I. The CONTEXT of our project is the transfer of the concept of a ‘Children’s Town’, which has been implemented in various German cities and enjoys a high acceptance at regional level, to other European countries. Starting point is the Children’s Town project ‘Bärenhausen’ (Bearville) that has been organised and implemented every year in the last decade by the foundation Stiftung Evangelische Jugendhilfe in cooperation with the St. Johannis GmbH. This concept will be presented to transnational partners at theoretical & practical level for discussion. Through the Children’s Town approach, the St. Johannis GmbH wants to put political education, non-formal learning and children’s participation at the heart of transnational cooperation. II. AIM & TOPIC: Through the children’s town approach, the St. Johannis GmbH wants to put political education, non-formal learning and children’s participation at the heart of transnational cooperation and therefore will present theory & practice of the Children’s Town project ‘Bearville’. The participative Children’s Town approach will be enriched and updated by the ideas from European partners (European idea). Starting from this, partners will develop their own approaches. Partners will present, organise, implement and disseminate their Children’s Town approach in their countries. Development & dissemination of a standard European Manual for the ‘Children’s Town’ approach. During the project term, an online platform ‘Children’s Town Wiki’ shall be developed that includes all facts & figures. The ‘Children’s Town Wiki’ will be opened to public access at the end of the project in order to give suggestions to further organisations and support them in developing similar projects. III. NUMBER & PROFILE of PARTICPANTS: 5 transnational & 2 national partners will participate in the project. In total 14 participants from partner organisations and 2 participants from the organiser. The project is geared towards expert staff in social work with children & youth work who work in open and non-formal education for young people. All participants have a basic interest in professional exchange, testing & further development of concepts so far unknown to them, and they contribute experience in participative work with young people. IV. DESCRIPTION of ACTIVITIES: Conclusion of cooperation & learning agreements; project leader visits partner organisations, discovering its structures; verification & evaluation of existing offers; verification & check of regional project work; organisation & implementation of transnational partner meetings and seminars (blended learning); development, presentation & discussion of a working & time plan; development of a quality assurance plan; development & alignment of methods, strategies & standards for the implementation of the Children’s Town project, discussion of the outcome in regional entities at local level; development of joint documents for the implementation of the Children’s Town project; organisation of a Children’s Town at the transnational partner’s site (IDEUM/Sweden); development of a European Manual for the Children’s Town concept approach, adoption of the documents during final conference; publication of the results; survey among participants & project partners; survey evaluation; evaluation of the activity in total; selection of potential regional, local & national partners; regular meetings between regional partners, including inventory of developed documents & working out proposals for methods, strategies & standards for the implementation of the Children’s Town. V. METHODOLOGY during 4 transn. partner Meetings (TPM): Presentation, alignment, comparison of developed documents, definition of further METHODOLOGY during 2 transnational Blended Learning activities: keynote speeches, input through implementation Children’s Town ‘Bearville’, observation, work shadowing, questions, workshops, evaluations, developing new work approaches & methods, implementation of further Children’s Towns. VI. EXPECTED OUTCOME: Development of a joint European Manual for the Children’s Town concept approach; every transnational partner develops his own Children’s Town approach; two transnational partners implement a Children’s Town project during the project term; the ‘Children’s Town Wiki’ will be opened to the public. VII. BENEFITS: Dissemination of results during implementation of Children’s Towns in all partner countries via internet, press, Y.E.S. Forum General Assemblies; sharing of concept & the European Manual for Children’s Town concept approach with interested European partners; ‘Children’s Town Wiki’ will be opened to public access.
