Despite COVID-19, 2020 has been an extraordinary year in many ways. Our ways of working and communicating changed dramatically from mid-March, and our company, used to travelling around Europe and holding face-to-face meetings across the continent, also had to adapt quickly to the new reality brought about by the health crisis and the state of emergency. Faced with this unprecedented situation, the CREA 360 team decided to redouble its efforts and use the time when we could not travel to apply for more projects for 2021. The end of the year has shown that this strategy has brought very positive results for our clients.
In 2020 more than 30 European projects were approved for our clients. In training and youth work, CREA 360 has helped organisations such as Altea and Santa Pola town councils secure opportunities for their young people to spend several weeks training in different EU countries next year. Clients such as the European Routes of Emperor Charles V cultural route and the councils of Aras de los Olmos, Benejúzar and L’Orxa will also host international courses funded by Erasmus+ for young people and youth workers on topics such as sustainable tourism, cycle tourism, the circular economy, gastronomy and digitalisation.
In European cooperation, CREA 360 has helped municipalities such as Amarante (Portugal), Santa Pola and Medina del Campo move on to the second phase of URBACT III action planning networks on sustainable urban development. It has also secured several Erasmus+ Sport projects for Benigànim and Almussafes town councils. The year closed with three town networks approved under the Europe for Citizens programme, involving the councils of Catral, Santa Pola and Mislata, on topics such as public participation, youth employment and the Green Deal.
In 2020 we also began working with ambitious public authorities such as Mislata Town Council, which decided that 2020 was the year to commit to European projects. After twelve months of work, Mislata will lead a town network on public participation and the social inclusion of young people, take part in a town twinning to be formalised in spring 2021 in Birgu, Malta, cooperate on public space planning under Erasmus+ Key Action 2, and offer more than 20 grants for its vocational students to do work placements abroad next year.
Our work with the European Routes of Emperor Charles V cultural route will lead to cooperation with other cultural routes to improve the effectiveness and working methods of routes certified by the Council of Europe, through cooperation projects funded by Creative Europe and Erasmus+.
CREA 360 has also strengthened its professional relationship with MOZAIKA, the association for the promotion of Jewish heritage in Catalonia, with the approval of a REC project. Building on this success, the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage (a Council of Europe cultural route) has recently signed a contract with our company to manage several international projects.
Finally, CREA 360 has secured a Horizon 2020 project for the Region of Murcia Consumer Arbitration Board and will once again work directly as the Spanish partner in an Erasmus+ project with Dublin City Council (Ireland) on using the Visual Thinking Strategies method for social inclusion in schools.
2020 has undoubtedly been a sad year for many families and a difficult one professionally, but at CREA 360 we want to take this time to celebrate the fact that, year after year, we keep moving forward despite the challenges. Thanks to the hard work of our team of consultants and the trust of our clients, CREA 360, a member of the European Affairs Alliance, has established itself in EU funding management in the Valencian region, with more than 500 partner organisations across Europe and strong professional references wherever it works.
Having come through this challenging year together, we hope you can enjoy Christmas safely with your loved ones. We wish you a healthy 2021 full of new and even more exciting opportunities to keep working with you for local development and Euro-municipalism.
