The project “Empowerment through Empathy in Non-formal Education” results from a strategic partnership involving partners from four different countries – ADCL (Portugal) , Ed- Consult (Denmark), Poleski Osrodek Sztuki (Poland)and CIAPE (Italy). The General Objective of our project is: to promote the emotional literacy of adult educators. The specific objectives are: 1) devise a pilot training course in the field of emotional literacy, using non-formal education methodologies; 2) apply a pilot training course to 15 adult educators in each partner country. The reason that justifies this objectives is the need, identified by all partners, to create innovative approaches, where the emotional preparation of the technicians is explored in order to allow these professionals a greater knowledge of themselves, a greater creativity, wich will notoriously enrich their practices. Although each social context of the partner countries involved has its particularities, all the technicians are confronted with situations that require them to adjust to a changing reality, to manage their frustration, to find within them strategies to cope in a creative and flexible way with the needs of responding to a socially challenging Europe. The emotional development of the people is a dimension that is worked on, in most cases, in a very indirect and inconsistent way. Professionals, although well-intentioned, technically equipped, knowledgeable about educational content and pedagogical practices, are faced with a complexity of issues that require them to look reflectively but also compassionate about the "other," a look that goes beyond of the conditions in which the other is. They often face their own frustration and inability to respond adequately to the particular and disturbing situations of their target audience. Adults often bring with them anxieties and feelings of injustice, and their expectations are only to be heard, and it is up to the educator to use various strategies (summoning all their emotional capital) for the dialogue to take place, seeking understanding and transforming it into capacitation, making its action a multiplier, capable of transforming stigma into quality, reintegrating the learner in the social context. The Project, with a duration of 19 months, is built on a participative methodology, with straight networking in its various phases and activities. This strategic partnership to support the exchange of good practices provides a SP- Short-term joint staff training events, where 12 professionals will be involved in a process of self-reflection about themselves and their practices in order to create a learning environment based on collaborative and participatory methodologies. The training event will bring together people from different countries, recognizing that they have skills, resources, connections, understandings and organizational cultures that, when shared, can benefits others, thus partnership is potentially a move towards more ‘joined up thinking’ about the issues of social inclusion and emotional literacy. From this activities will result the design of a pilot training course aiming to promote emotional literacy of adult educators. Therefore 60 adult educators (15 from each partner country) are going to be trained in emotional literacy and be able to disseminate this intervention model. The results and impact envisaged in partner organizations is, on the one hand, to allow greater experience of organizations in the field of promoting emotional literacy in non-formal education practices and, on the other hand, to provide training in innovative methods to adult educators in order to increase the level of self-knowledge, skills and competencies in the emotional literacy field. Moreover it is expected to reinforce the access, participation and performance of disadvantaged learners, reducing disparities in learning outcomes. Finally, the project also brings together a dimension of adult education through the exploration of participation learning methods based on the experience, autonomy and responsibility of each adult, supported by the promotion of social and ethical values, such as human rights, tolerance, promotion of peace, solidarity and social justice, intergenerational dialogue, equal opportunities, democratic citizenship and intercultural learning, among others.
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