The H.O.M.B.R.E. (an acronym of "How Own Music Bar Rescued Eduardo") project lies in accordance with the European Union Youth Strategy 2019-2027, which recognises that "In light of the changing employment landscape, the European Union should support young people’s personal development and growth to autonomy, build their resilience and equip them with the necessary resources to participate in society, thus contributing to the eradication of youth poverty and all forms of discrimination, as well as to the promotion of social inclusion". Partnership structure consists of four Partners and affects different regions of Europe: - Southern Europe (Spain and Portugal) - Central Europe (Poland) - North Europe (Norway) Target group are all young people in all European countries, interested in music and potentially also interested in running their own business. Important feature of this group is, it is addressed to youth, who like to play and try new computer games. An open mind and the ability to learn new skills are very desirable features of this group as well. The innovation of the project lies in combining its two main topics and using them in an attractive way for youth.: 1. Non-formal practical entrepreneurship education, while using the "edutainment" (education through enertainment) methodology. This concerns in first line the Intellectual Output of the project - the H.O.M.B.R.E. educational computer game. Local LTT activities in form of non-formal workshops in four small groups will be organized in each country. Young volunteers, with the help of youth instructors, will support the development of the I.O. by doing the on-going evaluation of the H.O.M.B.R.E. game, 2.The fully innovative idea of using elements of jazz improvisation methodology, in the Intellectual Output of the project, as well as during LTT activities planned. Great jazz musicians have developed amazing improvisation skills. Any jazz musician will say that adaptability and creativity are the cornerstones to making beautiful music. Adopting a jazz mindset will help individuals and organizations react to—and even initiate—change more quickly. Improvisation and daring to create new things using a more malleable approach to decision making can inspire high performance, not only in music, but in business, too. Pure rhytmic improvisation methodology will be used in the project Main activities planned within the project are: - four Transnational Project Meetings in each partnership country: September 2021 - Norway, Mai 2022 - Spain, October 2022 - Portugal and June 2023 - Poland; - two LTT activities (Blended mobility of young people - Mai 2023, Poland and Long-term mobility of youth workers - October 2021 to April 2022, Spain); - local, non-formal entrepreunership traning, connected with on-going testing of the Intellectual Output in four small groups of 5 young volunteer participants in each project country. The training will improve the state of practical knowledge of a significant portion of the youth on running their own business and shape their entrepreneurial attitude. All young people directly participating (20 participants in total), will receive Youthpass Entrepreneurship Certificates after completing of their training in all partner organizations. - joint implementation of the key project result - the Intellectual Output, in form of an innovative, educational computer game titled H.O.M.B.R.E. The game will supply practical entrepreneurship knowledge and skills, based on the example of creating and running an own music club, ment as as a "small virtual enterprise". This key result will be developed with the active participation of young people from all partner organizations (bootom-up initiative) and, through the creation of an open group on social media platform (Facebook), thus enabling the participation of interested young people from across the Europe. - one Multiplier Event - for bigger impact, the Multiplier Event will be organized in Mai 2023, not in leading Polish organization`s headquarter (rather small and provincial town of Koszalin), but in located at only a 160 km distance city of Gdańsk, which is a worldwide well known, vibrant cultural city, with a huge amount of young residents. The event will be held in conveniently located in the centre of the town, near the famous Old Town, beatiful and modern concert hall of the Academy of Music Stanisław Moniuszko in Gdańsk, with a big stage and enough place for audience of even 400 people. All four partner organizations have a lot in common, dealing with non-formal and formal youth education in the field of art and creativeness. Still, there are signifacant differences, coming out from different experiences, different legal status, etc. This diversity produces a strong synergy effect, which helps to gain better results by co-operating, rather than acting alone.
By implementing the project our partnership wanted to fight the long lasting negative trends on youth unemployment across Europe. In order to do so, we have decided to produce and disseminate an unique educational tool in form of an innovative educational computer game called Hit the Buck! Our goal was to involve young people into the educational process, build on the "edutainment" (education through entertainment) concept. We decided to use our strong sites as partnership (knowledge and experience in economics, music and computer science). We wanted to change the situation, in which many young people are afraid of their future. One of important factor of being afraid is the lack of work. The situation in EU countries as for unemployment of young people is very different. It is very good in Poland but very bad in southern countries (such as Portugal and Spain). With this project we tried to help young people to take the situation in their own hands and not to be afraid to start their own business. The consize, yet very important economic course, integreted in the Hit the Buck! game gives the user a lot of fundamental economic knowledge, very usufel when running own enterprise. This knowledge can be proved within the game.
There were two main reasons to apply for this project: 1. The first reason was to join forces in order to deliver a new, innovative educational tool in form of computer game. The Beneficiary, together with a partner from UK, had implemented in 2016 a similar Erasmus+ project, called Rock Factory. The result of this project was the education computer game Rock Factory. The idea was to help young people to learn how to open and run an own enterprise in a form of a music band. The Rock Factory game was a big succes. Unfortunately, after several years, the game is no longer available to download from most popular platforms (such as Google Play or App Store), due to newest technological demands. New project should fill this gap. 2. The second reason was to help the four partner organizations to survive a difficult COVID-19 pandemia time. The COVID-19 pandemia had a very negative impact on organizations dealing with culture and cultural education. For a long time most live activities, such as concerts, performances, etc. were not allowed due to pandemic restrictions. Also the cultural education suffered very much, as typical educational methology (such as in person music lessons) were no longer possible due to pandemic restrictions.