

The partner organizations of this Erasmus+ project from Estonia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Malta developed this app to make people feel a wide range of emotions. The Prague school participating in the test phase borrowed 10 virtual reality headsets from IRR for a week in order to allow the pupils to discover our output.

Previously, the project partners tested the finalized app during a meeting in Malta on September 19-20th. Then they could discuss the last details to fix. 

In the VR environment, the students tried three rooms dedicated to a specific emotion. The first one is called « Falling in love » which makes pupils immersed in a bright and calm atmosphere. In this way, they better integrate the information and advice about the feelings and the behaviors in this kind of situation. 

The second room is more disturbing but as important as the previous part of the app. It is about « Falling out of love » which can be emotionally intense. However, it is primordial to receive an education to make people aware of these unpleasant situations.

Last but not least, the third room is about the « Aftermath » and teaches how to recover after a relationship.  

The feedback from the students was very positive. They appreciated having access to an innovative tool to strengthen both their e-learnings by utilizing VR headsets and their emotional education. They could experience various feelings of uncomfortable situations to learn more about themselves. The VR was very useful in facilitating the sharing of information to really involve them in this experience and deal with more taboo subjects. The discussions between the teacher and the pupils after the test were very enriching and completed the experience.

The project “Digital pathways to motivate and engage young second-generation migrants in employment” is being implemented within the Erasmus+ programme with six European organisations. This project aims to create innovative educational content that will enhance the employability and competitiveness of unemployed second-generation young migrants in the labour market. The aim is to facilitate their successful integration into the local society and economy, which will benefit not only the individual but also the community as a whole.

The project partners have embarked on the development of a series of educational games that aim to make learning content accessible through gamification. The games are designed to be not only educational but also visually appealing and engaging, which increases motivation to learn. The games cover a wide range of topics from legal awareness to the skills needed for successful integration into the labour market. The reason for choosing gamification is its ability to engage and motivate users to learn in an active and fun way, which is particularly important for young people and people from marginalised groups.

To ensure the high quality of the educational games, a peer review process between the partners takes place. This step allows to gather feedback from different stakeholders and ensure that the resulting content is not only valuable, but also visually appealing and user-friendly. Peer review helps to identify any gaps in the content or the game itself, ensuring that the final products are as effective and engaging as possible for the target audience.

The project is now entering the phase of translating the game content into different languages, which will increase its availability and accessibility for young migrants in different European countries. This step is crucial to achieve the widest possible impact of the project. Pilot testing of the games is also planned in the near future to gather further feedback directly from users and to adapt the games to best meet the needs and expectations of second generation young migrants. This testing will be an important step towards the ultimate goal of the project – improving the employability and social inclusion of young migrants in Europe.

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Kissing Tartu is an Erasmus+ project co-founded by the European Union.

It’s been developed by a series of partners coming from different countries- Estonia, Denmark, Malta- and it can be located inside the framework of the bigger event which will take place in Tartu – from the 16^th to the 19^th  of May- coinciding with Tartu being European Capital of Culture in 2024.

Tartu is a city where the culture of “kissing” has always been present and, together with our partners, we decided to take this opportunity to spread among the youngest part of European citizens, what sexuality truly is and to allow them to learn more about it.

It’s an opportunity for the students, from the 6^th to the 12^th grade, to learn more about the culture of kissing, but also to learn more about sexual and health education, which sometimes is underestimated or not explained properly.

We aim to make them aware of sexual and health education so that they can make responsible choices. Young people need to know more about it, considering they are in their teenage, a crucial phase for the growth and development of the individual. It’s of crucial importance for students to be truly aware of the many aspects of sexuality.

It is also an instrument of prevention: raising awareness among young people of the risks they may face, will surely have an impact on their sexual behavior, preventing undesired situations from occurring.

We decided to do it through a series of free educational tools, which we believe will be enjoyable to use for millennials. The main tools we have created are e-quizzes- through which students can test their knowledge and learning, but more than anything, can learn everything they don’t know about sexuality. Another tool we have created is the virtual reality experience, through which students can experience aspects they may not know.

