-
Home
-
European Projects
-
European youth for a more sustainable future
European youth for a more sustainable future
Start date: Jan 15, 2016,
End date: May 14, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
Environmental challenges and climate change are issues which will not affect just individual countries like Albania, but the whole human society in a global scale. Albania is one of the most affected countries by climate change issues, and a country where recently there have been serious environmental issues. Albania has a very rich flora and fauna, a country with most of the ecosystems found in Europe. As environmental challenges and climate change have become very important issues and are affecting our livelihoods, it is youth who will help change the situation and educate societies, as the future belongs to the youth. The "Youth for a more sustainable future" general objective is the promotion of environmentally sustainable development through empowering youth and promoting voluntarism, as youth will be the ones who will be tomorrow's activists, employees, policy makers, and entrepreneurs, the ones who inherit our planet. Thus, it is important to equip them with information and skills on how to lead their countries towards a sustainable development. The project also aims to contribute to the reduction of youth unemployment through increasing the Volunteer's opportunities to enter the increasingly tense and complex labour market; to encourage the inclusion of youth to be active citizens, involved in their communities and in a European and global environment; to increase their skills and competences and to introduce young people to topics as: environmental challenges, climate change, sustainable development, green jobs, renewable energy, resource efficiency; to promote healthy behaviors through outdoor activities.IEP will host 2 volunteers from Spain/Catalonia from every social background and origins willing to experiment non-formal learning in an international and multicultural dimension for 12 months. The Volunteers will be between 20-30 years old with a good level of English, who besides wanting to help societies and do volunteerism, to also be interested in sustainable development and project management and in environmental education/environmental awareness in our society, and candidates who need to get valuable international experience in promoting environmental awareness and specialize more in the environmental field, skills and experience that Volunteers can employ and use after they finish their EVS in AlbaniaThe volunteers will be involved in the following types of activities: planning, brainstorming and organizing (with the assistance of IEP's staff) of indoors and outdoors non-formal activities, public actions, green games, practical workshops on different environmental topics, photography workshops, outdoors excursions to document the flora and fauna in and around the city of Tirana, or in other parts of Albania when it is needed, organizing informational campaigns in schools and youth centers; implementation of weekly activities with different topics; support of IEP in its projects and activities; contribution to the planning of trainings and youth exchanges, and promotion of Erasmus+ programme in Albania; and creation of links and partnerships between IEP and other international NGOs or NGOs from the countries where volunteers come from. During the project, Volunteers will participate in several preparatory activities and trainings, both before their departure and upon their arrival in Albania. Both partner organizations and the staff involved in the project will offer continuous support to the Volunteers throughout the whole duration of the project. The Volunteers' role and responsibilities will be discussed and defined through regular meetings and exchanges. The communication will be facilitate through the use of several tools as Skype meetings, weekly/monthly meetings and reports.Throughout the project, the participants are expected to improve their skills and capabilities such as environmental awareness, self-empowerment and self-esteem, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, foreign language competences, inter-cultural awareness, more active participation in society; better awareness of the European project and the EU values; motivation for taking part in future education or training after the mobility period abroad. The participating organizations are expected to increase capacity to operate at EU/international level, improving management skills and internationalization strategies and cooperation with partners from other countries; developing innovative and improved way of operating with youth and volunteers. In the long-term, the project is expected to increase the beneficiaries' awareness and knowledge on environmental issues, fostering youth active participation in policy making processes, enhancing awareness of the EU-funded projects and the related opportunities, promoting voluntarism among local youth people and influence the fight for a better environment and the fight against climate change in Europe and globally.