Hellenic Society for The Protection of Environment

CLIMATE ACTION LEADERS NETWORK – CLEAN / EUROPEAN YOUTH TOGETHER PROJECT

Climate Action Leaders Network (CLEAN) project has prepared under the call European Youth Together 2020 call with coordination of Hellenic Society for the Protection of Environment and partnership of European Development Institute, Global Environment Organization, Associazione Istituto Ecoambientale, Foundation for the Environmental Education, Ecological Future Education and IMRO-DDKK Nonprofit Kft.

Climate Action Leaders Network (Clean) aims to create a sustainable youth network for a sustainable, fair and prosperous Europe, by equipping young people between the ages of 18-30 with skills as climate action leaders, enabling them to collaborate and participate in democratic civic life.

The specific objectives of the action are:

-To create a youth network where leaders/youth workers working on climate action for Sustainable Green Europe will share their knowledge and experience, where young people will produce projects that will ensure democratic, social and civic participation, and which will carry out regular online and offline activities across Europe

-To create the Climate Action Leadership (CAL) Training Module, equipped with innovative, non-formal methods and digital tools, focusing on youth empowerment with new skills and their participation in democratic life with online and offline activities

-Completion of 2-week CAL Training by 21 climate leaders /youth workers between the ages of 18-30 from Greece, Belgium, Turkey, Italy, Hungary, Denmark and Latvia

-Participation of trained young leaders in the large-scale youth exchange and implementation of the CAL training with 20 young people, in each partner country

-To carry out local 3-day policy reform dialogue activities that will enable young people to produce projects for a green Europe and create a space where they can convey their ideas to decision-makers in each partner country involving 40 youngsters (including disadvantaged)

-Preparation of Policy Recommendation Papers under the headings “Sustainable Cities, Health and Quality Life, Sustainable Agriculture and Food, Education and new curricula for green individuals” and local activities to be carried out

-To enable a total of 100 young people from partner countries to share their policy recommendations, resulting from the local activities they carried out, with EU decision-makers at an international summit in Brussels

The European Green Deal stresses the importance of active participation of European citizens for a fair and inclusive transition. The Clean Network will increase the involvement of young Europeans in climate action policies by conducting international works among civil society, youth and policymakers and will enable them to produce projects with significant results.

KEEPING UP WITH THE DIGITAL AGE WITH ROMA YOUTH

Roma citizens are believed to be between 2 to 5 million in total population in Turkey and are the most exposed to social exclusion and discrimination in the community (Kara, 2017). Roma work in jobs that lead to the formation of an unskilled, temporary and informal economy; they are excluded in the labor market, and they do not have regular employment opportunities and regular income.

Roma youth is still unable to access resources in the 21st century and are becoming increasingly out of contact with the industrialized society due to inequality of opportunity – they are defined as an ‘at risk group’ (https://bit.ly/2Y8QEar). With this project, we aim to ensure social integration of Roma youth residing in İzmir with their vocational, practical and social skills training and to increase their employability by taking part in the labor market. The specific objectives of the project are; Increasing the digital competencies of Roma youth through vocational trainings, increasing the capacity of the institutions working on the subject, especially project partners and affiliates, providing career coaching services to Roma youth, encouraging them to enter the registered workforce by guiding them to register with İŞKUR, to contribute to the reduction of prejudices in the society and the labor market, and to raise awareness for their families in order to continue education of Roma children and to take part in the labor market of young people.

With the vocational trainings to be applied, NEET Roma Youth will increase their knowledge on computer use and technological developments in the sector, their digital skills will develop, and they will specialize in graphic design. They will also have a valid vocational training certificate on “Basic Computer and Office Programs Use” and “Graphic Design”. With effective communication, diction, CV preparation, interview techniques, teamwork, and etc. social and productivity-enhancing skills training, their self-confidence will improve, and they will learn to express themselves and their motivation will increase. With the internship programs to be provided after the trainings, it will be easier for them to adapt to the labor market. Career coaching services for Roma younth and their families will contribute to removing obstacles to their entry into the labor market, with the guidance to be they will be enrolled in İŞKUR and will contribute to the prevention of unregistered employment. Contribution will be made to breaking prejudices in the society and the labor market against Roma. With the seminars to be held, awareness will be raised on the importance of education and participation in the labor market in Roma children, youth and families. The Roma Community Support Network will be established with the cooperation of the academia, public, private sector and NGO, and will be shared with decision makers by producing solutions to the problems of Roma. Decision makers will be encouraged to carry out different projects for their needs by conducting research on labor, education, skills and competencies related to Roma living in İzmir. At this point, possible obstacles for the project such as reaching the target audience, ensuring regular participation of the target audience in training, persuading families and ensuring sustainability will be overcome through the activities above. At this stage, Karşıyaka Municipality and ROMGEDER will take an active role. KASİAD and AOSB will play a facilitating role in ensuring labor force and coordination with employers.

PEACECRAFT 2.0 – ERASMUS+ KA2 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Refugees and migration are controversial and polarizing topics across Europe. However, increasing diversity is a reality that brings opportunities and challenges. Instead of deepening the division on the topic, now more than ever, constructive dialogue is essential. Moreover, today (young) refugees are a part of society. To overcome the growing tension in society and to seize opportunities, youngsters have to work together to design the solutions of tomorrow. In order to do so, PeaceCraft 2.0 proposes to involve youngsters in Bulgaria, Slovenia, Turkey and Belgium to engage in co-creation trajectories.

