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Development of sustainable communications of higher education institutions in social media  COMSUS

Duration from 01/09/2022 – 24 months – till 31/08/2024

First online COMSUS project meeting

The Zophia Zamenhof Foundation is the leader of the project, and universities from Germany, Turkey and Portugal participate, as well as the Kiev Business School from Ukraina.
Starting in 2018, large EU companies must report in accordance with the Directive 2013/34/EU as regards disclosure of non-financial and diversity information. Companies need to disclose their business model, policies and results, risks and non-financial key performance indicators in the following categories: environmental issues; social and service aspects; respect for human rights; problems of fight against corruption and bribery; diversity on the board of directors.  But this is just the beginning. This Directive is a very good starting point, which can be gradually introduced in HEIs. To strengthen HEIs’ role in promoting sustainable development goals may be the introduction of sustainable communications.
In a time where anthropogenic climate change threatens some of the conditions we depend on, and where inequality and armed conflicts remain global problems, the need for relevant communication on global sustainability becomes urgent.
The pandemic years has been a game changer. It has brought to the fore the need to bring the human-to-human approach back into focus. We have seen communication genuinely rooted in emotion, capable of bringing us together in times of great difficulty. Despite the challenges that we face, the time has come for HEIs communication to brand its power to put people at its centre and inspire students, staff, comunity, other key stakeholders all towards a more sustainable future. It’s time for communication to become more sustainable. Given the complexity of communication in this project, we will focus on the direction of communication through social media, the role of which is currently growing rapidly and underestimated by
universities and academia.
COMSUS AIM is strengthening of higher education institutions’ capabilities in promoting the co-creating of resilient, inclusive and sustainable society through sustainable communications with key stakeholders in social media.
Project concentrates on the relationship between media and communication and the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability. The European Climate Pact (2020), Pact for Skills (2022) are promoting and calling
organisations, educational bodies and public authorities to help people to prepare for work in green conditions and be able to get a jobemployment in the green economy. In response to calls from the EU, the COMSUS project partnership decided to join the implementation of green initiatives through educational tools in higher education sector.
Also COMSUS is oriented on European Skills Agenda (2020). We will help HEIs staff develop more and better Sustainable communication in social media skills and to put them to use for:

• strengthening sustainable competitiveness, as set out in the European Green Deal
• ensuring social fairness, putting into practice the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights
• building resilience to react to crises, based on the lessons of COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives of the COMPUS project:

• to rise HEIs’ teaching, staff academic and scientific staff awareness-raising about environmental and climate-change challenges, develop skills in social media marketing as an instrument of personal brand development, a tool for educational products, promotion of sustainable development values.
• to strength of HEIs capabilities in promoting co-creating of resilient, inclusive and sustainable society through sustainable communications with key stakeholders in social media.
• to support cooperation in higher education for the implementation of sustainable initiatives.

Innovation of the COMPUS project

1. COMSUS project has innovative outputs (WP2 E-course “The power of social media in the professional development of teachers: personal brand, tools for educational products, promotion of sustainable development values” for HEIs teaching staff, WP3 E-learning course “Sustainable SMM: sustainable communication in social media for higher education institutions” for HEI communication managers, WP4 Manual for HEIs “Sustainable communication in social media for HEI: how to become a changemaker?”, WP5 Hub of sustainable communications “COMSUS” ), that complement each other,
   create added value at EU level, but can function independently;
2. COMSUS will awareness-raising of HEIs staff about environmental and climate-change challenges and strengthening of higher education institutions capabilities in promoting co-creating of resilient, inclusive and sustainable society through sustainable communications with key stakeholders in social media.
3. Project is oriented on European Skills Agenda (2020), the European Green Deal; ensuring social fairness, putting into practice the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights: access to education, training and lifelong learning for everybody, everywhere in the EU; building resilience to react to crises, based on the lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic. Metodology of the project takes into account the European Sustainability Competence Framework (GreenComp, 2022, European Commission).
4. Given the complexity of communication in this project, we will focus on the direction of communication through social media, the role of which is currently growing rapidly and underestimated by universities and academia.

