Climate Connect: Youth-led Good Practices to Tackle Climate Change
▶Summary
The main goal of the Climate Connect project has been to "transform schools into hubs for climate change advocacy ". To achieve that goal we identified and followed 3 objectives: 1. Disseminate yo...
▶Objectives
The main goal of the Climate Connect project has been to "transform schools into hubs for climate change advocacy ". To achieve that goal we identified and followed 3 objectives: 1. Disseminate youth-led climate actions and campaigns at EU level to promote good practices and give real examples to young people. Testing an innovative practice, we wanted to prepare learners to be real actors of change. Through piloting 4 schools eco campaigns, students could learn about climate-change challenges from trustworthy sources and work to enable behavioral change in their peers. 2. Innovate the secondary school curricula by using innovative learning approaches, developing creativity, and cross curricular collaboration regarding climate change. The youth-led approach of the project promoted creativity and soft skills development while students analyzed and then developed their campaigns. 3. Raise the voice of all young people, especially with fewer opportunities, regarding climate change. The project focused on creating instruments and methodologies to ensure that students with fewer opportunities could also participate and benefit, especially by developing key competencies and raising their voice regarding climate change
▶Activities
The project included 2 groups of activities (A1 and A2) that went through 3 phases: preparation, implementation and follow-up phase A1: Research and exchange of good practices regarding youth-led climate change campaigns. During it a selection of students from each country was done based on filled in eco-questionnaires. 24 students from the 2 partners’ schools and 2 associated schools from Spain and Portugal took part in the project. ASN presented a template for good practice analysis that allowed students to assess needed competencies to deliver youth-led campaigns. Through online sessions, students presented campaigns chosen by them. ASN and IROKO moderated the online sessions promoting dialogue and exchange of ideas. ASN created the Green Connect platform https://www.climateconnectyouth.com/ in English to upload students' campaigns. A2: “Climate connect”’ mobility for students and piloting of the newly created climate change campaigns. In October 2023, during 5-day mobility in Madrid, Spain, 24 students and 9 teachers created drafts of their climate change campaigns. IROKO and ASN provided all the instruments, supervision, and facilitation.After the mobility the students implemented their climate change campaigns.
▶Impact
The project led to increased competencies of 24 students to work together for the delivery of climate change awareness campaigns. By the end of the project 4 new climate change campaigns at partners’ schools were organized and over 500 European students from 4 different countries were involved. The campaigns were based on the preliminary research on min 8 good practices of youth campaigns, analyzed and focused on required skills and key competences. Min. 24 students with fewer opportunities have developed key competencies and acted against climate change. Over 10 European teachers have networked and implemented innovative, creative-based, cross-curricular learning approaches. Teachers and school staff of the target schools received new tools and guidelines to carry out environmental events in collaboration with local NGOs and other EU schools. 2 youth NGOs have widened their impact and methodologies for youth activism and learning. https://www.climateconnectyouth.com/ was developed as an online hub with resources and guidelines for teachers who want to 1) create climate change campaigns with students, 2) learn about current youth-led campaigns in EU schools, 3) promote the youth-led campaigns of their own students.