Innovate Now
About the project
The Innovate NOW project is a KA2 - Small Scale Partnership, executed in partnership with Globers (Spain), STRAUSS APS (Italy) and AVATUD (Estonia). It aims to empower young people in entrepreneurship, promoting their involvement, resulting in a greater predisposition for civic participation and proactivity.
The project targets young people at risk/situation of social exclusion and those with fewer opportunities, promoting equal access in a socially diverse group.
Thus, in international cooperation with partner organizations we aim to develop an intervention to support young people in developing their lifelong learning skills, exploiting existing opportunities and their talent, enabling the creation of their own job and/or integration into the labour market.
Goals
Main goal:
To combat social exclusion and youth unemployment, especially in those with fewer opportunities (MO), arising from the absence of key lifelong learning (LLL) and entrepreneurial skills.
The problem of socio-occupational exclusion of young people is global, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has put a brake on the European economy. The number of young unemployed and NEETs has increased sharply in Europe (European Commis.: Employment and Social Developments in Europe, 2021). This is a problem with short- and long-term personal and social consequences and solutions are urgently needed.
Specific goals:
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Identify, create, test and validate good practices of intervention with young people in the field of entrepreneurship and social innovation, through non-formal methodologies;
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Train youth workers (YW) in these good practices;
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Develop and deepen knowledge on socio-professional exclusion of young people, current challenges and European priorities;
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Promote the acquisition of skills for youth work by young people and develop entrepreneurship as a competence;
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Raise young people's awareness of European identity, values and priorities;
Project activities
Virtual mobility between Youth Workers
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Meetings "Young Consultants" - young people share with the JWs their needs and problems, their opinion and evaluation on the good practices selected by the JWs in the transnational WS - reflect for the optimal intervention for their socio-professional inclusion.
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Local program development sessions - identification, selection and initial design of InnovateNOW! During the transnational WS. Implementation of the program (testing) Virtual youth mobility.
Transnational Meeting 1 | June 21 to July 1, 2022
Implemented in Roda de Bará, Spain, with Globers as the hosting organization. Formal kick-off meeting of the project. Considering that it was the first official meeting of the project it included:
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Review of the drafted agreements as well as the Action Plan and its components and inclusion of necessary adjustments;
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Clarifications on administrative and project management issues;
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Creation of the Code of Conduct for the project, considering the participation and characteristics of the YOTs and young people to be involved;
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Review of the distribution of responsibilities and tasks, as well as the timeline, and definition of the concrete actions to be undertaken;
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Formalization of the Partnership Agreement;
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Presentation of the organizations, reflection and sharing of specific expectations, needs and constraints identified by each partner;
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Clarification of doubts about the Erasmus+ Program, project and its activities;
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Sharing of information relevant to the implementation of the project (on the themes, methods, selection process of participants, involvement of local partners and stakeholders, planned activities, issues associated with fewer opportunities and logistical issues, etc;)
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Discussion and implementation of the integration of European priorities in the activities with YOTs and Youth;
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Discussion and implementation of the contents, formats and materials to be developed for the implementation of the next activities - Local Preparation Sessions and Transnational WS;
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Sharing of good practices inherent to the management of the project and its local and transnational activities, as well as to ensure the achievement of the objectives, results and impacts of the project;
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Activities promoting a climate and relationship of trust between partners;
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Knowledge of the city and culture of the place where RT1 takes place and contact with local stakeholders.
Transnational Workshop - December 4 to 10, 2022
This activity consisted of sharing and concluding the work of Benchmarking good practices that has been carried out locally by the Youth Technicians of each country, and the European diagnosis of the social problem - gathering information on the European situation in terms of social and professional exclusion of young people and the identification of good European practices that can be used to work with young people on their potential and the development of entrepreneurial skills.
Transnational Meeting 2 - February 6-9, 2023
Held in Tallinn, Estonia, with AVATUD as the hosting organization.
