Summary of the project

The project`s theme is climate change and global warming and its main objective is to enable young people and their teachers to work together and strengthen their European citizenship, promoting in the same time inclusion, environment and european awareness. The projects specific objectives are:

1) empowering the participants European identity,

2) encourageing the direct participation of young people from 7 countries,

3) understanding the differences between nations, making them more united through the meeting between different cultures

Seven Groups with eight members each with their trainers from Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Austria will get involved in a research related to the topics of Climate Change and Global Warming,  and focus on the problem causes. The first contact will be made in April 2014 between the trainers / group leaders as a preparatory meeting that will take place in Cyprus. The 56 participants will have a four months time period for their research and project development. In these months they will be informed about the problems of Climate change and work in order to be able to discuss and present them as well as gain knowledge and critically suggest ways to reduce the effects of the climate change phenomenon. From this research they will also be introduced and have the possibility to discover professions in relation to the enviroment. 

The next phase of the project will take place in Cyprus in August 2014 where all participants will be hosted for 8 days (7 nights). All participants will take part in morning sessions (4 hours every day) with different activities every day but with a common purpose: to be informed about Climate Change, present their findings and discuss them with the other groups. This will be done by means of using non-formal learning methods. Some sessions will be done based on the existing groups (every country has its own group) whilst other sessions will require the involvement of multicultural groups. In this way, every country will present the Global Warming problem from its own perspective and suggest ways that can help to deal with the problem on a national level, which will at the same time unite the participants, thus helping the global confrontation. In afternoons they will have the chance to visit environmental centers, the central offices of Youth exchange and get immersed into the Cypriot culture. Every evening will be dedicated to each country in order to show to the other groups their culture through food, dance, music and other interactive activities.

The final outcome of the project (total duration 1 year – from April 2014 until March 2015) will be posters on which the participants will present the results of their research in the form of drawings e.g. comics. In this way they will share the information and their experience through a different point of view. More specifically each group will come up with 3-4 posters, which will then be placed in an exhibition (during the days of their stay in Cyprus), and posted on a website that will be created for the program. In the final stage, every group will make a brief report about their experiences, and then the Cypriot group will make a presentation based on these reports to the public.

OBJECTIVES AND PRIORITIES

We identified a great need for european awareness on the environmental issues, especially on climate changes and the effects of global warming in all 7 countries involved in the projects. A deeper knowledge of this subject is a high priority for all the promoters. In order to respond to the national context the project will promote the idea of volunteering and will give the participants the chance to learn about furthering their studies and careers in the field of the environment.

The project main objective is to enable young people and their teachers to work together and strengthen their European citizenship, promoting in the same time inclusion, environment and European awareness.  All of the participants will deal with the same responsibilities and when the final meeting takes place, they will have the opportunity to work in multicultural groups trying  to accomplish one common goal. This fact in combination with the time that they will have all together, both on an educational and entertainment level will unite them, make them feel like they all belong to one group and do not differ so much from each other. Thus, empowering their European identity is objective no 1 of the project, in concordance with the Youth in Action Programme objective “to promote young people’s active citizenship in general and their European citizenship in particular.

Moreover, the objective no.2 of the project is to encourage the direct participation of young people from 7 countries. The participants will be the young people and they will be involved by doing work as part of all project aspects. The role of trainers will only have the form of guidance. All the project phases (research, meetings, posters, presentations, creation of website) will be young people's task.This second objective is related to Youth in Action Programme`s objective “to promote European cooperation in the youth field''.

In the programme during the meeting in Cyprus, we also emphasized on other activities apart from direct work on the project. For instance, every evening each country will present its culture through music, food, dance etc. Meeting other cultures is the first step to understand any differences between the nations, thus making them more united. This second objective is related to Youth in Action Programme`s objective “to promote European cooperation in the youth field.

Promoting this project allows participants to understand Europe not only in terms of its politics, but also in other equally significant aspects of a community, which in this case will be the environment. Having a topic of common interest, enables them to view Europe as an area where people can have equal opportunities in terms of education, as well as employment and personal development.

The articles that will be published will collect all the work done and values that participants have gained, and will provide the opportunity to share these amongst the local communities of the partner countries involved.

WELCOME

Welcome to our webpage for climate changes. The webpage created due to Youth Exchange Program Climate Changes As Fast As Fashion. Here you can find all actions that will be done for this Youth Exchange. In Visitors place you can put anything you want, any comments for our actions or our webpage. The actions that we describe here took place from March 2014 till March 2015. Youth exchange took place on August 2014 in Cyprus, Platres Camp.

Donors of our organisation

In many cases beyond the work done by our school there are some organizations who always stand by us and we would like to promote them, through this site. The organisations that we promote here helped us each one with its own way.

1. Parents Association of Saint's Anthony's

2. Limassol Co – Operative Savings Bank, www.stl.com.cy/en/

3. Cyprus International Institute of Management (CIIM), www.ciim.ac.cy/

Youth Board of Cyprus www.youthboard.org.cy/default.asp?id=24, www.youth.org.cy

The Youth Board promotes progress and prosperity of all young people of Cyprus regardless of their religious, ethnic or racial origin. At the same time it promotes their substantial participation in the social, financial and cultural development of our country.

Impact, multiplier effect and follow-up

The expected impact:

1. ON THE YOUNG PEOPLE

a) Acquisition of new knowledge and an increasing interest about Global Warming and Climate Change, ecological education, saving energy and applying all this knowledge in their daily lives;
b) Development of team work and decision making as a result of the activities carried on in the organizations or during the Youth Exchange;
development of public speaking skills, especially in foreign languages during the meetings, as well as improving their writing skills when they communicate with each other through e-mail and chat;
c) Thanks to the end products of this project, the students, trainers and the local community will become aware of the importance of preserving our nature, the effects of Global Warming and protection of the Environment;
d) An exchange of ideas should help young people enrich their knowledge of other cultures;
e) The young people will learn about different cultures and life styles, develop skills in public presentation, which they can share and use in their future careers/finding a job.

2. ON THE TRAINERS

a) The use of new Non-formal learning methods and pedagogical approaches inspired by partner collaboration;
b) The development of managerial (time and financial management) and negotiating abilities;
c) The improvement of grammar and vocabulary of foreign languages;
d) Trainers will come in contact with different social models of organization. Mainly, however, with various non- formal education systems, which they will study and compare with their own. They will diffuse and propagate the experiences and their conclusions, amongst the rest of the staff in their organizations and more widely in their local communities;
e)The improvement of skills on ICT.

3. ON THE ORGANIZATIONS

a) An introduction of an optional course to improve the educational offer of the organization;
b) An extended use of the facilities offered by the organization: ICT, meeting rooms etc;
c) An exchange of ideas will help some organizations change their views on non formal education to make it more consistent with the ones of the European community;
d) The Organization will be seen as a conscious ecological center in the local society;
e) The Organization will attract more young people interested in joining the organization.

4. ON THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

a) To understand the role of Global Warming and Climate Changes for people, all ecosystems;
b) To make the citizens aware of the necessity to protect environment;
c) The end products and the exhibitions advertised by mass-media may make people being more responsible for nature;
d) Reinforcement of European dimension in local community.