Yes To Sustainability is a project with a mission: to empower young people through giving them life-changing experience in ecovillages and sustainable communities. After several years of creating youth exchanges – short, fully funded experiences for youth in ecovillages – YTS has now been funded by Erasmus+ to strengthen its network and share best practices so that even more young people can experience ecovillage living and be part of creating a sustainable Europe. The KA2 Strategic partnership project started with a kick off online meeting on Zoom from 23-26 February 2021.
The kick off online meeting brought together a diverse community of 19 participants representing 8 organisations from seven European countries: GEN Europe, RIVE (the Italian Ecovillage Network) , RIE (Iberian Ecovillage Network), Zavod Veles, Zeleno Doba, GEN Netherlands, GEN Germany, and GEN Europe Germany.
During the first meeting participants were introduced to the goals and objectives of the project, budget distribution, communication channels, activities and tasks of the Project team. A large amount of information was presented in a dynamic and exciting way through creative facilitation and by use of interactive online tools, presentations, group work, reflection time and sharing circles.
During the meeting, four working groups (Brochure, Communications, Networking, YE Support and Mentorship) were established. Participants were motivated and actively involved during the whole duration of the meeting and inspired to take action and dedicate their time to working groups. The groups left with a feeling of inspiration, clarity, motivation and clear understanding of activities and tasks during the next 4 months.
Project overview
The main goal of the project is to empower young people and connect them to the ecovillage and sustainability movement and give them a chance to experience that a different life is possible and that they can make a difference.
The long term objective of the project is to make a contribution to creating a resilient, low-carbon society in Europe and keeping climate change within reasonable limits.
This strategic partnership is centered on strengthening the Yes to Sustainability network and increasing its impact by supporting young people in creating sustainability youth exchanges and involving more young people as leaders and mentors in our networks.
The partner organisations aim at deepening their collaboration and sharing their experiences concerning sustainability youth exchanges and engaging more youth in the exploration of sustainable lifestyles.
The project is funded by the EU through the Erasmus + programme KA2 (strategic partnership for youth).
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