«Live Sustainably»: testimonies, resources, gratitude and… 3rd edition?

We asked participants in the training course what they learned during the week. Here are some of their answers:

Concepts about sustainability that I did not know, an internal perspective to start the change from ourselves. thousands of resources to continue growing outwards and inwards. – Silvia, Spain

I was able to fulfil my expectations and was able to create a beautiful connection with people. It was also important for me to be in tune with myself, others and nature. Throughout the training I got to realise that I still have power inside me and that the fire that I thought was extinguished, is still here. – Fi, Portugal

I learned that: I am not alone, I can meet amazing people. There is a lot of positive energy to share and receive. Doing things with heart is one of the most important things. – Maja, Slovenia

I learned how to connect more to nature and take it as a self learning. I also learned methods, tools that I will use in my youth work. – Mica, Germany/Romania

I learned to listen to others, to myself and to nature. To be more gentle with myself and allow myself to feel the way I feel about the world around me. To look at things from a different perspective. – Mathilde, France

I learned to better respect my environment and have a better understanding of everything that is surrounding me. – Tiago, Portugal

The time to act is now. Start from yourself. – Brigjilda, Azerbaijan

I learned new ways to create activities and a sustainable lifestyle, new practices related to nature… and I got many resources to continue improving this knowledge. – Mota, Spain

Technical sustainable aspects. Being part of something bigger than me. Connect with my surroundings. – Afonso, Portugal

The most valuable experience was to pay attention to the professionalism and knowledge of the 3 trainers that I really appreciated. I will take this with me, in the heart, as an example. It empowered me to have trust in my inner voice and act more. – Andreea, Romania

Resources

During the training course, we collected many educational resources in a Padlet, which is freely available to all here: https://padlet.com/szatyorprojects/LS_2022

Gratitude

Much gratitude to everyone who made this experience possible!: Szatyor Association, particularly Era and Kolja, and their wonderful volunteers Paula and Valentina; Bara, Géza and the rest of the team at Biofalu, the venue which hosted our training; all 23 participants, and our 4 legged companion Kifli.

3rd edition?

If you, reader, are working in the international youth education field and are interested in hosting the 3rd edition of «Live Sustainably», don’t hesitate to get in touch and, together, we will make it happen!

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Live Sustainably II: results

The second edition of “Live Sustainably” took place in Máriahalom, Hungary, from 9th to 17th August 2022.

The training course lasted 8 intense days in which 23 participants from 10 different countries discovered, explored and discussed ways to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.

We deep-dived into topics and concepts such as the three divides, the transformative learning model, critical thinking, systems thinking, eco-anxiety, eco-competences, greenwashing…

We experienced forest bathing, becoming animal, deep listening, speaking from the heart, intention-setting, connecting with nature…

We used Deep Ecology, the Work that Reconnects, the Way of Council, the learning tribes, journalling… as ways to guide and aid our shared learning experience.

Evaluation results:

We asked participants to give a score out of 10 to different aspects of the training, and these are the average scores that we got:

How useful was this training course for you?: 8,7

How much were the objectives of this course achieved?

• To provide participants with the possibility to understand more the current environmental situation locally and globally. 7,3
• To improve competences (knowledge, attitudes and abilities) to be able to choose a more respectful life with the planetary boundaries and to facilitate effectively a change of habits towards sustainability among the young people you work with. 8,6
• To equip educators/youth workers with methods and practices to be able to facilitate group processes with young people on sustainability-related issues. 8,6
• To encourage critical thinking to learn to unmask frequent phenomena such as “greenwashing” (fake sustainability). 9
• To share resources and tools to inform and raise awareness of young people about the importance of caring for the environment, inspire and motivate them to modify their lifestyles towards more sustainable ones. 9,1
• To join an international group of youth workers interested in promoting sustainability among the youth they work with. 9,4

How did the methods and tools that we used on this training course support your learning process? 8,5

How satisfied are you with the work of the trainers? 9,2

We, the trainers team, are humbled and overjoyed by the fantastic evaluation results that we’ve got!!

We thank the participants for their trust and involvement and we already look forward to a third edition of “Live Sustainably”!.

From left to right: Erika Karman, Ági Berecz and Esther Vallado, the 3 trainers in «Live Sustainably» second edition.

Live Sustainably TC – results and impact

Judging for the incredible number and quality of results and impact that our latest training course «Live Sustainably: How to live the present without compromising the future» had and is still having, I think we can safely say that it was our most sucessful training to date.

This was largely due to the work and commitment of us involved in the design and preparation of the experience, and in the skillfull conceptualisation and delivery of the educational programme, but also largely due to the fantastic participants that we had, which took the «Live Sustainably» experience to the next level, both professionally and personally.

