It is imperative that for this entire Final Report that it is read alongside the very comprehensive, thoroughly researched and excellently prepared bespoke reflective booklet that we devised for this project. Everything for the project is contained there, and this entire report derives from it. The booklet is attached and must be read to get a full picture of this fantastic Erasmus+ project. There were 3 flows to our project, ‘Developing Intercultural Understanding & Personal Leadership Skills through non-formal teaching methods of dialogue, music and non-competitive outdoor activities.’ There were 3 main topics addressed by our project. First was access for disadvantaged rural youths. Second was to show what intercultural and lifelong learning should look like. The third objective was to celebrate and share our cultural heritage between the 3 groups. The 3 youth groups involved were: 1.Youth Leadership against Rural Disadvantage in the West of Ireland (Ireland). 2.Associazione di Promozione Sociale "L'albero del Melogramma’’ (Italy). 3. Musikpädagogik Salzburg on Tour (Austria). Over the duration of the 3 flows wanted to achieve the following objectives for our youth project (these objectives are consonant with the Irish National Youth Strategy (2015-2020) as well as with the New EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027) . Our SMART targets for this entire project derived from the best learning: Our SMART targets were (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound) namely, in our project we achieved the following: We: • Each day of our 18 days we targeted key 6 competences of life-long learning: communication in the mother-tongue, multi-lingualism, learning to learn, social and civic competences, a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and above all cultural awareness and expression. • And we targeted 2 Erasmus + horizontal priorities of inclusion and diversity and participation in democratic life. • Engaged youths in a project that had a tangible long-term impact on these youth participants’ lives giving them an alternative lifestyle to unemployment/ drugs/alcohol/ because we believed that by showing our youths an alternative identity to abuse is created our youths will have a better Outcome, Brighter Future (National Youth Strategy 2015-2020). • Over the 3 flow project we developed the youths’ critical personal Leadership skills of problem-solving, creativity and ultimately personal flourishing as well as that, we gave them a viable chances for employment and an alternative lifestyle to anti-social behaviour by engaging in a positive, creative, caring and nurturing Erasmus+ project. • We, the leaders, inspired our youths by basing our academic research significant work of Paulo Freire, one of the world’s leading educationalists and philosophers of our time who explicated that dialogue-based-learning was the central most significant vehicle to enable youths develop critical skills of problem-solving, creativity and ultimately personal flourishing (Freire, 1970). • In each part of our project we Engaged, Connected and Empowered our Youths as delineated in the New EU Strategy 2019-2027. In our programme We Engaged our youths to take part in a civil society. We Connected young communities from 3 different countries and from different backgrounds (2 groups marginalised and one group privileged and having it as their mission to empower disadvantaged youths with their amazing skill set) promoting intercultural understanding. We Empowered our youths through our quality innovative project. Before we begin discussing the objectives of the project we wish to impart our Covid-story! Flow 1 (Salzburg) and Flow 2 (Westport) and flow 3 (Italy) could not happen at the planned time because of Covid-19. We successfully applied for an amendment to our grant agreement- extended dates now read from 01/01/2020-31/05/2022 a one year extension. Due to Covid-19 it was incumbent on us to change the order of the flows. Léargas were kept abreast of all our plans. Finally, after a few false-starts we completed the 6 day flows in the following order: Flow 1 to Westport Ireland from 24/10/21 to 29/10/21. Flow 2 to Fogliano Redipuglia Italy from 20/02/22 to 25/02/22 and Flow 3 to Salzburg Austria from 10/4/22 to 15/4/22. A meeting was held with our superb Léargas point of contact, Audrey on 20/05/20. Audrey, from Léargas wrote up the following: ‘ Observations and recommendations Partnership: There is good cooperation and communication happening between partners. The partnership was established from a previous exchange project from 2019 and have developed a good working relationship. The partners have regular check in’s and the applicant organisation provided evidence of email communication from partners regarding the covid-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions. Participants: The organisation has provided details of communication between parents regarding the covid-19 pandemic and restrictions. It is also very positive that the organisation has selected participants from the previous exchange to be involved in the coordination of this project and that there is ongoing communication. It is also very encouraging to note that participants have been connecting and demonstrate a continued engagement in the project partnership. They have been connecting through group tunes, learning songs and playing together. Activities: There was one planned activity that was due to take place in April, this activity could not go ahead as planned due to the current pandemic situation. The upcoming exchange cannot take place as planned due to ongoing restrictions and concern regarding covid-19. The organisation has rescheduled the first exchange to take place next year during the Easter break and the second exchange should happen in the summer of next year. The partners will discuss options for the 3rd exchange and the organisation are requesting to extend their project dates to allow time to complete the project.’ (Written by Audrey from Léargas 20/05/20). We had a force majeure: 2/7/2020 FORCE MAJEURE: email and request for 2 items (a) flights for one Austrian/ Irene Gruber (b) cottage rental in Westport for 1 week. The Interim Report confirmed the change of date granted by Leargas and also the request force majeure We applied for 2 force Majeure on 2/7/2020- (1) amount for €262.48 for flights for one Austrian leader (2) €744.95 rental of house for Austrians in Westport. Total =€1007.95 We managed to get refunded for everything else because of Covid- thankfully. We then applied for a year’s extension to our project and were granted this extension. It meant the flows changed to the following order. Our objectives realised: ‘The sum of the parts is greater than the whole’ was certainly true for our project. Each flow lasted 6 days. The title of this 3 flow project was to ‘Develop Intercultural Understanding & Personal Leadership Skills through non-formal teaching methods of dialogue, music and non-competitive outdoor activities.’ There were 3 main topics addressed by our project. First was access for disadvantaged rural youths. Second was to show what intercultural and lifelong learning should look like. The third objective was to celebrate and share our cultural heritage between the 3 groups. Each day was divided into 3 parts: the morning session was hosted each time in a local venue. The afternoon session involved outdoor activities and in the evening we shared our music, song and dance and our day’s story and reflections in a community setting. The idea was to impact, most especially, long-term, on the Irish and Italian marginalised youth groups and indeed on all the youths involved. Our project set out to engage, connect and empower rural disadvantaged /marginalised youths in West Mayo and disadvantaged youths from Italy to develop their leadership skills and intercultural understanding. The Austrian group were leaders in helping us achieve our goals as their mission is to work with marginalised groups. Ultimately our project enabled the participating youths to remain in education, to have an alternative identity to anti-socialism by reaching their personal potential and flourishing through reflective dialogue and non-formal music. We celebrated aligning our project very closely with the National Youth Policy of ‘Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures’ (2014-2020). Our project has derived from evidence based scholarship. The definition, from the literature that we in this project adopted is that leadership is regarded as a dynamic procedure, which can be developed by means of appropriate interventions (Sisk, 1993).