The CONTEXT of our project was that the concept of the ‘Children's Town’, which is implemented in various cities in Germany and enjoys a high acceptance at regional level, will be implemented in the future in other European countries according to the concepts they developed on their own. The basis for this was the Children’s Town project ‘Bärenhausen’ (Bearsville), which in the last 10 years has been organised and carried out by the partner Stiftung Evangelische Jugendhilfe in cooperation with St. Johannis GmbH. This concept was presented to the transnational partners in theory and in practice and then discussed in detail. II. OBJECTIVE AND THEMATIC APPROACH: St. Johannis GmbH placed the Children’s Town, which entails elements such as political education, non-formal learning and participation of children, at the heart of the transnational cooperation and presented the Children’s Town project ‘Bärenhausen’ in practice and theory as an example; the participative Children’s Town concept was enriched and renewed by the ideas of the European partners (European ideas). On this background, the partners created their own national concepts and presented them in their region. Two partners implemented their concepts and carried out three Children’s Town projects. The partners entered their national concepts on the online platform ‘Wiki’ that was further developed during the project duration. All facts and figures were collected here; the Children’s Town ‘Wiki’ was made public at the end of the project period in order to give other organisations ideas and to support them with information when they develop their own similar projects. III.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS: 4 transnational and 2 national partners participated in the project. The project is aimed at managers and professionals in the field of child and youth work who were and are active in the field of open and non-formal education for young people. All participants had a fundamental interest in professional exchange, the further development and testing of concepts new to them and contributed experiences in participative work with young people. IV. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES: Cooperation agreements and learning agreements were concluded between the partners. The project leader visited the partner institutions, learnt about the structures of existing offers and checked and controlled the regional project work. He organised and carried out the transnational partner meetings and blended learning activities, detailed the work and time schedule as well as the quality assurance plan and presented these for discussion among partners. He worked out methods, strategies and standards for the realisation of the Children’s Town project and presented these for discussion among partners. The results were taken up in the local regional structures for the development of national concepts; A total of three Children's Town concepts were implemented (Sweden 1; Romania 2). He coordinated the development of the online platform ‘Wiki’ and the publication of the results of the national concepts and results. He conducted a survey among the participants and project partners and evaluated the results. The evaluation of the overall measure was also realized by the project manager. The cooperation partners selected potential regional, local and national partners and organized regular meetings during which the documents produced were reviewed and further proposals developed on the methods, strategies, standards for the implementation of the Children’s Town. V. METHODOLOGY: To reach the goals we used the following methods a) 4 project partner meetings (transnational partner meetings) with introduction, coordination processes, comparison of the elaborated documents, decisions were taken and strategies were revised, b) 2 transnational blended learning activities with key notes; inputs were given based on the realisation of the Children's Towns in Bernburg and Sweden through observation, work shadowing, questions, workshops and evaluation. During evaluation, new approaches and methods were developed, which were then incorporated into the national concepts. c) Development of the online platform ‘Wiki’ used for information transfer. VI. RESULTS: Realisation of C1 with transfer of basic knowledge. The partners have created their own concepts on the basis of the practical participation in the project and realisation of C1. The partners have adapted the concepts to their local framework conditions and disseminated and presented their Children’s Town concepts in their countries. Two partners have organised and realised their own Children’s Town project: the Romanian partner implemented two Children’s Town projects and the Swedish partner one project. Our Italian partner was about to implement his concept for a Children's Town when Covid19 measures put a temporary end to this. On the basis of the practical models, the partners have further detailed their concept development. Presentation of the concepts and discussion. Realisation of C2 - Concept development ‘Children’s Town’ based on practical models. Within the project term the online platform ‘Children’s Town – Wiki’ was developed where all data and facts for the implementation of a Children’s Town project were gathered. All partners involved entered their results and knowledge on this platform. The Kinderstadt ‘Wiki’ was opened to the public at the end of the project term in order to give suggestions to other organisations. VII. Longer-term EFFECTIVENESS is given by 1. the implementation of the results in the realisation of the Children's Towns in all partner countries; 2. via project information on the internet, in the press, during Y.E.S. Forum general assemblies; 3. dissemination of the national concepts in the partner countries as well as through Y.E.S. Forum on the European level; 4. ‘Wiki’ platform opened to the public.