E-learning is, for instance, the best way they can learn something, while still enjoying what they’re doing. There is no limit of time or space, as these tools can be used whenever students wish to.

It’s an optimal educational opportunity that can bring many benefits both in their educational and personal life. Benefits may regard their health, getting to know risks they may have not known before and so, once learned, acting to prevent them. Prevention is, for instance, the best way to be safe. Being aware of their sexuality and sexual and health education can also help them enjoy this aspect of their life more.

On our platforms, we share many contents regarding this topic, which are surely more visually appealing- especially for young people- than this article.

If you want to know more, follow us on our social media, check out the Tartu 2024 webpage, and get on board!

Try our e-quizzes, learn, and enjoy the virtual reality experiences we are offering you.  Learning has never been that easy!

If you are a school and want to take part to the project, contact us.

If you’re a student and want to get involved, just follow us and start learning through our tools. We are counting on you!

On September 19-20th 2023, representatives of all project partners coming from Estonia, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Malta were welcomed in La Valletta, Malta.

The meeting aimed at discussing the improvements that have occurred within Work Package 2, planning the project´s dissemination actions, and last but not least, organizing Tartu Conference. This meeting was very useful in assessing the work done. It was also the opportunity to try for the first time the VR experience created at this stage (Work Package 3).

As regards WP2 development (“Creation of an e-quiz and an international sexual and health conference”), Kissing Tartu project partners have been performing some brainstorming sessions, preparation, and revision of questions. The questions, designed for integration into an online platform, focus on various health and sexual topics. Therefore, partners pay particular attention to ensure they are suitable for addressing the actual needs of the target group (Youth, people working with the youth, and experts in the field of education, and health).

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In December 2022, the Institute for Regional Development organized the dissemination of STEFAN project and outputs to the local community of Prague. One external speaker from Kokoza was invited to animate the discussion about ecotourism, bio-waste processing, and composting in cities, schools, and companies.

We officially ended the implementation of the PONTAL project with a conference attended by representatives of primary schools, education departments of Prague’s municipal districts and non-profit organizations.

The project partners presented to the participants the activities, outputs and examples of workshops based on action learning.

The conference took place in Prague, September 14th, 2022 at 10 a.m. and we can commemorate it with the following photos.

PONTAL 4th newsletter

On 13 September 2022, we as coordinator organized the final meeting of all project experts in Prague, symbolically in the Scout Institute, which is also dedicated to youth as well as the PONTAL project.

During the meeting, we checked with the partners whether all the project outputs and objectives were met, whether all the project promotional activities were carried out in order and at the same time we prepared together with the partners for the final project conference, which took place the following day in Prague, where the project stakeholders were invited.

Most of the foreign colleagues were visiting Prague for the first time, so we also prepared a guided tour after the meeting and they did not miss a common dinner with traditional Czech cuisine.

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VINCI

Virtual & Augmented Reality Trainers Toolbox  To Foster Low Carbon Tourism  & Related Entrepreneurship

The VINCI project aims to support the transition to low-carbon tourism and tourism-related entrepreneurship in EU Member States. To this end, VINCI brings together a range of partners from across Europe, who have been deliberately selected to ensure a good mix and balance between experts in climate change and sustainability, tourism, entrepreneurship, workplace training, curriculum development/ VET pedagogy and digital technologies (augmented and virtual reality, e-learning platforms). In addition, given that tourism and related economic activities vary across the geographical spread of Europe, the VINCI consortium brings together partners from northern Europe to the very south.

The project consortium consists of 7 partners from 6 different EU countries:

MECB – MACDAC ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY BUREAU LTD (Malta)

INSTITUTE OF TOURISM STUDIES (Malta)

Institut za turizam (Croatia)

UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA DIN BUCURESTI (Romania)

Social Cooperative Enterprise Drosostalida (Greece)

Institut pro regionální rozvoj, o.p.s. (Czechia)

SIHTASUTUS STOCKHOLMI KESKKONNAINSTITUUDI TALLINNA KESKUS (Estonia)

Within the VINCI project, 4 Project Results will be produced:

PR1: Innovative VET Curriculum to Foster Low Carbon Tourism & Related Entrepreneurship

PR2: AR/VR enhanced Case-Studies on Low Carbon Tourism Activities

PR3: Digital Toolbox to Foster Low Carbon Tourism & Related Entrepreneurship

PR4: Trainers Guide e-Book on Fostering Low Carbon Tourism & Related Entrepreneurship

The project will be implemented over a period of 24 months, starting on 1 February 2022, with a total project budget of EUR 216,361.00.

