Inclusion isn’t just about access — it’s about emotional belonging.
That one insight echoes a broader evolution across European education systems, where fostering emotional wellbeing, inclusion, and social-emotional learning has become central to both national reforms and EU-wide frameworks — an evolution reinforced by the European Commission’s 2025 Erasmus+ priorities and supported by OECD findings linking students’ sense of belonging to academic success. One example of this shift in action is the Erasmus+ project Empowered by Empathy, which brings together partners from Türkiye, Poland, and Portugal to explore how emotional intelligence education can strengthen caregiver support for disadvantaged children across diverse social and institutional contexts.
In an era where policy documents are thick with buzzwords like “equity,” “innovation,” and “resilience,” this project offers something rare: implementation that’s not only heartfelt, but replicable. It reminds us that systems change doesn’t begin in government halls. It begins in the everyday micro-interactions where trust, care, and emotional literacy are taught and modeled — often by the very people whose emotional labor goes unseen and under-supported.
From Priorities to Practice: Inclusion Through Emotional Intelligence
The Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2025 outlines inclusion and diversity as a cross-cutting horizontal priority, stating that “all project proposals under the Erasmus+ Programme should contribute to one or more of the programme’s policy priorities, including developing the competences of educators, promoting new learning and teaching methods, and creating inclusive digital education ecosystems”【
Yet what does it actually mean to include someone — not just in a policy or a database, but in the social fabric of learning and growth? This is where Empowered by Empathy steps in. It doesn’t treat inclusion as a logistical checkbox. Instead, it builds it from the inside out by equipping caregivers with the skills to see, understand, and respond to the emotional lives of the children in their care.
The project aligns deeply with the most recent updates to the European Key Competences framework for Lifelong Learning, particularly the ‘personal, social and learning to learn competence.’ But more than aligning — it animates it. Emotional intelligence (EI), defined by Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (2004) as “the ability to perceive, understand, manage and use emotions in oneself and others,” isn’t just a research term in this project. It’s what turns a moment of conflict into a turning point, a breakdown into a bridge.
And it’s backed by robust evidence. The OECD’s 2021 report on “Social and Emotional Skills” highlights that children with stronger emotional regulation are more likely to thrive academically, socially, and psychologically. What the data tells us, the fieldwork confirms: without emotional foundations, educational outcomes remain structurally unstable.
Case Studies: Empathy in Action Across Europe
At the project’s initial needs analysis — surveying institutions, caregivers, and social workers — surfaced a deeply human insight: many caregivers care profoundly, but feel ill-equipped to handle the emotional storms that ripple through the lives of children in difficult circumstances. Over 70% of participants expressed a need for structured tools — not theoretical — but practical, usable under stress, and responsive to trauma.
As the needs analysis revealed, many caregivers in Türkiye expressed a common struggle: managing emotional and behavioral crises without the tools to understand the underlying emotional triggers. Participants reported a desire to “slow down,” to better understand their own emotional responses, and to learn how to respond to children with more reflection and less reaction — a goal the project aims to meet through upcoming training.
That shift — from reaction to reflection — is at the heart of the following case studies.
🇹🇷 Türkiye — Institutional Change from Within
In Kırıkkale, Türkiye, a city where caregiving institutions often function under strain, the Empowered by Empathy project is preparing to pilot modules aimed at transforming professional development into personal and systemic insight. Though training has not yet occurred, the groundwork points toward a future where caregivers can learn to attune themselves emotionally, de-escalate conflict without shouting, and establish trust through consistency and compassionate boundaries.
While results are yet to be measured through post-training assessments, the project’s intended outcomes are ambitious and evidence-based. By fostering emotional literacy and reflective caregiving, the modules aim to reduce reliance on punitive discipline and instead nurture environments where children can feel safe enough to trust, engage, and grow.
This reflects research from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard, which identifies responsive adult-child relationships as a critical factor in buffering the toxic stress that can derail cognitive and emotional development.
