1st Newsletter: ACTIVE YOUTH 4 LIFE IN A NUTSHELL

ACTIVEYOUTH4Life project, funded under the Erasmus + program KA2 – Cooperation Partnerships in Youth KA220, is focused on shaping young active citizens, but also agents of change for environmental and sustainable development . Three non-profit organizations, one research and development centre, one private company and one aggregator of people and companies from Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus and Bosnia and Herzegovina join their forces to implement this project having a common goal: To apply a holistic approach, addressing both youth workers, trainers, educators and youths so as to provide new alternative, inspirational means for engaging youths and cultivating their active citizenship mindset, in order for them to be able to act as responsible citizens by adopting sustainable lifestyles and taking responsibility for the environment, embracing their dynamic potential to cope with complexity as thriving individuals/ citizens. How are we going to achieve these results? According to one of the main principles of the project, innovative practices and tools will be provided, such as filmmaking and serious gaming through ‘the art of storytelling’, so as, to prepare educators, trainers, youth workers and youths to become true agents of change via cultivation of LIFECOMP competences.

Why is it important?

The era that we go through is characterized by the distancing of young people from the participation of social life, but also by the immense problem of climate change. Consequences of the environmental crisis can be observed on many different aspects and for this reason it is urgent to act now in order to tackle climate change issues. Young people, who are the future of our society, are called to be the main actors of this reaction, of this change of our habits in a way to create a more sustainable daily life and to try to prevent side-effects of climate change to the most. For this reason, it is very important to cultivate active citizens, aware of the problems of the society and willingly to try to make a change.

The tools, chosen for the implementation of this project and for the attainment of the target goal, are associated with the realization that in 2022 young people receive much of their education, information and entertainment through phones, notebooks, iPads, TV. Filmmaking can, given these premises, be capable, in a safe and effective way, of exploring sensitive issues, of increasing the confidence of young people, but also the feeling of solidarity and cooperation among them. It becomes possible to create a virtual community space for the promotion of dialogue and collaboration among youths, motivating them to take initiatives towards a common goal: how to take action against climate change.

At what stage we are now

“Active Youth 4 Life” will be implemented in the years 2022-2024. It is already in the process of making a change, as two meetings have already taken place : the first one in April 2022 in Spain and the second one in October 2022 in Cyprus. At this stage of the project, we start
developing training approaches through the use of different techniques-filmmaking and digital escape rooms- for enhancing young people’s civic participation, environmental and sustainability awareness.

You can find more about “Active Youth 4 Life” project
On the website: https://activeyouth4life.eu/
On the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/activeyouth4life/