By implementing the project, we have hoped to achieve two objectives: 1. to build up the capacities of our organizations to understand and address the environmental crisis caused by human behavior, specifically by modern travel practices, and 2. to empower young people to take action by asking questions, building a healthier and more sustainable relationship with the environment, and acting as a factor of change by encouraging other members of their generation to engage in more environmentally-friendly travel practices and in more creative forms of civic activism. We wanted to build our institutional capacities for work with young people on challenging topics (in particular environmental protection), to empower them to think critically and to engage with their communities, and to start building partnerships across Europe for work on common projects. Because of the profile and interests of our trainers, we were also very keen on exploring the themes of environmental protection and fight against climate change by encouraging active citizenship and civic engagement on environmental topics, and promoting alternative forms of participation through artistic expression.
We have addressed two types of needs: our own institutional ones and the needs of the young people active in our organizations. On this particular project, these two types of needs have found a common intersection in the fields of environmental protection and sustainable economic development, in particular sustainable travel and tourism. Our trainers have been increasingly feeling insufficiently knowledgeable about environmental and climate change topics, and have looked for opportunities to increase our institutional knowledge and capacities in order to be able to respond to the demand by young people to explore the topic. We also share with our young participants the concern for the future raised by the now visible impact our behavior has on the environment. We have thus applied for the project in order to increase our capacities to understand the environmental and climate changes taking place in the world in order to be able to effectively engage with young people and activate them to trigger changes in their own behavior and in their societies and communities. As the topics covered by the project are global, an international approach was needed and Erasmus+ presented an excellent opportunity to work cross-nationally.