On the days 21 and 22 of November 2022, the Consortium of the project Communities 3.0 – Development of local forward-looking centers as platforms for inclusive neighborhoods (2021-1-SE01-KA220-ADU-000035091) – met in Uppsala (Sweden) hosted by Studiefrämjandet Uppsala Västmanland, for the first meeting and social inclusion exchange.
The three years project started in May 2022 and it is funded by the Erasmus+ programme. Specifically, it is focused on the development of a sustainable cooperative approach in a form of forward-looking learning platform for boosting civil society actors and adult education organisations as active agents for social inclusion in socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods (SEDN). The main objective of the project is to equip community-based organisations with new methods and tools to promote social inclusion, civic engagement and democracy. Besides, it aims to attract and offer everyone in the community lifelong and life-wide learning opportunities.
The first result of the project was to develop a Country Report as a Field study on existing social inclusion initiatives by the civil society organizations and adult education providers in SEDN to describe the needs at local levels. Moreover, all partners have also collected Best Practices at the local level.
During the meeting, the Consortium reviewed the key findings of the Field study conducted in every partner’s country and discuss the collected Best Practices.
Moreover, all the participants had the opportunity to visit the organization Kontakten which works in the SEDN of Gottsunda in the city of Uppsala as a social inclusion exchange. Indeed, at the local level, they work for the development of the neighborhood and to encourage the democratic participation of all citizens and ensure social inclusion and the empowerment of the community.
Lastly, the Consortium planned the next steps for the second result of the project, which is the development of a curriculum – MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) training program for setting up sustainable local partnerships between civil society organisations and adult education providers as forward-looking learning platforms in SEDN.