This project aimed to promote ethical and solidarity finances, especially in the European Mediterranean region, to raise awareness among young people of the importance of keeping their savings in entities that invest in social and environmental projects rather than in armaments or a speculative economy and to promote active advocacy actions led by youngsters. The project’s goal was to raise awareness among youngsters in European countries about Ethical Finance and foster ties between groups of young people who want to invest and participate in social projects. The specific objectives were: - To increase active citizenship and young people’s sense of initiative. - To increase the level of knowledge on Ethical Finance within the young people. - To increase the engagement of young people, in local, regional and international advocacy activities. - - To increase the use of non-formal education methods and promote open digital tools. The project had both empowered and connected young people who wanted to have their say and take action in the realm of Economic Justice.
As stated in the application, youngsters are suffering from diverse constraints due to previous crises that have been increasing in consequence of the pandemic, and are already claiming for changes on public policies, practices and everyday choices of human beings. However, the needed paradigm change requires the alteration of consciousness, a new work mind-set and skills development. This project arises from the hand of a group of young people from different organizations that began to meet in September 2020 after the General Assembly of RIPESS, which established the need and desire to build a joint project by and for young people under the main idea that “Young people lack Social Solidarity Economy, and above all, that Social Solidarity Economy lacks young people”. On January 27, 2021, in the framework of the World Social Forum, we presented the activity: "Setting the trends in activism for the economic transition". Listening to the majority of the group, we understood that one of the needs of the young people was to learn more about Ethical Finance and local currencies so that savings and money flows would be related to social projects and not to speculation.