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Nature 101: A tool for all the purposes

2019-1-PT02-KA105-0058822019Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: PT|FR|EE|RO|PL|BE|SE|RS|IT · Grant: €23,850
Pedagogy and didacticsQuality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)Environment and climate change

Objectives

As years pass by, we find and agree that nature is moving, evolving in unpredictable directions. Climate is changing, getting unstable and warming at an increasingly fast rate. All the environmental problematics we have been discussing for years are just intensifying and all the measures we took to strike them are far from being enough. But mostly, the environmental management is being awfully misused, as we can affirm by the forest fires that stroke Portugal last summer and getting those proportions mostly from bad forest management and poor community education. More than ever, it's required an effective and well-directed environmental education program, that can give the right knowledge and mindset to the population, for it is by changing minds and promoting the right attitudes that we can give a twist to this situation. In that, youth have a very important paper. They are the ones that can make a bigger impact, the ones who have the fresh energy to change and mobilize the rest of the community. But, as we find, they are increasingly caring less about nature, having no knowledge or interest about it at all. Youth workers are the people who can help change this situation. But, even if they have a lot of enthusiasm and focus regularly on this topic, they lack knowledge for it, they lack tools, they lack approaches. And all that enthusiasm is being misdirect. They can't properly develop a bond between youth and nature. They are misguided, with a sterile enthusiasm. Being a NGO meant to work with youth and environmental education, with a professional knowledge of ecology, we believe we can help change this situation by equipping youth workers with the right tools for the job. We mean to teach them how to use nature as an educational tool! We want to spread our environmental education knowledge across Europe, so as to improve the poor work that has been done with it in the youth field, as most organizations who use it are not qualified enough and are wasting its capacity as a pedagogic tool for youth working, misdirecting their efforts for trendy superficial topics that lead nowhere or doing blank recreational outdoor activities with no practical learning purpose. For that, we mean to train a group of youth workers that can carry those new approaches around and also contribute to optimize them, helping us build the perfect nature educational tool for youth. This way, we mean for this project to: -Increase the quality standards of environmental education at an European level -Equip youth workers with the proper competences to use nature as an educational tool -State the importance of network and joined efforts in the environmental causes -Share good practices and experiences and the different realities across countries -Set the basis for the increase of youth engagement and participation into nature and environment -Increase community and individual awareness on the ecological potential of their own region -Increase the level of knowledge in environmental questions and strike the spread of false information -Promote nature as a frequent work environment for youth -Promote nature as a tool for education and inclusion of marginalized youth -Promote nature as an universal and intercultural language -Install a critical mentality and right focus on all the stakeholders involved -Produce a major side information and guidance manual for youth workers to follow

Project partners (9)