DIGI HELICON is a European project approved by the DE02 – Nationale Agentur Bildung für Europa beim Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (DE) in partnership with 8 partners, from 6 European countries (Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Cyprus and Greece) focused on “empowering current and aspiring artists through the development of digital skills and competences”.

The purpose of the project is: to empower current and aspiring artists, with a focus on those from vulnerable groups, and women artists, through the development of their digital skills and competences. To achieve this, the project aims at:

• developing innovative materials for artists and adult educators,
• providing flexible, upskilling opportunities,
• promoting artists’ entrepreneurship and employability, and
• fostering intercultural dialogue and social inclusion.

The DIGI HELICON project will offer a transferable Capacity Building Methodology, a stand alone online course, 6 workshops using blended, participatory learning and a mentoring scheme together with the provision of a virtual space for promoting artists’ work. The first /dutch workshop will take place on April 25th. The 2nd workshop will be scheduled soon!

The project is funded by the European Commission under the call for proposals KA220-ADU – Cooperation partnerships in adult education and lasts from 1/11/22 to 31/10/25.

Monday 27 November the Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work (DFW2W) organised the Final Dutch EMO2C multiplier event on the University Leiden Campus. During the event in Leiden the EMO2C partnership presented their results and intellectual outputs to the Dutch audience.

Dutch EMO2C Event in Leiden

The EMO2C-partnership organised their Dutch transnational project meeting in Leiden, Holland. The partnership is formed by partners from different EU-countries. INDEPCIE from Spain (coordinator), AKMI from Greece, Efektas Group from Lithuania, VAEV from Austria, Igor Vitale International from Italy and DFW2W from the Netherlands.

EMO2C Objectives

The objective of EMO2C is to strengthen the emotional and social competences of the target groups, so that their personal empowerment serves as a basis for the development of technical and professional skills.

Outline Dutch EMO2C Event

Thirty delegates, mostly network professionals from VET and Second Chance Schools, but also from the university, attended final multiplier event and they brought a lot of energy and chemistry in Leiden. All the participants were pretty engaged and involved on the importance of soft skills in an educational context. We received very positive feedback. Lots of young people were really happy about the results (such as the workshop EMO2C toolkit and the presentation of the EMO2C modules) and how to facilitate the tailored learning process for individuals . Pieter van Schie was the host of the day and introduced Carla de Vreij, chairwoman DFW2W. She outlined the role of DFW2W and the EMO2C programme:,,The EMO2C project had lead to stronger relationships with colleagues, our network professionals and our young people”

Pieter lead the workshop on the EMO2C toolkit and explained the advantages of social-emotional intelligence in Second Chance Schools. We received a lot of good positive feedback on the workshop, which was applied by blended-learning approach (a face to face presentation with activities that included reading, listening but also practise by doing). In this way it was much more easy to increase the engagement of the attendees. Pieter emphasized the specific goals of the project:

• To give visibility to the purpose and work of the EMO2C project for public and private entities;
• Addressing the importance of soft skills in the target group
• Concrete and effective solutions to the problems of early school leaving and youth unemployment
• Incorporating specific measures to ensure access for young people at risk or in a situation of social exclusion
• Enabling the development of the EMO2C model and its economic sustainability in the EU
• Obtaining European recognition of the EMO2C model as an essential element in the fight against early school leaving and youth unemployment
• To promote international cooperation in this field
• Enable young people with lack of skills or qualifications to successfully gain access to education programmes or to the labour market
• Strengthen the competences and qualifications of EMO2C educators

The Need To Connect-project is close to the end and the multiplier event and workshop we have organized today have covered all the highlights of this amazing project! The main focus of the day is connection of young moms and the organisation of a good smooth network around them.

NTC Presentation

Chairwoman Carla de Vreij and director Pieter van Schie were the hosts of the day and introduced the project NTC to the delegates. Projects like ‘Prachtvrouwen’ (Beautiful Women), ‘Vrouwenkracht’ (Power Women) were presented and discussed as well:

• Provide young mothers with a migration background with social assistance tools so that they can find their own way
• Help young mothers and teenmothers to create a network so that they can support each other even after the program has ended,at street, neighborhood or district level.

NTC Workshops

In the afternoon we organized the workshops in the sun in the yards around the venue. We had made a clear set up and outline of the original NTC workshops and highlighted the core elements with the delegates using a practise by doing scheme. This was highly appreciated. The feel of the workshops and feedback on the way we engaged and involved the delegates was very positive. Certain delegates of some muncipalities were interested to run the programme themselves. Two NTC-participants who attended the workshops in July and Augustas were invited to tell about their experiences: ,,The impact of the NTC-course was much bigger than I expected.”

