YOUTH EXCHANGE, PÄRNU, ESTONIA, 10-19 JULY 2007
Supported by Youth in Action Programme of European Commission.
Travel costs for Croatian participants co-financed by City of Sisak – Department for Spatial Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection and Sisak-Moslavina County – Department for Environmental and Nature Protection.
Participative organisations:
1. “Life Zone” – Pärnu, Estonia (host)
2. “Local Democracy Agency Sisak” – Sisak, Croatia
3. “Youth Centre Livno” – Livo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
4. “Going to Europe” – Modena, Italy
Participants:
Young people age 15-25 (32 + 4 group leaders = 36 total)
General objectives of the Youth in Action Programme:
- promotes young people’s active citizenship in general and their European citizenship in particular;
- develops solidarity and promote tolerance among young people, in particular in order to foster social cohesion in the European Union;
- fosters mutual understanding between young people in different countries;
- promotes European cooperation in the youth field.
Description of the project:
The exchange aims to tackle arguments such like the sustainable development, recycling and environment preservation. The topics will be developed with the help of practical workshops of recycling, with visual art like videos on recycling, deforestation and critical consumption and with a theatre performance on recycling and critical consumption.
The exchange aims to raise the awareness of youngsters on the importance each of us has on the fulfilment of the European policies on these arguments. Starting from the point that awareness brings the amount of criticism that can foster us to be active, the exchange will contribute to develop knowledge, criticism and tools to be active to the youngsters, in a way that they feel how much in Europe we are in different stages, but that it is also necessary that we begin to act as a single entity.
- the theme(s) and objectives of the project,
The exchange wants to face the theme of the sustainable development, tackling both the theme of the critical consumption and of recycling.
The general objectives are to raise the awareness that thanks to the active and responsible participation of each of us and thanks to our own civic engagement we can contribute to, at least, improve the quality and sustainability inside the European Union and even more.
The particular objectives are: to foster awareness on the importance of a responsible consumption, to develop a critical approach on consumption, to foster the awareness on the importance of small habits and gestures that will create a better world, to exchange perceptions from different countries, both coming from the European Union and for South Eastern Europe and all responsible for a better and more sustainable living standard.
- the activities foreseen throughout the project,
Implementation of the exchange:
– introduction, confrontations and discussions on European and national policies on sustainable development, fair trade, recycling and environmental conservation and about the Millennium Goals: the discussion will be facilitated by the leaders, inputs from the discussions done in each country will be considered and discussed
– workshop on the art of recycling: youngsters from each country will teach the techniques to reproduce musical instruments from their own cultures to the other youngsters; the youngsters will create a scenography with recycled staff; learning moment of how to do tools and utensils. The workshop will be facilitated by a member of an environmental NGO
– discussions with experts, members of local authorities and environmental NGOs
– projection of movies on critical consumption, deforestation and recycling
– theatre performance: it will be done on the themes of the critical consumption and of recycling. All the city will be invited, but mainly the youngsters of our organization will be present
– trips and games in the surrounding areas: these activities will give the opportunity to the youngsters to get in touch with the area of the exchange, to live moments directly in relation with the surrounding nature and to reflect on the topic of the exchange
– parliament simulation: the youngsters will have the opportunity to experiment a real debate on environmental issues, where they will have the opportunity to defend their own opinion and to foster an ideal.