Here’s a quick review of what happened after the training:

– Lovro, from Croatia, submitted his first Erasmus + project, which was approved in the 3rd round of this year: a youth exchange on plastic awareness for 36 young people, called «Say No to plastic». 3 of the partners on this project were also our partners in «Live Sustainably».

– Lilla, from Hungary organised and lead one educational hike per month since the end of the training (September, October, November). Where: in Budapest and surroundings. Target group: Erasmus students. During the walks they collected rubbish and Lilla conducted several activities that she learned during our training.

– Rocío, from Spain, made this cool video of the training: https://youtu.be/SbYnqZI1YoQ

– 4 participants published posts on their blogs with very positive reviews of the training: 

Filipa, from Portugal: https://www.vidaeconsciente.com/l/live-sustainably/

Lovro, from Croatia: https://bit.ly/2PyAPWt

Yolanta, from Poland/Spain: http://europaaqui.org/una-semana-para-empezar-a-cambiar-el-mundo/

Holly, from the UK: https://bit.ly/2tkgj2X

– We created the Youthworkers for Sustainability Network and, within it, to keep learning from each other, a series of webinars that everyone is contributing to and Filipa is managing:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tVHE_dSR7AIzsZ_JMXS0Cs2nQS2SNjzgNYro6RcKgCo/edit?usp=sharing

– Filipa, from Portugal, became a Circular Economy Club Organiser and, in this framework, organised 1 workshop and 3 lectures on sustainability: https://www.circulareconomyclub.com/members/filipa_gouveia/events/?ayi_paged=1

She also organised and run the project «Eco School». It happened on 20th November in a school in the city of Peso da régua, Portugal, for students from 14 to 16 years old. It comprised several activities: a bulk store owner shared an «eco talk» debate with the students. They discussed some documentaries (Earth, Baraka, Roten, Cowspiracy, Minimalism, The true cost) and then they (Filipa and the store owner) gave a workshop, to teach students and teachers to make their own natural cleaning products. Some teacher also run some activities.

Filipa running the workshop

Public attending the workshop

 

And on 2nd December she organised an “eco-talk” with Esther Vallado, the educational programme designer and lead trainer of «Live Sustainably»: https://youtu.be/jILSfcPj_dY, where they re-visit one of the most valued inputs during the training: the systems thinking iceberg.

– Jolanta, from Poland/Spain organised a weekend training for environmental mediators, from 30th November till 1st December, for participants between 16 and 24 years old.

 

– Estelle, from France, proposed to the cultural centre of the town where she lives the screening of one of the documentaries that we watched during the training.

– And the portuguese team is organising the 1st Gathering for Sustainability (1º Encontro pela Sustentabilidade). It will be an open space technology event (methodology that they learnt during the training) with the main objective of creating a Portuguese network of people and groups linked to sustainability through sharing and debate, creating collective intelligence, which will also include cleaning a forest plot and planting trees in an area devastated by Hurricane Leslie. The project has received the support of the city council of the city where Bruno, one of the participants, lives.

Very proud of our participants and of the success of this course!!

Live Sustainably: how to live the present without compromising the future

Participants in Live Sustainably

Dear readers,

The residential part of «Live Sustainably» is over. From now, we go on with the «Youthworkers for Sustainability Network». (We will publish more information about that in the near future.)

It’s been intense and demanding, as well as extremely satisfactory and rewarding. There are many things we could say about the experience, but some of the participants have already summarised it quite well. We leave you with the links to their reviews, in Portuguese/English and Spanish:

https://www.vidaeconsciente.com/l/live-sustainably/

http://europaaqui.org/una-semana-para-empezar-a-cambiar-el-mundo/

Many thanks to the authors Filipa Gouveia and Jolanta Pieniak.

Enjoy!

Live Sustainably – Call for participants

What: a training course to learn about practical sustainability

Where: In the beautiful valley of Valdediós (“valley of Gods”), in Asturias, Spain

When: 2nd-8th Sept 2019

Why: Every day we make decisions about how we live our present, which affect directly or indirectly the health of the planet, of other living beings and of ourselves, and which are compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own basic needs.

With “Live Sustainably: how to live the present without compromising the future” we aim at raising awareness of the importance of caring for our environment and most of all to develop the competences needed to live a sustainable life and to inspire and motivate others.

How: Apply here now

 

The objectives of  this training are as follows:

– To provide you with competences to live a life which is more respectful with the planetary boundaries (more sustainable) and to promote and facilitate effectively a change of habits towards sustainability among the young people you work with;

– To encourage you to think critically, so you can unmask frequent phenomena such as “greenwashing” (or fake sustainability), fake perceptions of certain commodities as “cheap”, etc;

– To share resources and tools to inform and raise awareness about the importance of caring for the environment, inspire and motivate to live a more sustainable lifestyle;

– To create an international network for promoting sustainability among young people.

