<< Background >>Global use of materials has more than tripled since 1970 and could double again by 2050 (IRP&UNEP). Yearly we throw away more than 2.12 billion tonnes of waste but only 40% of household waste is currently reused, recycled or upcycled. 99% of the things we buy are trashed within 6 months. World economy is only 9% circular. Directive 2008/98/EC of the EP and the Council waste and repealing certain Directives requires the competent authorities of the Member States to draw up waste management plans. There is a need to encourage reusing and extending the useful life of products. In line with the goal to Sustainable Green Europe of the EU Youth Strategy ScaleUPcycling project wants to motivate the young to be environmentally educated and active to make a difference in their everyday lives. In all PPs countries the reuse is the most overlooked and untapped potential on the way to a society with less waste although in the past few years, a small growth of upcycling and reuse initiatives has been seen. As such upcycling largely remains a niche and requires scaling-up to truly deliver a significant impact on the environment and society. Young people are more and more aware of the challenges and risks presented by the climate crisis. The next step is to incorporate these actions to youth communities and to the whole reuse and upcycle ecosystem. Interviews, discussions and desktop research among partners showed the need of joint collaboration tools to help the young become agents of change. In this context, the project aims to deliver digital platform as collaboration space for youth idea owners, youth workers and all interested in the reuse and upcycling ecosystem. By offering new skills on community building through upcycling, the platform will increase youth and youth workers’ capacity to initiate and manage upcycle activities of their own and become local change makers – ambassadors.<< Objectives >>The project objective is to empower and equip youth and youth workers with innovative digital tools, e-Learning materials and training modules to gain new skills, competences, and practical knowledge to help them to become ambassadors of change in saving resources and reducing waste through reuse and upcycling. It will provide in-depth support of reuse community networking and enhance the motivation and communication and help youth and youth workers acquire skills to design and manage their own initiatives within their communities. The project creates a currently not existing one-spot learning and collaboration space revealing the whole ecosystem and key role of youth in it. It provides thematic knowledge sharing opportunities to target group and through ever-evolving hub end users add new content and use other users’ ideas and good practices. Project aims to achieve this in 3 ways (PRs):-ScaleUPcycling Digital Platform as an interactive cooperation and skills development framework will provide young a shared space for regular cooperation and networking.-E-learning digital roadmap to ecosystem of reuse and upcycling will equip youth workers and young with skills and content to improve their expert knowledge on reuse and upcycling.-Community building with Upcycling training modules knowledge and developing skills among young through creative learning techniques will increase (7 modules developed).<< Implementation >>The ScaleUPcycling project will run project management (by ANEL), promotion and dissemination activities (CTRIA) through the whole duration of the project. The creation of the project results has been carefully planned, enough time, budget and staff expertise has been allocated. Activities within PR1 development “ScaleUPcycling digital platform” (led by Vyara, co-leader CTRIA): Defining the reuse and upcycling thematic content of the platform« (250 surveys with young and 60 stakeholders), technical development-design and programming of the platform, development of the content related features namely features of »inspiration corner«, »ideation tool«, Digital flipbook on ecosystem roadmap (PR2), community building training modules (PR3) and »ScaleUPcycling initiatives (leaders Anel and DEFOIN), test operation of platform among the targets (180 registered young users – open call) and feedback will be collected by all PPs (lead by NGPI Tryavna school), monitoring and evaluation is responsibility of each partner and summary guideline preparation. Activities within PR2 development “e-Learning digital roadmap to reuse and upcycling” (led by AIA Menges and co-leader Anel): Concept and preparation of the roadmap to ecosystem of reuse and upcycling development, podcasts will be prepared with representatives of all 8 groups of actors, where each partner will participate upon its existing knowledge and experiences, preparation of document Roadmap to ecosystem of reuse and upcycling, preparations of motion info graphic videos, based on findings and content from the Roadmap and podcasts, collecting feedbacks and evaluation of all deliverables and possible adaptations will be incorporated, digitalization of the Roadmap to ecosystem of reuse and upcycling and summary guidelines preparation. Activities within PR3 development “Community building through upcycling training modules” (led by DEFOIN and co-leader NGPI Tryavna): all PPs will delegate 1 internal expert to the activities, preparation and definition of the training modules, preparation of the training module content, development of training modules will be conducted by each partner participating in 2 modules development, national training implementation and monitoring, feedback and evaluation of modules and possible adaptation of modules and translations, implementation, monitoring and evaluation will be led by DEFOIN and all PPs will be responsible for the implementation of the same elements, summary guidelines will be prepared. One training will be organized within PR3 - C1 Short-term joint staff training “Community Building through Upcycling. activity consists of a blended learning experience designed through a variety of formal and non-formal education methods The mobility is going to involve 18 participants (F2F) and 10 participants online from partner organisations and through open call. Multiplier events will be organized (5 events) in each participating country with 30 participants from the target group. Events will enable us to check the quality and adequacy of the final results.<< Results >>In ScaleUPcycling project the following results will be generated: - ScaleUPcycling digital platform (PR1) will be developed as an interactive cooperation and skills development framework that addresses the reuse and upcycling ecosystem and the role of EU youth in it. In line with its objective, the platform will be a valuable collaboration space for youth idea owners, youth workers and all interested in the reuse and upcycling ecosystem at EU level. A core element of the platform is sharing ideas, peer learning and joint development of reuse and upcycling community initiatives. By offering new skills on community building through upcycling, the platform will increase youth and youth workers’ capacity to initiate and manage upcycle activities of their own and become local change makers. The platform will integrate inspiration corner - collaborative tool of good practices, reuse and upcycling ideation tool to facilitate a co-creation process, ecosystem roadmap, community building interactive training modules and scenario generator of reuse and upcycling community events.