H_imCUbARTor

United Nations states “The growing COVID-19 crisis threatens to disproportionately hit developing countries…as a devastating social and economic crisis over the months and years to come” According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, UK, Spain and Italy are in the top of the 5 European countries that have been the most affected by COVID-19 with a high number of cases and deaths reported since the beginning of the pandemic.

The OECD unemployment rate edged down to 8.4% in May 2020, after an unprecedented increase of 3.0 percentage points in April, to 8.5%, the highest unemployment rate in a decade. This situation will get worse in the months to come.

According to the Study, Culture shock: COVID-19 and the cultural and creative sectors developed by the OECD, “The Cultural and Creative Sectors are among the hardest hit by the pandemic…containing the greatest share of jobs at risk.” Andrew Lloyd Webber, English composer of music from The Phantom of the Opera and other relevant musical theatres, warns arts are at the “point of no return” following damage from the coronavirus pandemic. During the first months of the pandemic, arts and culture sector organisations in most of the countries restricted their activities or closed completely. Cultural heritage organisations, arts events, galleries, libraries, museums, cinemas, theatre, concerts, orchestra performances, festivals, television/music productions, etc., were closed.

Rural areas, particularly in the developing world, are much less prepared to deal with the direct and indirect impact of this crisis. Adults, especially from rural areas, will become a vulnerable piece in the Post-COVID society. The arts and culture sector will be more affected in rural areas than in cities.

Our Strategic Partnership carried out a Context Analysis and Focus Groups (with adult trainers and adult learners) that demonstrate the alarming situation adult communities are being through. We consider that one of the relevant keys to confront this situation is Entrepreneurship. However, in both analyses, we identified different reasons of entrepreneurship failure in adults, such as: lack of knowledge and capacities in entrepreneurship (project definition and implementation, financial, team management, etc.), lack of confidence, lack of innovation and digital skills, etc. CWP, Permacultura Cantabria and Oriel are in the need take urgent recovery measures to minimize the long-term impact, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups, and help societies to recover better. We want to carry out this project, to help tackling this situation, through the creation of the H_imCUbARTor Methodology. It will be composed by a framework of 4 priority key areas in entrepreneurship (during and after COVID):

-Innovation
-Creativity
-Circular Economy-Sustainability
-Digital (Tools for efficiency and project visibility)

The main objectives of the project are:

-To engage adult trainers and adults in the creation of social projects that contributes to the COVID-19 recovery process in the culture and arts sector.
-To design the H_imCUbARTor Methodology for innovative entrepreneurship.
-To empower adult communities with the H_imCUbARTor Methodology.

To reach these objectives we will carry out these main activities:

-COURSE IN SPAIN:

3 adult trainers, 3 adult learners and 2 mentors per organisation will attend a Course in Spain to acquire the innovation process by using Dragon Dreaming (DD), for cultural, digital and social projects, in an expert level.

-ONLINE MENTORING:

3 teams/country composed by 1 adult trainer and 1 adult learner will work together to transform and incubate the dreams into 9 projects. They will receive support from the mentors through online sessions, which topics are Creativity, Circular Economy-Sustainability, Digital tools for project efficiency and high visibility.

-CREATION OF THE METHODOLOGY AND INTERACTIVE BOOK:

Mentors will create the H_imCUbARTor Methodology and will document it in an interactive book that will be available in English, Spanish and Italian.

-PARTICIPATORY VISIT IN UK:

Mentors will design a course to transfer the new methodology. 1 mentor and 1 adult trainer multiplier will attend to a Participatory Visit in UK in which mentors will share/validate the new course and test the book with associated partners. Through a strong Worldwide Dissemination Campaign we will spread the project and its results to relevant stakeholders.

IMPACT SUMMARY

The new knowledge acquired by project participants will be key factor in the creation of entrepreneurial initiatives leading to sustainable rural development. They will be empowered vand their motivation and confidence will be substantially increased. We will improve the vitality of rural areas by providing new opportunities for diversification and a more efficient use of local resources. The arts and culture sector will be re-activated with more activities for the communities to enjoy.

*INTERNAL AGREEMENTS WRITING: We will make and sign the internal agreements according to all the details discussed previously the presentation of this project proposal. It will include payment plan, task distribution, deadlines, roles and responsibilities, documentation for reporting, etc.

*PARTICIPANTS SELECTION: We will select 3 adult trainers and 3 adult learners from our organisation according to the process described in section “Participants”.

