ABOUT SUPERHEROES OF CLIMATE CHANGE
“The Superheroes of Climate Change” is the YEU Workplan 2022, and the purpose of this workplan is to enhance the feeling of the ownership of green agenda and pursue its mainstreaming – ensuring it is high on priority list of every citizen no matter of age – by bringing the climate change closer to hearts and realities of young people around Europe by applying positive approach and “we can do it” attitude.
The aim of the work plan is to empower young people to be the frontrunners of behavioural changes towards more sustainable and greener lifestyles making the fight against global warming personal and doable for each individual.
Objectives of the project are:
- To enhance the feeling of ownership of the green agenda and pursue its mainstreaming – ensuring it is high on the priority list of every citizen no matter of age - by bringing climate change closer to the hearts and realities of young people around Europe by applying a positive approach and “we can do it” attitude.
- To empower young people to be the frontrunners of behavioural changes towards more sustainable and greener lifestyles making the fight against global warming personal and doable for each individual;
- To create critical mass of young people to mainstream green agenda and sustainability in local communities around Europe by making the fight against global warming personal, doable and empowering for each citizen · To utilise storytelling educational and policy techniques which will empower young people to develop, together with local communities, sustainable and green systemic solutions promoting green lifestyles and youth participation in the framework of COVID19 recovery process;
- To contribute to behavioural and lifestyle changes of young people in communities around Europe through enhancing their personal responsibility together with power to act as multipliers by telling stories of potential change close to their realities;
- To ensure the utmost quality educational experiences leading to network building of young activists empowered to take part in socio-political life and mainstream green agenda at local and European level.
Activity 1
Creating the core
“Creating the core” training course for Superheroes was organised in Metlika, Slovenia in June 2022. This activity aimed at establishing the core of the project – both in terms of Superheroes selection as well as the building the grounds related to the topics young people in 10 local communities around Europe will be tackling at both local and European level.
The objectives of the activity are:
- To build/strengthen capacities of youth workers/activists of 10 youth organisations on the topics of: environment and climate change, motivation and engagement of young people and community level organising and cooperation with different stakeholders through international 7 days training course;
- To create 10 local groups of Superheroes of Climate change who will represent the core of the project and work towards peer to peer influencing on the topics of climate change and changes of personal habits/lifestyles
- To identify the needs of the local communities through consultations with their peers and local stakeholders (schools, local authorities, institutions) to create conditions for a meaningful change.
Activity 2
Telling a story
“Telling a story” Youth Exchange but also 40th YEU Convention was organised in Stratoni, Greece and Ohrid, North Macedonia with a group of 55 people in the second half of September.
This activity aimed at creating tailor-made local storytelling campaigns that will tackle a specific local problem that influences the lives of the local community. With this kind of campaign we want to achieve behavioral and lifestyle change (in both short and long term) of the community and especially young people by showcasing that climate change and environmental deterioration is affecting a local river, mountain, and quality of air by framing this in a positive way not doom and gloom.
The objectives of the activity are:
- To empower 50 young people from around Europe to work together on the topics of climate change and environmental awareness by introducing them to the concepts of climate communications and philosophy (5S approach)
- To develop storytelling skills among young people to influence a change at local/European level
- To develop and implement 10 local storytelling campaigns each pinpointing a local problem identified by young people and the whole local community in the Activity 1.
Activity 3
Making a Change
The evaluation meeting “Making a change” was held in Brussels, Belgium, from the end of November to the beginning of December, with a group of young people who participated in the first and/or second activity of the project.
Activity 3 brought together participants in Activities 1 and 2 to assess the success and impact of local storytelling campaigns and their applicability to climate change actions from a climate communication perspective/5 Solutions.
The objectives of the activity are:
- To gather 30 participants from 10 communities to develop recommendations on green agenda mainstreaming at both local and European level based on their campaigns and project related experiences;
- To evaluate the overall process and applicability of the approaches used to youth organisations working directly with young people at the local level;
- To plan further actions at both local and European level related to climate change and environmental consciousness as an informal network of climate change activists