- e-Learning digital roadmap to ecosystem of reuse and upcycling (PR2) will equip youth workers and young with tools, skills and content to improve their expert knowledge on reuse and upcycling. It will be implemented through Roadmap to ecosystem of reuse and upcycling, podcasts as interactive conversations with 8 groups of actors and video content of motion infographic identifying different actors and the role of youth communities. The final outcome is a Digital flipbook of Roadmap to ecosystem to reuse and upcycling that will include podcasts and motion videos. Youth communities will become aware with the whole reuse and upcycling ecosystem, individual actors and their roles, so they can use this knowledge in their advantage. Digital roadmap as a tool will encourage youth communities to become indispensable members, activists and better experts in the whole reuse and upcycling ecosystems. - Community building through upcycling training modules (PR3) will include 7 modules namely the content on concept of Circular economy, Innovative community Building practices through reusing, Active youth in the ecosystem, How the whole ecosystem work and what is the role of youth in it, How to get community involved, Best channels for community involvement, How to organise a Community Event and How to disseminate a Community Event. Community building capacities will be given to youth to become upcycling ambassadors of their own communities. Joint staff training event as ToT week will be implemented in Madrid, Spain and national trainings in partner countries. One training and a festival lead by young people will be implemented by each partner in their country. The final outcome is community building interactive training modules that will be uploaded on ScaleUPcycling platform to be further used.

CULTURAL HERITAGE, NEW TECHNIQUES AND SUSTAINABILIY SHAPE OUR IDENTITIES AND LIVES The regions Friesland (NL), Central Bulgaria (BG), Valencia (ES) bear a wealth of intangible heritage, such as traditions, knowledge of old crafts and social networks. What all regions have in common as well is waste. It has become essential to create a circular economy in which the reuse of products and raw materials is maximised and their value destruction minimised. In Craft Your Future students examine whether the advancing technology and trends can help revitalize old crafts using waste as raw material. STUDENTS IN THE LEAD The rise of youth unemployment in the EU underlines the necessity to spark a dynamic and positive attitude among young people towards enterprising behaviour, networking skills and pro-activity. Learning by doing and educating students to take initiative and investigate opportunities themselves, rather than waiting for others to take the initiative, will increase employability. Craft Your Future addresses this need by the key focus on the initiative of the student. OBJECTIVES Craft your Future recognises that young people in Europe must look outwards and proactively engage with the challenges and opportunities that our modern globalising world provides. What trends & new technologies (e.g. 3D printing and laser cutting but also the use of big data, new ways of interacting, social entrepreneurship, circular economy) are feeding into our society today that can lift traditional crafts to the 21st century? Concretely, Craft your Future aims to: • Let VET students become closer to and more involved with their regions old crafts and traditions and cherish it. • Ensure young people have the power, knowledge and competences to be the change for sustainability that our world needs. • Educate VET students to be the innovators in the companies they will work for in the future by letting become aware of trends & new technologies and learn how to spot them. • Start the inter-cultural conversation and exchange between youngsters about cultural heritage (traditional crafts), trends & new techniques and the circular economy, let them discover what their regions have in common and how using trends & new techniques can push traditional crafts to the 21st century in a circular economy. • Increase the pool of work based learning opportunities for students in order to develop their competences for future working life. • Preserve cultural heritage by using culture as a driver for creative innovation, turning intangible tradition and waste management issues into a real future by using trends and new techniques. • Develop VET teachers’ skills by letting them to work with their students on ‘real-life’ cases. • Reinforce VET colleges network by setting up a cooperation with regional stakeholders. • Create a bridge between generations. The young generation will understand the elder generation better by getting to know them through their craft knowledge and stories and vice versa. PARTICIPANTS Craft Your Future is aimed at VET students from all fields of education, thus creating a cross-sector approach and allowing students from not only different countries but also different backgrounds to learn from each other. Secondly it is aimed at VET teachers and VET colleges anf world of work stakeholders (local authorities, cultural centres, regional craftsmen, artists, (social) businesses, etc.). ACTIVITIES Craft Your Future students are in the lead to 1) investigate challenges and opportunities on the cutting edge of traditional crafts, trends & new technologies and the circular economy, 2) design innovative solutions to the challenge of waste recycling by using traditional crafts and trends & new technologies, 3) propose solutions and innovations to the world of work and develop community strategies to convince communities to buy local & sustainable. Craft Your Future will develop the following tangible products: • IO1 - Craft your Future - Student Training Programme • IO2 - Craft your Future - Regional Alliance set-up toolkit • IO3 - Craft Your Future - Regional strategy and action plan • IO4 - Craft your Future - Online Community METHODOLOGY Craft Your Future is a true Strategic Partnership meaning all partners provide their key input that contributes to the realisation of the project goals and concrete deliverables. IMPACT & LONG TERM BENEFITS The Craft Your Future project unites educational institutions, students, local authorities, creative centres and (social) businesses in creating a strategy that help regions use intangible cultural heritage to increase their attractiveness, boost local economies and build a future based on regional resources. Craft Your Future ensures young people have the power, knowledge and competences to be the change for sustainability (in the broadest sense) that our world needs.