With this project we want to contribute to more young people knowing, practising and promoting environmental sustainability, and this way improve the capacity of our planet to satisfy the needs of the future generations.

Conditions for participation:

Please only apply if you fulfil the following conditions:

• You work with/for young people and you are interested in promoting and facilitating environmental sustainability practices among them,
• You are over 18 years old at the time of the training course,
• You are currently living (and will travel from) any of the 11 partner countries: Armenia, Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Greece, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, The Netherlands or Spain,
• You speak English fluently,
• You are willing to be fully present and participative during the whole duration of the training course (2-8 September);
• You are happy to spend a week in all comfort but rather isolated and surrounded by nature.

Costs:

• Your travel costs to Spain will be refunded after your participation in the training course¹;
• Comfortable accommodation in a big traditional rural house and tasty sustainable meals will be provided during the training course by the organizers at no extra cost for you;
• Participation fee²: We have set a 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 6 days training programme;
• CO2 offset fee: You will be required to offset the CO2 emissions produced by your air travel through the following site: http://www.atmosfair.de/en/. This amounts to 15 EUR per person for the round trip³.

¹ Provided all the original tickets and receipts are presented. Maximum reimbursement: 820 EUR for Armenia, 360 EUR for Greece, 275 EUR for Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, UK, Germany, Czech Republic and The Netherlands, and 180 EUR for Spain (only if you travel from more than 100 km away)

² In order to make this training possible to the quality standard that we usually deliver, we need some extra income aside from the European grant that we got.

³ We have calculated the total emissions of your flights in 22 tons of CO2 and shared the compensation costs among all of you.

More information:

You can have a look at the preliminary programme of the course:

How to apply:

Fill in the application form here.

Applications will be reviewed frequently, and places allocated immediately if the application is considered good enough. For this reason, we recommend that you send your application as soon as possible. All applicants will be informed of the results of the selection process in due time.

This training opportunity is open to everyone, but we will give preference to existing members of Biodiversa and the other partner organisations, provided that they fulfil the above-mentioned «conditions for participation».

Our partner organisations in this project are: Associação Animam Viventem and Associação Spin (Portugal), Argonauta (Croatia), Amici della Natura (Italy), Naturfreundejugend Deutschlands (Germany), Youth Exchange Service (The Netherlands), Gyermek (Hungary), Cia Cekija (Czech Republic), Natura Humana (Greece), Viaje a la Sostenibilidad (Spain), Coyote Initiatives (UK), Colors of Green (Armenia).

Do you believe in your dreams?

Do you want to know the secrets behind successful and sustainable projects?

Biodiversa will be sending 3 lucky participants to Slovakia to take part in this life-changing experience with John Croft himself, the founder of the Dragon Dreaming project management methodology.

This methodology comes from the aboriginals in Australia and is currently used by Airbus and other leading international companies as the most effective project management methodology known to date.

Apply here before 31st March.

 

Global food system and local sustainable solutions

Our partners from SolAfrika have finalised the «manual to explore global food system and to act for local sustainable solutions», resulting from the training course «What’s in your plate?», which took place in Bédeille, France, from 25th August to 1st September last year (2015), in partnership with Biodiversa.

The booklet was written by the participants of the training course and edited by Solafrika, and it’s available here (click on the image below) in pdf format free of charge. Enjoy!

 

 

What’s in your plate?

Biodiversa selecciona a tres residentes en España para participar en el próximo curso de formación organizado por nuestros compañeros de Solafrika, que tendrá lugar en Bédeille, Francia, del 25 de Agosto al 1 de Septiembre de este año.

Training Course Green Urban Cycles – Call for Spanish participants

Dates: May 10–18, 2015

Place: Liepāja, Latvia

ABOUT THE IDEA of the training course

This course is aimed at 24 youth leaders, workers, community volunteers and activists, free thinkers and social entrepreneurs who are inspired to make their own communities back home more liveable, green and enjoyable place for everyone.

During the training course, participants will discover practical tools on creating sustainable cycles of daily activities on personal and organisational level,thus fostering implementation of sustainability principles in their personal and professional reality.

Participants will come from the following countries: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Spain.

Young people across the globe are creating urban spaces where creativity, environmental and social action join together to inspire the local habitants, encourage municipalities and empower businesses to adapt greener practices. There are so many inspiring project ideas to tackle the environmental issues urban areas face, such as: creating urban gardens for growing food, leaving wilderness areas and creating spaces for interaction between humans and nature.

During 7 days we will discover possibilities to reduce urban footprint and bring new initiatives to our own communities. We will explore effective ways to make a change in the city using various activism tools, ranging from urban gardening to armchair activism using social media. The training will provide also opportunity to network for further activities and actively experience the preparation and running of cycling-cultural festival BoltikBaik.