The COMSUS partnership includes 5 partners. It is a unique combination of HEIs ( HSW MSKU COFAC ), the non-profit sector (FZZ) dealing with sustainable development, inclusion and social media, organization that is comunication bridge between HEIs students and employers in business (KBS).
Discussion of cooperation opportunities, development of intellectual products concepts, needs research to the COMSUS
Partnership started in 2021. KBS – Kyiv Business School from Ukraine offered the idea of COMSUS project and initiated a partnership building in 2021. Partnership was formed in 2022 by Ukrainian partner, when the needs of the target audience of the project were examined and started application writing. Fast experience in NGOs, business, HEIs networking, sustainable initiatives introduction, youth educational projects, focus on social innovations and non formal pedagogical methods, deep understanding of the current state and higher education, that is all made possible for Ukrainian partner to be in the COMSUS project.
The idea of COMSUS project was initiated during the implementation project “SMM4WIN – Social media marketing skills for fostering the inclusion and employability of young people with disabilities”(Project number: 2019-2-PL01-KA205-066133, Erasmus+2019-2021). Representative of KBS prof Huliaieva L, Y..Golovko as professors of Ukrainian HEI ALSRT and FZZ as applicant will in this project together. SMM4WIN Project aims help young people with disabilities get new skills in social media marketing as a tool for professional work, self-realization and communication, promotion of their own personal brand and career development. Among the project participants were universities and students, who confirmed the importance of strengthening the role of social media for universities and the development of HEIs sustainable communication in social media. Accordingly, the KBS come up with an idea to create a new project COMSUS.
How is your proposal suitable for creating synergies between different fields of education, training, youth and sport or how does it have a strong potential impact on one or more of those fields?
European Commission recommends to realise the green and sustainable skills-oriented project with Erasmus+ as a programes providing opportunities to develop forward-looking skills and partnership projects (https://europa.eu/climate[1]pact/about/priority-topics/green-skills_en ). That’s why we chose Erasmus+ to implement the COMSUS project.
Our proposal is based on creating synergies between different fields with a strong potential impact on the higher education sector.

Synergies provided in consequence of:

1. Invitation to partnership of organizations with different experience and specialization, which provides mutual enrichment and complementarity. It is a unique combination of HEIs (HSW MSKU COFAC ), the non-profit sector (FZZ) dealing with sustainable development, inclusion and social media, organization that is communication bridge between HEIs students and employers in business (KBS). Ukrainian partner KBS is the key partner that put forward the idea, formed the partnership and developed the concept of the proposal. It is experienced in digital instruments in education, in social media marketing, in the process of transition to a sustainable economy.
2. COMSUS project has a huge transferability potential because developed intellectual results can easily transferred to other scopes, for other country, other target groups/ages, communities. That is why the partnership includes higher education institutions, representatives of the non-profit sector and a social enterprise in the field of education. Project has potential to be up-scaled to other education/youth institutions linked to adult, youth, higher education, in terms of Strengthening Key Competences and the European Sustainability Competence Framework (Green Comp, 2022, European Commission).
3. COMSUS project has a huge transnational potencial, because innovative intellectual results for strengthening of higher education institutions’ capabilities in promoting co-creating of resilient, inclusive and sustainable society through sustainable communications with key stakeholders in social media in different countries. COMSUS partner organizations will enhance
   their ability to provide quality educational products, improve staff skills.

COMSUS results would not be attained by activities carried out in a single country. Each partner has a unique experience, and by combining national efforts at the international level will allow creating unique innovative results. The project includes HEIs’ international collaboration to implement the innovative practices of sustainable communications with key stakeholders
in social media.
Invitation to the partnership of organizations with different experiences and specialization provides mutual enrichment and complementarity.
The proposal bring added value at the European level since COMSUS project is developed for the support of The European Climate Pact (2020), Pact for Skills (2022) that are promoting and calling organisations, educational bodies and public authorities to help people to prepare for sustainable development and green economy. In response to calls from the EU, the project partners decided to join the implementation of sustainable initiatives through educational tools. For green/sustainable skills formations EU has passed in the Pact for Skills to encourage organizations to help up- and re-skill workers and people looking for work now or planning to work in the future. Our project will support the EU The Climate Pact implementation in the in part of HEIs supporting in part of promoting sustainable communications in higher education and strengthening the role of universities in sustainable implementation initiatives.

Needs:

• Higher education institutions strive to establish effective communication with stakeholders and strengthening their capabilities in promoting co-creating of resilient, inclusive and sustainable society through sustainable communications with key stakeholders in social media.
• HEIs ‘staff need to rise awareness-raising about environmental and climate-change challenges, develop skills in social media marketing as an instrument of personal brand development, a tool for educational products, promotion of sustainable development values.