The main objective of the RT2 was to take stock of the project progress, and to strengthen the monitoring mechanism that has been implemented and will continue until the end of the project. It will include:
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Monitoring of the project progress and activities implemented so far;
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Mid-term evaluation: of the preparation sessions, the workshop and the local activity "Young Consultants Meeting".
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Reflection and stocktaking on the implementation process and results achieved so far;
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Definition of the following activities (their contents, format, methods and activities): Sessions for the development of the InnovateNOW! Program, local testing of the Program with young people and IJ and prior preparation sessions for young people;
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Reflection on feedbacks from all participants, main strengths and challenges encountered;
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Discussion on possible improvements to be implemented in the project and making adjustments to the Action Plan if needed;
Youth Exchange
From June 25 to July 1, 2023, the Youth Exchange took place in Águeda. It brought together 6 young representatives of the youth consultant sessions from each of the partner countries.
The activity represented the culmination of the whole process that young people experience throughout the project.
The YE had as main objectives:
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Continued development of skills for LLL and entrepreneurship;
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It allowed young people to be an active part in the process of building an intervention tool adapted to their needs and problems, thus promoting the notion of the importance of their active role in society and in solving the problems that affect them;
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Young people explored/created/concretized social entrepreneurship/innovation projects as a response to their socio-professional integration, and that of other young people;
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Define actions for each organization to incorporate in their daily practices the learnings achieved so far;
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Knowledge of the city and culture of the place where RT2 takes place.
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It allowed young people to get to know each other personally and to live a learning experience in a multicultural context; • Enabled the completion of the experiential learning cycle by providing activities to experiment, explore, fail, reflect, conceptualize and develop new and continued actions leading to the proposed outcomes;
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Promoted the incorporation of common European values and awareness of the current challenges that Europe and society are experiencing, as well as possible solutions and the role of young people in this regard;
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Promoted the recognition of young people of their role as agents of their own development, their communities and society.
With all this, the Youth workser had consolidated the learning developed and allowed to achieve an intervention methodology that truly contemplates the perspective of the young people for whom it is intended. Thus, the result of the project shows the impact on young people, as well as promotes sustainability through the possibility of exploitation and replication of the same.
Transnational meeting 3 - June 12-13, 2023
Project finalization meeting. Held on July 12 and 13 in Mussomeli, Italy. The responsible partner was Strauss APS.
It included the following activities:
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Final analysis and evaluation of the project;
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Reflection, sharing and debate about the results achieved and the quality of the intervention carried out;
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Reflection, sharing and debate on the potential of the tangibles produced in improving the intervention of organizations, Youth Workers and the youth sector;
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Specific reflection and evaluation on the dissemination actions carried out in each country and internationally;
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Outlining future perspectives between the consortium and with external agents, namely at the level of potential partnerships with young people, to implement the projects created;
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Analysis and reflection on the feedbacks and testimonies of the participants, ensuring their incorporation in future interventions;
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Discussion about the sustainability of the project and its growing potential for social impact on the identified young people;
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Conclusion of the "InnovateNOW!" publication;
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Definition of the dissemination strategy and exploitation of results in the post-project;
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Closure of the project;
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Knowledge of the city and culture of Cecilia, Italy and contact with local stakeholders.
Documents/Files
Dissimination Report
Funding and support
National Agency Erasmus+ Youth/Sport and ESC
Innovate Now is a project funded by the National Agency Erasmus+ Youth/Sport and ESC.
The National Agency Erasmus+ Youth Sport and ESC is the mission structure that aims to ensure the management, in Portugal, of the Erasmus+ Program in the fields of youth and sport, as well as to ensure the management and implementation of activities within the European Solidarity Corps program. It also coordinates the Eurodesk information network in Portugal. The Erasmus+ Youth Sport and ESC NA supports Youth Exchanges, European Volunteering, International Training, Strategic Partnerships and Structured Dialogue events. It provides support and information in the Sports dimension and to the Erasmus+ European Solidarity Corps.
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