Open Eyes Economy Young

Description

In this project, we are making young people, students from secondary schools and universities in the City of Cracow, more familiar with the subject of the economy of values. Our aim is to strengthen civil society and increase civic participation in the dissemination of knowledge about climate change. We engage young people in educational and implementation activities as part of the Open Eyes Economy (OEE) movement, which promotes the economy of values and sustainable development. We run educational and motivational activities (as the OEE Academy) and enable young people to test their acquired knowledge by participating in an environmental hackathon and implementing their own initiatives. Participants work in task groups and then complete specific objectives, e.g. developing and submitting proposals for the civic budget. Challenges addressed by the project include a lack of the sense of agency and low civic engagement among young people, insufficient civic education and little knowledge of climate change. As a result of the project, 100 prepared, motivated and experienced young activists will become sustainably involved in various initiatives strengthening civil society and environmental action. The young people will not only acquire useful knowledge, but will also develop key competences such as the abilities to cooperate, solve difficult problems, negotiate or present their own ideas. This will be possible thanks to educational and creative activities and the involvement of young people in activating activities. The project builds on the GAP Foundation''s previous activities increasing the role of young people in decision-making processes.

Summary of project results

The main goal of the project was to strengthen civil society and increase civic activity, including dissemination of knowledge about climate change, by 100 students of Krakow secondary schools and universities, by engaging them in educational and implementation activities as part of the Open Eyes Economy (OEE) movement. The project was a response to the problem we diagnosed, namely - young people negatively evaluate the level of civic education in schools - the topic is too rarely discussed, and the school does not prepare them to take civic actions. Low knowledge about NGOs and volunteering is diagnosed, and only a dozen or so percent of Poles are engaged in volunteering (the EU average is approximately 30%). Additionally, young people often do not believe that engaging in social activities can bring a positive change in the local environment. There are knowledge deficits related to the tools for involvement in urban affairs (including the participatory budget).

As part of the project, the youth participating in the project were divided into 4 groups:
1. Group for projects for the civic budget of the city of Krakow, which created the following products:
- 12 projects submitted to the civic budget of the City of Krakow - the projects were subjected to formal verification, and 2 of them were qualified for voting; unfortunately, the projects did not receive funding
- A city-wide promotional campaign encouraging people to vote for a project for the participatory budget - as part of this campaign, a sponsored article and a new Instagram account were created (62 followers, 19 posts, total number of likes - 250); There were 11 posts on the OEES Instagram profile with 452 reactions

2. OEES Eco-University Group, which has created the following products:
- 5 expert lectures/workshops as part of the EcoUniversity - materials were posted on the OEES account on YT and on the project website; According to statistics on YT, the videos received 260 out of 100 planned views
- 4 films (+shortcuts) were created from lectures on the challenges related to climate change

3. Materials group within the youth section Good to Know, which created the following products:
- 20 materials for "Good to Know" developed by participants (articles, podcasts), young people created 4 articles and 16 podcasts

4. OEES Young Ambassadors Council Group, which created the following products:
- substantive session organized by the project participants - as part of the activities of the Young Ambassadors Council, the youth prepared and implemented 2 substantive sessions as part of the "Youth Night Conversations" event; 7 speakers and 92 participants took part in the sessions

The recipients of most of the activities were participants of the "Open Eyes Economy Young" project. Additionally, in the case of "Night Young Conversations", these were people interested in the topics discussed during both sessions, mainly residents of Krakow.

Thanks to the activities carried out, especially as part of the OEE Academy, young people increased their knowledge of acting in accordance with the OEE movement.
During the project, we achieved the following results:
- 100 trained OEE Academy students - each person took part in at least one of the three Academy modules
- 8 hours training and 8 hours workshops as part of the OEE Academy, 16 hours in total. classes completed at the OEE Academy
- creation of a new body - the Council of OEES Young Ambassadors, 27 Council members - the Council was established and consisted of 27 people who operated continuously until December 2023
- 30 trained EcoUniversity participants
- 100 Hackathon participants - 100 people took part in two Hackathon events
- 22 hours creative work during the Hackathon - both Hackathons were one-day, one lasted 10 hours, the other 12 hours, which gives a total of 22 hours of work by 20 teams
- 127 participants of the summary meeting out of the planned 120
- evaluation report - at the end of the project, young people were asked to complete evaluation questionnaires, from which a report was later created
- 1 social media campaign on saving water, 3 videos on TikTok were created as part of this campaign, 20 people participated in a street survey
- 38 works were submitted as part of the photography competition, of which 30 were allowed to vote.

Thanks to the implementation of the project, we made young people interested in the Foundation''s activities. What the evaluation report shows is that young people have ideas on how they would like to continue to cooperate with us. Additionally, the fact that even after the project ends, young people still want to participate in the activities proposed by the Foundation shows that the activities we offer are attractive to them. Thanks to participation in the project, young people gained new skills and competences that we will be able to use in the future when organizing other events with them.