Kick off meeting

On 11 March 2022, the first meeting of all seven partners of the new VINCI project, led by the Maltese organisation MACDAC ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY BUREAU LTD – MECB, took place in Bugibba, Malta.

The representatives of each partner organisation who attended the meeting introduced themselves to each other, presented their organisations and their added value to the project. The first steps, forms of cooperation, tasks of each partner and deadlines related to the project were discussed. The whole kick-off meeting took place in a friendly atmosphere, where the participants got to know each other better.

The main objectives of the project are:

• Development of an innovative curriculum to help fosters low carbon tourism activities and amplify related entrepreneurship;
• Raising awareness through ‘best practice’ case-studies of how tourism stakeholders can generate less CO2 emissions in all three phases of travel tourism;
• Develop a set of modular training resources on low carbon tourism activities and related entrepreneurship, some of which will be Augmented and/or Virtual Reality based to better engage learners;
• Development of the VINCI Toolbox consisting of a repository of digital training resources on low carbon tourism, including an m-/e-Learning platform to help stakeholders acquire skills on low carbon tourism even at their place of work & home;
• Development of a Trainer’s Guide e-book intended to recommend to VET trainers, specific training units and/or training styles relevant to different tourism sector stakeholders;

To disseminate in both the partner countries and other EU Member States, awareness on the concept of low carbon tourism as well as the VINCI project results that can exploited by the project’s target groups that includes VET trainers/tourism mentors, VET learners as well as tourism sector stakeholders including entrepreneurs.

In the new edition of the newsletter you will find information about the pilot courses, their evaluation by the participating pupils, and last but not least an invitation to the final conference to be held on 14th of September 2022 in Prague.

PONTAL 3rd newsletter

New release of the PONTAL newsletter, where you can read about how the courses are going in the partner countries and what the project is looking forward to in the coming days and weeks.

PONTAL 2nd newsletter

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The GET2IT project, whose 5th event took place in Prague on January 26th to 28th 2022, ends today. The project, which is organized as 5 events (in Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Slovenia and the Czech Republic), focuses on building citizens’ understanding of how to plan and manage measures that contribute to inclusive growth.
The main challenge for all partners was to increase the involvement of citizens in local events and democratic processes. The project aims to make citizens more open and interested in volunteering.

A quiz was created for the project, which you can try right here:

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PONTAL project partners have completed methodologies for conducting workshops in the areas of 3D modelling & printing and robotics.

The methodology for 3D modelling & printing is directed by experts from Lithuania who will test the methodology at the workshops starting on 23 February.

The methodology for robotics technology has been developed by Italian colleagues who plan to start a series of workshops from 1 March.

Students are expected to complete a series of workshops in VR/AR, 3D printing and robotics by the end of the school year. At the end of the courses we will ask pupils for their feedback using satisfaction questionnaires. Our goal is that at least 70% of all pupils completing the pilot workshops will be satisfied with the way of conducting, content and benefits of the workshops.

We believe that these courses will enrich the standard curriculum in European primary schools and support the prevention of NEETs among the most vulnerable pupils as part of our initiative.

Pupils will also gain new skills and knowledge in subjects where they would not have access in primary school education.

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Experts in the field of VR/AR technology have created the final version of the methodology for conducting workshops for students in the last year of primary school.

The methodology can be used not only within the PONTAL project (in the countries of the Czech Republic, Turkey, Estonia, Hungary), but it can be used for conducting courses by anyone with experience with VR/AR and the CoSpaces Edu learning environment. It is also translated into English (see attached below).

