"The Training Course TC ""Environmental Training for Eco-Trainers"" (ET4ET), taking place in Wiek (Rügen), Germany from 20-28 March 2015, gathered 35 youth workers or active members from 15 youth and environmental organisations of 12 different countries (Albania, Armenia, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Spain, United Kingdom) between 18-35 years.The German organisation FÖJ-AKTIV e.V. applied for the project out of the needs for (1) a rise in number and quality of environmental projects on local and international level, and (2) supporting and educating youth workers within the network and its members in the development of skills, competences and attitudes, identified by other organisations from their network organisation Youth and Environment Europe (YEE).The overall aim of the project ET4ET is to educate and empower new Eco-Trainers into effective leaders by providing them with new tools and methodologies to enable participants to prepare, run and evaluate Environmental Trainings for young people. This is aimed at individuals hoping to enhance their chances for future work in NGOs.Eco-Trainers are trainers who (1) facilitate environmental learning activities such as trainings in order to raise awareness of various environmental issues and the potential solutions and (2) add the environmental dimension to training-sessions (where training does not focus primarily on the environment e.g. soft skills, sessions on promotion etc.). Additionally, they can consult and contribute to the development and planning phases of a project itself in order to reduce its environmental impact. Thus, an Eco-Trainer is a combination of environmental educator, trainer and project manager.Environmental Trainings are organised and implemented in way that they have the lowest possible environmental impact in all areas: e.g. travel and transportation, food, venue and accommodation, materials, energy, waste, and water usage.The target group were participants with an environmental and/or educational backgrounds (through studies or work) and experiences in training courses and international projects who are actively involved in an environmental NGO and who want to become trainers.The TC applied methods from non-formal education as well as learning-by-doing and experiential learning. The participants prepared and ran a Trial Session as Eco-Trainers during the TC. Furthermore, some participants already implemented a training activity locally within their organisation after the TC. Another follow-up was the publication of the booklet ?Eco-Trainer Guide?, written by a team of participants, that contains a toolkit about methodologies and tools for planning and running Environmental Trainings as well as information about important trainer competences.Even after the end of this project, the YEE network continues to establish a ?Pool of Eco-Trainers? for future international environmental projects and plans another follow-up project (Training of Trainers) due to the high demand of applicants and good evaluation results."

"<< Objectives >>We believe that Nutrition is one of the pillars of our well-being, often we note that underestimating this factor in our work in contexts of residential experiences such as youth exchanges, trainings and different kinds pf camps, leads to waste the commitment on other levels such as those of the activities: the participants and the project team do not ""produce"" as much as they could, they lose lucidity, interest and the results get affected. In some other cases quantities are calculated wrongly, food is wasted or it’s not enough for everybody. We think that underestimating this factor is not done on purpose, in the majority of cases, by the coordinating associations but on the lack of a culture related to food and nutrition. Sharing with our partners, we also realized that capable staff who take care of cooking balanced and inclusive menus is not easy to find or it has a high cost.If we shift the focus on young people and their relationship with nutrition, statistics show that there is a need to improve awareness of the impact that such eating habits have and to promote a healthy lifestyle through concrete initiatives that involve young people and support them in developing awareness and healthier eating habits. Beside the statistics, very often we see directly in our young people how little importance is given to what they introduce into their body (food, drink, alcohol, smoke and drugs), as if the risk to which these habits exposes them is not real or it doen’t not touch them directly.Many of the young people we work with find themselves in situations of unemployment or at unemployment risk and they are stumbling into a still stagnant economy, phenomena that got worst with the pandemic and now with the war in Ukraine and the consequences on the world’s economies. We think that to support unemployed youth it is necessary to work on several fronts, one of these is to stimulate the development of soft skills through non-formal education, another is to build more positive and proactive attitudes.Through this project we wanted to work to bring solutions and results on these fields and use food, cooking and healthy life style both as means and ends.The OBJECTIVES of this project awere:1-Prepare and bring together 24 youth workers for a training course; 7 youth leaders for an APV and 42 young people for a Youth