ECO-SHIP - environmental and maritime education of youth

The main challenges of the modern world defined during activities carried out by the project partners were as follows, i.e .: 1. Progressive deterioration of the natural environment, including the marine environment. 2. Insufficient knowledge about the marine environment among school-age people. 3. Narrow ecological understanding of young people. 4. Lack of motivation to pro-ecological activities among young people. 5. Lack of effective tools for disseminating the principles of sustainable development. The ECO-SHIP project was aiming to tackle the challenges mentioned above by creation of the educational program addressed not only to young people aged 15-29, but also to teachers, educators and other people working for sustainable development, maritime and environmental education. By implementation of the project activities we wanted to contribute to reduction of negative human impact on the environment, including marine environment, increasing level of marine knowledge, pro-ecological awareness of young people, dissemination of Sustainable Development Goals. The sailing trips on yacht “General Zaruski” were proposed as a valuable example of non-formal education when you people became a crew and directly got in contact with nature

The aim of the "Eco Ship" project was to increase the knowledge and skills in the field of maritime education, environmental protection and sustainable development of youth aged 15-29 in the Baltic Sea Region by creating "The Baltic Sailor catalog" containing elements of ecological and sailing education. The educational programme named “The Baltic Sailor Catalog”was disseminated to reach the widest group of stakeholders - schools, other educational organisations (including scouts) and institutions.

In the beginning the project leader appointed the project team consisting of: project coordinator, assistant coordinator, financial specialist, content specialist. Drafting of the partnership agreement started. The project partners created project teams in their institutions. First online meeting with the project partners took place in December 2021 when the action plan and coming steps were presented and discussed. The partnership agreements were signed in May 2022. Due to the high number of COVID-19 infections the on-site kick off meeting in Gdańsk wasn’t organized. Online kick off meeting was organized by the project leader on 9-10.02.2022. The main topics discussed during the meeting were: presentations of the partners’ institutions, scope of work of STS General Zaruski Shipowner’s Office, general rules of the programme, detailed discussion on the project description, division of responsibilities and tasks, scope of work on the project result – Baltic Sailor Catalog, project evaluation and monitoring, project promotion. 2. Project result: The first version of the Baltic Sailor Catalog was created jointly by the project partners. Testing of the catalog was organized during the workshops for environmental officers onboard yacht STS “General Zaruski”. The catalog was evaluated. The results of evaluation were discussed within the consortium who further decided on modification in the Catalog to be made. The modifications of the Catalog were implemented and the final version of the result was created which was presented during the dissemination conferences organized by the project partners. 3. Transnational meetings: Due to COVID-19 restrictions the kick off meeting in Gdańsk was cancelled and an online event was organized by GOS. During the project implementation the following transnational meetings were organized: TPM in Klaipeda (Lithuania) organized by Klaipeda University, TPM in Turku (Finland) organized by Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association, TPM in Gdańsk organized by Gdańsk Sports Centre, Final TPM in Gdańsk organized by Gdańsk Sports Centre, 4. Learning, teaching and training activities: Two international workshops for environmental officers in the form of a sailing trip on board yacht “STS General Zaruski” were organized. In total 30 environmental officers participated, 10 from each partner country. 5. Dissemination: The project website was created: https://zaruski.pl/projekt/projekt-eco-ship/ Additionally, a separate tab of the project was added on Gdańsk Sports Centre’s website: https://sportgdansk.pl/nasze-projekty/eco-ship-environmental-and-maritime-education-of-youth/ The project logo was created. The project partners were using the following ways of promotion and dissemination – websites, partners’ social media profiles – especially facebook profiles. Information about the project was published in the magazine of Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association. The photo report with description of the workshops for environmental officers was presented on STS General Zaruski facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/Gdansk.Ratuje.Zaglowiec The project was also visible on Instagram where the participants of the workshops were posting information. More information about the dissemination activities will be described in a section of the report focused on dissemination. 3 dissemination conferences were organized by each project partner where the final project result was presented: In Gdansk organized in Gdańsk Sports Centre; In Turku organized by Keep Archipelago Tidy Association; In Klaipeda organized by Klaipeda University.

The concrete outputs of the ECO-SHIP project are as following: Created educational programme called “The Baltic Sailor Catalog” combining ecological and maritime education Trained as the environmental officers totally 30 young people aged 15-29 from Poland, Lithuania and Finland 3 dissemination conferences organized – 1 by each partner (in Gdańsk, Klaipeda, Turku) The project partners established the following success indicators which were achieved during the project implementation: number of visits to the website and social media: PLANNED within 20 months -min.2000 visits to all partners; ACHIEVED: visits (Instagram 9 780, Facebook 27 510, LinkedIn 790) number of environmental officers (EO) who will use our product (question asked in anonymous questionnaires): PLANNED: 60% of EO will confirm that they like the educational program and are willing to use it in the future; ACHIEVED 78% number of questionnaires with positive opinions of young people participating in meetings and conferences: PLANNED: 70% will leave a positive opinion; ACHIEVED 100%