*PREPARATORY ACTIVITIES FOR TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVITIES:
These activities were planned according to The European Quality Charter for Mobility, which constitutes the quality reference document for training stays abroad. It was developed by the European Parliament and recommended by the National Agencies. It provides guidance to ensure that mobility participants always have a positive experience both in the host country and in their country of origin on their return.

-HOSTING ORGANISATION’S (HO) PREPARATORY ACTIVITIES
The HO are:
Kick of Meeting & Participatory Visit in UK: CWP
Course in Spain: PC
Intermediate Meeting: Oriel

*Information and Guidance: HO will send an info pack that will include the best options to arrive to the venue place, information about the venue town, weather, accommodation, budget available, etc.

*Learning Plan: We will draw up a learning agreement that will describe the objectives, training programme, expected outcomes, and evaluation. Participants should sign this agreement before arranging all the logistical tasks for them.

*Personalisation: The learning programmes for the learning activities are designed to respond to the needs identified in the Focus Groups and Context Analysis. We will make sure these activities comply with the project objectives and these needs.

*Mentoring: HO will provide mentoring to advise and help participants throughout their stay, also to ensure their integration and interaction with local people.

*Logistics: This includes:

-Accommodation: HO will be in charge of looking and booking the participants’ accommodation. These facilities should be accessible to people with special needs, etc.

-Kitchen Service: HO will be in charge of breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee breaks. We will consider participants’ special needs (vegan, allergies, etc.).

-Protection and Safety Measures: HO will define and inform participants safety measures to prevent accidents. We will include a safety protocol that responds to COVID-19. These measures are defined in the question regarding the participants safety.

*Recognition: We will issue the Europass Mobility for learning activities and Certificates from the Hosting Organisations for all transnational activities. (More info in question regarding
the validation of the learning outcomes)

-SENDING ORGANISATION’S (SO) PREPARATORY ACTIVITIES
*Logistical support: The SO will arrange the participants travel tickets to arrive to the venue place. They will issue travel insurances and will ask participants to issue the EU Health Insurance Cards.

*Preparation: Before departure, participants will receive the following preparation: tailored to their specific needs and covering linguistic, pedagogical, legal, cultural or financial aspects.

-Linguistic Preparation: After selecting the participants, we will issue the Europass Language Passport which will help to assess their English Level and provide English support for those who need it. As, in UK, foreigners residents with fewer opportunities could be selected, CWP will issue this certificate for everybody, to avoid discriminatory practices. Each partner will be responsible in providing tools or English classes to increase their English skills.

-Pedagogical Preparation: We will carry out online preparatory meetings so participants can know in-depth the project, objectives, main activities, learning outcomes, intellectual output, etc. We will also explain them basic concepts about entrepreneurship, an overview of the current situation of entrepreneurship in our countries, how the arts and culture sector is being affected by COVID-19, the challenges and opportunities during the pandemic, etc.

Participants will carry out all the necessary tasks required previously the training. For example, Oriel will organize preparatory sessions so participants from each partner organisation can prepare games/theatre plays to transfer EU values. Participants will also prepare cultural nights.
Dissemination coordinators will work together with participants so the activities in-situ are properly disseminated.

*Reintegration and evaluation: on returning to their country of origin, participants will receive guidance on how to make use of the competences acquired during their stay. Participants will carry out daily&final evaluations of the learning activity.

*Commitments and Responsibilities: the responsibilities arising from these tasks were agreed before writing the project. These commitments will be in the internal agreements

There will be 3 transnational project meetings that will be attended by project coordinators and dissemination coordinators.

It is important the participation of both coordinators, as important topics, such as logistics, learning activities, budget, intellectual output progress, impact, quality assurance, etc. will be
discussed. The participation of the dissemination coordinators will contribute to reach the 3rd main objective of the project and increase the impact worldwide. In order to manage properly the funds from the Erasmus + Programme, we decided to carry out the first 2 meetings personally and an online final meeting. The decision was made collectively, after gathering insights from similar experiences where partners had been involved in online transnational project meetings as participants or organisers.

The Transnational Project Meetings will take place at different locations as mentioned below:

KICK-OFF MEETING IN UK

In the middle of March 2021, we will carry out the kick off meeting, to officially start the project.