Target groups: HEIs’ administrative, teaching, academic and scientific staff in Poland, Germany, Turkey, Portugal, Ukraine.
– WP2 E-course “The power of social media in the professional development of teachers: personal brand, tools for educational products, promotion of sustainable development values”: HEIs’ teaching, staff academic and scientific staff in Poland, Germany, Turkey, Portugal, Ukraine, who using or plan use social media in their professional activities.
– WP3 E-course “Sustainable SMM: sustainable communication in social media for higher education institutions”: communication managers and other HEIs’ administrative staff or volunteers in Poland, Germany, Turkey, Portugal, Ukraine, who are responsible for communications in university.
– WP4 Manual “Sustainable communication in social media for HEI: how to become a changemaker?” HEIs’ administrative, teaching, academic and scientific staff in Poland, Germany, Turkey, Portugal, Ukraine, who are interested in sustainable communications and social media
– WP5 Hub of sustainable communications “COMSUS”: HEIs’ administrative, teaching, academic and scientific staff in Poland, Germany, Turkey, Portugal, Ukraine, who are interested in sustainable communications and social media, students, volunteers, “thought-leaders” in social media, sustainable development, higher education, donors, business representatives, Policymakers in the field of education, Researchers, scholars, NGOs working in the topic of the sustainable communication, Media, press, and bloggers.

In the project preparation period in 2021-2022 participating organizations discussed common values and their needs.
Thanks to COMSUS project FZZ, HSW, MSKU, COFAC, KBS will be able to enhance their own expertise and experience in sustainable education. Especially innovative for all organizations is a new approach to the development of collaboration, networking and communities creating which will be the best for use in the digital era. Development of the e-courses, conducting of manual, creating of Hub of sustainable communications “COMSUS” within the project will give participating organizations unique experience of synergy in sustainable initiative development. Each partner of the COMSUS project conducted a target audience survey on the preparation stage to determine the goals, objectives, planning COMSUS activities in its country. Also, partners examined recent publications, research results and current projects in the field of sustainable development, comunication and higher education.
Students are actively represented in the project team. People with fewer opportunities also participated in the development of the project. It is done to provide this project address target groups needs.
On the other hand, choosing the participants of the project activities, we will carefully ensure that they were from the project target audience for which the project is designed. Partners will apply maximum effort to reach an audience and create a database of contacts for the dissemination and communication phase. The partnership will develop criteria for selecting participants for each type of activity:
– WP2 E-course “The power of social media in the professional development of teachers: personal brand, tools for educational products, promotion of sustainable development values”, WP3 E-course “Sustainable SMM: sustainable communication in social media for higher education institutions”: participants will be selected taking into account gender equally, their interest to project, and their motivation to realise project initiatives.
– WP4 Manual “Sustainable communication in social media for HEI: how to become a changemaker?” We will distribute the book to a wide audience to engage higher education professionals in sustainable communication.
– WP2/WP3 participants and other interested young people will be invited to WP4. Target group: young people (15 -30 years old), in particular young people with fewer opportunities.
– WP5 Hub of sustainable communications “COMSUS”. We will choose participants, taking into account: need to represent different youth sector players, participants’ motivation to disseminate project results, professional level/ recognition as experts.

Project: Well of Values: Youth as a Social Media Values Promoter
KA220-YOU – Cooperation partnerships in youth.

Deep uncertainty, and unforeseen consequences are characteristics inherent in today’s world. In such a situation, values become a factor that determines one or another choice, which further affects direction of society. Every year humanity confronts “black swans”, in particular the Covid-19 and the global upheavals caused by Russian invasion of Ukraine, which poses threat to the entire world democratic community.There is direct correlation between what values are cultivated in a society and how this society responds to unexpected crises. Moral values inform our social and economic goals and models, managerial actions, political decisions, personal choices and our justifications for them. We can always be held to account for them (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/research_and_innovation/ege/ec_rtd_ege-values-for-the-future.pdf )
It is important to learn to conscious choicemaking in favor of those values that are aimed at building society and a common future. The youth is able to become drivers of change in society and ambassadors of values, it is important to strengthen their civic engagement and youth participation. In digitalization era, most effective tool for creating, promoting and integrating values are social networks, which are main platform for young people to communicate. A considerable majority of EU level NGOs and youth networks considered that their digital / social media presence was quite or very important to sourcing youth representation at a national level (85%). https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/57e87ca0-900d-11ea-812f-01aa75ed71a1 It is the opinion of youth leaders, that young people is guided by when making choices based on certain values. Also, agents of influence are youth organizations, which through digitalization can not only convey certain values to a wider number of young people, but also are able to build networking, based on certain values, which promotes sustainability and inclusion. The main tool that helps in work of thought leaders and youth organizations is creativity, as in a constantly changing world, new forms and solutions are needed. It is necessary to develop creativity of youth workers (and their characteristics according to theory of creativity by Torrens, which help to better produce ideas such as Fluency Flexibility, Elaboration,Originality (https://coe.uga.edu/directory/torrance-center ).
Due to the digitalization of youth work, youth are engaged and empowered, active and creative in digital society ,Confident,
resilient and optimistic for the future  Accessing new opportunities to network, collaborate and participate in society
(http://surl.li/bpcgk).

