The objectives of the project were: - train teachers on EU related topics and support them in developing methodologies and strategies to integrate EU citizenship education in their subjects; - motivate students to become active citizens and increase their awareness over the EU context, its rights, and common values; - support schools in enhancing civic participation and engagement and the participation of young students in the democratic life; - make the school a key driver in boosting the EU citizenship; - developing social and intercultural competencies, as well as critical thinking thanks to the activities proposed; - support the development of educational environments based on principles of inclusion and promoting diversity, embedding the very key principles of EU values; - boosting the collaboration among students regardless of their social background, special needs and origin. We believe that thanks to the created results, as well as the strong dissemination activities, we have reached the above-mentioned objectives.
The need to make the education world promoter of democratic and EU values during a period of socio-healthy-economic crisis, populist extremists, and a general lack of trust in the democratic processes pushed the consortium to work on educational tools for schools to promote citizenship, common values of freedom, tolerance, and non-discrimination. We strongly supported the idea that schools groow up the future EU citizens since early childhood and can be the best drivers to share such values. Preliminary research showed that few schools teach EU citizenship, teachers are not prepared enough on EU and there is a limited number of user-friendly and online resources. Moreover, surveys during the 2019 EP elections showed that few students knew what the EU is, showing a general need to establish an educational space to integrate the EU citizenship education at school level, to bridge the gap between young people and the EU, and to help teachers to be prepared to face such challenges. All partners shared this need, as they are all very active in promoting EU citizenship and in finding learning solutions to boost social inclusion and promote diversity, to support the school to become more inclusive and based on EU values.