Another Multiplier Event Coming Up: Being a Young Mother in Europe

Did you miss out our multiplier event today? Don’t worry, on September 21st at 17:30 hours you can follow the livestream of the NTC multiplier event in Malaga!

The Neet to Connect (NTC) pilot Training started on Friday July 28th. Five workshops later we finished on Friday August 25th with very satisfied and happy young mothers, becoming more aware of their true self and identity: Netmoming!

Celebration

At the beginning of the pilot all mothers introduced themselves, how happy they were and what kind of little smart obectives they had set for themselves. Talking about what your goals you want to achieve in life and discussing this with other mothers and women:

• What are your goals?
• How will you achieve your goals and keep track of your progress?
• How will this goal help you?
• And what is the deadline of achieving it?

All very important questions! On Friday August 25th we could see ten very happy mothers, who did not know each other at the start and now all have become friends, knowing the names of each others’ children and all received their certifications, supporting each other and talking about what they had achieved and still want to achieve in the future.

Netmomming

One of the major feedbacks we got from our participants is that they really liked to be in a group with other mothers. As we all know, social connections can offer a number of mental health benefits, such as improving your mood, reducing stress, and improving self-esteem. Human connections are always needed but specially in the transition of motherhood, where new fears and situations in life may appear:,, It helped me a lot to be able to speak over my problems with my children and how other mothers solved it. It was also good for my self-esteem, I could actually help other mothers out”

Mothers become more aware of their experience and identity as women and mothers through movement and interactions with the others. The 5 units of the NTC Pilot Training will be scheduled on July 28th, August 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th.

Objectives and Learning Outcomes

The multiplier event of the EMPOWER.ment project, part of the partnership’s Walkathon. will take place in Leiden the 9^th of June. The EMPOWER.ment project aim has been to include, integrate and empower people with mental health challenges. In our Dutch multiplier event (ME), DFW2W will show all the materials developed along the project. This ME will be replicated in other ME’s and walkathons in all the countries participating in the project: Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Iceland and The Netherlands.

What to Expect on the Dutch ME?

During the Dutch multiplier event the results of the empower.Ment partnership will be disseminated. What has been the impact of the intelectual outputs we have developed in terms of how people with lived experiences, volunteers and professionals? What kind of feel comes up to mind? If we implement what we have developed and teach, what results do we get? Is the stigma, self-stigma reduced? Do people feel more included, respected? Do they take more responsibillity if they are taking power? Do professionals feel less burdened of more limited by the new approach, new usage of words? It’s going to be really exciting to see how the results will be received.

Empowering Results

The different results developed in the project have been focused on the future improvement of the life of people with mental health challenges and their supporters. These three results will be shown on the Multiplier event in the Netherlands:

• O1 – Methodological guide on EMPOWER.Ment: from inspiration to impact – a guide to incorporate the results into everyday life, clinical practice, support and services
• O2 – Toolkit “We say, You say, They say” – a glossary for a new inclusive approach in mental health support
• O3 – EMPOWER.Ment e-learning module via MOOC, in order to train volunteers, youngsters, family, professionals into inclusive support for people with smhd impact.

… Because how we talk about mental health matters!

Check out further information on the website of the Empower.ment project:

Press Release April 30th 2023 – Early School Leaving (ESL) is a serious issue that affects many young people across the globe. There are many reasons why some young people give up education and (vocational) training prematurely: personal or family problems, learning difficulties, fragile socio-economic situation and of course the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the number of Dutch early school leavers has not been as high in MBO in the past ten years as it is now, due to Corona (AD, 30/4/2023). The ‘Early Digital Diagnosis and Intervention (EDDI)’ project helps teachers, families and students to better understand the causes and consequences of leaving education early. We have produced an electronic platform with modules, a catalogue and an android application in English, Dutch, Turkish and Greek. These outputs are contributing new solutions to help tackle the problem of Early School Leaving (ESL).

Effective EDDI Outputs

The EDDI project has developed a clear, holistic community-wide action plan for providing robust diagnostic tools that are capable of detecting problems early. The platform, the modules, the catalogue and the android application enable educational institutions to offer support to vulnerable students early, thus reducing the risk of early school leaving. We have involved family, teachers and students (14-25 years old) from mixed international groups. Furthermore, the EDDI project has benefited from the support of local social agencies, educational authorities and ICT solution partners. Through the multiplier events held in each country, we got some really good feedback on the outputs produced. We are happy to conclude that the feedback seems to suggest that we have achieved our aim, and are outputs reduce the risks of early school leaving, keeping students in education and/or in training.

EDDI Productions

The EDDI project has brought together innovative methods, digital interventions and pedagogies addressing the reasons for early school leaving, and has proposed approaches to early ESL diagnosis, prevention and intervention. Our project has managed to successfully deliver the following results:

1. The EDDI platform offers you a free course consisting of 4 modules with the aim of preventing early school leaving and improving the quality of education. You can reach the platform also from the QR code.

