Eco friendly changes in youth lifestyles Erasmus Project

Project Title

Eco friendly changes in youth lifestyles

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 : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

The Youth Initiative project actively involves young people from the less-developed region at age of 14-24 and supports their civic engagement in environmental protection and sustainable living. The Slovak NGO Protect work and the Polish partner Fundacja Zielony Slon are cooperating on the project, which implements activities at the transnational level. The project is a response to environmental problems that are global and affect us all. It is necessary not only to educate young people about the need to protect environment, but also to create opportunities for them to actively participate in activities aimed at its protection and the sustainability of resources, which we all draw often uneconomically and irresponsibly. The project aims to teach youth to think ecologically and live a sustainable lifestyle. The international dimension of the project will allow the youth to see the problems of over-consumption of resources, energy, food, high waste overproduction and the effects of climate change on a global level. Nonformal education is aimed not only at raising environmental awareness, but also at improving literacy and developing critical thinking so that youth can recognize what Greenwashing is, for example, as green products are modern, but are often just a marketing tool, meaning packaging-free waste, to reuse things for another purpose or give things a second chance in a new design. The intention is to develop skilled young people that they can live sustainably and become advocates of LOHAS – a healthy and sustainable lifestyle and follow its principles in everyday life and “infect” their surroundings with this green style.
Young people will create a series of comic stories that will include examples of how to live a healthy and sustainable life, which means creating a lifestyle without packaging, excessive waste, shopping and consumption, tips on how to save money, time and resources, without necessarily limiting our own comfort. . At the same time, comic stories will draw attention to current environmental problems, inappropriate consumer behavior, the consequences of climate change or the non-environmental awareness of the current and past generation. Part of the activities is SWAP, where unnecessary clothes, toys, books or other things get a second chance.
The output of the project is the creation of herb-beds, which young people will use in organic cooking, through nonformal education and eco-workshops young people will learn ecological behavior that they can transfer to their families and peer environment. Young people will develop innovation and sustainability, how to cook without waste, respectively. eliminate consumption, separate waste and how to buy and use environmentally friendly materials. Households produce a lot of waste when cooking, so young people will learn how to cook sustainably and ecologically. When cooking, they use the own herbs instead of paper spices from shops.
The output of the project will be the organization of community activities with a socially positive impact, where we combine waste collection with eco-educational activities for the public – Polish and Slovak organizations regularly carry out waste collection and cleaning of public spaces, as we have many illegal landfills in the region, which irresponsible people create in forests, in parks, near lakes. Young people will show how to properly separate waste and raising their awareness so that they start to care about the impact of their behavior on the environment. One of the best ways to teach children about the environment is to involve the whole family in various activities. If there is a street, stream or forest cleaning somewhere in the area, the whole family should be involved, which is also the goal of this community activity. There is no better example for children than when they see for themselves how much waste is in nature and how big the problem is. Children will certainly become more conscious people who will be more considerate and appreciate nature more.
The output of the project will be the Sustainability Market BE IN ECO – aims to present steps towards a sustainable lifestyle that everyone can take from day to day, you can easy apply them in everyday life and have a great positive impact not only on the environment but also the family budget. The market will be connected with an exhibition of photographs, through which participants will present the ecological problems and ecological thinking of the modern age. The market, open to the public, will present tips for a LOHAS involving NGOs and local public, including ecogames, ecoworkshops chill out zone and discussions.
If human begins to think ecologically, one’s attitude towards nature, towards shopping and consumption, towards the excessive accumulation of things also begins to change. It is about changing attitudes, lifestyle and prefering LOHAS-sustainability.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 31058,3 Eur

Project Coordinator

Protect work & Country: SK

Project Partners

• Fundacja “Zielony Slon”