GRASSROOTS ECO-HEALTH TOURISM

Quentin, 27, describes himself as invisible: he has a degree but no job and lives with his parents. Mohamed, 21, left school without qualifications & rejects traditional integration programmes. These young people share a lack of status, recognition & prospects. The NEET phenomenon affects 13.1% of young people in the EU (Eurostat, 2020), & the COVID crisis has exacerbated this exclusion, particularly in sensitive urban areas & rural regions. Our project responds to this challenge with an innovative approach rooted in the priorities of Erasmus+: inclusion (Youth Goal #3), sustainability (Green Deal), entrepreneurship (Youth Goal #7) & active participation (Youth Goal #9). It mobilises the emerging eco-health tourism sector, which has strong economic & environmental potential, to create sustainable & local employment opportunities for young people. It strengthens the resilience of rural businesses & revitalises areas that are losing their appeal. GRASSROOTS was born out of a shared observation by our partners: there is an urgent need to create concrete, hybrid & accessible frameworks for engagement, where young people in difficulty can become actors, project leaders & contributors to an ecological transition on a human scale.

GRASSROOTS aimed to structure an innovative training offer in the field of eco-health tourism (largely under-represented, with over 85% of training courses geared towards traditional economic models), in order to promote youth empowerment and the adaptation of educational and professional practices to contemporary social and environmental challenges. Our three objectives:-To strengthen the skills of youth professionals by providing them with concrete and transferable tools to support young people in sustainable tourism projects. -To enable young people to discover, experiment with and structure a social entrepreneurship project related to tourism, in line with their interests (sport, culture, digital technology, food, etc.).-Promote intersectoral and inter-territorial cooperation between educational structures, tourism stakeholders, local authorities and training organisations. The project aimed to develop a base of educational and methodological resources enabling the model to be replicated in other contexts: mapping of good practices, experiential pathways, skills sheets, immersive tools, digital toolkits.

The GRASSROOTS project (36 months, 5 countries) combined shared governance (management manual, collaborative Drive, steering committee) and hybrid coordination (5 TPMs, monthly meetings, local activities). Two training courses (Matera, Brussels) enabled the content to be tested with 52 young people and professionals. Three dissemination events (Ireland, France, Belgium) mobilised more than 300 people. The in-itinere evaluation enabled the actions to be adapted to the field and validated during the on-site inspection by the BIJ Agency. The partnership, balanced between experienced and emerging structures, enabled continuous skills development through mentoring and the exchange of practices. The project also promoted the emergence of career paths in eco-health tourism by bringing together young people, trainers, and stakeholders from the tourism, environment, and integration sectors in jointly developed activities. Some participants have found new meaning in their projects: ‘I discovered that I was capable of turning an idea into a concrete project. Now I want to create my own path’ (participant in Matera).

GRASSROOTS produced four outcomes: R1, a guide to best practices (75 pages, 15 showcase videos, 1 resource area); R2, a three-part guide with a co-constructed teaching guide (38 pages), theoretical modules (60 pages) and eight tried-and-tested pathways (222 pages); R3 a training course for youth workers in three sections with one skills reference guide (17 pages), one mentor guide (71 pages) and three training courses divided into 12 modules, two quizzes, 25 exercises, 25 worksheets and 8 case studies, R4: an immersive toolkit in 6 sections with a total of 30 impact assessment questionnaires, 34 videos, 32 activity ideas, 143 tools and 1 educator's guide (67 pages). These tools diversify learning environments and facilitate the integration of young people into eco-health tourism. The results reached more than 10,000 people through 3,569 web visits, 2,872 downloads, 6,213 engagements on social media and the direct participation of 630 people (tests, training courses, events). Dissemination was supported by ecohealthforyouth.com, European networks and 125 associated partners acting as community, educational and institutional relays, promoting new opportunities and cross-sector cooperation.