2. The EDDI Catalogue presents the policy recommendations and the Needs Analysis Report from the partner countries (United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, Netherlands and French Polynesia) with regards to Early School Leaving ESL). Moreover, it provides an overview of the partner countries’ educational systems and good practice examples.

3. The EDDI Android Application offers the opportunity to access the EDDI training material fast and smoothly through your mobile phone, for free, through a QR scan, via MobinCube Store and the Google Play Store!

Multiplier Events for Students, Families & Teachers

Multiplier Events have taken place in the United Kingdom, Turkey, Greece and the Netherlands during April 2023. The EDDI-partners have had an opportunity to inform our stakeholders and beneficiaries about our project outputs and discuss the drop-out phenomenon. The project has undertaken a comparative review of national ESL practices and interventions, which  included countries that have low (Early School Leaving) ESL statistics and those at the opposite end of the scale, to help deliver sustainable solutions to the ESL problem.

The project had lined up, among others, the following questions: It is clear that students vulnerable to early school leaving are not fully engaged in either education or the labour market. But why? What are their experiences? What are the needs of this target group? It is necessary to find out the reasons for drop-outs. What factors influence particular personal attitudes and behaviours? Why isn’t enough action being taken to address drop-outs? Why do existing school digital services and programmes fall short of delivering the warning indicators? What would make programmes that support early school leavers successful? How do students’ personal experiences affect subsequent behaviour? What type of digital services would meet the needs of early school leavers? What actions are needed to make programmes and digital services more effective?

A lot of participants joined the multiplier events and the feedback suggests we achieved some pretty good results. The Dutch EDDI multiplier event, held on April 24^th in Leiderdorp, The Netherlands had some amazing feedback from the participants: 76,2% really liked the EDDI android app, 71,7% liked the EDDI Platform and 65,2% liked the EDDI Catalogue. The full EDDI programme was packed with exciting presentations and a vibrant EDDI market place. Pieter van Schie and Carla de Vreij were the hosts of the day. ,,The discussions and feedback on what we have showcased was pretty good’’, said Pieter. ,,The feedback was also that the blended way of the modules really gave a lot of excitement and energy on the topics.”

Did you know that…

• Teachers, trainers and lecturers who really know their students can make a difference.
• 100% of the participants of the Dutch EDDI multiplier event said that during the event they were provided with an opportunity to learn new things and improve their knowledge on preventing school drop-outs
• That Dutch schools try to get their students back to school by calling, sending them WhatsApp messages and even by sending them personal postcards.
• For years, the wrong choice of education was one of the biggest causes of school dropout, but since the program ‘M-Year, mind the gap!’ has been introduced, an initiative that started in 2021 in Alphen aan den Rijn has made a change so far been so successful that it will also be offered at MBO Rijnland Gouda as well from the 2023-2024 academic year.
• De Hugo de Grootschool in Rotterdam went from the worst school in the Netherlands to one of the best schools in the Netherlands in five years!

On April 2oth – 21st 2023 the EMO2C partnership organised their Dutch transnational project meeting in Leiderdorp, Holland. The partnership is formed by partners from different EU-countries. INDEPCIE from Spain (coordinator), AKMI from Greece, Efektas Group from Lithuania, VAEV from Austria, Igor Vitale International from Italy and the Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work from the Netherlands. The objective of EMO2C is to strengthen the emotional and social competences of the target groups, so that their personal empowerment serves as a basis for the development of technical and professional skills.

The final conference of the Places-3T project will take place in Brussels on July 5th, 2023. La Vallee will hoste ‘The Place, the work and the Unexpected’ conference. The Places-3t project is co-funded by the Erasmus Plus programmme of the European Union. The final conference is all about creation, learning and entrepreneurship towards cooperative social transitions.

Final Conference Places-3t Brussels

The final demo of the EDDI Application has been finalised on January 30th 2023. The app has a great black and blue design. The Android application has various screens with topics sucha as the EDDI Catalogue, EDDI modules and EDDI social apps, connected to our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. has an interactive online toolbox that gives opportunity to teachers, learners, parents and others involved.

Android App

Since the demo was finalised, we have updated the app seven times. It functions perfectly.The EDDI App can be uploaded from Google Play. The app, as a BETA VERSION, has been tested for a long time. Any feedback is stll welcome till the end of the project. See below our YouTube EDDI App video and our Quick screenvideo of the app: Enjoy!

QR Code

The Android EDDI app can already be uploaded on the Google Play Store. Soon we will also provide a QR Code, easy for you to scan and get access.