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.

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.

In the period between 01 - 09 of september 2017, we implemented a training course “Trainers SOS - Save Our Seas”. The training provided opportunity to 29 youth workers to work on their personal development as future trainers in marine environmental field. The training was used as platform for creation of new methods, workshops, activities, and resources that can be used in various environmental projects aiming at youth and children. Participants from 7 countries participated in the project, Croatia, Latvia, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, and Italy. The project achieved goal is strengthened capacity of POs for work with youth on marine environmental topics.As partners in many projects implemented in the past, we have identified that many young people across Europe have some experience and leadership potential to become marine educators in environmental field but are not inspired to go further and become trainers due to various reasons. Furthermore, we have noticed that there is a lack of environmental training courses specified for the marine environment. This was the background why we together with partners decided to implement this training course. During the TC we provided space for 29 motivated young leaders to broaden their knowledge in marine environment protection and sustainable development and increase their own personal development and facilitation skills, so they become educators in marine environmental area or build their existing capacity in their youth work on environmental topics.Objectives of the project reached were focused on enriching participants understanding the relationships between pressures from human activities and climate influences and their effects on marine ecosystems worldwide; how to use latest science facts in developing new non – formal environmental education methods and tools; and how to secure sustainable development of marine environment through interactive educative workshops; ensuring development of skills such as effective communication skills, presentation and facilitation skills and creating a network of young trainers; arming participants with knowledge, methods used when learning about marine environment and marine environmental protection by presenting, explaining, and practicing methods of facilitation and analyzing non-formal methods of learning used in this area; motivating participants to adopt and develop new workshops, games, activities and methods and publish them in “SOS e-booklet”; empower youth leaders to become marine educators ready to take leading role in youth organization and transmit the knowledge through various projects; providing them space to experience in practice facilitations by organizing workshops for other participants. Results and impact obtained: Participants had the opportunity to participate as well in so-called “development” workshops, where they had space to use their full potential and knowledge and experience facilitating work, and work on development of workshops, methods, activities and games that were later published in e-booklet “SOS e-booklet”. The SOS e-booklet is free to download on www.argonauta.hr: https://www.argonauta.hr/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/E-booklet-Save-Our-Seas.pdf, and it has been shared through partners networks. E-booklet “SOS e-booklet” contains information about the project in general, partners and workshops that were design by the participants. Facebook group was developed for the purpose of promoting project idea, implementation and results. Main result of the project are design and the implementation of 6 workshops, where participants had opportunity to experience what means to be trainer and facilitator in practice. Each group had 1 hour and 30 minutes to perform their workshop to the other group of participants. Thus, participants experienced not only how is to be trainer, and how developed activities are implemented in practice, but also how is it to be participant, and active listener in that kind of non formal education workshop. As a last result two short promotional movie was developed and published after the project with the aim to promote Erasmus+ projects, and trainings about marine environment and marine protection which was shared by Youtube profile of Argonauta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSYVCY_4bAI ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEFk44HPle8&t=4s .On a long term basis beneficiaries of our project are organizations working with youth in marine environmental protection across Europe. We have boost the personal development of future youth trainers and educators in field of marine environment who are ready to help in implementing youth actions, projects, activities related to marine environmental topics. Activities developed during the project ensure sustainability of our work, in future they will be used as tools and methods in our youth work.

The project “RIVER reMEMBERS” is an international youth initiative developed by “BALTA DABA” (Latvia) and “OPE” (Portugal) - youth environmental organizations. The aim of the project is to encourage young people active citizenship for protection of Europe’s rivers. Main objectives are to exchange best practices how to organize local river protection activities for young people; to find new innovative methods for youth work in river protection sector and to increase young people research skills and knowledge about river ecosystems. Project directly involves 10 young people in age of 18 to 30 years (5 from each organization) who will make a research about dam’s problem on rivers, organize workshops for local people about river protection, organize local seminars and discussions and create the methodology about how effectively involve young people in river protection activities. During the project, both groups will meet 3 times for sharing experience and results of project. The project will take place in Latvia and Portugal from October 2014 to December 2015.

The project “ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE ACCEPTED” took place from June 1, 2016 to November 30, 2017 in five countries – Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Portugal. The aim of the project was to explore innovative approaches for development of youth active citizenship by fostering youth ability to convince stakeholders of the need to implement their proposed solutions for environmental protection. As a result, four groups of young people addressed local environmental problems cooperating with local stakeholders. Based on real problem solving approach, the best ways to improve the quality of civic participation of young people were sought. Meanwhile an international youth contest was organized, which brought together examples of good practice on how young Europeans have come up with concrete solutions to solve local environmental problems. During the project 3 international meetings were held in order to discuss the progress of the project and to exchange examples of good practice in the field of youth civic participation. Diverse combination of partners was established – it included two youth environmental organizations and two classical national-level environmental organizations. Additionally, the fifth partner was international level youth environmental organization. The project provided an opportunity to compare and to exchange good practices in order to improve the work of each organization. The project had a significant positive impact on 27 directly involved young people. Young people in practice had to go through a full cycle of civic participation, starting with problem identification, defending the need for problem solving to other stakeholders, attracting the relevant resources, implementing activities and delivering results to partners, as well as reporting on the results achieved. Such practical work based on real not theoretical problems allows young people to acquire skills necessary for real life - to take the initiative themselves and to be responsible for results of their work. Within the project, group of experts developed video guide for European youth environmental organizations in order to present achieved results in an attractive, engaging and innovative way to their target groups - donors, municipalities, state institutions.