Fast fashion has become an alarming trend that keeps growing within the EU and overall, the whole planet. This was accentuated in the last years among youth by the rise of influencers who promote clothing hauls and fashion sales on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, where Gen Y, Z and Alpha individuals are most active. Besides, the amount of fast fashion stores that keep opening and the low level of sustainable fashion education available for teenagers and young adults contribute to the expansion of the fast fashion culture. The European Union adopted in the past years a series of measures and directives that are aimed to increase the sustainable fashion knowledge and use among its citizens, contributing in this way to creating more sustainable and environmentally-friendly communities: the “EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles”, which is part of the circular economy action plan and aims to make textiles more durable, repairable, reusable and recyclable by 2030; the “Ban on destroying unsold clothing” from large companies which starts in 2026 in the EU; the “Waste Framework Directive” from 2025, which includes textile waste amendments and the “ReSet theTrend” campaign which empowers young people to fight fast fashion. To the above-mentioned initiatives, strategies and campaigns, we add the official existing statistics that continuously show the negative effects that fast fashion is bringing to our society. Textile consumption is one of the top three pressures on water and land use. Moreover, when discussing numbers at the EU level, 5.8 million tonnes of textiles are discarded every year in the EU, making it around 11.3 kg per person - a number with a huge negative impact on the health of our planet. The idea of this project was contoured during a youth exchange held by our organisation in Romania, last summer, coming from some of the participants. In order to contribute to these initiatives and promote “slow”and sustainable fashion among youth, we came up with the idea of a youth exchange in which young people can develop competences linked to sustainable practices in fashion, this leading to creating more communities oriented towards responsible shopping and environmental protection. This need isn’t felt only by us, but by other members from youth organisations around Europe and youngsters from these communities (based on a research done in each of them - results shown in the first "Partnerships" field). By discovering this common need together with them, we created this partnership in which together with other 4 organisations and with the help of some youngsters and volunteers from each community, we developed “Wear the Change”. The need for learning more about sustainable fashion is seen by the statistics in each participant country as well: in Portugal and Greece the top-selling e-commerce store in the past years was Shein, with 10% in PT and 9% in EL of total sales/country (https://bit.ly/45AWYda). According to a study from 2024, the fast fashion products in Hungary make up 12% of the fashion consumer basket (https://bit.ly/4btExe4). Based on the existing statistics from 2024, the kilograms of textile waste per capita were: between 5-10 kg in RO, HU and EL and more than 15 kg in PT (https://bit.ly/3LIHsFm). Lastly, according to a research paper from 2025 (https://bit.ly/4qH6zqQ), the Georgian fashion market is currently dominated by high-rate impulsive consumption and low-quality imports. These facts and numbers demonstrate the need of the people from these communities to gain more knowledge on sustainable fashion and how to contribute to it. PROJECT GOAL: Increase the level of competences on sustainable fashion practices among 40 young people aged 18-25 from Romania, Greece, Georgia, Portugal and Hungary by the end of the project. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: O1. Equip the 40 participating youngsters with sustainable fashion practical skills (mending, sewing, upcycling) through creative workshops, resulting in each participant successfully repairing or transforming at least 2 existing clothing items instead of buying new ones, by the end of the project. O2. Reduce the environmental footprint of the 40 participants by increasing their circular mindset and their use of clothing swaps and second-hand platforms, by the end of the project. O3. Increase the critical thinking skills of the 40 youngsters regarding digital fashion influence, targeting their ability to identify greenwashing and resist social pressure from social media fast fashion promotions and campaigns, by the end of the project. Our project’s objectives are linked with the EU priorities and initiatives mentioned and the objectives of partner organisations. It is also linked with the European Youth Goals and contributes to the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027.