According to the European Comission, the number of people living at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU increased from 118 million in 2010 to a peak value of 124 million in 2012. Although this number has decreased to about 122 million in 2014, almost every fourth person in the EU remained at risk of poverty or social exclusion over the period 2010 to 2014. The European Commission aims to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by 20 million by 2020. Within this context, the EU launched in 2010 the European platform against poverty and social exclusion as one of seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. One of the key actions of this platform, which will remain active until 2020, is to work in partnership with civil society to support more effectively the implementation of social policy reforms. Nevertheless, the EU seems to be far from reaching the 2020 target because the worsening social situation caused by the economic crisis is undermining the sustainability of social protection systems in many EU countries. As for the countries participating in this project, the at-risk-of-poverty rate (source: Eurostat) in 2015 was 22.1 for Spain, 21.4 for Greece, 19.9 for Italy, 17.6 for Poland, 16.7 for Germany, and 12.2 for Denmark (percentage of total population). Public schools across Europe are hosting pupils from socially and economically diverse backgrounds and can be seen as key actors in promoting social cohesion and equality and combating social exclusion in their communities. Actually, the 2020 Strategy of the European Commission considers secondary schools as major agents for reducing the risk of poverty and social exclusion. For this reason, the schools of this project aim to promote teaching activities and active debates in order to raise the students' awareness of this topic. Being aligned with the Europe 2020 strategy, this project should also help our schools and communites understand social exclusion and get involved in the fight against this problem by launching an open dialogue with policy makers, social agents, and people who have experienced poverty. Five European partners are participating in this project: Institut Lacetània in Manresa (Spain) acting as the coordinating school, the Kaufmännische Schule Göppingen (Germany), the 3rd General Lyceum of Kavala (Greece), the Liceo Morgagni of Rome (Italy), the Lubelskie Centrum Ksztalcenia Zawodowego i Ustawicznego im. Krzysztofa Kamila Baczynskiego in Lublin (Poland), and the Zealand Business College in Naestved (Denmark). All teachers who are participating in the project bring experience in the field of projects related to social and economic issues. We will wok with students between 16 and 19 years of age. Except for the last stage of the project, each single stage of the project consists of a working phase and a transnational meeting in which the results will be exchanged and evaluated, while the working phase will be developed by means of etwnning and other online resources. Using online and transnational meetings, we aim to develop the awareness of the diversity of the local, national, and international labour situation and market. Students are also expected to develop methodical competences and to improve their language skills, critical and creative thinking skills, interpersonal skills and practical skills by acquiring research and decision-making techniques. For this reason, this project also aims to create teaching tools to support the continuous development of students' transferable skills (working with people and data) and to increase their motivation by encouraging collaboration and experience sharing. This project will be carried out online by means of the eTwinning platform and other online communication means. Students will face challenges consisting of searching for information, comparing the information provided, and producing proposals to overcome social exclusion in a collaborative way. Teachers participating in the project will develop specific competences which are necessary for the successful implementation of research projects and the integration of transferable skills in students' daily activity. Moreover, the introduction of the Europe 2020 targets into the school program can be seen as an enrichment for the educational institutions by adopting methods of analysis and practical questions in normal teaching and extra-curricular activities. The project can also be considered as the consolidation and strengthening of long-term partnerships among the schools involved. Furthermore, we plan to meet social and/or economic actors of each partner region. In this way, those participating in the project will be able to gain first-hand insights on the issues of social exclusion and poverty all across Europe. The information provided in these meetings will be used for the project's researches and activities.
The project Social Europe 2020: Combating Social Exclusion and Poverty in the European Union (EU) has taken as a starting point the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth regarding the fight against social exclusion and poverty. The European Commission (EC) aims to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by 20 million by 2020. In order to reach this goal, the EC launched in 2010 the European Platform Against Poverty and Social Exclusion as one of seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 Strategy. One of the key actions of this platform, which will remain active until 2020, is to work in partnership with civil society to support more effectively the implementation of social policy reforms. Public schools across Europe are hosting pupils from socially and economically diverse backgrounds and can be seen as key actors in promoting social cohesion and equality and combating social exclusion in their communities. Within this context, six European schools launched in 2017 an Erasmus+ project dealing with the fight against social exclusion and poverty in their own countries: the Institut Lacetània in Manresa (Spain) acting as the coordinating school, the Kaufmännische Schule in Göppingen (Germany), the 3rd General Lyceum of Kavala (Greece), the Liceo Scientifico Morgagni of Rome (Italy), the Lubelskie Centrum Kształcenia Zawodowego i Ustawicznego im. Krzysztofa Kamila Baczyńskiego in Lublin (Poland), and the Zealand Business College in Næstved (Denmark). The teachers involved in this project have extensive experience in projects related to economic and social issues. All the partners have been cooperating for several years now and a significant number of European projects have been successfully carried out in the last 10 years. In this project, our schools have promoted teaching activities and active debates in our communities in order to raise awareness of this topic. Being aligned with the Europe 2020 strategy, this project has also helped our school communities understand social exclusion and poverty and get involved in the fight against this problem by launching an open dialogue with policy makers, social agents, and people who have experienced poverty. It is true that social exclusion and poverty differ from country to country, especially from North to South. Nevertheless, students have dealt with this topic no only from a national and regional viewpoint, but also taking into account the social situation in other European countries in order to draw similarities, differences, and suggestions on how to overcome social exclusion and poverty. Students between 16 and 19 years of age have participated in this project. Each stage of the project consisted of a working phase using eTwinning and other online resources, and a transnational meeting in which the results were exchanged and evaluated. Our dissemination activities took place both inside and outside our schools, especially during the transnational meetings. As for the results of the project, the partnership has produced a number of comparative researches on how the participating countries legislate against social exclusion and poverty, giving special attention to the translation of the EU recommendations and directives into national law and practices, i.e., how the participating countries are developing their national policies according to the EU directives and goals. Special attention has been given to the role played in each country by policy makers, economic and social actors. The outcomes of the research reflect the feasibility of the EU 2020 goals and measures for the EU, focusing on different situations and particular circumstances at both national and transnational level. As for the most significant impacts of the project, students have been able to develop methodical competences and improve their language skills, critical and creative thinking skills, interpersonal skills, and practical skills by acquiring research and decision-making techniques. Teachers participating in the project has also developed specific competences necessary for the successful implementation of transnational projects and the integration of transferable skills into students' daily activity. Moreover, the introduction of the Europe 2020 targets into the school program has been an enrichment for our schools. Finally, one of the most significant impacts of this project has been the close collaboration between the schools involved in the partnership and significant social bodies and key persons in our local and regional communities dealing with issues of poverty and social exclusion. We expect, therefore, our analysis and researches to be helpful for these institutions and people, as they will be able to perceive the strengths and weaknesses of their initiatives and measures to reach the EU goals.