Activating Future Leaders of Community Sustainability in Europe.

The project aimed to develop future leaders of sustainability in Greece and Denmark by inspiring youth to understand and utilise their potential as key contributors to the future sustainable devel...

The project aimed to develop future leaders of sustainability in Greece and Denmark by inspiring youth to understand and utilise their potential as key contributors to the future sustainable development locally, in Europe and globally, The project fostered active citizenship among European youth by encouraging sustainable initiatives through youth entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, thereby enhancing the quality, innovation, and recognition of youth work. We also wanted to show that the SDGs can works as a common ground for understanding and to acheive more unity croos-country within European countries, specifically Greece and Denmark in this project.

Througout the project, the beneficiary youth was trained in: The SDGs, Sustainability, Value Clarification, Social entrepreneurship, Innovative mindset, project development and leadership. Partnerships, communication, storytelling, and resources mobilization. Community mobilization, engagement, and everyday Implementation of projects. The project also entailed implementation of local community actions focusing on the SDGs. Actions that were based on the training in both countries and drawing inspiration from the cross country visits. Cuncurrently, the two partners, have developed a publicly available narrative handbook based on learnings from the project and finally a sustainability plan for a prolonged effect of the project after the official project ending. The beneficiaries have published a project-webpage on sdgworld.org/youth4sustainability with learnings and main takeaways from their perspectives along with two Instagram pages, showcasing the project learnings and expressing their view on sustainability to inspire other youth.

- A narrative handbook to inspire youth and relevant organisations in Europe. - 6 innovative community actions focusing on specific SDGs, ideated by the students with focus on local needs for sustainability. - A webpage ideated and designed by the students - 2 Instagram pages Through the carefully structured series of activities, involved students progressed from discussing sustainability conceptually and theoretically, to innovating tangible and meaningful impacts on the ground at local level. Involved students have been educating the rest of their colleagues on every class level about the SDGs as well as implementing certain SDG projects within the school premises of the 6 schools in Denmark and 1 one in Greece to showcase how an everyday problem/issue can be solved by the students themselves towards a more sustainable living. An example is the "Speak Nicely" campaign in a Danish school, which dealt with the issue of extensive foul language among students. The solution was proudly spread on the munucipality's Facebook page (Fredensborg Kommune). In Greece the project was featured in two local newspapers, highlighting the local community actions implemented by the youth with focus on SDG 1 and 2.