The YGBN project aimed to support young people with fewer opportunities (YPFO) in reconnecting with nature through ESOA, guided by the partner organizations. Its main objective was to make sustainable outdoor activities accessible and effective for YPFO, reaching 2322 (initially targeting 2000) members of the youth community across Bulgaria, Italy, Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, and Lithuania – YPFO, youth workers and organizations. The objective was divided into three parts—Engage, Connect, and Empower—aligned with the EU Youth Goals. The project first sought to engage vulnerable youth (WP2), resulting in case studies from three Learning Exchange Events, three short documentaries, and three ESOA toolkits. The second goal was to connect the youth community (WP3) by creating the Youth Outdoor Portal (YOP) and the European Youth Outdoor Network (EYON). The third goal was to empower YPFO and the youth community (WP4–WP5), involving over 200 participants in discussions, training 28 youth workers to apply the toolkits with 80 local young people, and reaching over 500 individuals through large-scale events such as the Online Youth Outdoor Conference and the European Youth Outdoor Festival, complemented by dissemination actions by partners.
It is the surrounding environment that gives life and protects us. If one possesses the appropriate tools and facilitated access, the outdoors offers endless opportunities for personal and professional growth, for ways to care for the community, and to sustain the environment. That potential of the environmentally sustainable outdoor activities (ESOA) must be unleashed. Many international (e.g.UN Sustainable Development Goals), EU (e.g.EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 and the 11 Youth Goals), and local bodies are alerting for the needs of young people with fewer opportunities for development, mental and physical health improvement as they transition to adulthood. There is also the need to promote sustainable interaction and care for the environment that is incorporated in ESOA. Applying the potential of ESOA and the benefits for the youth are the motivation to initiate the project ‘’Youth Going Back to Nature’’. In searching for ways to develop the potential of the idea we were inspired by and addressed the European Union Youth Strategy and the 11 European Youth Goals. Thus, we decided to ‘’Engage, Connect, Empower’’ young people with fewer opportunities to go back to nature and embrace the potential of ESOA.