EU-reading circles: Sharing experiences for inclusion and social participation Erasmus Project

Project Title

EU-reading circles: Sharing experiences for inclusion and social participation

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

In Europe, nearly 75 million adults do not have adequate reading skills. Despite the Lisbon Strategy and the intensification of the measures of the educational policies to promote higher literacy levels, the research conducted by the European Commission reveals little improvement in literacy in the partner countries of this project which, starting from this scenario, intends to operate in contexts of educational poverty and social exclusion, with the aim of increasing in adults the literacy skills and communication and social skills which are necessary for the exercise of active citizenship and integration, in line with the ET2020 objectives. The project foresees the exchange of good promotion practices and motivation skills between researchers and educators of the partner countries, accompanied by moments of study and training aimed at supporting the operators of the target groups so that they can become active supporters of adult literacy processes in the reference community.
The project addresses two types of target groups:
– Group ONE, which is made up of researchers, teachers, operators, educators, representatives of the various organizations belonging to the networks of the partner countries, who will meet to compare, document and implement good practices to promote reading and literacy; the members belonging to this group come from the four associations and libraries operating in the area and from the four universities involved (University of Seville in Spain, University of Szczecin in Poland, University of Thessaloniki in Greece and University of Chieti in Italy) which are currently carrying on reading programs aimed at adults through the Experience Classrooms and the theoretical research on models, techniques and practices that concern reading clubs.
– Group TWO is composed of adults, heterogeneous as far as gender, social and cultural background and belonging to the communities of reference of the partnership is concerned, with poor habits and motivation to read, who will be involved in the re-motivation / training / acquisition of particular skills, aimed at overcoming the initial gap related to the fragility of literacy and communication skills and to recover the interest in reading and understanding texts, as fundamental skills for knowingly and effectively entering the social context, overcoming social exclusion, racial discrimination and gender inequalities. In order to get to this second group, the partners who act in the social sector are fundamental. They are: SOLUTION, an NGO based in Paris (France) that develops innovative actions to promote the social integration of migrant people; Ksiaznica Pomorska (Poland), the central library for the Pomeranian region, which develops various reading promotion programmes for citizens; BENILDE Association (Spain), founded in 2014 by a group of women, which works in the field of culture with a specific aim at women and which counts with a programme to promote reading aimed at women in Senior Centres and “SMARTLAB EUROPE” Association (Italy), which includes among its associates people with skills and experiences in projects that especially regard the promotion of reading.
The synergies that are supposed to be created with this partnership concern the symbiosis between theories and practices, the academic world and the social world, local visions with intercultural perspectives, in order to achieve the project objectives through the specialization of each of the partners (UNIVERSITY: proven theories and models; SOLUTION: integration of migrants; BENILDE: gender equality; KSIAZNICA POMORSKA and “SMARTLAB EUROPE”: social integration).
At the end of the first year of the project, we intend to realize and share a transnational mapping of the existing reading clubs and of the most effective strategies for promoting reading in the formal and informal field that are active in the various contexts of the partnership, in order to develop a common reflexivity on critical points and strengths of the various methodologies and to design an innovative and transferable intervention model. In this direction, always during the first year, workshops and training sessions are planned for the first target group: the expected result concerns the expansion of the repertoire of integrated reading promotion tools available to operators active in the territories. In the second year, both the target groups of the elaborated model and the identified best practices are expected to be actively and cooperatively tested in order to enhance reading skills and permanently activate the social and cultural participatory processes of the subjects involved, consolidating the existing networks in a transnational perspective.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 117364 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Associazione Culturale SmartLab Europe
• UNIWERSYTET SZCZECINSKI
• BENILDE
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO DI CHIETI-PESCARA
• Ksiaznica Pomorska im. Stanislawa Staszica w Szczecinie
• Solution: Solidarité & Inclusion
• ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS