Restart+ Erasmus Project

Project Title

Restart+

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Rural development and urbanisation; Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

CONTEXT/BACKROUND
The Restart+ project emerged as a result of the increased needs that small communities are facing, especially after the economic crisis and the global recession. The effects of the economic crisis are still very evident in communities across Europe. The communities from small towns and villages have been worst hit: staff reductions in public services, a great number of businesses being closed in the first years of existence and high levels of unemployment, contribute to the hollowing out of community life. With a vicious cycle of under-investment, weak employment and a skills gap in relation to the labour market, especially for young people, many small communities in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Portugal & Romania have been especially hard hit by the economic crisis & recession. The vulnerabilities of communities and society has been highlighted by the devastating impact of the Co-Vid pandemic which occurred during the project.

As part of this Erasmus+ funded project, the international project partners have worked to create innovative learning tools and resources which equip leaders of community groups, public authorities and educational institutions with the knowledge and skills needed to adopt a transformative approach to community reactivation. The international project team consists of specialised institutions, all of them having experience in project implementation, so that the Restart+ project has benefitted from member’s past experiences and knowledge.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
RESTART+ worked with community leaders to provide them with the knowledge, tools and collective learning spaces required to catalyze community investment and regeneration. Specific objectives were:
1) Produce a Restart + toolkit (IO1) and use it to create 4 Community Alliances (IO2) comprising 12 community leaders in each country (Ireland, Romania, Portugal and Norther Ireland)
2) Create a Self-Assessment Tool (IO3) to help community leaders identify strengths, opportunities and assets for community reactivation
3) Develop a unique training model, delivered through OERs (IO4) and an online course (IO5), to provide community leaders with the knowledge and skills to adopt a transformative, sustainable approach to local community investment and regeneration
4) Consolidate the capacity of the Alliance members through a Communities of Best Practice training programme
5) Disseminate results widely to enable scaling of the Alliance + training approach in participating countries and replication in other regions of Europe.

NUMBER AND TYPE /PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS
The target group included:
1) Leadership, board members and staff of voluntary and community sector organizations especially those working in community regeneration in small towns and villages and/or those working with vulnerable or minority groups; and organizations working for local development, such as chambers of commerce, business advisors & economic development organizations.
2) Leadership & staff of local public authorities (municipal councils), funding bodies
3) VET and HEI colleges whose teaching staff, students & researchers wished to apply their pedagogical, research & innovation capacities to real world problems & new groups of learners.

ACIVITIES UNDERTAKEN
In addition to the delivery of the 5 Intellectual Outputs, Activities relating to 1) Project Management 2) Dissemination and Sustainability and 3) Quality Management and Impact Evaluation was carried out under the grant for Project Management and Implementation. These 3 horizontal activities complemented the 5 Intellectual Outputs and were essential for effective project implementation. These activities involved regular engagement and communication between all partners e.g. regular project and trans national meetings.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS AND IMPACT
The above results together with our strong dissemination plan, produced the following impact within the project’s lifespan:
– 61 voluntary community organizations, local development agencies, public authorities, educational institutions and other stakeholders participated
in Restart + Alliances and engaged in training to improve their skills and to transform approaches to community regeneration;
– 12 members from the alliances trained in a virtual learning activity
– 544 Regional Alliances Tool-Kit down loads
– 4029 Self-Assessment Tool Kit logins
– 5444 downloads for the OERs and the online course, acquiring the knowledge and skills to design and execute effective, sustainable and scalable
solutions to the problems they address at a community level and developing stronger leadership and collaborative skills.
– 635 downloads for the Facilitator’s Guide
– The platform had a hit rate of 1,063,024
– 236 participated in multiplier events

Project Website

http://www.restart.how/index/home

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 250696 Eur

Project Coordinator

LETTERKENNY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & Country: IE

Project Partners

• MOMENTUM MARKETING SERVICES LIMITED
• MUNICIPIO DE LOUSADA
• European E-learning Institute
• Agentia pentru Dezvoltare Regionala Nord-Est
• Banbridge District Enterprises Ltd
• MEERMAN ARNO