Exchange;2- Improve the skills of the staff and volunteers of the organizations involved in the project in preparing balanced and inclusive menus (with valuable vegetarian, vegan, halal, gluten-free and lactose-free alternatives).3- Create and disseminate knowledge about the legislative system of the countries involved in terms of cooking for groups: permits and necessary certificates.4- Increase the organizational skills of the associations involved in the management of funds for preparing meals during their projects, improving their performances and involving their staff in it.5- Improve the skills of young leaders in the field of facilitation and non-formal education.6- Improve the competencies of the participants in cooking, regarding the food industry, sustainability, nutrition and the relationship between what we consume and health.7- Improve the soft skills of the participants to increase their chances of entering the labour market or to improve their job opportunities. Specificallyimprove: communication skills, teamwork, leadership, time management, cooperation, planning and organizational skills.8- Stimulate entrepreneurship, pro-activity, self-esteem and get out of the vicious circle of unemployment that creates insecurity, immobility and apathy.9- To know the cultures of the countries involved through national food, to ground the sense of European belonging and to value differences10- Increase the awareness of the participants about their relationship with food, their eating habits' consequences and stimulate self-care and self-appreciation.11 - Improve the quality of participants' life by introducing healthy habits regarding nutrition, movement, and relation with technology.12- To create 4 tangible outcomes about the project:A) A web pageB) A printed bookletC) A documentaryD) An online testimonies booklet13 - Implement - involving the participants of the TC and YE - at least one dissemination activity for partners<< Implementation >>We created a training course for youth workers and young volunteers active in partner associations which involved 28 participants. These were figures who collaborated with partner associations on a paid or voluntary basis and who were interested in improving their skills in designing and preparing inclusive and balanced menus according to the needs of the participants in their programs.We carried out a preliminary planning visit which involved 14 young people: 1 leader and 1 young participant for each national group. The visit had the aim of bringing together future leaders and some participants to get to know the project location, start working together, share the participants' background and their aspirations regarding the exchange, share inputs for the realization of the project and start to create concrete workshops to be included in the program.We carried out an international exchange that involved 42 participants: 7 national leaders and 36 participants.PARTICIPANTS were aged between 20 and 28 years. Their common characteristics, in short, were an interest in improving their lifestyle and making it healthier and more sustainable, focusing especially on the following areas:- nutrition and relationship with food- physical activity- balanced use of technologiesParticipants were also interested in learning about other cultures, traveling abroad, improving their level of communication in English and other languages.The LEADERS were young people between 20 and 35 years old with previous experiences in youth exchanges and non-formal education and wanted to experiment in coordination and management roles within their national groups and within the organizing TEAM of the exchange. They were also interested in increasing their skills in facilitation, leadership, organization of youth projects in general. The leaders also shared wishes and needs similar to those of the participants: they were intended as participants with an extra role.The participants in the project had a background with the following difficulties, sometimes multiple:Cultural differences 14 peopleDisability 1 personEconomic obstacles 20 peopleEducational difficulties 4 peopleGeographical obstacles 6 peopleHealth problems 4 peopleRefugees 1 personSocial obstacles 10 peopleAfter the exchange, the national groups carried out 8 local activities involving about 80 young people. The activities had the aim of sharing and deepening the themes of exchange: well-being in the areas of nutrition, physical movement and the use of technologies.<< Results >>We have created the following tangible results:A) 3 online magazines called ""Foodie"" which include:- Introduction to dietary choices for health reasons or related to beliefs: vegetarian, vegan, raw vegan, halal, no pork, no beef, gluten and lactose free.- Vegetarian, vegan, raw vegan, gluten-free and lactose-free recipes- Nutritional properties of different foods (fruit, vegetables, different types of meat, eggs, cheeses, legumes, pasta, rice, etc.)