Pilot courses are already being run at the Barrandov Primary School in Prague, and the feedback from students has been very positive so far. We are very happy about it and it proves that the workshops have been prepared well by the whole project team.

The methodology is based on the action learning method, which is the subject of the first theoretical part of the methodology. In its 2nd part it focuses on conducting individual lessons/workshops, defines the content of the lesson, tools, instructions for the trainer, lesson objectives and outcomes.

The other 2 methodologies for 3D printing and robotics are being finalized and we will release the final versions of these methodologies in the coming days too.

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PONTAL 1st Newsletter

Together with partners from Estonia, Lithuania, Italy, Hungary and Turkey, we met for the first time last Tuesday, 26 October, in Savignano sul Rubicone, Italy, to share the outcomes of the PONTAL project activities and to discuss the best way to implement further activities aimed at developing a methodology for courses/workshops for pupils and the organisation of these courses.

IRR and other partners presented the results of the mapping of risk factors and interest in technology among students aged 13-16. We discussed setting up a methodology for conducting planned courses in those technologies that are most popular among at-risk respondents in each of the 6 countries (in terms of potential unemployment and not continuing in the education system).

The meeting ended with a pleasant tour of the city of Cesenatico on the Adriatic coast and an agreement on the further procedure for the development of the methodology and organization of courses and workshops in VR/AR, 3D printing and robotics technologies, using the action learning method.

Project partners on a tour of Cesenatico.

The project partners have completed a comprehensive analysis of risk factors & socio-economic trends in the labour market in each participating country. These analyses also include a methodology for teachers to assist them in the implementation of the questionnaire survey (mapping) of individual pupil profiles and the questionnaire itself is attached as a core mapping tool.

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Have a look on what is our PONTAL project about!

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On April 1, 2021, the second meeting of the PONTAL project will take place under the leadership of IRR, which will bring together representatives of all 6 participating partners (from the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Turkey, Hungary and Italy).

The meeting was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, thus took place online. During the meeting, the partners focused mainly on finalizing the first intellectual output, which consists in the methodology of mapping the profile of potential “NEETs” among students. During the current weeks, a questionnaire survey will be conducted in primary schools in the partner countries, which will map the situation of pupils and identify those who could fall into the NEET groups in the future.

The main goals of the project are:

Prevention of the phenomenon of NEETs and increase of interest in technical, scientific and mathematical disciplines with a high degree of innovation among students of the last year of primary schools.

Creating a methodology for identifying pupils at risk of early school leaving.

Creation of six sets of course syllabi with an innovative method of action learning in cooperation with foreign experts.

Raising awareness of the NEET phenomenon at European level.

Within the PONTAL project, 2 intellectual outputs will be created:

IO1: Methodology for teachers / educators to map the profile of potential NEETs among students; IO2: A set of courses based on the “action learning” method.

The international GET2IT project, aimed at involving EU citizens in democratic processes, is a great success. Following the first meeting of all partner organizations, which took place on 27th October 2020, two online workshops were held by the partnership. These were rated by the participants as very successful and due to great interest, the project was selected to participate in a virtual exhibition at the 3rd Festival of Civic Engagement and Deliberative Democracy (December 6-12, 2020) in the category of civic engagement and volunteering.

Click to this video to learn more about the GET2IT project, or go through the workshops held on November 5 or November 12.

More information about the project can be found on our website.

“GETting to Active CITizenship in Europe“ – GET2IT

Ref. no. – 615194-CITIZ-1-2019-2-HR-CITIZ-NT

More information here.

Video Campaign: What does home mean to you?

The Institute for Regional Development leads a video campaign for the Open European Society project, which is approaching its peak! Watch here!

The Institute for Regional Development is presenting the “OPEN EUROPEAN SOCIETIES” project, which aims at fostering intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding as well as to combat the stigmatization of immigrants and refugees. Europe has been experiencing movements of people since its earliest stages and the migration crisis has recently become one of the most debated topics. For this reason we would like to help  the peaceful co-existence of different nations and cultures in the area.