🇵🇱 Poland — Trauma-Informed Family Learning
In Poland, the emotional challenges are layered with the aftermath of war displacement and economic migration. At the Instytut Family Center in Bytom, the project is working to co-develop training content that supports families — particularly those with Ukrainian or otherwise marginalized backgrounds — by addressing the emotional and psychological strain many face.
While the training modules are still in development, the project partners are exploring how best to ground the material in trauma-informed practices and emotional intelligence research. The intention is to translate complex concepts like emotional regulation and attachment theory into language and strategies that can be meaningfully applied by caregivers in everyday family life. These efforts are shaped by field insights and a strong commitment to aligning with both community needs and evidence-based approaches.
The OECD’s recommendations on immigrant integration emphasize the role of emotional support in enabling displaced learners to succeed. This project goes further: it treats emotional intelligence not just as support, but as a structural intervention in how families function.
🇵🇹 Portugal — Digital Platforms With a Human Heart
Digital learning often struggles to feel human. But Portugal’s contribution aims to turn this norm on its head. REDefine, the project’s digital lead, is currently designing a Moodle-based platform that will prioritize human connection over content delivery, drawing on both established research and cutting-edge technologies.
The concept envisions more than a traditional course interface. Instead, users will be immersed in emotionally resonant scenarios where they can explore caregiver-child interactions, reflect on emotional responses, and engage with peers in a safe, supportive environment. These elements are intended to promote not just skill acquisition, but genuine insight and emotional presence.
This design philosophy echoes UNESCO’s “Learning to Be” framework and aligns closely with Erasmus+ 2025 goals around inclusive, learner-centered digital education. The aspiration is not to push content, but to enable presence — to build a digital environment where connection feels possible, even through a screen.
Designing for Belonging: The Modular Power of Cultural Sensitivity
Inclusion without cultural relevance is a hollow promise. That’s why the curriculum is being designed to be modular, adaptive, and co-developed with stakeholders in each country. While still in development, the planned approach respects local differences while reinforcing the shared European value of human dignity.
In Türkiye, early content planning considers how to reflect family dynamics rooted in respect and structure. In Poland, there is an emphasis on addressing intergenerational trauma and the complexity of rebuilding community. In Portugal, the design team is exploring how to reflect hybrid identities, multilingualism, and intercultural understanding.
This planned localized flexibility reflects international best practices identified in frameworks such as UNESCO’s policy brief on Social and Emotional Learning and the OECD Learning Compass 2030, both of which advocate for culturally responsive pedagogy and lifelong socio-emotional development. As Durlak et al.’s meta-analysis confirmed, emotional and social learning isn’t just effective — it’s transformative when embedded within inclusive and adaptive learning environments.
More Than a Platform: Why Digital Must Center Emotion
In a world flooded with online content, attention is currency. But Empowered by Empathy doesn’t compete for attention — it cultivates it. The digital platform makes space for slowing down, for breathing, for thinking. In doing so, it models what it teaches: emotional presence.
The European Commission’s Ethics of AI in Education reminds us that emotionally intelligent technologies aren’t an add-on — they’re a necessity. While the platform has not yet entered development, its envisioned design aims to promote user dignity through narrative structure, intentional pause moments, and a tone that acknowledges — not erases — complex human feelings.
Education isn’t just what we learn. It’s how we learn. And this platform understands that the “how” must be emotionally safe before it can be intellectually rich.
Conclusion: The Future of Inclusion Is Emotional, Cognitive, and Systemic
Empowered by Empathy doesn’t stop at raising awareness. It raises capacity. It shows how to embed emotional intelligence into public systems in ways that are strategic, scalable, and sustainable.
It embodies key EU and global policy goals:
- Erasmus+ horizontal priorities on inclusion and digital pedagogy
- Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning
- European Pillar of Social Rights (Principle 11: Childcare and support to children)
- SDG 4.7: Global citizenship, sustainable development, and human rights education
But most importantly, it invites a new metric of success. Not just how many children passed a test. But how many children felt heard. How many caregivers went home less burdened. How many institutions learned to feel again.
To build an inclusive Europe, we must build emotionally intelligent institutions.
Empowered by Empathy shows us what that looks like — in theory, in practice, and in heart.