- 1 article on the food market and its trend with successful examples- 1 article on food bloggers- 1 article on the relationship between food and sustainability- 1 article on the concept of slow food- 1 article on the use of preservatives, herbicides and food colors in the food industry and their effects on the body- 1 article on eating disorders and food-related diseases- 1 article explaining what are the certificates and permits that people must have in order to legally cook for groups and how to get them, made from 12 paragraphs for the 12 countries involved in the project- fact sheets on how to grow popular fruit / fruit and how to build a garden on a balcony- fact sheets on many national foods, their recipes and nutritional values- 4 balanced and inclusive menus designed by the training participants for 4 specific programs for young people- additional content prepared by the exchange participants in national groupsFOODIE N.1: https://online.pubhtml5.com/xtwk/axgf/#p=1FOODIE N.2: https://online.pubhtml5.com/xtwk/bwcl/#p=1FOODIE N.3: https://online.pubhtml5.com/xtwk/labz/#p=1B) 2 documentaries, one on training and one on exchange.TRAINING: https://youtu.be/8Kqf7cG_rrwEXCHANGE: https://youtu.be/Tp1q98D8ZIUC) 2 booklets of online testimonials, one with the testimonies of the training, one on the exchangeThe online manuals produced were disseminated through the network of organizations involved and were sent to:- Other organizations working with young people locally, nationally and internationally- Youth mobility portals- Information point for young people and non-profit organizations- Youth sectors of the municipalities of their territories- Schools in their territoryThey were also shared on their media: web pages and social media pagesTRAINING TESTIMONIALS: https://online.pubhtml5.com/xtwk/xuau/#p=1EXCHANGE TESTIMONIALS: https://online.pubhtml5.com/xtwk/jgap/#p=1Numbers of the diffusion of the outputs: more than 26,000 views, see attached table for details.The intangible result that more than others we are happy to share concerns the impact that the training has had on our association: thanks to the training we have developed new strategies and new practices regarding food in residential projects, both in those of which we are direct coordinators , both in those that are made in Bergolo and for which we take care of practical and logistical issues, including cooking and transport, which this year have been a dozen.Our new practice implements the main objectives of the training, that is a choice of foods and recipes more attentive to the personal choices of the participants, a menu more sensitive to the target group of individual projects, to the activities that are carried out and to their religious or personal choices. philosophical. The new strategy involves the purchase of fruit and vegetables from local producers, reducing the impact of transport on the environment and supporting local production and small farmers.Another important intangible result is linked to the learning of the training participants, who brought the skills acquired into their associations, favoring a similar impact, and that of the exchange participants, especially as regards the improvement of their own well-being in the areas covered by the exchange and their soft skills.Positive impact was also achieved thanks to the 8 follow-up activities organized by the participants in their local areas: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q6rl6UUpWXLMFju20pAn_g5AOwkjPHXO?usp=sharing"

The training course “Be(e) the Change” will be held in the ecological center Kapraluv Mlyn in Czech Republic. The activity will take place on 6-13 November 2016 and it will involve 30 participants coming from 16 partners.The project idea comes from YEE’s campaign “The Right to be(e)” that is ongoing for three years now. With this training course we would like to learn and develop more tools of creating successful environmental educational campaigns, as well as share experience among the organisations who took part in campaigns such as “The Right to Be(e)”. The project’s activities will help to improve YEE’s and its member organisations’ campaigning skills by learning about what an educational campaign is, how to plan it or how to motivate young people to participate.The participants will be chosen based on their previous experience with campaigns, especially with ones carried out by YEE. They will be asked in advance to prepare examples of their previous campaigning. Also, they will be involved in creating the follow-up.The activities are related to learnings and overviews about organising an educational campaign. The objectives of the planned activities fit the objectives of the project because they will be designed to developing general campaigning skills, especially ones regarding international campaigns. The sessions will be developed using the principles of the non-formal and intercultural education and will reflect the needs and expectations of the participants. The working methods of the youth exchange will involve: team building, working in groups, discussion in groups, research, giving/receiving feedback, brainstorming, presentation, etc.After the training course we will create a publication gathering the knowledge and ideas developed throughout the activity, together with other promotional materials. Participants will organise local activities in their communities, after working on their campaign ideas in the training course.Moreover, the training course will shape a quality strategy and action plan for The Right to Be(e) campaign in 2017 and it will lead to higher participation of young people in YEE’s campaigns. The project will help participating organisations create successful environmental campaigns - based on the experience they shared, new knowledge and skills that were developed.