Objectives and aims of the project will be achieved through a research on the migration history of the partners’ cities and countries, transnational and local workshops, study-visits, debates, intercultural dialogue, networking, volunteering activities, campaigning, informal learning, cultural and art activities.

These actions will support the fight against the concepts of terrorism, xenophobia, religious intolerance and discrimination and the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment.

Different generations of migrants will be brought together to foster intercultural and intergenerational dialogue and they will share their stories to raise awareness on the long history of migration in Europe. Local citizens from each partner country will be actively involved in the process, to compare different national points of view and demonstrate the positive and peaceful aspects of co-existence.

The legacy of OPEN EUROPEAN SOCIETIES will be a European transnational network of young activists, emerging leaders in their organizations, communities, municipalities, with ambitions to actively combat stigmatization of “immigrants” and build counter narratives to hate speech. It will foster intercultural dialogue, mutual understanding and civic participation of third-country nationals, to continue beyond the life of the project, and to connect to a wider European community.

As part of the project with name YOU ARE WELCOME we doing the online information campaign whose aim is not only to inform about the project, but also to inform about migration, integration and refugee crisis.

The first newsletter’s topic (10/2017) was information about project and project activities (Facebook profile, questionnaire survey, seminar, kick-off meeting, etc.) The first bulletin number can be found here.

The second newsletter’s topic (11/2017) was information about migration and refugee crisis in the EU and the Czech Republic and information about seminar YAW in the information centre Europe Direct Bruntál. The second bulletin number can be found here.

The third newsletter’ topic is information about integration and migrants in the Czech Republic, fake news and hoax, World Day of Migrants and Refugees, photos from the second meeting etc.

If you are interested in subscribing to the newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact us at europe.direct@iregio.org.

The newsletter is also available here.

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The 2nd transnational event of the You are Welcome project took place in Thessaloniki, Greece from 24-27 November 2017.

Representatives of the partner organisations from the Czech Republic (Institut pro regionaini rozvoj, o.p.s.), Denmark (othernessproject), Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Center for Intercultural Dialogue (CID), Germany (Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V. Memorare Pacem and the Municipality of Dresden), Greece (Addart Addart and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Hungary (Gláser Jakab Emlékalapítvány) and the United Kingdom (Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council) met at the City Hall of Thessaloniki on the 25th of November and discussed first the progress of the project.

In the afternoon, the international workshop “Otherness Dialogue” led by Dr. Rita Júlia Sebestyén was held, based on theatre methods which fostered self-reflection and cultural interaction. In the evening, the public event You ARE Welcome was held at the Museum of the Roman Forum, from 17:00 to 21:00. The organisers of the event, Cofix Dimitris Savvaidis and Milos Jovic from AddArt opened the event with a salutation speech and Myrto-Helena Pertsinidi, Myrele Per, the coordinator of the You are Welcome project (Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V.), welcomed all the guests and spoke about the project and the international event in Thessaloniki.Mrs. Qazi Marzia Babakarkhail spoke about the project and the public event in Arabic, Farsi and Ourdou and welcomed all attendees coming from Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Arabian speaking countries. The public event included the photo exhibition “Dreaming of a New Life” by the photographer and film director Morteza Jafari, the illustration exhibition “Human Right – Human Wrong” – an initiative of Addart Addart, a performance by the female vocal group Πλειάδες – Pleiades who sang melodies from different regions in Europe and all over the world, the screening of the film “School on the Move” by Europa Transit and the projection of selected short animation films about Human Rights by AddArt and TAF (Thessaloniki Animation Festival).

In the morning of November 26, representatives met again in the City Hall of Thessaloniki to listen to a lecture by Dr. Rita Júlia Sebestyén and the presentation of AddArt AddArt’s “My Hero” workshop, who worked with refugee children to create superhero comics made up by the children. In the afternoon, representatives visited an organization that helps unaccompanied refugee children and provides them with safe accommodation. At the end of the day, meeting assessment and planning of the next meeting in Budapest took place.

As part of the project with name YOU ARE WELCOME we doing the online information campaign whose aim is not only to inform about the project, but also to inform about migration, integration and refugee crisis.

