Climate change and environmental crises made it clear to us that there is no other way than sustainability, and that we have to radically change our habits in order to be able to serve a finite planet. Yet, we as humans have approached sustainability from a very narrow perspective, expecting scientists to come up with phantasmagoric technologies, implementing sporadic actions or regulations that focus on very specific targets, like reducing our carbon footprint. All so very important and still not enough. We cannot change as long as we are stuck in an old paradigm attached to concepts like individualism, consumption, etc. We need a holistic approach, which involves everyone in achieving the big goal in front of us. We need to include all people in the process of change, creating communities which are sustainable all round. Communities with a green approach toward their environment and food production; communities with a stable and responsible financial model; communities that are able to communicate and interrelate, making effective decisions which include voices of all minorities, by practising methods like sociocracy or consensus; communities which value each individual, recognise their strengths and needs and incorporate them all, perceiving diversity as a main asset. By implementing “Sustainable Communities for You(th)” TC, we wanted to answer needs that exist in our partnership and needs we identified around us as described above. We started working on topics of sustainability and community to not only increase our individual and collective well-being, we also aimed to involve more and more people in our process of change, such as youth workers and youth. Many years ago we started our endeavour to contribute to the common good and in “Sustainable Communities for You(th)” we have found a common direction in our partnership to pursue. For the common good and for the quality of youth work delivered in our partnership and beyond. Our needs were identified as: -Discovering a more holistic approach toward challenges we are facing today, which goes beyond old patterns and explores the concept of sustainability in a new, complex way. -Involving more people in the process of change, as any kind of change in practises, regulations, technologies, approach, etc has to go parallel with changing people’s attitude. -Promoting a shift toward community thinking, as we see that doing things together is not only more sustainable (as we can share, we have bigger power to change things, etc), but it also supports individuals in their struggles with mental health, very present and visible especially in post-pandemic times. Therefore, the main objective of "Sustainable Communities for You(th)", was to have a closer look at, discuss, analyse and practise sustainable communities. Based on our experiences, deep discussions between representatives of partner organisations and detailed research, which included both reading and listening about existing sustainable communities (examples of sources we used are listed later on in the application), as well as observing some of them directly, we identified four basic pillars of sustainability: 1. Personal sustainability, understood as awareness of one’s talents, strengths, dreams, values, goals, visions and ability to follow them and use them effectively in one’s development and search for fulfilment and happiness. 2. Collective sustainability, understood as the ability of communities and groups to make decisions in a fair, inclusive manner, based on nonviolent communication and active listening to all its members as well as solving conflicts in a way that empowers people instead of divides them. 3. Financial sustainability, understood as being able to get the resources needed for the community to thrive in a responsible and effective way. 4. Environmental sustainability, understood as building our spaces, sourcing our food, dealing with wider nature, having in mind not only the needs of our species, but also the needs of other beings and of the planet as a whole. We envision a society as a house that cannot stand on one pillar alone. We need all four pillars to be sound and solid in order to ensure sustainability and resilience in the long run. Other objectives: - Getting to know tools of personal, collective, financial and environmental sustainability that can be used directly in our work with partner organisations, youth and local communities. - Reflecting on what “community” means for us, becoming open for creating various kinds of communities with our coworkers, family, neighbours, youth, based on principles like respect and appreciation of diversity; giving voice to people who may not be heard enough, through better approaches to communication and decision-making; joint effort to take on the climate crisis and take deep care of the environment in its broader sense. - Deepening our relation with partner organisations, building with them an international sustainable community.