The activity will be based on non-formal education principles and enable participants to share knowledge, acquire competences and hands-on skills on active urban green living, tackling not only overall knowledge of green living, but also democratic competences of reclaiming spaces in cities and engaging in legal forms of activism in order to promote green values and initiatives in the cities.

Short info about Boltik Baik 2015

This will be the third year when NGO Radi Vidi Pats in cooperation with Latvian NGOs, artists and activists will organize the freak-bike workshop/festival Boltik Baik.

In previous years it had a great visibility and impact on participants and local community processes, and after two years pause we decided to do it one more time.

This time Boltik Baik will focus more on educational aspects of sustainable mobility, promoting social inclusion and active participation under Do-It-Yourself and Learning-by-Doing principles.

The main activity of the project will take place in May, 11-17 in the harbour of Liepāja where, with the help of one of the most experienced freak-bike constructor in Europe – Gatis Kreicbergs-, and volunteers from Radi Vidi Pats, a freak-bike workshop for 20 young local people will be organised.

TRAVEL MEANS

It would be great if you can come to the training course venue by choosing the most environmentally friendly means of transport posssible. If you choose to come by plane, please consider offseting your CO2 travel emmissions. You can do so, for example, in the following website: https://www.atmosfair.de/en/home/

COSTS and REIMBURSEMENT

Shared accomodation in a hotel will be provided, as well as food based on a vegetarian diet (local, seasonal products), including eggs, and milk products; meat is optional (2 times per TC upon request).

You will be reimbursed up to a maximum of 360 EUR for conveniently justified travel costs. 65% of the eligible travel costs will be reimbursed by bank transfer 1 month after the TC the latest. The other 35% will be transferred after the sucessful submission of the final report to the National Agency by the project organisers (approximately in July 2015).

ON-SITE TRANSPORTATION

It is very possible that every participant will have a bike, so knowing how to ride a bicycle is required and we might ask you to bring a lock for the bike you will be using.

WEATHER
It could be rainy, windy and quite cold in May in Liepāja, so consider to bring water-and-windproof clothes with you.

CONDITIONS TO APPLY FOR PARTICIPATION 

– Be over 18 years old at the time of the training course;

– Be a Spanish resident;

– Be fluent in English;

– Know how to ride a bicycle;

– Have interest in the topic of the TC and willingness to apply what you’ve learned once you get back to your community;

– Be a member of Biodiversa (if you already are a member, you will have more chances to be selected. If you are not a member and you still get selected, you will be requested to become a member before attending the training course). Membership costs 15 EUR per natural year.

HOW TO APPLY

Write an email to asociacionbiodiversa@gmail.com with the subject line «NAME SURNAME Application for Green Urban Cycles TC» and stating, in less than 300 words:

– Why you are interested in participating in the training course;

– What are your expectations;

– How you can contribute to the success of the course;

– How you are planning to apply the skills and knowledge gained.

DEADLINE: 13th March at 11 AM Spanish time.   

WARNING: Applications will be reviewed as they come, and the selection process will end as soon as the suitable participants are found, which might be well before the deadline.

Intercambio Juvenil: «In Love With Energy Efficiency»

Biodiversa busca a 5 jóvenes para participar en el intercambio juvenil «In Love With Energy Efficiency» (Enamorados de la eficiencia energética) que tendrá lugar en Albania del 7 al 15 de Octubre de 2014. Habrá 25 participantes de 5 países diferentes: Albania, Polonia, República Checa, Moldova y España.

Los elegidos tendrán todos los gastos pagados (alojamiento, manutención y formación), y se les reembolsará el coste del viaje hastan un máximo de 270 EUR.

¡Continuamos esta entrada en Inglés para que vayais practicando!:

We consider energy as a «raw material» in our daily life and we can obtain it from different renewable resources. However, these new technologies are still not very promoted and extended. On the other hand, there are many simple habits people can adopt to reduce energy consumption daily, protect the environment and save money. In a world full of opportunities we want to suggest to the new generations to live as sustainably as possible for a better and long lasting planet, and we consider this youth exchange among the first steps in sharing and adopting these positive practices.

Aims:

The aim of the youth exchange is to provide a space for participants to share their ideas and knowledge on the topic of energy efficiency and to raise the awareness of young people and their communities on the need of cleaner sources of energy and every day sustainable practices.

Objectives:

– To increase the knowledge of young people on renewable energy resources and energy efficiency.
– To explore and develop simple daily practices for the reduction of energy expenditure without sacrificing our comfort.
– To empower and modify participants’ attitudes towards energy sustainability and encourage them to spread this new approach in their communities.
– To exchange experiences and best practices from different countries in terms of environmentally friendly investments and initiatives for cleaner, fairer and safer energy production.
– To foster youth’s creativity, entrepreneurship, cooperation and networking.

For more details: Info pack YE In love with energy efficiency

To apply: http://ow.ly/BGa1T 

Deadline Wednesday 24th September, APPLY NOW!