The Well&Values project aim is to develop the ability of youth leaders and organizations to use social networks creatively for effective promotion of common values as well as strengthening civic engagement and youth participation.
What are the objectives you would like to achieve and concrete results you would like to produce? How are these objectives linked to the priorities you have selected?

Well of Values online meeting 3 17.02.23

Well&Values objectives:

• to develop young people digital and creative skills enabling them to promote values of the future through social media and
  strengthening civic engagement and youth participation (WP2 E-learning course “The value and values of leaders of the future”)
• promotion of creativity, involvement, co-creation, development among youth ( WP2 E-learning course “The value and values of leaders of the future”)
• to provide youth organizations digital ability to engage and empower youth (WP3 E-learning course for representatives of youth work organizations “Create&evolve in digital era”)
• to enhance youth leaders to be active and creative in digital society, confident, resilient and optimistic for the future, accessing new opportunities to network, collaborate and participate in society (WP3)
• provide theoretical background, best practices for young leaders and youth workers by development of Manual for young leaders and representatives of youth organizations “Digital creator of values” (WP4 Manual “Digital creator of values” )
• provide the materials/instruments of making creative content in social media based on shared values (WP4, multiplier events).

Organizations from Cyprus, Germany, Portugal and Poland participate in the project.

Project: Transformative Digital Learning for General Education Following Covid-19 Impact (CovidEduTDL)

Project duration:  November 2021 – November 2023

COVID-19 has promoted the rapid transformation of learning/teaching process. Moving everybody online, putting the transformative digital learning on the base. Nowadays digital learning is a primary tool for teaching and learning. According to the conduced Need Analyses, basing on on-going Fundamental and Applied Research project DocTDLL, Izp-2018/2-0180 in co-operation with Ontario University, Canada, the Readiness Index of the students and educators is lower in comparison with Importance Index for key factors necessary for sufficient transformative digital learning followed by Covid-19 impact. Despite a growing number of countries in Europe and internationally, refocusing the ICT curricula on developing students’ and educators’ digital competence, and introducing the topic in national, regional or school curricula, the digital competence level requires additional evaluation, gaps identification, improvement and practical perspective.

What do we want to achieve by implementing the project?

The objective of CovidEduTDL project is to develop the digital competence training program, including digital competence framework and self-assessment tool adopted to partner-countries, and to create the multimedia handbook on remote teaching-learning finalized to general education teachers/educators. This will help to identify the level of digital competence of general school teachers/educators as well as to improve the digital competence by conducting the training program, using innovative digital educational methods, innovative online resources and tools, promoting networking of institutions, sharing expertise and practices to promote digital education readiness of general school teachers/educators in the context of transformative digital learning.

Development of sustainable communications communications of higher education institutions in social media (COMSUS)

Project duration:  September 2022 – August 2024

The pandemic years has been a game changer. It has brought to the fore the need to bring the human-to-human approach back into focus.We have seen communication genuinely rooted in emotion, capable of bringing us together in times of great difficulty. Despite the challenges that we face, the time has come for HEIs communication to brand its power to put people at its centre and inspire students, staff, comunity, other key stakeholders all towards a more sustainable future. It’s time for communication to become more sustainable. Given the complexity of communication in this project, we will focus on the

direction of communication through social media, the role of which is currently growing rapidly and underestimated by universities and academia.

What do we want to achieve by implementing the project?

