READ-IN-CLUB: READ-INg for CuLtUres across Borders

The Creative and Cultural Sector belongs to those segments of society which are mostly effected by the 2020 novel COVID-19 crisis, causing an enormous social turbulence in European society: EU citizens experience the ‘new normality’ of staying at home and living under lockdown. While human interaction has been seriously wounded under these critical circumstances, EU values for social cohesion, inclusion, intercultural dialogue, community engagement, understanding of the “other” and tolerance, all of them conveyed by arts and culture, are into a great challenge. The project READ-IN-CLUB: READ-INg for CuLtUres across Borders – includes 6 partners (CulturePolis, Hellenic Foundation for Culture, iTSTudy, Slovene Writers’Association, Srsen Ivan - Sandorf Publishing and iED) from 5 different countries (Greece, Hungary, Slovene, Croatia and Cyprus) and derives from the need to equip our society with those skills and competences which are essential to ensuring a swift and smooth recovery from the crisis. In READ-IN-CLUB, the art of literature and the institution of book clubs and reading communities, together with the power of digital technology, comprise powerful facilitators of informal learning and dialogue and create a supportive cultural environment where people are encouraged to become innovators and effective lifelong learners. In this context, READ-IN-CLUB targets professionals of the book industry who organize and coordinate the operation of reading clubs or other educational activities related to literature: writers, authors, translators, directors and representatives of private and public libraries, moderators of reading clubs/book clubs, managers of publishing houses and literary organizations, publishers, editors; its objectives are to: a)Develop a cross-sectoral approach for cooperation - established in the EU values which are generated and conveyed by the art of literature. b)Address the challenge of ingraining the educational aspect of reading clubs for social inclusion and intercultural dialogue in the “digital, post- COVID agenda” of the book industry stakeholders. c)Qualify reading clubs coordinators through enhancing their training skills and digital competences and rendering them “Lit.Mentors” of intercultural dialogue. d)Develop and deliver a digital reading club platform, innovative training materials and content methodologies for successfully meeting the needs of reading clubs coordinators and their communities and empower them at all levels. The activities include the production of the following intellectual outputs; READ-IN-CLUB Research Report (IO1), the Virtual Training Seminars for «Lit.Mentors» (IO2), the #Read-IN-ClubDigital (IO3),and the READ-IN-CLUB e-Manual (IO4).