«Greening International Youth Mobilities» training course – Call for participants

[Update: Application process closed.]

Click here for a more detailed call for participants.

What: a training course to learn how to reduce the negative environmental impact of international youth mobilities specifically (training courses, youth exchanges, summer camps, study visits…), but also applicable to any other type of project.

Where: in a traditional rural house in the beautiful valley of Valdediós (“valley of Gods”), in Asturias, Spain

When: Mon 2nd-Sun 8th October 2023

For who: youth mobility project organisers, preferably working within the Erasmus + framework.

Why: the way in which most of us have been carrying out our daily activities has led us into the most serious climate crisis that humanity has ever had to face. Youth mobilities are no exception and, through them, we consume resources, promote national and international travel, and build capacities in young people across Europe and beyond.

In the quest for lowering our negative impact on the planet, we have found many ways in which to organize more environmentally friendly youth mobilities. We want to tell you all about them and look together for even more ways in which we can utilize these activities for the improvement of the health of our planet.  

Objectives:

• To train youth mobility project organisers on ways to decrease the negative environmental impact of youth mobilities;
• To explore further ways in which to have a positive impact on the environment through a youth mobility project;
• To connect project organisers with an interest in greening their practices, and foster their cooperation and ideas sharing;
• To support participants in their inner journey of finding personal motivations and commitment to sustainable project implementation;
• To provide experiential learning of different methodologies conducting to a deeper understanding of the importance of ecologically conscious projects.

Conditions for participation:

Please only send your application if you fulfill ALL of the following conditions:

• You organise or want to start organising residential projects for building capacities of young people coming from different geographical locations (youth mobility projects);
• You are over 18 years old at the time of the training course;
• You are currently living (and will travel from) one of these countries: Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Senegal or Spain;
• You are fluent in English;
• You are able and willing to be fully present and participative during the whole duration of the training course (2-8 October);
• You are happy to spend a week surrounded by nature and away from urban distractions.

Value and costs:

• You will be provided high-quality training by a team of 3 experienced trainers/facilitators, a memorable learning experience, comfortable accommodation, and tasty sustainable meals during the training course;
• Your travel costs to Spain will be fully reimbursed by bank transfer after your participation in the training course, upon submission of your travel tickets, up to a maximum of 320 EUR for Germany, Czech Republic, and Italy, or 275 if traveling by plane, 530 for Senegal, and 210 EUR for Spain (only if you travel from more than 100 km away).
• Participation fee: We have set a symbolic participation fee on a sliding scale from 50 to 150€.  You will be free to choose your contribution according to your own personal financial possibilities and the value you see in this 7 days training program. Your chosen fee will be deducted from your travel reimbursement. This fee will be used for contributing to the training costs, and it will be waived for those participants traveling to the training venue by land. If this is an obstacle to your participation please talk to us about lowering or waiving your fee.

Travel arrangements

For coherence with the topic of this project, you are encouraged to travel to this training by land or sea (i.e. not by plane). If you travel by land, your participation fee will be waived. A prize will be awarded to the greenest traveler.

If you decide to travel by plane, your travel plan will first need to be approved by our team, and you will be requested to compensate your trip’s CO2 emissions by donating the corresponding amount to the Naturefriends climate fund.

You may use www.ecopassenger.org, www.thetrainline.com, or www.rome2rio.com for planning your trip.

How to apply:

Fill in the application form here.

Applications will be reviewed frequently, and places allocated fast if you fit the profile and your application is good enough. For this reason, we recommend that you send your application as soon as possible.

You will be informed of the results of the selection process in due time and, if offered a place in the training, you will be required to purchase your transport tickets in order to confirm your spot in the training.

This training opportunity is open to everyone coming from the above-mentioned countries, but we will give preference to existing members of the partner organizations: ASAN (Senegal), Gian-Gió (Italy), IYNF (Czech Republic), NatureFreunde Jugend (Germany), and Biodiversa (Spain), provided that they fulfill the above-mentioned «conditions for participation».