LiterED

Background The present partnership is composed of organizations working directly with young people of school age, focusing on youths with fewer opportunities. By direct observation, partner organizations registered an underperformance in terms of achieving the targets in basic reading skills among young people in national educational systems. EUROSTAT quantifies the percentage of young people with a poor reading performance at 21% in Italy, 18,4% in Romania and Turkey, and 17,7% in Latvia. All partner countries share the challenge of youth early leaving education and training. Among young people with low performance in basic skills and at an exceptionally high risk of early school leaving are youngsters affected by reading disorder (Dyslexia). For these youngsters, the inclusion gap left by the inadequacy of formal educational establishment is often filled through the grassroots action of youth operators/NGOs, which, as in the case of the applicant organization and of partner NGOs, have developed consolidated guidelines, methods, and practices for dealing with the social exclusion challenges of these, particularly fragile targets. Objectives The project wanted to address the challenge identified in the medium and long term by devising a synergy between the professional understanding of learning processes/challenges forming part of experiential learning as applied by professional academics with the expertise in direct social action and non-formal approach to learning typical of youth work. The inspiring reason was provided by the necessity of establishing a synergy whereby the educational action of professional academics/teachers complements technical understanding with the ownership of inclusive methodologies of education. On the other hand, the project aimed at strengthening the depth and effectiveness of youth operators/NGOs in approaching this sensitive category of targets by supporting them in acquiring an enhanced understanding of the psychological side of how to deal with these youngsters' plight, so as to bolster their inclusive approach to education with a concrete understanding of speech therapy principles and practices. Implementation LiterED project partners implemented the following activities: - Cross-national and cross-sectorial research on good practices of educational support to dyslexic youngsters. - Exchange of good practices in transnational meetings. - Production of a learning format fostering youth operators' capacities to enhance soft/transversal skills in dyslexic youngsters through Non-Formal Education and practical learning. - Testing of the learning format. - Production of the final version of the "The Literacy of Inclusion Guide” which contains the activities and methodologies employed throughout the project, pictures of the activities, and descriptions of the methodologies and workshops implemented - Translation of the Guide in all partners’ languages. Achievements During the project’s implementation, the partners researched the existing best practices in Latvia, Italy, Romania, and Turkey on the topic of Dyslexia initiated by NGO/Youth sector, Psychology experts & associations, and Stakeholder entities. The research led to the production of a Report on good practices. The report is available on the website of the project: http://litered.eu/good-practices-report.html. The partners produced "The Literacy of Inclusion Guide” which contains the activities and methodologies employed during the project’s implementation, pictures of the activities, and descriptions of the methodologies and workshops implemented. The Guide is available in all partners’ languages and freely accessible online.