By preparing a set of research and training activities, youth work on local level and outputs we aim to improve the ability of NGOs, youth workers and youth groups to develop their own projects and activities that tackle environmental issues in urban areas, especially through mitigating climate change impact on cities. The strategic partnership encompasses an important aspect of bringing innovation to youth work with youngsters who want to tackle climate change issues in their local areas, but lack the means and tools to do so efficiently and to use this process in order to learn. Through a series of research activities, methodology development and work on a local level, the project aims to create a knowledge base for best practices of climate change mitigation activities carried out by youth and youth engagement (and its limits) in such activities. The main outcomes are: series of climate change mitigation projects/activities carried out by youth groups with support of the organizations to benefit their local communities, concise methodology of work with such youth groups and an interactive online tool that can support youth groups in developing their own climate change mitigation activities. The youth groups members, youth workers and NGO members will be trained through a series of training activities to foster their ability to work with the methodologies and strengthen their competences of working on such projects. Furthermore, the 3 participating organizations will exchange experience in project-related areas, train in new related skills they currently need, expand their activities systematically to a new target group and gain tools for more effective online work with target groups. The training activities and local work with youth groups will be based on non-formal education methods. We envision long term impact on a local level of the participating organization by providing climate change mitigation activities by local youth through bottom up approach, as well as impact quality and use of innovative approaches by other youth workers and organizations through wide distribution of the outputs developed during this strategic partnership.
Through this project, our objectives were to: - Bolster civic and youth campaigning, activism, and participation in cities to decrease cities' contribution to the climate crisis. - Empower young people to be independent and proactive in implementing community-based projects focused on cutting emissions. - Support cross-sectoral cooperation between young people and NGOs to enhance their capacity to support youth-led projects. - Develop an innovative methodology for working with young people in climate change mitigation and adaptation, distributed to young people and educators. - Create a multilingual website as a resource hub for innovative methodologies supporting community-driven initiatives. - Increase the inclusion of young people in civic participation and decision-making processes. - Establish a support and learning network for young people from Czechia, Slovakia, and Austria engaged in climate change activism. These objectives aimed to empower young people, foster collaboration, develop innovative approaches, increase participation, and contribute to global climate change mitigation efforts.
We applied for this project to address the urgent need to tackle climate change's impact on urban environments. As organizations working in cities, we recognized their significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions and vulnerability to climate change. We aimed to empower young people to advocate for change and lacked competences, inspiration, opportunities to connect, and support networks. We also identified the need for organizations and youth workers to work systematically on climate change. Our project aimed to strengthen competences through research, methodology development, local work, and knowledge sharing. The outcomes included climate change projects, a methodology, an online tool, and training activities. We aimed for long-term impact by empowering local youth, promoting innovative approaches, and disseminating project outputs.