“Blooming Schools” aimed to empower and equip young people in secondary schools with right tools, competences and skills to become environmental change-makers, raise awareness and take action with a dutiful approach. To achieve this, we aimed to a collaboration with schools and teachers who are heavily involved into their education. Youth at this age (13-18 years old) spend the most of their time at school, take examples and inspiration from their educators and choose their career path at the end of this journey based on their experiences, likes and dislikes. The specific objectives were: - Building the skills and competences of young people to carry out environmental actions - Increasing the confidence of teachers to support their students on an environmental practice journey - Increasing awareness about the importance of environmental citizenship - Supporting young people to develop their emotional resilience to carry on, in a way that ignites individual initiative - Helping young people realise their potential to create change - Contributing to a more sustainable future through increasing biodiversity and fight against climate change
The partnership applied for this project because we recognized the urgent need to address several pressing challenges. At a global level, humans face issues such as climate changes and biodiversity loss, which is occurring at alarming rates. These problems affect people’s wellbeing, and experts identified growing concerns regarding the climate or eco-anxieties of young people. Many feel worried about the environmental crises and experience hopelessness regarding their futures. At the schools’ level, teachers often lack the confidence to incorporate outdoor environments and nature-based learning into their subjects. This project sought to train them in using STEAM approaches in environmental projects, which aimed to empower educators and students alike. At the organisational level, we aimed to strengthen our collaborations with secondary schools to better engage young people aged 13-18, and develop quality resources to embed in our core works. Additionally, we worked on creating national environmental education activities focused on wildlife gardens to improve local biodiversity and targeting the Sustainable Development Goals.