"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."

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.

- OverviewThe 'What's so Hot About Climate Change; Road to Paris' project ran from August 2015 to July 2016. It comprised a range of stages including a consultation phase, a 3-day seminar and a support stage for participants to continue to enact change by committing to their action plans in their own communities.The 3-day seminar was attended by Young environmentalists (16-18yrs) in October 2015 entitled What's So Hot About Climate Change: Road to Paris. At the Forum participants worked towards making a submission to local and national policy makers in advance of the COP 21 convention (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties 21), taking place in Paris France 30th Nov-11th Dec 2015.During the What’s So Hot About Climate Change: Road to Paris Forum participants created an outline for a Local Action Project to support them to act on climate change locally and help them engage local Policy makers and MEPs/equivalent in their own countries.In total over seventy young people from five EU countries attended the event, along with 12 field experts and policy makers.- Background and NeedThe need for this project arose from the work and development of ECO UNESCO's own Youth for Sustainable Development group, a youth group who work toward action on sustainable development issues, and who have undertaken personal and career based development as part of YSD, and are now peer mentors for newcomers to the group. This group identified youth participation in climate change policy as a key area of concern and interest for them, and ECO-UNESCO developed the project idea from their initial suggestions.-Objectives of the projectTo give young people an opportunity to engage in meaningful and structured dialogue with policy makers and enforcers on the issue of climate change; To provide young environmentalists the space and opportunity to exchange knowledge and ideas on climate change and taking action in their own countries and in a European context; Empower young people to take action on climate change at a local level.-Outline of the ProjectStage 1 focused on gathering consultations with young people from ECO UNESCO's own groups and clubs, and the young people of interested partner organisations. These consultations focused on the key climate change issues young people wanted to address and who would be the main policy makers involved. At this stage groups from partner organisations were asked to begin a video diary to record their progress. ECO UNESCO engaged its own Youth Advisory Committee and the Core Project Team (comprised of one member of each of the partner groups) to advise on the learning methodologies, structure and topics of the 3 day seminar in Dublin.Communication continued online with partner organisations throughout the planning phase via the Core Project team wherever possible to ensure their integral role in shaping the 3 day seminar in Dublin.Stage 2 comprised a 3 day seminar in Dublin, Ireland. The seminar included a range of learning opportunities such as round-table discussions, interactive workshops and creating a local action project plan to empower young people to engage constructively with policy makers in their countries of origin on the topic of climate change, and also in preparation for the COP 21 meeting in early December 2015. Discussion and activities included reflective learning, education for sustainable development methodologies, and the role of Policy. The methods used within the workshops were learner-centred, participatory and interactive ensuring the learner was engaged in experiential learning and based on best practice ESD/DE. Stage 3 supported participants to continue to enact change by committing to their action plans in their own communities. Their progress was documented in a number of ways; photographs, video-blogs, tweets, which could be submitted for promotion through ECO UNESCO's website/Twitter. Participants were able to present their work on local action projects to policy makers of their choice in their own countries in order to have their voices heard in the run up to COP 21.Participants were also invited to submit their Local Action Projects and any further action they took to promote their issue to the ECO UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards in May 2016. Evaluations were collected from all partner organisations and participants in Stage 3. -Participants The project engaged four partners. Each partner was invited to send 6 participants aged 16- 18yrs of age and 1 youth leader/worker. Originally ECO-UNESCO had applied for five young people and one leader per partner for five partners but a group from Romania dropped out so the total participants per partner increased by one with four partners in total. However, at that point most partners were not able to add any more participants, only Ambiente Sociale, Italy. ECO UNESCO engaged forty young people from across its range of ECO UNESCO clubs and groups.

