Growing Europe: Advancing Digital, Civic and Social Competences for Democratic and Inclusive Societies is an Erasmus+ project supporting ten adult learners through an eight-day mobility in Alicante. It connects digital literacy, critical thinking, democratic participation, inclusion and practical competence development so that adults with fewer opportunities can participate more confidently in their communities and in European life.
Project Partners
Two organisations, one inclusive European learning experience.
Association Aries
Association Aries coordinates the project and leads participant selection, preparation, inclusion support, learning follow-up and the integration of results into its regular adult-education activities.
Asociación Europea Equalis
Asociación Europea Equalis hosts the mobility in Alicante and contributes its experience in inclusive learning, European cooperation and practice-based education.
Some Numbers
👩🏽🤝👨🏻10
Participants
📅8
Mobility Days
📚4
Project Objectives
Project Objectives
The four objectives respond to connected challenges: limited continuity in European cooperation, low civic confidence, digital exclusion and fragmented learning pathways. Together, they connect organisational development with practical benefits for adults with fewer opportunities.
Build Lasting European Cooperation
Reduce international isolation by strengthening European cooperation and creating a basis for longer-term engagement in Erasmus+ adult-learning networks.
Strengthen Civic Confidence
Deepen understanding of European values, democratic participation, civic responsibility and rights while strengthening resilience to misinformation.
Develop Practical Competences
Advance digital, social and professional competences supporting employability, autonomy, teamwork and active participation in modern European societies.
Create Sustainable Learning Pathways
Embed European learning approaches, reusable materials and clear progression steps into Association Aries’ regular educational practice.
Project Topics
European Identity and Cooperation
Participants will connect local experience with European values, learning opportunities and cooperation through mobility and direct exchange with the hosting organisation.
Inclusion and Equal Participation
The mobility will create an accessible and supportive environment in which adults with fewer opportunities can participate fully and with appropriate support.
Digital Skills and Critical Media Literacy
Participants will use communication and collaboration tools, practise digital self-presentation and assess online information and misinformation critically.
Active Citizenship and Democratic Participation
Activities will connect democratic processes, civic rights and participation mechanisms with participants’ lived realities at local and European level.
Employability and Professional Autonomy
Project-based tasks, teamwork and digital portfolios will connect competence development with employability, autonomy and practical next steps.
Sustainable Learning and Community Action
Learning will continue after Alicante through digital portfolios, community-project concepts, next-step plans and reusable methods for further learner groups.
Post-Mobility Virtual Activities
The Alicante mobility will continue online, helping participants transform new competences into visible results, community initiatives and sustainable next steps.
💻
Digital Portfolio Lab
Participants will refine their digital portfolios, document learning achievements and present new competences in a clear and practical format.
🌱
Community Action Incubator
Small teams will develop realistic civic or community-action concepts, define beneficiaries and map the steps needed to turn ideas into local initiatives.
🤝
Peer Reflection and Exchange
Facilitated online reflection will support peer feedback, exchange with the partner organisations and individual plans for continued learning and participation.
Expected Impact
Growing Europe is designed to create change at individual, organisational, community and European levels.
More Confident Learners
Stronger digital, social and civic competences, greater autonomy and clearer pathways towards participation and employability.
Stronger Aries Practice
Reusable methods, materials and follow-up tools embedded into the organisation’s regular adult-learning activities.
Visible Community Action
Participant-led ideas and digital outputs shared with local communities, supporting inclusion, dialogue and active citizenship.
Lasting European Cooperation
A stronger Aries–Equalis partnership and a practical foundation for continued Erasmus+ cooperation and European networking.
Expected Results
Growing Europe will strengthen learners’ ability to use digital tools, collaborate, recognise misinformation and identify practical ways to participate locally and at European level. Expected outputs include digital portfolios, community-project concepts and individual next-step plans, alongside stronger European cooperation and a sustainable learning pathway.
Our Pledges
At the end of their learning week in Alicante in October 2026, the participants of the Erasmus+ project Growing Europe sat down with a pen and a blank page. They had spent the week exploring the city in teams and looking at what makes a place proud, what is stuck, and where people come together. They also learned who is responsible for what, from the local district office to the European institutions, and how ordinary citizens can make their voice heard.
Then came the most personal step: turning what they had learned into a commitment. Each participant answered five questions in their own handwriting:
- What do I want to fix in my community?
- What will I do when I return home?
- Who will I ask to join me?
- Which institution will I turn to?
- By when will I check what has changed?
This book collects those ten handwritten pledges. They are as varied as the people who wrote them:
- cleaner parks and public spaces
- safer, accessible pavements and more toilets for people with disabilities
- better recycling in the neighbourhood
- a letter to Members of Parliament against aggressive gambling advertising
- regular outdoor meetups that bring people together and reduce stress
Some pledges are written in Bulgarian, some in English, and some in both. All of them are kept exactly as their authors wrote them.
What happens next
This book is not a souvenir. It is a working document, and it is still open.
In December 2026, the group will meet online for the first time since the mobility. Each participant will report back:
- what they have done;
- who joined them;
- whether the institution answered;
- what, if anything, has changed.
Their answers will be added to the final pages of the book, which were left blank for this purpose. In March 2027, a second online meeting will look at the longer-term progress, because real change in a community often takes time.
Between the two meetings, the teams of Association Aries and Asociación Europea Equalis stay available to support the participants. They can help with wording a civic request, planning a strategy together, and finding the right person or institution to contact.
The aim is simple: to show that active citizenship is not only a topic to learn about, but something each of us can practise, one small promise at a time.
Growing Europe: Advancing Digital, Civic and Social Competences for Democratic and Inclusive Societies
Project code: 2026-1-BG01-KA122-ADU-000418580
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.