GAYA – Global Alternatives for Young Actors Erasmus Project

Project Title

GAYA – Global Alternatives for Young Actors

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Research and innovation; Environment and climate change; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

Becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 is the greatest challenge and opportunity of our time. To this end, the European Commission has presented the Green Pact for Europe, a highly ambitious package of measures that should enable EU citizens and businesses to benefit from a sustainable environmental transition.

Our lifestyles and consumption patterns and, upstream, a disproportionate exploitation of our resources and raw materials are leading humanity to a dead end. Every year we drain 1.75 planet Earth’s natural resources, humanity lives “on credit” by depleting limited planetary stocks (the day of the overrun in 2019: July 29th.).
On the other hand, the extension of human living space is leading us to a collapse of biodiversity, which is harmful to life in general.
In addition, soil depletion and various forms of pollution are deteriorating our living environment and that of all living things.
As adults and educators, we believe that it is time to react and to make an ecological transition in our societies because, throughout the world, the manifestations of disruption are already very present in our lives (droughts, floods, heat waves, fires, rising water levels, etc.).
Often, young people think that the future is blocked, that dialogue with the adult generations is impossible, that the expression of their problems and their proposals comes up against deafness, sometimes with the contempt of adults, then the project will try to tell them on the contrary that the future belongs to them, that listening and transmission on the part of adults is there, if they give themselves the means to be a force of proposals and actions for the earth.

The GAYA project plans to create a network of schools both within and outside the European Union. The pupils who will make up this partnership of at least 12 schools must invest themselves in the preservation of the planet and in the fight against climate change, not just as pupils, but as citizens of the world (because we are all concerned, whatever our nationality). The young citizens of GAYA will thus constitute a “Youth Parliament of the World” (or at least the embryo). In this sense, an election of the representatives of each school will be organised according to a democratic process to be defined by them… We will put our students to work to find concrete solutions based on 5 axes: housing, transport, food… By involving schools outside the EU that are already impacted by these changes, the reflection will be transposed to the world.
This project will therefore be a path of active citizenship for the young people of the GAYA project, they will be led to deepen the aspects of European citizenship, to then address elements of global citizenship, in connection with the United Nations Organization (which will receive the results of the project).
The expected results are the creation of a WebTV containing video clips and podcasts made during the 2 years of the project as well as the setting up of a young students’ parliament allowing to empower high school students and to perpetuate our project in the long term.
Thus, the attributes of a world state will be created by the young citizens of GAYA: flag, anthem, logo, motto, organization and democratic management. Of course, this GAYA state will only have a fictitious existence, but it will also have a highly symbolic significance to signify that all humans must invest in preserving our beautiful planet, for the present time and for future generations.
To conclude with a quotation, that of Nicholas Sheakespeare, in his novel “The Vision of Elena Silves (1989): “they failed because they did not start with the dream”. In this sense, the GAYA project has every chance of succeeding….

It’s time to set out on a path for the future of future generations !

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 224060 Eur

Project Coordinator

Collège de la lys & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Lycee professionnel Rene COUZINET
• Valmiera State Gymnasium
• IIS Leonardo Da Vinci
• Lycée de Taravao
• Forssan yhteislyseo