<< Objectives >>-To increase awareness among youth workers about the importance of video as a tool for disseminating their results and raise the visibility of their organisations in order to increase their impact.-To provide youth workers with knowledge on how to create a story with a clear message, to film efficiently and to use media channels effectively in order to promote it and reach their target group. -To develop youth worker’s skills in filming, editing and publishing videos. -To increase participants understanding of media, the process of promoting media messages with special focus on social media as one of the most popular communication channels of young people these days.-To learn-by-doing during the Training Course creating 6 promotional videos for 6 local organisations in Bulgaria, having a positive impact on the local level and supporting them to reach their target groups. -To apply the knowledge and skills acquired by participants during the Training Course, coming back to their local organisations and creating 11 promotional videos for 11 organisations involved on this project during the Local Action Phase.- To disseminate the knowledge acting as multipliers and share the skills acquired during the Training Course by youth workers delivering media literacy workshops for youth in their organisations during the Local Action Phase.- To strengthen cooperation between partner organisations and to provide them with the context to develop new project ideas with the focus on enhancing media literacy among youth.<< Activities >>The main activity of the project is a the Training Course Vision Ahead taking place in Plovdiv, from 20.11.2019 until 27.11.2019 and involving 11 organisation from 11 different countries: Bulgaria, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Serbia, Romania, Poland, Germany, Latvia, FYR Macedonia. Followed by a 3-month Local Action Phase taking place simultaneously in all participating countries. 33 youth workers, volunteers and NGO staff from our partner organisations that want to gain competences in order to promote their organisations through quality videos from 11 different countries coming from 11 organizations.Profile: active youth workers with track record on involvement in the youth field especially those working with fewer opportunities target groups. We made research and generalized the need in our network and specifically in this project partnership that competences regarding video making are much needed as a powerful tool for promoting organisations in order to reach young people and increase their impact. We aim at having a multiplier effect, so by enhancing youth workers’ media literacy they will have the competence to spread media literacy among their organisations and target groups. So we aim at those youth workers who are also open and willing to learn, practice and develop new competences which are essential in the contemporary world – video-making, editing, social campaign through social media etc.<< Impact >>- 6 promotional videos for 6 local social enterprises or social startups,-11 promotional videos for all 11 partner organisations involved in this project. - In total 17 videos as a powerful resource to be used in the future by the organisations. - Improved media literacy and understanding of social media and videos as a tool to reach out to those harder to reach- Improved engagement of marginalised youth and higher rates of participation in local activities organised by partners in this project, as well as the 6 NGOs from Plovdiv- Higher impact in other international projects carried out by partner organizations, boosting their quality by adding resources to participant’s toolbox.- Partners will create stronger connection and share the methods applied so far. - Recognition of non-formal learning through YouthPass- Higher value of international mobility, - More and higher quality international projects will be organised.

Youth and Environment Europe (YEE) is a network of over 40 youth organisations which are, among other things, active in environmental protection. Members address environmental issues on different levels (local, regional, national, international) with different approaches, such as campaigning, research and education. During the 2016 Annual Meeting several member organisations expressed their interest in exploring the topic of ecotourism. Some members even pointed out the need to further develop this type of tourism in their countries. Moreover, ecotourism was identified as a current topic and a good way to promote active citizenship among young people. We believe that ecotourism can connect different parts of communities and could therefore be an innovative approach for promoting youth participation. The aim of this training course was to strengthen youth participation and active citizenship through ecotourism and related projects. Objectives: - To define the role and importance of ecotourism in local communities. - To create the common understanding about youth participation in local communities through ecotourism. - To provide space for partners to share the experience of organising ecotourism projects with young people. - To expand the knowledge and skills needed for organising ecotourism related projects in local communities. - To create space for networking and building new partnerships among environmental youth organisations. The training course “Uniting Youth for Ecotourism” took place on 6-13 November 2017 in the ecological center Kapraluv Mlyn, Ochoz u Brna, Czech Republic. It was organised by Youth and Environment Europe. 31 participants from 13 countries took part in this training course. Most of the objectives have been achieved thanks to a balanced combination of formal, non-formal and informal education strategies.In particular:- The role and importance of ecotourism in local communities were defined both through sharing sessions where participants expressed their ideas, impressions and even personal experiences and through visits to five different ecotourism realities in the area around Kapraluv Mlyn.- The common understanding (both theoretical and practical) about youth participation in local communities through ecotourism was established through a teamwork project where participants had to develop a product or service targeting young ecotourists and meeting ecotourism standards. Moreover, during an intercultural evening, participants had the possibility to present an object, food or drink related to ecotourism practices in their country or region.- A large space was provided to participants willing to share ecotourism practices in their countries. Two participants from Italy, two from Hungary, one from Russia and the two trainers (from Spain and Czech Republic) provided concrete examples of ecotourism projects involving young people. - The knowledge and skills needed for organising ecotourism projects were expanded through the session “Ecotourism and heritage interpretation” where the topics of marketing strategies, ecotourism practices and youth participation were interconnected with each other.- A large space for networking was provided to each participant. They had the possibility to present their organisation, their role within the organisation and latest projects. In the light of the genuine interests that participants showed for others` activities and the emergence of common grounds, new partnerships are likely to be built.- Additionally, several other activities (Service and Care, bonfires, movie night, visit to caves) have supported participants in their quest to know each other, build a great team, exchange ideas and even make new friends. Project results were shared among participants, partner organisations and other members via email correspondence and YEE online media. In addition, all materials created before, during and after the training course were uploaded on YEE website. As a follow-up, a publication will be published which will contain project results and useful information on how to plan successful eco-tourism projects.