SEEKING ECO GIANTS: capacitando, involucrando y activando a educadores y jóvenes para la protección medioambiental y la lucha contra el cambio climático.

<< Background >>The SEEKING ECO GIANTS was inspired by the local program Seeking Giants of Joveoslides (Spain), which aims at engaging young people in discussing current issues, offer solutions and formulate policy proposals that are then communicated to local decision-makers and stakeholders. The project took this example of active youth participation and advocacy and transformed it through the glance of sustainable development and protecting the environment. In addition, it wanted to update the methodology of the program, leveraging new concepts like design thinking and rapid prototyping. This experience was brought in by Italian partner Formicubalum. Two more partners with similar interests and needs were added from different parts of Europe: in Turkey and Latvia. Thus, the project answered the need to revitalize initiatives for supporting youth advocacy, while at the same time engaging young people on the crucially important topic for protecting the environment and fighting climate change. From that thematic perspective, the project also sought to contribute to the implementation of the European Green Deal and meeting of relevant targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. << Objectives >>The objectives of the project were:To promote the Sustainable Development Goals through methodological and training tools that increase the skills of youth educators.To strengthen partner organisations in their potential to protect the environment, promoting the EXCHANGE OF GOOD PRACTICES.To foster the VISIBILITY and POLITICAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT of activities by educators and young people with fewer opportunities by promoting an active and empowered vision of youth as agents of change.<< Implementation >>A1.CREATION OF METHODOLOGICAL TOOLS. The methodology was thanks to the previous experience of Formicablu in design thinking and Jovesolides in youth advocacy processes, with the participation of all partners (including through a transnational meeting). To support the process, a communication plan was developed.A2.TRAINING OF TRAINERS. 12 trainers from the 4 participating country were trained in n in-person training of trainers, taking place in Valencia (Spain) for 4 days in June 2023. It prepared the partners to use the methodology designed in A1 on local level (A3). A3.LOCAL WORKSHOPS AND ADVOCACY EVENTS. Partners ran Seeking Eco Giants workshops with young people in their countries and collaboratively with the young people elaborated 10 sets of policy proposals. The latter were communicated with online campaigns and presented at dissemination and advocacy events in each country. Following an online evaluation meeting, the results were used to make final touches to the project toolkit, which was then made public. << Results >>The project has achieved:- 1 training methodology for environmental protection and the fight against climate change published in one electronic 1 toolkit.- 12 youth educators trained to plan and run educational and advocacy processes with young people on local level, using concepts of design thinking- 4 educational workshops for young people were organized in the 4 countries, engaging 107 young people- 4 dissemination and advocacy events organized across the partner countries, involving a 302 people - 10 sets of advocacy proposals created by young people and presented to 19 politicians and stakeholders- Social media campaigning communicating the policy proposals, reaching more than 5000 people