That’s why PeaceCraft 2.0 decided to use the stories of young refugees themselves as a basis to create (1) a game and (2) an interactive theatre play. Youngsters playing the game or being spectactors to the theatre play experience these personal stories. The immersive activity is followed by an active dialogue.

The project aims at addressing different target groups, each with their particular need:

• First of all, the project aims at giving youth workers the concrete tools to engage in dialogue on the polarizing and controversial topic of refugees and migration.
• Secondly and at the core of the project itself stand the young people. Together with the respective youth workers both youngster from a refugee and non-refugee background will be brought together in order to connect with each other.
• Finally, the population as a whole will indirectly benefit from the project. The youngsters will work on social innovative projects aiming at tackling issues that exist in their respective countries related to migration/refugees.

AVIATION AND STEM EDUCATION NETWORK: READY TO FLY! – ERASMUS+ KA2 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

“Aviation and STEM Education Network: Ready to Flyl” Project aimed to produce an innovative STEM Curriculum and tools that can be used extensively in public high schools in Europe.In this context, it developed international cooperation and aspired to create real impact by bringing university and private sector experience together with Ministry of National Education, which is a decision maker and implementer.

Innovative and high-tech STEM curriculum and tools have been developed with the support of Virtual Reality technology in the aerospace industry, one of the world’s fastest developing and high-tech sectors. These tools have been applied to high school students with practical modeling of the aircraft.

EMPOWERING YOUNG FARMERS: AGRICULTURE AND INNOVATION CENTER – ERASMUS+ KA2 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Empowering Young Farmers; Agriculture and Innovation Center project has been prepared based on these 3 specific matters;

1. Raising the education level of the current workforce working in agriculture
2. Encouraging young population to remain in agricultural production and taking actions to ensure the employment of the young population in agriculture
3. Taking quick action when transferring all kinds of information related to agricultural innovation (technological or legal regulations etc.) to the agriculture sector

Therefore, we have established an agricultural and innovation center with national and international public, civil society, academia and private sector partnership within the project. The center contributes to rural development in a sustainable way by supporting young farmers in a comprehensive manner. It also supports the EU agriculture policies. It transfers international good practices. Also, it produces innovative technological studies and ensures that it is applied locally.

INTERNATIONAL GREEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATIVE EMPLOYMENT CENTER – ERASMUS+ KA2 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

IGEC project contributed and developed green entrepreneurship ecosystem and raised new, innovative, scalable enterprises. Within our project an International Green Entrepreneurship and Innovative Employment Center (IGEC) has been built.

This green enterprise center works as a network and a center of consultancy, education, business development activities. By bringing staff that work within the center, independent experts, NGO workers, investors, academicians and entrepreneur candidates together this center holds some activities such as; idea workshops, joint study grounds, workshops, education activities and consultancy service.

Thanks to this Center, in our transfer to innovation centered economy there is more green entrepreneurs who can make a difference and a new ecosystem in this field is created. At the same time the possibility that young being employed has increased.

3i – INTERNATIONAL INTERNSHIP INCUBATION CENTER – ERASMUS+ KA2 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Purpose of the 3i Project is to increase youth’s professional adequacy and increase employability by providing work experience through international internship. Within this context;

• First International Internship Incubation of Europe will be established.
• In the said Incubation, technical education will be given to new graduates/college students and disadvantaged youth with the aim of giving them occupational proficiency. This education will encompass the following areas;
• Digital Design
• Coding
• Social Media Management and Digital Advertisement.
• These participants who have taken technical education had the opportunity to intern in companies suitable with Co-Working fields in EU countries through the partnership created internationally and different companies in a local scale.
• Youth that have taken technical education and interned went through interviews that allowed them to work in Izmir.

İZMİR DESIGN FACTORY – ERASMUS+ KA2 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

The aim of the project “İzmir Design Factory” is to establish Turkey’s first international design center associated with universities, private sector, professional chambers and non-governmental organizations.

İzmir Design Factory – IDF will be established in İzmir to advance knowledge and nurture leaders and innovators to anticipate, serve or solve societal and economic needs, through an integrated interdisciplinary education program, focused on developing the skills required by an ever-changing world and determined to cocreate new knowledge and innovation with societal stakeholders.  The center will focus on fashion, interior design, service design and food design by utilizing the local capacity and needs of Izmir.

YayginEgitim.org, which is created by IPEC in order youth to be able to reach out common education methods quickly and completely free, is the most comprehensive common education method website that translated into Turkish in Turkey. It doesn’t seek profit and it’ll go on its publication for free in a sustainable way by the help of voluntary translators.

For details: YayginEgitim.org

In the IPEC Café which was being shaped as a concept of “café” especially for the youth by IPEC, people can gather up and have a chat as well as asking questions to the experts about music, art, volunteering, career, environment while sipping their coffees and eating their biscuits as a snack.

Throughout our event, Diyez Movie Crew (Team) records the conversation and contributes to spread it on.