The first newsletter’s topic (10/2017) was information about project and project activities (Facebook profile, questionnaire survey, seminar, kick-off meeting, etc.) The first bulletin number can be found here.

The second newsletter’s topic is information about migration and refugee crisis in the EU and the Czech Republic and information about seminar YAW in the information centre Europe Direct Bruntál.

If you are interested in subscribing to the newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact us at europe.direct@iregio.org.

The newsletter is also available here.

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On Friday, 20 October 2017, the Institut pro regionální rozvoj, o.p.s. organized the seminar on Migration, Integration and Refugees.

The content of the event was the presentation of the project YOU ARE WELCOME, presentation on migration, integration and refugees with a focus on the Czech Republic, screening of the film “The Crossing” and discussion.

The seminar took place from 16:00 to 18:00 at the premises of the Information Center Europe Direct Bruntál at the address Dr. E. Beneše 1873/61, 792 01 Bruntál.

The event, attended by 8 people, was realize under the YOU ARE WELCOME project, which aims to reverse the process of stigmatization of migrants, help participating communities overcome stereotypes and create a more accurate picture of migrants and refugees. More about the project here.

Photogallery below:

As part of the project with name YOU ARE WELCOME we doing the online information campaign whose aim is not only to inform about the project, but also to inform about migration, integration and refugee crisis.

The first newsletter number can be found below.

If you are interested in subscribing to the newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact us at europe.direct@iregio.org.

The newsletter is also available here.

Download (PDF, Neznámý)

Download (PDF, Neznámý)

Download (PDF, Neznámý)

Institut pro regionální rozvoj, o.p.s. is participating in the project called

YOU ARE WELCOME.

YOU ARE WELCOME is a collaborative project of 13 partner organisations which endeavours to connect new arrivals, third country nationals residing in the countries involved in this project and native citizens. The partners are committed to support migrant and refugee integration, community development and deconstruct the process of migrant’s stigmatization.

Are you interested in this project? Join us on facebook!

YOU ARE WELCOME: European Network for Integration of Refugees at Local Level and Combating Hate Speech

Institute for Regional Development, o.p.s. is involved in a project called YOU ARE WELCOME, which is funded by the Europe for Citizens program. The project arose from identification of the dangers of xenophobia, intolerance and discrimination arising in Europe.

The project brings together 10 countries and 13 partners committed to support migrant and refugee integration, community development and promoting evidence–based policy making in the area of migration.

Lead partner: Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V. from Germany

Other partners:

1. Institut pro regionální rozvoj, o.p.s.
2. Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Germany
3. Interessengemeinschaft „13. Februar 1945“ e.V., Germany
4. Glaser Jakab Emlekalapitvany, Hungary
5. Opstina Kanjiza, Serbia
6. Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, UK
7. Dimos Serron, Greece
8. Otherness project, Denmark
9. Interkulturelles Zentrum, Austria
10. Association Civil Centre for Sustainable Development EGRI, Former Yugoslav Republic of Makedonia
11. Omilos Unesco Serron Ellados, Greece
12. Institucia Regionalnych Aktivit Novohradu, Slovakia

In the days 7 to 10 April was held kick-off meeting in Dresden, where the individual project partners met, presented the organizations they represent, others familiar with the concept of migration in their country and agreed on the next steps in the project.

As we all know, job searching can be a stressful process, but there is a lot you can learn along the way.

This Trainers’ Pack for Youth Workers in Europe is intended to provide theoretical support and useful tips and tricks for youth workers and for people working in the field of youth and with youth, especially trainers, teachers, careen consultants or counselors and others.

This new resource contains the following chapters:

• Legal basis for the European Labour Market
• The available funding (Erasmus+, Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, European Voluntary Service and others): how to use the funding effectively?
• The work mobility in the EU (the EURES network, the rights connected to European citizenship and other aspects): how can the opportunities of the common labor market be used?
• The recognition of acquired skills and qualifications throughout Europe (ECTS, ECVET, EuroPass, European Qualifications Framework and others):how can these be effectively used?
• Open Educational Resources (the ones created through past EU funded projects and accessible through the EST database, but not exclusively): where can they be found and used?