"The project of Study Visit ""O.R.A.: sustainability and green jobs"" answered to the needs to acquire knowledge and competences to support opportunities of inclusion, employment and ""green"" entrepreneurship that came out from participants to a previous project when they had the chance to be in contact with some entrepreneurial experiences in the Sangro Valley (Province of Chieti, Italy) characterised by high level of sustainability. The idea, then, was to realise an activity targeted to youth workers and organisation based on the knowledge of good practices adopted in Abruzzo. Dates of the project were 1st August 2014 - 1st January 2015 and the Study Visit was realised from 18th till 25th October 2014. Objectives of the project were:- To know in detail examples of good practices in the Sangro Valley and in Province of Chieti in terms of methodologies, activities and policies realised by companies, co-operatives, institutions and associations on the theme of Sustainable Development as a tool of inclusion, employment and entrepreneurship for young people;- To share among partners and participants elements of knowledge about the different contexts involved on the themes of Sustainable Development, green jobs, youth inclusion and fight against poverty- To analyse the possibilities and methodologies given by educational and multimedia tools to transfer and promote the knowledge and the experiences acquired during the Study Visit in the different contexts of each partner to increase the quality of the work done with young people- To reinforce the relationship among partners with the specific objective to plan and realise future projects under the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme to increase its quality and using the knowledge and competences acquired during the Study Visit. Future projects will represent a concrete opportunity of active involvement and personal and economic development for those young people with which all the partner work.Participants were 30, including 2 facilitators and 3 support staff, from Italy, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, Macedonia, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. Their profile was youth and social workers, educators, youth animators, responsible of associations.The methodology used was the Non Formal Education (learning by doing, peer education, interaction, sharing) and, particularly, the innovative one called ORA (Observe, Rethink Act) developed in the last years by ARCI together with other European partners. The methodology applied guaranteed high level of involvement of all the actors of the project.During the preparatory phase participants collected examples of good practices on the themes of Sustainable Development, youth inclusion and concrete experience of development of ""green jobs"" and ""green entrepreneurship"" and realised a preparation on intercultural aspects as well. During the Study Visit were organised ice-breaker games, team building, presentation of the Erasmus+ Programme and Youthpass certificate, sharing activities on the associative backgrounds and on the preparatory works, 2 ""Show and tell"" sessions, a working session on the theme of the project, field visits and meeting with different local experiences on the themes of Sustainable Development, inclusion and dynamization of young people, promotion of green jobs (each one followed by de-briefing), a working session on how to reproduce and concretely apply the competences and the knowledge acquired, working sessions on the realisation of communication, promotional and information material on the themes of the project, elaboration of common future steps, reflection groups and final evaluations. A dossier on the different visited realities was prepared directly by participants with their notes, data and comments.Project had a high impact on the knowledge and competences on both promoting social inclusion and active participation for those young people coming from condition of exclusion and for the promotion of an alternative, sustainable and innovative approach to entrepreneurship through ""green jobs"". Most of the partners are already applying in their territories activities and methodologies acquires during the study visit adapting them to each context. The planned future steps will realise international activities through Erasmus+ Programme (training, youth exchanges, EVS) reinforcing the partnership and ensuring a qualitative increase of the actions through the direct involvement of the young people with which partner work."

"The project entitled ""Sustainable Communities with Youth Power Switched"" will last for 10 months. Project consists of 3 main activities: a training course and 2 youth exchanges. Each activity will last 8 working days. Training will be hosted by Italian partner, 1st youth exchange will be hosted by German partner and 2nd youth exchange will be hosted by Serbian partner. Each youth exchange will be followed by local initiatives organized by young people. The project idea originates from Partner building activity held in Banja Luka (Bosnia) in July 2014. In project design workshop we spoke a lot about position of young people with fewer opportunities in the community life in order to increase their active role in the society. We followed to work on this project idea during a Seminar that took place in Oybin (Germany) in September 2014 where thisapplication form was finalised together with most of the partners. We are partners from 9 European countries and we are members of ORA network. ORA network has been registered in Germany. By this project we wanted to stimulate youth workers to develop knowledge, competences and skills for outreaching young people with fewer opportunities, to establish common standards in youth work among the partners and to inspire participants to takeactive role in organizing the initiatives.In order to better realize activities and to respond to needs of young people we conducted a need analysis at the beginning of the project implementation. On line questionnaire was prepared by the team of youth workers and promoted by all the partners aimed to reach as much as possible young people from their local communities. This helped us to prepare upcoming activities during the training course in Italy and to explore new field/s of intervention during exchanges. Workshops chosen were Gardening/Nutrition Education, Renewable Energy Sources, Environmental Educational Path, Sustainable Construction and Preparation of a mobile carrier for the Berlin Carnival. All the workshops were introduced and realised during the training course in Italy in order to prepare both organisers and operators to better develop the identified tools for the youth exchanges. In Oybin youth exchange (Germany) Gardening/Nutrition Education, Sustainable Construction andPreparation of a mobile carrier for the Berlin Carnival took place and in Krupanj (Serbia) Gardening /Nutrition Education, Renewable Energy Sources and Environmental Educational Path. The choice of where to realise the workshops was given by the peculiarity and characteristic of each local environment and context.Thanks to this project ORA Network included 92 persons among youth workers, youth leaders, young people aged between 18 and 30, trainers, experts and support staff. Most of the young people involved in the project came from conditions of exclusion because unemployed or with low level ofeducation or from difficult family contexts, etc. All the 15 partner organisations of ORA Network from 9 different European countries contributed in the project implementation.Partners continuously worked on building a stronger relationship in the field of youth work, on social inclusion and participation of young people. Sustainable development and environmental protection were innovative tools close to interests of young people to express their creativity and to be environmentally friendly at the same time. We consider these tools effective because they are easily understandable and working sessions were not only focusing on knowledge and skills but on fostering mutual understanding and changing the attitudes. The methodology used in the project was built entirely on non-formal methods: learning by doing, sharing, peer education, Observe Rethink Act. We consider these tools effective because they are easily understandable and working sessions (in TC so called Training Path and in YEs so called Workshops) will not only be focusing on knowledge and skills but on fostering mutual understanding and changing the attitudes. All the methods and tools were prepared and tested during the project implementation and partners prepared publication avaialble on internet and in hard copy for further use.The project had a very positive impact in each local community in terms of practical outcomes but also in the increasing number of young people engaged in activities which promote sustainable development and environmental protection as tools and integration of society’s most fragile members to contribute to the creation of sustainable communities. This impact was quite evident also in the communities and in the partner organisations that didn’t host activities. We are sure that in the long term perspective projects like this one will contribute to national and international policyreforms and will have a systematic impact on education, training and youth.Partner countries: Italy, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Bulgaria, UK, Belgium, Albania and Germany."