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Description
We are learning that existing policies do not provide effective solutions to environmental problems and the burden will be borne by young people, as they will live in worse environmental conditions than generations before them. This project aims to equip young people with the knowledge that will enable them to deal with environmental issues in a more efficient way.
We will acquaint young people with various environmental discourses and concepts of development, ecological democracy, environmental and ecological ethics. Being familiar with different approaches and development prospects, they will be able to think outside the box. With the new knowledge they will become more qualified for green active citizenship and participation in the green public sphere, i.e. for participation in the formulation of green policies and new strategies for the development of local communities.
In the reading and education group, young people will study basic literature in the field of political ecology, and at the same time they will get acquainted with concrete examples of active co-creation of green policies. The second part of the project will involve the participants transferring their knowledge to other young people in local communities. At workshops in youth centers in Krško, Trbovlje and Zagorje, young people will co-create action plans for solving local environmental issues.
The project will close two gaps at the same time: at the level of content and at the level of form. Through an innovative educational approach and the promotion of non-formal self-education, young people will learn the basic concepts of green active citizenship, and at the same time we will encourage them to make connections and self-organize. In this way, we will increase the possibility of young people''s participation in communication and decision-making processes at both local and national levels.
Summary of project results
The project Youth for green active citizenship addresses and reflects on existing communicational forms at the systemic level and looks at environmental issues and their solutions beyond anthropocentric and technological approaches, taking into account various environmental discourses, developmental concepts and environmental and ecological ethics that are insufficiently addressed in the education system. The project is based on the empowerment of young people for green active citizenship through the process of self-education and international networking with foreign experts and on specific forms of knowledge transfer among young people (ie. generational socialization).
The project will be implemented as a series of reading and educational groups, whose aim is to guide and facilitate the reading of foundational literature in the field of political ecology and the application of acquired knowledge to selected case studies and through the preparation of educational materials. Workshops in the youth centre will be organized to transfer acquired knowledge engage in deliberative communication with other young people (Krško, Trbovlje, Zagorje).
By forming a reading-educational circle for students, we informally created a space for discussion about key concepts of political ecology and the ecological challenges we are facing today, which until now had not been addressed in formal education. The reading circles were regularly attended by 21 students.
The increase in environmental awareness and knowledge – as well as skills in debating and writing academic texts – was further realized within the reading circle, where students developed their contributions and publicly presented them at a summer school before an international audience (developing the idea, public presentation, and defending their thesis or engaging in a discussion).
Furthermore, they developed their knowledge and environmental awareness through the preparation of workshops for transfer to youth centers, where they again publicly presented the knowledge they acquired and shared it with participants in the youth centers. A total of 58 young people participated in all the workshops. Through debate, key local problems were identified, which students then reflected on and prepared action plans to assist in further youth activities in the local community. The workshops also had an impact on raising environmental awareness and knowledge among other young people (in the youth centers), as they had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with key concepts of political ecology and environmental or ecological problems. Ultimately, they applied their knowledge to address local issues (identifying local environmental problems and debating potential solutions).