This tool was created with the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. Check it out!

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A final meeting within the THEY.EA project – Towards Higher Employability of Youth European Approach was held in Prague with the partner organisations from the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Poland and Bulgaria. The host organisation during  28. – 30. November 2016 was the European Develompent Agency, whose efforts made for a very high quality and enjoyable experience for all participants.

On the 29th of November European Development Agency in cooperation with EurActiv organized the final conference of the THEY.EA project. Project partners presented the results of the project and the comparison of the national approaches towards youth unemployment in the first session. During the second session some of the important Czech stakeholders have discussed the best ways to mobilize the youth to acquiring knowledge and skills for job market and entrepreneurship.

Mobilizing the Youth to Acquiring Knowledge and Skills for Job Market and Entrepreneurship

Welcome: Jan Vitásek, Euractiv

Opening of the project: Martin Synkule, European Development Agency

Session I.: Experience with Youth Employment Programmes in EU Countries

• Štěpána Těžká, European Development Agency
• Věra Prokopová, Labour Office of the Czech Republic
• Ana Maria Simian, CNIPA Puglia (IT)
• Santiago Reyes Diaz, Oneco Consulting SL (ES)
• Marek Kosnik, Instytut dla Zjednoczonej Europy (PL)
• Tanya Ivancheva, National Association of Municipal Clerks (BG)

Session II.: Mobilizing the Youth to Acquiring Knowledge and Skills for Job Market and Entrepreneurship

• Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (TBD)
• Martin Úlovec, National Institute for Education
• Jaromír Janoš, Trexima
• Aleš Sedláček, Czech Council of Children and Youth
• Ladislav Chvátal, JACzech (Junior Achievement)

Website of the project here and Facebook here.

Finding a job can be a complicated and tiring process. Sometimes you just don’t know where to start looking… That is why we are pleased to introduce our brochure!

In this guide, which has been created with the financial support of the Erasmus + programme of the European Union, you can find some of the EU opportunities, that you can make use of to find a job. There are answers to the questions regarding rights in the european labour market and european financial support. It also presents helpful hints, how to work with the EURES network, and european tools for recognition of skills nad qualification and handy examples as well.

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More information you can find here: http://youth.euda.eu/

A second meeting within the THEY. EA project -Towards Higher Employability of Youth European Approach was held in the Italian city of Lecce with the partner organisations from the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Poland and Bulgaria. The THEY. EA project focuses on creating tools that allow young people to improve awareness about the job and educational opportunities in the EU and this time young people were invited to the meeting to provide feedback on the educational programme being created. The host organisation during  26. -27. January 2016 was the Italian CNIPA PUGLIA, whose efforts made for a very high quality and enjoyable experience for all participants.

The aim of the meeting was to hear the comments of the young people and agree on the form of two of the project outputs-information and educational brochures intended for young people seeking employment, but also for organisations that work with this target group. The partners discussed the existing materials of the future brochures with young people coming from the target areas with the highest unemployment, who shared their experience and proposals for the improvement of both outputs. The result of the meeting was a workshop in which the partners and representatives of the target groups were divided into several working groups, within which they prepared the final materials. CNIPA PUGLIA, besides other things, has prepared an interesting accompanying cultural programme that allowed not only the representatives of the target group, but also the other participants of the meeting to get acquainted with Italian cuisine and the interesting history of the city of Lecce and the Puglia region.

Currently, the partners are intensively working on the final outputs and the preparations for the last meeting – a conference, which is tentatively scheduled for December 2016, and which will take place in Prague.

For more information about the project, visit the Web page of the project or its Facebook.

SUITES aims at sharing practices and developing concrete and useful tools to support self-entrepreneurship, proposing a common “format” to train potential new entrepreneurs and give them all necessary information and guidance to approach a new business with necessary skills, qualification and market – orientation.

Project has been selected by Italian National Agency as a STAR PROJECT, a quality recognition according to the outputs and results produced.

It will be shared on the EST, European Shared Treasur, as a best practise.

