Exchange House Ireland National Travellers Service

What is "My Community 2020"?

How can technology be linked to a community's local heritage and history so that individuals become more active as a citizen?

The answer is My Community 2020, the European project developed within the Erasmus Plus programme and implemented by a consortium of 7 partners coming from all over Europe, namely Bulgaria, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The project, which started in November 2018 and that will last for 2 years until October 2020, aims to develop the digital skills of adults facing disadvantage and social isolation, while allowing them to contribute to local heritage and history.

How?

By creating learning opportunities, at the same time providing a space for partners staff, trainers, volunteers, local media, cultural heritage organisations and adults learners, to benefit from an intercultural dialogue opportunity. Collectively, we will create over 100 short stories which through publishing on an online platform will create the history of tomorrow today.

What are the needs identified by the project?

The project addresses topics that have been identified as priorities at national and European level. In the future, 9 out of 10 jobs will require digital skills. At the same time, 169 million Europeans between 16 and 74 years – 44% – do not have basic digital skills. 38% of companies report that the lack of digital skills has negative impacts on employee effectiveness, such as loss of productivity. In order to demonstrate how digital skills can add value to quality of life, My Community 2020 proposes to develop a training course involving learning by doing.

Why take an interested in the cultural and historical heritage of our communities? Cultural and historical heritage defines and creates a sense of belonging that we find not only in literature, art and objects, but also in the techniques transmitted to us or in the stories we tell. It allows us to understand the past and build our future. Which is why the project have commenced in 2018, the European Year of Cultural Heritage and it have included partners who have European Capital of Culture during the lifetime of the project: My Community 2020 becomes the opportunity to strengthen the sense of belonging of citizens to a common cultural space, which is not only local, but also European.

What about the next steps?

During the first year, we will work on the design and the implementation of the course “Digital Skills to Create Local History”, with modules covering storytelling, local history, interview techniques, local media and recording/editing digital recordings. In October, trainers from each partner country will meet at Dacorum CVS, in Hertfordshire, in order to study and to test the content of the training. The website is in the developing phase and you will be able to visit the website by next newsletter where we will be sharing what we will be producing during the project. The platform where 105 stories will be uploaded will also be part of this project, Keep a look out!

Exchange House Ireland's partners in My Community 2020 are:

	United Kingdom	Community Action Dacorum
	Bulgaria	CATRO Bulgaria
	France	Pistes Solidares
	Italy	Euro-Net
	Latvia	Gulbenes novada pašvaldība
	Spain	Magenta Consultoria Projects

For more information click on the links below

	Visit the Project's Website mycommunity2020.co.uk
	Visit the Project's Facebook Page Click here
	Visit the Project's YouTube Channel Click here
	Download the Project's Handbook Click here
	Download the Project's Training Programme Click here (in English)
	Download a copy of the Project's 1st Newsletter (in English)
	Download a copy of the Project's 2nd Newsletter (in English)
	Download a copy of the Project's 3rd Newsletter (in English)
	Download a copy of the Project's 4th Newsletter (in English)
	Download a copy of the Project's 5th Newsletter (in English)
	Images of the Project's Kick-Off meeting in Potenza, Italy Click here
	Images of the Project's 2nd Partner meeting in Plovdiv, Bulgaria Click here
	Images of the Train-the-Trainer in Hemel Hempstead, UK Click here
	Video made of images from Train-the-Trainer by Sally Flynn Click here
	Download the flyer for Digital Skills Training Programme Flyer
	Images of the "History in the Making" Digital Skills Training (IO2) Piloting Click here
	Some images from our C2 event "Sharing our Digital Experiences" Click here
	Download the agenda for the final conference "Let's Stay Connected" Click here
	Some images from the final conference "Let's Stay Connected" Click here