-
Home
-
European Projects
-
Exploring sustainability in local community
Exploring sustainability in local community
Start date: May 1, 2015,
End date: Nov 30, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
We start from the idea that young people have the responsibility for the future and possess an important role in addressing the issues concerning environment and society. One of the spaces where young people can act for sustainability are the local communities which rarely have a satisfactory level of engagement in activities related to sustainable development. The training course wants to influence young people connect creativity, environmental and social action to inspire local inhabitants, encourage municipalities and empower businesses to adapt greener practices.The Training Course “Explore Sustainability in Local Community” was a training course where 24 young leaders, volunteers and youth workers from Macedonia, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Greece met in Poland to gain a new knowledge, learn from creative examples, acquire skills, reflect on their values and attitude in order to become agents for change in their own communities.The overall aim of the training course is to promote sustainability and make young people understand the meaning and importance of it, to provide young people with competencies and encourage engaging youth in using sustainable approaches in the development of the local community.To reach the above mentioned aim the training course set the following objectives: - To develop a common understanding (and common language) of essential concepts such as sustainable development and community building, and to explore the links between these. To provide participants with the experience of sustainable living, new ways of youth participation, personal expression and development- To offer participants a space to share their ideas, learning points and experiences.To raise awareness about the environmental issues and promote sustainability in the community of Tomaszów Lubelski District through the local activities of the trainingTo promote active citizenship between young people for tackling environmental issues in their local communitiesTo promote the values of respect, solidarity, equality between European countries- To stimulate creativity, to challenge their behaviors and equip them with tools and skills needed to lead responsible actions in their communities.The training was based on non-formal education methodology and used the experiential and collaborative approach to achieve the objectives of the project. While experiencing the concept of sustainable living during the training participants through role plays, simulation, group tasks, discussions and other methods learnt about sustainability and how it can benefit the growth in the local community. They met sustainable projects, shared experiences, had practical workshops on sustainable practices, and had sessions on leadership and creativity to empower them for action in their own community. Moreover, participants used the new knowledge learned to transfer it to the young people in the town of Tomaszów Lubelski and they organized local action will reached More than 150 young people with a goal on raising awareness of the local community about the sustainability issues and inform young people about the possibilities of Erasmus Plus Programme. The end result of the training were project ideas that are supported in the realization in the follow up period, created by participants in the last part of the program.We believe that in a long term perspective the established international cooperation between participants led to new projects addressing the needs of various target group motivated and interested to use sustainability approaches for community building. Using the experience from the 8 activity days and to inspire and encourage individuals and organizations adapt green practices while organizing a training or other event a brochure was created as one of the main results of the project.