The project “Start Up In Tourism. European Support” with acronym “SUITES” was approved within the Lifelong Learning Programme, Leonardo Da Vinci sub-programme. Project implementation start date: 01.08.2012 and end date: 31.07.2014.

Leading partner was Ideazione srl from Italy and other organizations involved were the following:

• Institut pro regionální rozvoj, o.p.s.
• ÇEŞME KAYMAKAMLIĞI, Turkey
• Verejno-súkromné partnerstvo Horehron, Slovakia
• Asociación de Jóvenes Empresarios de la Región de Murcia – AJE, Spain
• Stowarzyszenie “Dziedzictwo i Rozwój”, Poland

More information about project: website, Facebook and Twitter.

The European Development Agency together with five other organizations from five European countries launched the project THEY.EATowards Higher Employability of Youth European Approach on August 1^st, 2015.During the project named “Towards Higher Employability of Youth. European Approach” the partners will jointly create tools which will enable young people and youth workers to have better orientation in employment and educational opportunities in the EU.The project is funded under the Erasmus+ project and its goal is to increase the youth employment, particularly in areas affected by high levels of unemployment.The outcome of the project is going to be an educational programme in the form of a manual for young people seeking employment and worksheets for organizations working with the unemployed youth.The target group are therefore non-profit organizations, schools, employment offices and public administration.

As mentioned above, the leading partner is the European Development Agency from Prague and other organizations involved are the following:

– Institut pro regionálnírozvoj, o.p.s.(the Czech Republic)

– National Association of Municipal Clerks in Bulgaria (Bulgaria)

– CNIPA PUGLIA (Italy)

– ONECO CONSULTING SL (Spain)

– INSTYTUT DLA ZJEDNOCZONEJ EUROPY (Poland)

The kick-off meeting of the project took place in Sofia, Bulgaria fromAugust 31^st to September 1^st, 2015. The aim of the meeting was primarily to agree on the form and content of both manuals and also to set rules for problem-free management and operation of theproject.The Kick-off meeting was met with a very positive response from all the partners which was also thanks to the thorough preparations by the hosting NAMCB.

Currently, the partners are working intensively on outputs and another meeting is being organized, which is scheduled for December 2015/January 2016 and which will be held by CNIPA PUGLIA in Lecce, Italy.Within this meeting, the outcomes will be discussed with the representatives of the target groups.

For more information about the project, go to euda.eu/they-ea-towards-higher-employability-of-youthor the Facebook page www.facebook.com/THEY.EAproject.

Between the 4th and13th of May, the Institute for Regional Development hosted its flagship project “Save Water – Save Future” financed by the Youth in Action Programme. The event brought together young individuals from Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia and Czech Republic.

The event approached mainly the youth informal education focusing on environmental topics, and underlined the issue of management of water resources as well as its conscious daily usage. The activities were carried out through interactive workshops, group presentations and games. Participants were able to successfully gain hands-on experience and enhance their professional knowledge on the field, while also expanding and strengthening key networks. With the support of local constituencies, the participants had the opportunity to visit a wastewater treatment plant in Bubeneč, Prague 6. As “Save Water – Save Future” has engaged and contributed to advocate water as a foundation of sustainable development, the event also provided the participants with a lecture in the centennial Czech University of Life Sciences.

Upon the end of the project, all participants completed artistic works embracing the theme of water and exhibited them at the historic square in the Old Town quarter of Prague. As the Old Town Square is frequently bursting at the seams with tourists and locals, its location was essential to engage passerbyers in fruitful discussions on the relevance of water for the environment.

Moreover, the event was structured in partnership with the Youth in Action Program and Youth in the World, all of which aim at supporting projects not only with EU neighboring countries but also with countries throughout the globe. The overarching mission of Action 3.1 – Exchange of Youth is to maintain projects of groups of young individuals between the age of 13-25 who share similar interests and aims. The initiative’s core goal is to educate the youth in order to spark their interests and to encourage and enhance cooperation between countries.

This project was made possible with the financial assistance from the European Union. This message does not represent the point of view of the European Commission.  The interpretations and opinions contained in it are solely those of the author(s).

The internet presentation of IRD was just published.