PROGRAMME

Day 1
Welcome speech
Participants’ and organisations’ introduction
Project Overview and goals
Main activities: Work team, task distribution and deadlines
Financial control
Payment plan
Reporting
Potential problems and solutions
Risks Evaluation (Risk Map)

Day 2
Grant Agreement and Internal agreements
Quality Assurance
Dissemination campaign
Branding
Impact Plan
Selection Process
Conclusions (Commitments review and deadlines)
Evaluation
Closing (certificates delivery)

INTERMEDIATE MEETING IN ITALY

By the beginning of December 2021, we will carry out an intermediate meeting which will be useful to review the progress of the intellectual output, the tasks implemented and the ones to be done. This meeting is key as it will be done prior the creation of the interactive layout.

PROGRAMME

Day 1
Welcome Speech
Project Overview and goals for the next deadlines
Results of the project so far
Interactive book content
Interactive book layout
Dissemination campaign

Day2
Quality Control Indicators
Risk Evaluation
Impact Assessment Tasks
Next project activities
Financial control
Review of the strategy, working plan and commitments
Evaluation
Closing (certificate delivery)

FINAL MEETING (Online)

The final meeting will be carried out by Skype by in the middle of August 2022. We will carry out a final evaluation, review important topics for the correct project closure (reporting, etc.) review the future tasks to ensure the project sustainability, etc.

PROGRAMME

Day 1
Welcome Speech
Review of the project overview and goals
Internal evaluation
Compliance level of project goals (results and indicators)
Evaluation of project management (communication, time and financial control, quality of mobilities, participants’ selection and preparation, participants‘ satisfaction)
Quality Assurance Results
Dissemination and exploitation results

Day 2
Project Impact Evaluation at local, regional, European and international level
External evaluation
Final report
Possible checks or audits
Payment plan and financial control
Project Sustainability: Activities to be done after the project ends.
Future initiatives (networks, projects, etc.)
Review of the working plan and commitments
Meeting evaluation and closing (certificates delivery)

We will create an interactive book which chapters are:

1. INNOVATION PROCESS BY USING DRAGON DREAMING FOR CULTURAL, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL PROJECTS

History, culture and tools for dragon dreaming
The 4 phases of dragon dreaming wheel
Building innovation with our teams
Goals to reach innovation: Set goals and meta goals
Karabirt for work planning
Innovation in people and organisations

2.CREATIVE THINKING TECHNIQUES

Idea Generating Questions
The Journalistic Six
Historical Examination
Blocking and Block Busting
Sources of Blocking
Block Busting Techniques
Uses for
Improvements to.
What-Iffing
Attribute Analysis.
Morphological Analysis.
Reversals.
Analogy and Metaphor.
Trigger Concepts
Checklists
The Five Senses
Human Needs
Physical Attributes
Aristotle’s Categories

3.SUSTAINABILITY IN CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Introduction to Circular Economy
The Seven Pillars of the Circular Economy for the definition of sustainable projects

4.TOOLS TO BOOST EFFICIENCY AND VISIBILITY IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

4.1Useful tools and apps to improve daily work through ICT’s:

Tools for efficient communication and virtual meetings
Remote work tools
Organise Daily Tasks
Ensure gender balance in daily tasks

4.2The Visibility Strategy: Main steps

Digital Tools to increase the projects’ visibility:
Interactive Presentations
Online portal
Website
Online store
Photo editing and graphic design
Video editing
Social Media Management

5.ADVICES TO INCREASE ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP IN OUR LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Section to be developed by adults in collaboration with the associated partners from each country.

Multiplier Event 1 and 2

CWP will organize a conference that will last 1 day long for at least 40 attendees.

Multiplier Event 3

Oriel will organize a conference that will last 1 day long for at least 40 attendees.

O3: To empower adult communities with the H_imCUbARTor Methodology
G3.1 To encourage adult trainers and adult participants become multipliers by transferring the new methodology
G3.2 To raise awareness of the importance of recovering arts and culture during/after COVID and develop projects in this sector

They will go in line with the main project objectives:

O3: To empower adult communities with the H_imCUbARTor Methodology
G3.2 To raise awareness of the importance of recovering arts and culture during/after COVID and develop projects in this sector
G3.1 To encourage adult trainers and adult participants become multipliers by transferring the new methodology

The aims of the activities are:

-To provide an overview of the H_imCUbARTor project
-To disseminate the intellectual output (Interactive book)
-To provide a workshop of the H_imCUbARTor Methodology
-To present all the projects developed by the participants from Spain and UK
-To make a deep presentation of the projects developed by adult trainers and adult learners from Italy
-To create a network between Oriel and the attendees.
-To make attendees aware of the opportunities offered by Erasmus+

