IDEA(L)S IN ACTION Erasmus Project

Project Title

IDEA(L)S IN ACTION

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 youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

The strategic partnership “Idea(l)s in action” addressed the issues of youth unemployment and the need to tends towards a more sustainable and inclusive development in Europe. It aimed at inspiring and empowering young people, allowing them to believe in their abilities to take action and to create the positive change they hope for their lives and communities.

To achieve these goals, it created a partnership between France, Greece, Italy and Portugal to:

(a) theorize, improve and spread to new venues and new target groups a non-formal educational tool, the “Heterotopia Tour”, with high potentials in terms of people’s empowerment and promotion of more sustainable ways of living, based on cooperation and respect of Human Rights and Nature;

(b) share good practices in the field of social innovation, so that EU citizens can better meet the challenges of unemployment, social inclusion and sustainable development in Europe.

The project was therefore, at the same time, a training program for youth and social workers; a research program based on experiences in active pedagogy and non-formal education; a sensitization program on social and environmental issues and a promotional project of social innovation and innovative lifestyles.

It lasted 22 months and included 4 transnational project meetings (TPMs), 4 training activities (2 short-term joint staff training events and 2 blended mobilities of young people), 4 large-scale dissemination events (3 local, 1 international) and 12 peer-to-peer trainings and small-scale local events.

The project led to the creation of 2 main Intellectual Outputs (both available in 5 languages: French, Italian, English, Greek and Portuguese):

– high-quality video and photo reportages on a set of exemplary social projects from Southern France, Greece, Sicily, and South Portugal which are currently broadcasted on various channels and permanently accessible on an online transmedia platform (www.heterotopies.net) ;

– a methodological Guide on “How to organize a Heterotopia Tour?” addressed to youth and social workers, educators and trainers : https://idealsinaction.viabrachy.org/.

The project significantly contributed to diversify and improve the quality of youth work by transferring to 37 youth and social workers from Greece, Italy, Portugal and France knowledge on how to design and implement a Heterotopia Tour, as a pedagogical tool to empower people and foster social change.

Participants experimented the tool in order to master it while leading a research on it, in order to extract its main elements and improve the method.
Thanks to peer-to-peer trainings, to their participation in international meetings and to the creation of a methodological Guide, they spread their results widely within their communities and all over Europe.

Idea(l)s in Action also represented an opportunity not only to raise people’s awareness on social and environmental issues but to spread information that allow them to take action to handle various situations.

Firstly, by the production of high-quality reportages that are widely spread within Europe, using both conventional and innovative channels to allow for an interactive engagement of the audience in a playful, dynamic and engaging environment.

Secondly, by offering to a group of 38 young people (including 17 young people with fewer opportunities) from France, Italy, Greece and Portugal, the opportunity to meet people involved in the field in various areas, to develop hard and soft skills (including digital skills) and to stimulate their creativity, adaptability and entrepreneurial spirit. Those young people are now the ambassadors of the peaceful and sustainable lifestyles they have been discovering within their communities.

Thirdly, by the organization of diversified events that gathered a wide audience around both theoretical and practical activities.

The project allowed the partner organizations to develop their activities and reach out to new venues and new target groups thanks to the exchange of good practices, the capacity-building of their key staff and the extension of their network. They have greatly strengthened their cooperation and involved new counterparts in the process, creating thus dynamics at both local and European levels.

Finally, the project has enabled to bring together a wide range of actors around common objectives. It contributed to give shape to a common concept for lasting specific solutions that are reconciling the development of human societies and the preservation of nature and updating the sustainable paths within the current political context.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 266789 Eur

Project Coordinator

VIA BRACHY & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Cinergies
• Forme
• ASSOCIAÇÃO TRANSDISCIPLINAR N.E.W. LOOPS – NUTRIENTS, ENERGY AND WATER LOOPS
• EUROPAIKO CHORIO