Creating ProActive EcoLand.

A team of partners from from Finland, Portugal, Spain, and Croatia lunched a new Erasmus Plus project last year.

ProActive EcoLand is an Erasmus Plus Strategic Partnership project focusing on the Environment and fight against climate change, Reinforcing links between policy, research and practice, and Promoting active citizenship, young people’s sense of initiative and youth entrepreneurship, including social entrepreneurship, as priorities relating to the field of Youth.

This project aims inspire, motivate and support the implementation of positive changes in everyday life in our local communities through creating an educational boardgame and a positive global platform to share solutions and ideas for actions! The project uses gamification techniques to

engage young people who we support directly, but also to engage other educators and young people from all over Europe (and through increased digital communication: the wider world).

Proactiv Ecoland connects different natural elements and social communities, encouraging participants to define and discover possible solutions to problems related to self-sustainability, slowing down climate change, and protection of the planet/environment. It provides our youth groups with a new, concrete (and much needed) tailored tool to intervene efficiently at a local level.

Proactive Ecoland: Play-Act-Empower

Project Goals:

• To answer the expressed needs and interests of the young people we support, by creating adequate instruments and tools.
• To raise participants’ awareness of the impact to the planet of CO2 footprint of everyday actions.
• To launch ideas and concrete sustainable actions which contribute towards (already partly) solving environmental problems in our communities and at a wider level.
• To create an online platform to share local actions, increase the effectiveness of the actions through peer support and inspire other communities.
• To share concrete solutions to (local) environmental problems and consumption attitudes.
• To share local success stories that can encourage change at a local government engagement level and influence local ‘green’ policy making.
• To support the adoption of the concept of self-sustainability
• To support young people in their (pro)active role in integrating sustainable solutions into everyday life.
• To inspire and motivate environmental behavioural changes within the transnational dimension.

Topics and priorities:

• Environment and fight against climate change
• Reinforcing links between policy, research and practice
• Promoting active citizenship, young people’s sense of initiative and youth entrepreneurship including social entrepreneurship

Expected Results:

A Board Game created in all its functional and effective visual element – a new and innovative educational tool prepared for future youth work with the purpose of informing and educating, empowering and motivating young people, and other stakeholders, to take on a more proactive role within their community in regard to climate change and lowering our environmental impact. 50 testing groups realised and evaluated in two testing phases enabling the creation of an effective new educational tool to raise awareness, create solutions, empower young people towards taking on a proactive role within their local communities, and thus producing new ideas for local environmental actions. Raised level of awareness among 250 young people, educators, trainers, NGO members and related stakeholders who participated in using the Board Game and thus made more aware of the importance of climate change, the environment and their role in regards to lowering our environmental impact within our everyday life and within our local communities.

ProActive EcoLand Platform tested and created with all its functionalities and visuals ready and published – a new and innovative tool to spread the good practices and to disseminate the impact started by the board game with the purpose of informing and educating, empowering and motivating young people, and other stakeholders, to take on a more proactive role within their

community in regard to climate change and lowering our environmental impact.

Project Partners:

• Martinnen (Finland)
• Vzw Elegast (Belgium) ,
• ASOCIACION PROMESAS (Spain)
• Produções Fixe Unipessoal Lda (- Portugal) ,
• Argonauta (Croatia)
• OIP Posejdon (Croatia)

Project start: 01/10/2022

Project duration: 24 months

This post expresses the point of view solely of its authors. The European Commission cannot be held responsible for the use of the information contained therein.