CLOSER Erasmus Project

Project Title

CLOSER

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Inclusion – equity; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to building tolerant, inclusive and solidary communities in 5 partner countries (4 EU member states and Georgia). The project partnership implemented activities:
1. To raise quality of youth work in social inclusion and strengthen capacities of youth workers for active combating social exclusion by respecting values and principles of European youth work for inclusion
2. To contribute to building a more inclusive society and raising awareness of social inclusion in young people and broad public.

Specific objectives of the project were:
• To explore the needs of youth workers with socially excluded groups in order to better reflect their training needs,
• To empower youth workers in the area of social inclusion and work with disadvantaged groups,
• To improve the management capacity of partner organizations in fundraising, campaigning, public relations, negotiating, marketing, event organizing; to exchange experience, lessons learned, and good practices;
• To create an online platform as a reference tool of materials, documents, projects, trainings on social inclusion,
• To create common identity and tools (leaflets, information materials) of the campaign to be used by all partners,
• To plan and implement the Week of Social Inclusion campaign in all partner countries, while involving local communities and especially young people to be more inclusive and solidary with people of different origin, belief, age, those disadvantaged (socially, economically) and disabled.

The partnership was composed of organizations from 4 EU Members states (Slovakia, Spain, Italy and France) and Georgia, a country of Eastern partnership. The partners work in the area of youth empowerment and development, some of them have had experience in organizing campaigns.
The partnership produced:
– a report on training needs of youth workers dealing with young people in danger of social exclusion/marginalized groups,
– a training curriculum developed,
– a group of multipliers in social inclusion of young people trained and involved in local activities,
– a web-site created as a source of materials on social inclusion of youth,
– Compendium on best practices in Social Inclusion published,
– a Week of Social inclusion implemented in all partner countries.

The project had an impact on the direct project participants, and also on young people and broad public in the partner countries through their involvement in the awareness-raising campaign. The project laid foundations for the tradition of the Weeks of Social Inclusion to be organized as an annual event in the partner countries.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 120653,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Centrum pre interkultúrny dialóg & Country: SK

Project Partners

• ASSOCIACIO PER A LA CREACIO I ESTUDIS DE PROJECTES SOCIALS C.E.P.S.
• Giosef Enna
• EUROCIRCLE ASSOCIATION
• Gori Municipality Development Agency
• Associazione Giosef – Giovani Senza Frontiere
• Shida Kartlis Regionuli Ganvitarebis Tsentri