COMSUS AIM is strengthening of higher education institutions’ capabilities in promoting the co-creating of resilient, inclusive and sustainable society through sustainable communications with key stakeholders in social media. Project concentrates on the relationship between media and communication and the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability. The European Climate Pact (2020), Pact for Skills (2022) are promoting and calling organisations, educational bodies and public authorities to help people to prepare for work in green conditions and be able to get a jobemployment in the green economy. In response to calls from the EU, the COMSUS project partnership decided to join the implementation of green initiatives through educational tools in higher education sector.

Also COMSUS is oriented on European Skills Agenda (2020). We will help HEIs staff develop more and better Sustainable communication in social media skills and to put them to use for:

1)strengthening sustainable competitiveness, as set out in the European Green Deal

2)ensuring social fairness, putting into practice the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights

3)building resilience to react to crises, based on the lessons of COVID-19 pandemic.

[email protected] Supporting sustainable social entrepreneurship initiatives in digital era: crowdfunding toolbox

About us

Special Event

Project: Creative Box: Promoting innovative approaches to creating educational forms in work with youth

Project duration: November 2021 – November 2023

Creative approach in the processes of educating young people is becoming more and more important and desirable skill nowadays.  Creativity is not only the engine of economic development or an innovative approach to education in a rapidly changing world, but also a guarantee of socio-cultural change and a way to deal with social challenges, as well as problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic and closure.  Modern realities force us to review all pedagogical practices and evaluate them in line with the requirements of digital learning.  There is therefore a need to combine a creative approach to learning with the digitalisation of all educational processes, which will improve the quality of youth work, and this is what the INEDA project is doing.

What do we want to achieve by implementing the project

INEDA aims to promote an innovative approach to creating educational forms in youth work by shaping the skills of creative thinking and a creative approach to the educational process in youth work.  The project proposes the use of a creative approach in creating educational forms as an engine of changes in the learning process.

The creative thinking skills, tolerance, teamwork and problem solving of youth educators, which will be developed during the project, will contribute to better dealing with inclusion and diversity through the use of more varied and better adapted styles of youth work.  As a result, the youth sector will be better able to adapt to crisis situations, which will allow for a more digital and flexible exit from the crisis, thus contributing to the implementation of strategic EU priorities.

Development of social entrepreneurship – new opportunities and development paths. SocEnter project.

Project duration: December 2021 – December 2023

A big problem is the lack of adequate education in the field of social entrepreneurship. Through cooperation and international exchange of internships, we plan to expand our experience in this field. The basic needs are clear – educating tutors and employees of organizations participating in the project, sharing experiences and joint planning of activities in the field of economy and social entrepreneurship. During the project, we want to create a professional consortium that will prepare high-level training concepts for people who want to set up social economy entities and deal in practice with social entrepreneurship. We want to prepare a specific guide. We believe that the social economy is a good form of fighting against social exclusion.

We have noticed that often beginning social entrepreneurs are left alone with their ideas and have no one to help and advise them. The result of our project will be active help for adults in developing an active attitude as well as entrepreneurship and competences in the field of the social economy. By addressing these issues, we strive to support the use of new educational methods and modern technologies in the science and education of social entrepreneurship.

What do we want to achieve by implementing the project

Our main goal in this project is to share experiences, knowledge and acquire useful competences for the development of social entrepreneurship. One of the important goals that we plan to achieve is the creation of an extensive educational program on the creation of social economy entities for interested people and organizations. The complexity of this project requires us not only to become practitioners, but also to broaden our view on a whole range of topics related to social entrepreneurship. The project requires us to become experts in this field and in order to properly coordinate our future activities, we have to share good practices and exchange experiences and knowledge with all project partners.

Family and personal portfolio management – pitfalls and threats

Project genesis

In no secondary school or vocational school, there are no classes in economics and practical dealing with financial matters, as is the case in most fields of study. The only exception are schools and economic faculties. What we mean here is, first of all, practical knowledge of economics, i.e. the everyday dimension. They do not teach us in schools and universities how to protect ourselves from financial frauds and how to deal with a complicated system of contracts and financial offers. Through our training, we want to fill these gaps and increase people’s awareness of managing their own budget.

What do we want to achieve by implementing the project

The main goal of our project is to increase competences in personal finance management and in shaping a balanced and coherent home or personal budget. As part of our training, eight thematic modules have been developed, dealing with issues such as forms of doing business in Poland, getting out of the spiral of debt or workshops on understanding civil law contracts.

Classes are conducted in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship. Detailed information can be obtained by writing to the following address:
[email protected]