Activity C1

Phase: Incubation Phase
Leader Organisation: Permacultura Cantabria, Oscar Argumosa
Place: Ramales de la Victoria
Date: June, 2021

MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT:

O1: To engage adult trainers and adults in the creation of social projects that contributes to the COVID-19 recovery process in the culture and arts sector
G1.1: To transfer the innovation and entrepreneurial process by using Dragon Dreaming for the creation of social projects

ACTIVITY’S OBJECTIVES

-To provide all the modules to foster innovation and entrepreneurship with Dragon Dreaming
-To present the benefits of using Europass Certificates
-To transfer EU values and enhance the participants’ sense of belonging
-To define ideas for the development of projects for the COVID recovery process in the arts and culture sector.
-To carry out round tables with relevant associated partners: We will involve entities who are active in the adult field:
-European Affairs Office
-Rural Development Agency from the Pasiegan Valleys
-The Platform of Cultural Companies of Cantabria (PECCA)
-Culturea
-New Life Evangelical Association
-COCIN- Chamber of Commerce in Cantabria

Activity C2

Phase: TRANSFER PHASE
Leader Organisation: CWP
Activity Coordinator: Steve Egan
Place: Preston
Date: March 2022

MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT:

O2: To design the H_imCUbARTor Methodology for innovative entrepreneurship
G2.2 To evaluate and validate the new methodology for the development of sustainable projects with a framework based on 4 key areas: innovation, digital, creativity and circular economy (sustainability)

ACTIVITY’S OBJECTIVES

-To transfer and test the new methodology
-To test the content and interactive features from the interactive book
-To enhance testing skills on participants
-To define new Projects
-To carry out round tables with relevant associated partners: We will involve entities who are active in the adult field:
-Arts Lancashire
-Preston Creative Partnership
-Preston Arts Association
-Selnet
-LESEP
-Bootroom Academies Limited

ADULT TRAINERS & ADULT LEARNERS WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE PROJECT

1 Participants will have acquired a set of skills and tools provided by the key areas of the H_imCUbARTor: Innovation-Dragon Dreaming, Creativity, Circular Economy and ICTs
2 Will have acquired experience in the development and management of sustainable projects in the arts and culture sector, especially for the inclusion of adults facing disadvantaged situations.
3 Participants will have acquired capacities in innovation and define new social, creative, digital and eco-friendly projects and analysing the main needs from the recovery process of COVID-19.
4 They will have been able to manage teams in a safe environment and improved their communication and social skills.
5 They will have been able to create circular economy models.
6 They will have acquired financial skills.
7 They will have acquired and provided EU values.
8 As a result of the online sessions that will be done in the project, participants will have increased their capacities in digital technologies for efficient work and project visibility.
9 Their creativity will have been enhanced
10 They will be able to make decisions through an effective analysis.
11 Participants will have been able to create safe learning environments, promoting values such as equality, respect and tolerance.
12 Participants’ projects will have contributed to the COVID recovery process.
13 The network created will have increased their international vision and have strengthened relations with the rest of the participants from other countries.
14 They will have improved their CV as the result of the blended-learning.
15 They will have increased their confidence, self-esteem and self-empowerment
16 Their projects will contribute with more activities for the arts and culture sector in our rural areas
17 Participants will have increased the level of awareness about the reality that adult people from their communities live in situations of conflict (accidents, migratory processes, etc.).
They have promoted social inclusion and intercultural dialogue, preventing violence, hate speech (towards “infected people” and those who live in most affected countries by COVID)
and radical extremism by creating real relationships between people of different cultures.

ADULT TRAINERS

1 Adult trainers will have increased the social activism of adults in the process of creating sustainable projects for their community, especially in the arts and culture sector.
2 The leadership capacity of adult trainers will have been improved. They have acquired more techniques and resources to work with groups of adults.
3 After applying the H_imCUbARTor Methodology, their performance and results of their daily work will have been improved.

ADULT LEARNERS

1 High social activism: Adult learners are motivated to improve the life of their community.
2 They will have increased their sense of belonging to the EU community. They feel integrated.
3 They feel empowered, motivated and have high self-esteem. They will not be afraid to be entrepreneurs.
4 With their projects, participants will be autonomous and will be architects of their own lives, not depending on precarious jobs. Their economic difficulties will be reduced.
5 They feel included in the society.