Active Eco-systems: Education for citizen engagement and climate action

<< Background >>The partners applied with the primary aim to strengthen the capacity of youth in Germany and the Netherlands to explore, understand, and develop innovative solutions to address the effects of climate change through climate education, citizen engagement, and social innovation. The needs we have addressed through this project were the following:- Participating organisations: The project helped both consortium organizations, 2811 and STT, to improve the quality and impact of their work through climate action, scale up their educational practices, and promote strategic alliances.- Youth workers and teachers: With comprehensive research emphasizing that most formal and informal educational practitioners are interested in incorporating climate-related topics into their daily activities, but often lack adequate resources, our project sought to create, adapt, and train the latter in innovative didactic and methodological contents.- Youth/secondary education students: With young people, in their age group as secondary education students, often lacking a graspable approach to complex social and environmental topics, the project sought to engage them in dynamic ideation projects focused on solving local environmental challenges.<< Objectives >>The objectives of the project were divided in 4 key aspects, stated in the application: SO1: Raise awareness among teachers and other educators in both countries through training programmes about environmental-related challenges and the benefits of engaging young people through climate action, as well as provide them with appropriate tools for enhancing youth involvement in contributing to the creation of local strategies for addressing climate change.SO2: Raising awareness and enhancing the green skills of youth (14-17 years old) concerning climate action by creating, providing and implementing new innovative educational methodologies focused on the transition to sustainable and resilient socio-environmental ecosystems.SO3: Increase the number of educational programs, including active citizenship, youth and social entrepreneurship, and climate action in the curricula.SO4: Promote the interregional and transnational exchange of knowledge, skills, and values betweenteachers and youth from Germany and the Netherlands related to citizen engagement, climate action, and European sustainability policies. << Implementation >>Kick-off event: This activity was organised as an open online session with 12 international participants joining to learn about the intersection between climate change, education, and innovation.Capacity building sessions: The consortium partners implemented 3 capacity building activities with staff members of both consortium organisations on various points related to project management.Teacher Trainings: 40 participants joined the 4 online modules and 4 live online sessions in Germany. In the Netherlands, 18 teachers from 3 Dutch schools participated in a two-part training to prepare them for the Citizen Engagement module.Citizen Engagement modules: In Germany, 58 students, 4 youth workers and teachers, and 9 experts joined an in-person ideation event focused on developing climate change adaptation initiatives in schools. In the Netherlands, 60 students, 3 teachers, and 11 experts joined a two-day in-person climathon focused on co-developing citizen engagement strategies for urban greening in Houten.Workshops: Finally, the partner organisations implemented 3 national and 1 transnational workshops with a total of 51 participants to disseminate the project’s results to relevant stakeholders and organisations.<< Results >>- Development and compilation of five online modules developed in the context of the Educators' Training activities and published on the learning management system platform “Teachable”, which continues to be freely accessible.- The development and publication of a Citizen Engagement Digital Handbook focused on providing detailed methodological guidelines for organising and setting up ideation events such as Climathons and key technical and logistical advice to guarantee the implementation of successful and impactful events.- Development of innovative methodological and didactic resources for youth and students, as part of implementing the Citizen Engagement Module, namely two ideation events in Germany and the Netherlands (1 in each country), focused on solving local environmental challenges.- Development and implementation of a Communication and Dissemination plan, aimed at sharing the project’s results through compelling social media interventions and the implementation of 3 national and international workshops.