THE KEY is a strategic partnership project in the field of adult education primarily aimed to develop new, innovative and complementary methodology for younger adults activation and empowerment, supporting their transition to adulthood. We build cooperation between four partner organisations, Institute Bob from Slovenia, Volunterski centar Istra from Croatia, Conversas Associação Internacional from Portugal and Institute Perspectives from Bulgaria, who gathered forces in addressing these issues. The project duration is 32 months, from September 2019 till April 2022. We believe that activation of individuals in social context can be an important resource in this unique situation of troublesome transitions to adulthood. Furthermore, that one can achieve activation and active citizenship, competencies for critical thinking, as well as reflection on processes of nowadays society are necessary. By creating this partnership consortium we will address the situation of younger adults that are facing difficulties with transitioning to adulthood on two levels: level of the society with measures for making this transition easier (e.g. housing strategy, employment stimulation) where we will create memorandums on a national levels in countries/regions of partner organizations (negotiations with policy makers, dialogue with different stakeholders); level of working with individuals and groups facing this situation (e.g. support programmes that address their needs) where we will develop a methodology for younger adults activation and empowerment to help adult educators in supporting individuals in their transition to adulthood. Primary participants of THE KEY project are adult educators and other professionals who work with younger adults in the field of non-formal education. They share the need for practical methods and concrete tools, materials and "know how" to carry out activities targeted at younger adults. Altogether there will be 20 adult educators from 4 partner organizations actively involved in the project. There will also be indirect participants involved in THE KEY project, belonging to the target group of younger adults aged between 25 and 35. As a pilot group, on which we will test the methods and techniques developed in the project, 48 younger adults from partner organizations will be involved in the project. Furthermore, we will target relevant stakeholders and decision makers that could support the development and implementation of practices with different resources. Indirectly the target group of younger adults will be included in our project in the phase of development of the methodology, when all partner organizations will implement and test the methods in their local environment. THE KEY project is based on sharing the knowledge between partnership organisations through participative approach and aims to introduce approaches that are not appreciated in socio-cultural environments of partner organizations even though practice and research have shown good impacts on many levels. To reach the objectives and results of THE KEY project partner organizations will: share their practices and approaches of working with younger adults and/or non-formal education; implement and test 30 methods and activities for addressing younger adult activation and empowerment with 12 participants (all together 120 tested method, 48 participants); create the methodology for younger adults activation and empowerment; guidelines for adult educators to work with young adults; publish tool-kit for younger adults activation and empowerment with 30 examples of activities, described methodology and description of five practices of implemented methodology; publish online educational resources on Moodle platform to support 250 adult educators for their development of the practice of working with younger adults; implement two training events to share practices among 12 project team members and to train 20 partner organization staff to use the methodology; implement 4 multiplier events, one in each partner organization local environment, with 125 participants (stakeholders, decision makers, younger adults and wider interested public); improve competences of 400 adult educators (participants of all project activities) for addressing the younger adults, their needs and their assets; increase the number and quality of activities for younger adults in 4 countries; advocate for younger adults and inform different stakeholders and decision makers about problem younger adults are facing.
With the project we wanted to support youth workers and better prepare them for the target group of young adults aged 25-35 with specific needs. As a result, we wanted to offer young people in the mentioned age group support in the transition to adulthood, especially by raising the competencies that can help them in this. At the same time, we wanted to influence politicians to prepare programs that would enable us to carry out such activities and support non-formal educators in offering suitable programs for the aforementioned target group.
Two years before the project application (2017, 2018), we noticed young people (YP) between the ages of 25 and 35 have problems with transition to adulthood, and the problems are not necessarily related to their personal circumstances. Although better educated than their parents, they still don`t reach milestones that used to follow each other in the past: finishing school, long-term partnership, stable employment, buying a home, children. The sequence of mentioned milestones is different today, but strongly related to social reality - unsupportive environment. In all partner countries, partners have noticed the aforementioned problem and the growing number of YP who are no longer young nor adults, due to the failure to reach the previously mentioned milestones. We naturally looked for the cause in specific socio-economic circumstances, which make the path to adulthood difficult, as YP they reach milestones in a different sequence, incoherently, often even unconnected, as stable employment is quite remote for many YP (and does not necessarily enable independency), housing are unattainable... Considering the new reality and conversations with other adult educators, we concluded it is necessary to prepare tools for the target group.