EUTEENS4GREEN Projects

The ‘Getting started: Climate change and advocacy workshop’ aims to empower young people in Joensuu to participate in the region's green transition through a 2-day series of workshops.\n\"The ‘Getting started: Climate Change and Advocacy Workshop’ is a project organised by the association AEGEE-Joensuu, with the support of the Climate Emergency Working Group (CEWG) and Sustainability Committee (SC) of AEGEE-Europe.\nAEGEE-Joensuu is a student organisation located in Joensuu (Finland). It is a local section of the network of AEGEE associations. The members of AEGEE-Joensuu are young volunteers from Joensuu from 18 to 35 years old. The association promotes a democratic, integrated, and borderless Europe. One of its main missions is to offer the skills and tools to young people to become active citizens.\nThe Climate Emergency Working Group (CEWG) of AEGEE-Europe is a team of volunteers coming from several AEGEE locals across Europe. The aim of the CEWG is to encourage young people to contribute to the green transition (understood as the individual and collective measures that need to be taken to prevent an environmental catastrophe). For this project, the role of the CEWG and the Sustainability Committee is to contribute to the content of the activities and hold workshops. The CEWG and SC bring their expertise in organising such activities on the topic of climate change.\nThe project will take place in Joensuu (Finland), on 6 and 7 May 2023. It consists of a set of activities organised by the CEWG, SC, and AEGEE-Joensuu for high school students and students of higher education in Joensuu. Between one and four members of the CEWG and SC will travel to Joensuu to contribute to the project. It is important to note that the members of the CEWG will make best efforts to travel using only sustainable means of transportation (train, city buses, and ferries).\nThe activities are all related to the topic of climate change and human interaction with nature. The people attending the activities will be students from high schools and higher education in Joensuu. Any student from any discipline can participate, and the number of participants will be between 15 and 25 people. The objective of the project is to bring new knowledge and skills to the participants, particularly those students whose studies do not relate to sustainability or the environment. The 2-day workshop will be structured as follows:\n\n- Workshop: ‘Introduction to climate change and climate justice’ \nThe objective of this workshop is to deliver basic knowledge regarding climate change, its causes, and consequences. This will include a focus on the impacts of climate change on boreal and subarctic climates, relating climate change directly to participants' surroundings. The workshop will also tackle climate justice, introducing the links between social equity, the climate crisis, and the green transition. This activity develops teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, collaboration, system-thinking, and critical thinking skills. \n\n- Activity: ‘Connect to the wild’ \nIn this activity, the participants will take part in an afternoon spent in nature and engage in workshops equipping them with essential ‘wilderness’ skills. The aim of the activity is to allow the participants to connect with the nature in their locality in a new way, and to learn about the ways in which communities have interacted with nature in the past. This activity will aim at improving mental health and well-being through activities connected with nature. This activity develops teamwork, collaboration, emotional regulation, self-reflection skills. \n\n- Workshop: ‘Advocacy and policy recommendation’\nThis workshop aims to give participants a structured space to develop policy proposals for the national, regional, or municipal levels, or university policies. The workshop provides participants with knowledge about what advocacy is and how to establish an advocacy strategy, empowering participants to take an active role in policy development within the public and private spheres and thereby participate in shaping the green transition in their region. This activity develops teamwork, leadership, creative thinking, critical thinking skills. \n\n- Activity: ‘Presentation of outcomes of policy development’ \nParticipants will present the results of their policy recommendations. This activity will build upon the knowledge and skills acquired during the preceding workshop on advocacy, and allow for participants to distil the ideas developed during that session. Policy proposals will be presented to policy-makers from the municipality/university. This activity develops presentation, organisation, collaboration skills.\n\n- Activity: ‘Evaluation’ \nThe participants will fill a self-evaluation form. They will evaluate the skills and knowledge they acquired during this project. This activity develops self-reflection, evaluation skills.\"

\"The project will result in the hosting of a 2-day workshop event, with 3 workshops hosted by external facilitators, and one activity run by a local business.\n15-25 participants will participate, with priority given to local residents aged between 15-25 years. \nWorkshops hosted will include an advocacy workshop during which participants will produce policy recommendations. These outcomes will then be presented to members of the municipality and / or private decisionmakers during a workshop, as well as being shared with other local public and private decisionmakers following the workshop.\nThe aim of the project is to introduce young people in the Joensuu area to climate advocacy, equipping them with the tools necessary to develop their advocacy skills and advocate for themselves and their peers in the region's green transition. \"

aegee-joensuu@aegee.eu\ncontact-joensuu@aegee.eu